Tag Archives: travel

Deer Have No Fear!

When you are in a place like Yosemite, your are very aware that you are in an environment where nature has the upper hand. However, you do think the wildlife will still be wary of man. That is not true at all though. A few times while I was walking, I came across herds of deer. I always think of deer as skittish creatures – hardly surprising since around here they are considered a target by many – but these guys seemed not only used to humans but bored with us. As long as we didn’t do anything too quickly, they continued on unfazed.

This even extended to Yosemite Valley itself. I was taking some shots of the valley when a small group crossed the street and walked right past me to get to their next snack. I watched them for a while and then headed back to the car. There I saw a buck in the tall shrubs with a buddy not far behind. When he wanted to come in my direction, he did exactly that.

Road to Hana

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One of the more famous things to do on Maui is drive the road to Hana. We were advised that an early start was a good idea before the road got filled with tourists and you stopped seeing the sights and instead watched the rear of the car in front of you. I don’t know how busy it got later since we followed the advice but we certainly had a quiet road to drive.

The terrain is undulating so the road twists and turns as it makes its way around the coast. You never go very fast and the odd straight sections feel very unusual when you come upon one. There are plenty of spots along the route to take note of and lots of waterfalls to see. Some are more impressive than others and our guidebook was very effective at making sure we saw the best of the bunch but didn’t lose too much time at those that were less worthwhile.

It was certainly a nice drive and quite pretty. Whether I would agree that it is one of the most beautiful drives in the world is a very different story. Worth doing if you have the time but not unmissable. I am glad to have done it but won’t feel compelled to do it again if we should return. There certainly isn’t too much in Hana to do once you get there! However, it does provide access to some of the nice features of the south side of the island which I actually found more appealing.

Half Dome Sunset

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One of my goals while in Yosemite was to go to Glacier Point later in the day and watch the sunset casting its warm light over Half Dome. Half Dome is always an impressive sight to behold. Taking pictures of it never allows you to experience the scale and impressiveness of it but you do the best you can. I got up there about an hour before the sun was due to set in order to get a few other shots. I had intended to hike up to Sentinel Dome but I was running out of time so that part of the trip got scrubbed and saved for another day.

Shooting sunset type shots is a funny thing. The view looks great and you take a few shots. Then, as the sun dips lower, the light gets better and you shoot some more. This continues until suddenly it stops getting better and it is all over. You have to shoot a bunch of stuff since you never know whether it is at its peak or not. Consequently, you end up with a lot of shots that you will never use again.

The other odd aspect about this shoot was the discrepancy between the view and the atmosphere. Sunset at Glacier Point is a popular thing as you might expect. Plenty of people are there. Lots of them are families and families often include small kids. Small kids are not so enthusiastic about sitting around for an hour waiting for the sun to set. Consequently, the scenery looks great but all you can here is crying kids and desperate parents trying to buy off a tired and grouchy kid. Not quite what you had in mind. I just hope the parents still enjoyed the beautiful view since the rest of it looked painful for them.

Paia

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Up near the near side of Maui is the little town of Paia. We checked Paia out on our way to get lunch. There isn’t a huge amount to see in the town – a selection of shops and places to eat as you might expect – but its claim to fame is that it is populated by some of the more out there members of society.

Going there is as much about seeing unusual people as it is about seeing the town itself. How long this reputation has been in place and whether it is still valid I couldn’t say. Certainly there were a few people wandering around who looked like they fitted the bill. There were far more people visiting, though, and maybe they were all there looking for the strange folk. By coming in such numbers, maybe we are driving away what we came to see. Despite all of this, we did see a few cool looking places and some signs that the community is not totally conformist!

Iao Valley

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If you head inland from the airport on Maui, you can travel up a narrow route called the Iao Valley. It is a pretty valley to travel up but the main attraction is at the head of the valley where there is a visitor center. Here is a place that has much historical significance for the people who populated the islands in years gone by. Battles were fought here and the interesting shapes of the hills have significance as well.

The variation in climate was noticeable. Looking up into the hills, you could see a lot fo cloud moving through and the foliage was green and dense. Look the other way and you could see the warmer drier areas appearing in quite a short distance. There was a river running through the valley which was feeding a lot of cultivated garden areas. A lot of people visited although not many seemed to stay too long. If you took your time, it was actually a very nice place to be.

Maui Sunsets

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The hotel we were staying in on Maui faced west so each evening was a chance for a sunset. Our first evening was quite a good one with some very pleasant skies. The final evening was okay with something nice but not really the sort of thing that would provide a great image. I went out with the camera for both of them.

The middle evening we went out for dinner and I didn’t take my camera with me. Guess what, the sky was amazing. Everyone at dinner was getting up to go and take pictures. I did have my phone with me so that was the solution. I grabbed a shot just to remember it by. Could have predicted this couldn’t you?

Mama’s Fish House

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Upon our arrival on Maui, our first mission was to get lunch. Nancy had planned ahead and chosen a location not too far from the airport and with a beachfront location that was supposed to be very picturesque. It was called Mama’s Fish House. We got there a little ahead of the time of our reservation so parked the car and took a look around. This place is about as gorgeous as you could imagine a Hawaiian beach to be. There is a small cove with the waves washing by and making the whole thing look like it was created by a movie set designer.

We sat and enjoyed the place for a while until it was time to eat. When we did go inside, the welcome was warm and the table was by the windows so we couldn’t have been better off. One look at the menu tells you that this place is not cheap. My first instinct was to assume that we were paying for the location. However, when the food arrived, it was absolutely excellent. The combination of great food and and outstanding view meant the meal was worth every penny.

Waimea Canyon

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During our last trip to Kauai, I wrote about visiting Waimea Canyon, some of which you can find in the previous posts including here. This year we went back. We weren’t looking to do much hiking this time but instead just wanted to take in the lovely scenery. It is certainly a dramatic enough spot that you can get plenty of good stuff to see.

I did manage to get an aviation theme to this post though. We got to one of the overlook locations looking into the canyon and one of the tour helicopters was coming towards us. I grabbed a quick shot of the EC130 as it turned away. Plenty of other helicopters came by – a steady stream really – but they all took different routes. I guess it depends on your pilot as to what you get.

We got to the top of the canyon road and the overlook that gives views of the north coast of the island – normally. Not this day. The clouds were rolling in and obscuring the view to the north. Since we were right at the summit, the clouds bubbled up to the top and then dissipated almost immediately. You had cloud on one side and nothing on the other. Very cool!

Hawaii Time

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We recently got to take another great trip. Like last year, we were back in Hawaii and most of the time was spent on Kauai with a bit of time on Maui at the end. There is no disguising it – Hawaii is a great place to go. Whether it is the beautiful scenery, the activities to be done or the chance to just relax away from everything for a while, it is a great spot.

We did a bunch of stuff while we were there and this is going to drip feed into the blog in the coming weeks. So much to see and report you will be sick of it before too long. However, I will try and intersperse a few other bits into the stream so you don’t feel it is too one-sided. Besides, where are the planes?

Albert Einstein

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Just across from the Lincoln Memorial is the National Academy of Sciences. On the grounds in the front of the building is a sculpture of Albert Einstein. It is a great sculpture since it is quite sizable and impressive yet is in a style that is very relaxed. It gets a few visitors at a time but isn’t very busy so is a nice distraction from the business of the rest of the Mall. It is also just the right size to encourage you to sit in his lap. I include a picture of Chris doing just that so you can gauge the scale.