For Travel Writers: Seven Successes from the Road

Given the overwhelming nature of the task – find out everything about traveling in Hawaii in three and a half weeks – some things were bound to go wrong. But things went right, too, from time to time. At reader L’s request, here’s the list of things that went as they should have.

1. Took lots of pictures.

Oh, they’re so pretty! You can see them here. We added a few photo toys to our kit before we traveled, including a little pocket camera (Panisonic Lumix) that has quite a wide angle view. The pics are great. With zero modesty, I expected that, but I had lowered expectation for the point and shoot stuff. They’re really good – a lot of the wide beach shots and viewpoint shots are with the Lumix. And, for the record, they’re J’s pics, not mine. Related to that, J charged all the batteries every night, we never had a camera with a dead battery. Oh, and we never ran out of flash cards, either, we had loads of memory with us.

2. Didn’t freak out.

When the laptop died, when the cell phone had no signal, when the kayak company had no idea who we were, when there was no rental car, we did not freak out one bit. Nope. We just rolled with it and did [fill in the blank] instead. And usually, it was fine. Sometimes, better than fine, like when the guy at the rental car desk got us after the high maintenance blonds who wanted the convertible didn’t want the convertible could we have rather I guess yes we’ll go to the airport actually no we’ll take the car you have but does it come in a convertible? There were no cars, but he got us a car. Thanks, Waikiki rental car guy who said Aloha with a South Carolina twang.

Photo: The laptop’s last days at The Volcano Store

3. Let the people talk.

Ooo, I’m talky. Really talky. I can’t shut up sometimes. But I have learned over time that when someone is starting to tell a story, that’s when it’s time to shut the hell up. That’s how we got to hear the weed vs. taro story, the 12 seater outhouse story, the my granddad jumped ship and went to grow coffee instead story, the Washington natives could see I was Kalama, I looked just like them story.

4. Brought the sidekick.

Yes, people, I know there’s all kinds of talk about having your partner along masquerading as the photographer. And I felt funny about this because a “true professional isn’t supposed to” bring the sweetheart in some bid to make the work into a vacation. But without J reading maps, schlepping luggage, loading batteries, taking pics, gathering receipts, keeping things moving along and performing number of other useful tasks, I’d have got a lot less done. High powered celebs get to travel with an assistant; this is why. Having an assistant is damned useful. And if that assistant happens to be your companion in more ways than one, well, okay. There will be no further excuses or rationalizations from me on this issue.

Photo: J shooting Little Grass Shack pics

5. Stayed on task.

On more than one occasion, I’d have been delighted to crawl in to bed for an afternoon nap. That happened – um – never? I did take the random 20 minute recharge under a palm tree but the usual turn of events was to get coffee or a smoothie or something and then, keep going. Things became a blur, but the photos and notes will provide clarity. Not once did we slip into the idea that we were on vacation – we were always on the job, always moving, always finding and photographing and going on to the next thing.

6. Took manageable bites.

We didn’t try to do it all. Yes, there are dozens of things I wanted to do, partly for myself, partly for the guide. But it was impossible. It takes a lot less time out of the day to chat with the gal at the desk about the boating trip than it does to take the boating trip itself. I could have gone flying, kayaking, horseback riding, ATV touring, hiking, surfing, and any other number of activities, but those things take time that needed to be spent otherwise. We weren’t diverted into trying to do everything and we didn’t stress out that we couldn’t.

7. Kept it real, dude, and had fun.

In spite of the fact that we were working all the damn time, there was the critical fact that We Were In Hawaii. It was sunny and touristy and fun. We didn’t lose sight of that and okay, if maybe we didn’t really want to drop in at the Dole Plantation, we went ahead and did so and pretty much hurled ourselves at whatever there was to offer, be it a giant pineapple and vanilla ice cream float (sounds disgusting, tasted delicious) or a fake concrete wave for photos of yours truly pretending to surf. Come on, a pineapple in Hawaiian shorts playing the uke? Like you could have resisted.

Photo: Dorking it up at the Dole Plantation

Now, dammit, I have to start writing that book.

Related: For Travel Writers: Seven Lessons from the Road

[tags]travel writing, Hawaii[/tags]