January 2017

Earl and I are on United flight 639 from San Francisco to Chicago. We’ll be spending a few hours in Chicago before boarding our last flight of this trip and heading home. The scenery from this 757 is beautiful.

This has been an absolutely wonderful trip and vacation. When we left for Hawai’i, I imagined that it would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us, but Earl and I have decided that we are going to do what we can to get back to the 50th state again. There are other islands to explore!

We’ve spent the last couple of days in San Francisco and San Jose. I had the opportunity to visit Apple, Inc. in Cupertino with our friend (and Apple employee) Rudi. I’ll probably write a separate blog entry on my thoughts about Apple and such but the one sentence version of that experience is: I once again feel very energized to make the world a better place through my technology skills.

I find San Francisco to be a nice city. It’s pleasant enough. Honestly, it’s not my favorite place in the world but the city felt warm and inviting to me. One thing I did not enjoy was the constant smell of people smoking weed on the street. Everywhere we went around our hotel (roughly near Union Square) I’d feel assaulted by the smell of weed. I remarked to Earl that perhaps folks were trying to forget the upcoming horror of the Trump Presidency by getting stoned and he said that people just like smoking pot. It’s never been my thing but to each his own, I guess.

If were to work for a Silicon Valley company I’d probably opt to live closer to San Jose.

This flight to Chicago is pleasant, though this Boeing 757 feels a bit tired. The interior feels dated. I know, I have such First World Problems.

I have begun following a travel blogger named Lucky and his blog One Mile At A Time. His writings are going to be an inspiration for me to do what we can to travel more. There’s so much out there to see. It’s never too late to expand our horizons.

Earl and I are sitting on Virgin America flight 0050 from HNL to SFO. We are back at the gate awaiting repair or replacement of the APU or Auxiliary Power Unit. Jamie chose to disembark the airplane and now they won’t let him back on until we are ready to get back underway.  The Flight Attendants have been accommodating by providing free water. I’m comfortable in my seat. I’ve used the bathroom, there’s no reason to disembark when I don’t have to.

This visit to Hawai’i has been awesome. We were to leave about 90 minutes ago, but this delay has us at the gate for at least another 45 minutes. I’m not concerned. We are not making a connecting flight today. The stress level is low. I’m just chilling out on an airplane and life doesn’t get better than that.

I was tempted to ask the captain if I could see the cockpit of this A320 but he is working with maintenance on the issue that is delaying us so I just observed from afar. I doubt that I’ll ever fly an A320, my interest is in staying in General Aviation, but seeing all the avionics of this Airbus is quite interesting to me. Technology used in this manner is interesting to me, much like auto automation and/or self driving cars. I would love to drive a Tesla someday. I hear the touchscreen is running Linux. That’s pretty cool.

For now, I’m just going to kick back, relax and enjoy this airplane. 

Earl, Jamie and I did some hiking in Hawai’i today. 

The weather was warm but the breezes kept things manageable. 

Over our two hikes we went about 10 miles.

Our two destinations were Manoa Falls and the Makapu’u Lighthouse. Both destinations are highly recommended.

As we have been progressing through our vacation, I can’t help but notice the numbers of folks that seem to be glued to their smartphones. I think one of the reasons that I notice this is because I’m guilty of spending too much time on my phone.

When we were packing for this trip I decided to use my iPhone 6s Plus as my camera and opted not to bring my point and shoot camera or my DSLR. I’ve been happy with the photos that I’ve snapped but when we are out and about and I’m snapping away at taking photos, there have been a number of occasions where a notification of some sort has come up on my phone… a Twitter notification, the number of folks that have liked a photo on Instagram, a stray email or two in my inbox. As a person who is easily distracted, these notifications pull me out of the moment that I’m trying to photograph and put me into something happening halfway around the world.

That’s not living in the moment.

This morning, as we enjoyed a beautiful breakfast in an open-air restaurant overlooking the Pacific, I noticed the number of folks mindlessly eating their breakfasts as they stared into their smartphones. The activity they were engaged in was unknown and probably unimportant, but it was busy enough for this family to not notice the bird that was walking across their breakfast table. Honestly, I found this kind of startling.

I get that people like to feel connected and acknowledged by the world through their electronic gadget. Chat boards, groups, social networks and the like all make for great ways to make connections. I have made some wonderful friends via Internet over the years, and it’s these connections that inspire me to share our experiences through photos, blog entries and the like. I know that I sometimes get removed from the moment in lieu of an electronic moment happening 3,000 miles away, but as I strive to better myself for living in the here and now and put away my iPhone, I can’t help but notice the folks around me that don’t share that interest or desire to disconnect from the bits and bytes, even just for a moment.

The thing I find most surprising is the number of children that aren’t swimming in the pools or taking a raft ride down the lazy river, instead opting to do something on an electronic gadget while sitting at a poolside chair. That’s just weird to me. I wonder what this generation of gadget kids will be like as adults. Will they need constant stimulation from somewhere other than their surroundings to survive? The thought of such a dependency is horrifying to me.

Our smartphones and tablets and computers have provided us with amazing opportunities, especially over the last decade, and I think that it’s just going to get better. But I think for us to survive as a society we need to learn to live in the moment. We need to share and engage with those that we are standing or sitting next to. It’s only when we strengthen our personal relationships that we can learn the balance necessary to engage in the electronic world.

From time to time I wonder if it’s my water-based zodiac sign that draws me to the sound of crashing waves.

We spent yesterday driving along the North Shore of O’ahu, frequently stopping to check out a stretch of beach and other such sights. There were surfers here and there. 

There was one odd incident, where a young man sat very close to Earl and I, tied his shirt into a knot to expose his belly and then looked lovingly at my husband as he licked his lips in a seductive(?) way. I didn’t take his picture of this person, whom I have since dubbed “Hoeilana”, but we made him uncomfortable enough that he moved away without incident as we continued to join the sights and sounds of the beach before moving on.

The peace and tranquility I found in the sounds of the ocean was just what the doctor ordered.

It’s not hard to start the day with a smile when you wake up to this view.

We have been looking forward to this vacation for a long, long time. Not only have we added state #46 to our list of places visited in the United States, but when it’s the beginning of January and the weather forecast at home mentioned snowfall expectations in feet, it’s nice to be able to step outside, breathe in some ocean air and listen to the crash of the waves.

I know that I’m a lucky guy. 

Our first flight on Virgin America. You get a smile, you get a smile and you get a smile.