hawaii - 1998

I'm not much for blogging about past trips unless there's a specific purpose. Anyway, a Facebook friend said he wanted to hear about my visits to Hawaii. That counts as a specific purpose. So, Rod, if you're reading this, please forgive the fact that there's probably more boring information than you really want.

In this post I'll talk about my first trip to Hawaii, which was in 1998. I'll try to get to the 2013 visit in a future post. Sadly, I can't find any old pictures from the 1998 visit. Photos in this post are not from my camera.

Back in the halcyon days of the 1990s, the company I worked for had a policy of letting FSAs attend one SoA meeting per year*. They were usually in fancy hotels and conference centers in cities that made good tourist destinations -- Boston, Montreal, San Diego. But for 1998 the SoA upped the ante and held their June meetings in Maui. At some point, there was a bit of concern at the office. An unusually large percentage of the actuaries wanted to attend that one, and everyone was wondering how the powers-that-be would decide who gets to go. In the end, they decided that the only fair thing was to let us all go. There were some actuaries who didn't want to bother, but anyone who satisfied the requirements and wanted to, went.

My first impression was that this was heaven. The meeting was being held at the Grand Wailea resort In Wailea -- on the southern part of the West coast of Maui. The beautiful ocean looked like you could just jump in and float forever.

I planned to take extra vacation time after the meeting, but (other than a car rental and my hotel reservation), I made no specific plans. I figured I'd find stuff to do.** I ended up meeting up with four female colleagues who had planned on hanging out together, but didn't have transportation. For a couple days after the SoA meeting had ended, I was happy to hang out with them. They had activities planned.

One day was spent in a chartered van riding the "Road to Hana," which is basically an all-day scenic drive around the southeastern lump of Maui***. My best memory was of a series of several pools. Seven? I'm not sure. Whatever it was, it was beautiful. I seem to recall being told that you shouldn't drive it on your own because it was too rough a road. But it didn't seem so bad.

sunrise over Haleakala

Another day we had to get up early for a bus ride up to watch the sun rise over Haleakala crater. Haleakala is one of the volcanoes that make up Maui. It was June, and the weather was generally warm. But the early morning hour and the altitude made it quite chilly. Still, it was worth it. The crater had an other-worldly look, and the sunrise was stunning. One popular activity that I didn't know about is to ride a bicycle down the side of the mountain. We rode up in a van and rode back in the same van. What some tour companies do is drive you up, and drive bicycles up in a separate van. Then you ride the bike down the road to some predetermined pick up spot. From there the tour company drives you back to the base. I probably would have enjoyed the bike ride, but the sunrise was the real attraction.

We spent one glorious day at Club Lanai. Lanai is a separate island West of Maui. My understanding is that it was a leper colony, and most of it is still off limits to tourists. But they did set up a day-resort. In the morning we took a catamaran from Lahaina to club Lanai. There, we cavorted on the beach, lazed in hammocks, and drank.**** Eventually, we took the catamaran back to Lahaina.

I also remember a couple of scuba diving trips, including one to Kahoolawe, which was the remaining rim of a volcano -- Southwest of Maui.

Plans changed one evening. We were having dinner and drinks.***** Somehow, the subject of the other islands came up. And suddenly I was jonesing to see one of the other islands before going home. Our waiter heard me and suggested that I talk to the bartender, who just so happened to be a travel agent. And so, the next morning, I found myself at a travel agent's office in Kihei. Flights between the islands were cheaper than I had expected. By booking a trip to the Big Island and cancelling the last few nights of my stay at the Grand Wailea (nice, but expensive), I actually saved money.

I approached my trip to the Big Island much the way I approached every trip back then. Zero prep. But I figured the hotel concierge would have ideas.

As my plane approached the airport in Hilo, I could see some stunning waterfalls out the window. And I was able to watch the roads and get a good idea of how to get to them -- they appeared to be in the middle of a residential neighborhood. As soon as I picked up my rental car I hightailed it for them. I was climbing around on the lava formations at the top of the falls when I lost my footing and almost fell. I took that as a sign that I had spent enough time there. On the way to the hotel, I saw a sign for lava tubes, so I went for a visit. These weren't long or impressive as lava tubes go. But it was my first ever experience with such things, so I was pleased. I also thought it cool that this was in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

I spent most of my time on the Big Island touring Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. On one day I took a helicopter ride to see things from the air. It was kind of interesting, but a bit of a letdown. I was fascinated by the holes in the crusted surface of the lava flows. Through these skylights you could see a bright orange or red surrounded by the dark gray of the rest of the surface.

Chain of Craters Road was a highlight. This was a road that zigzagged its way down to the coast, past a craters and volcanic vents, and through a series of lava flows (with signs indicating the month and year). And it ended at lava that had literally flowed across the road. There, there was a little kiosk with information from the park rangers. There was information about what was a safe walk out onto the flow -- near the kiosk, the lava was solid and safe. But venture too far and you could be on lava that had crusted over, but hid hot flowing lava beneath. Apparently, it was not advisable to venture too far out. But for some reason the rangers couldn't downright forbid it. So there were all sorts of posters warning about all the ways you could die if you ventured too far out. But they also gave useful information about how to make such a trip relatively safe. To paraphrase:

You really shouldn't go out there. Here are all sorts of ways that you can die. And here are examples of people who died in each of these ways. But if you really insist, here's what you should bring. And what you should do.

I really wanted to go out onto the flow. But I also wanted to not die. As the sun was starting to go down, a backpacking couple meandered back from out on the flow. The told of how they found a skylight, and just kind of sat by it, toasting hot dogs over the molten rock. That almost did it. If they can go out and come back safely, there's no reason I can't. And then a thought occurred: if 100 people go out, and 98 die, the only ones I'll meet are the ones who didn't die. So I went back to the car.

I took another trip on Chain of Craters Road, taking time to stop and explore the various trails. My favorite was the Thurston lava tube. It was so much tubier than the residential neighborhood tubes of a couple days before.

And, sooner than I would have liked, my trip came to an end. A flight back to Maui for my connection to LA and then NY.

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*IIRC, ASAs could attend once every other year.

** As an aside, this is indicative of one way that Blair and I work well together. When we go on family trips, I'm totally not into figuring out stuff to do. Blair does all sorts of research and comes up with lots of activities and alternates. I'm generally happy to go along with something she comes up with.

*** Modern-day Maui consists of two lumps. Each is a dormant volcano. At one point, one of them (Haleakala, I think) erupted enough to fill in land between them. See the map at the top of this post. Honestly, I would think they're both extinct, since the Hawaiian islands were created by a hot spot. As the Pacific plate moves over the hot spot, it creates a series of volcanoes. Now that Maui isn't over the hot spot anymore, I would think its volcanoes are extinct. But I seem to recall hearing a geologist say that that's not the case. I'm not sure if I remember that correctly.

**** One particular drink, the "blue hawaii" was particularly good.

***** The "lava flow" was another good one.