We Take Ourselves With Us

Millions of years ago when we first came to Hawaii ( okay, it was 2013 ), we elected to stay only on the Big Island since we had just shy of a week and had never been here.  One of the highlights of our trip was a morning and afternoon spent in Kealakekua Bay, snorkling and swimming to our heart's content while the crew of the Fair Wind grilled burgers that smelled so delicious they drew a whole pod of dolphins into the bay. So, when we returned to Kona, we knew we wanted to repeat this fantastic experience ... and we did!  Because only on the island of Hawaii can one go from snow covered peaks to warm clear tropical waters in less than a day. Not to be a shill for Fair Wind , but it really has this thing buttoned up.  You eat a super yummy breakfast while sailing over to Kealakekua Bay And then you end up here. There's no filter on these photos, folks.  This is the real color of the bay.  Seriously.  Ridiculously.  Amazing...

In planning our trips, I do a lot of research that informs a trip-specific Excel spreadsheet outlining a bunch of possibilities by day (restaurants, activities complete with weblinks) as well as the more pedestrian logistic stuff like air, car, and hotel confirmation numbers and--if we're driving from city to city--travel times.  Then I pass the spreadsheet on to Ned to narrow things down; then, usually over a meal when we're all together, we run possibilities by the kids.  Sounds thrilling, doesn't it :)  Well, the joke's on you--it actually is!  To me, the planning process is like living the vacation in miniature--often over and over.  And, as Ned knows too well, some of our trips never grow out of this imaginary state: I pick them up with great enthusiasm, research with intensity, and then just drop them cold for a million reasons from cost to timing to bad vibes.  Or, in the case of a once planned and booked cruise to Cuba, I realize that this is NOT a...