With our Covid vaccination cards, Travel.Hawaii.Gov QR codes, and a detailed itinerary provided by Audley Travel my mom and I flew out of PDX around 11 am to Kauai, with a brief layover in Seattle. We had been planning this trip for 18 months and we had originally planned a trip to Nepal. But, with travel to the area opening and closing from week to week and the added stress of traveling to such a remote place we decided to make it easier and changed our destination to Hawaii. I had never been, and she had only been once before.

I had always thought of Hawaii as an over-rated place for rich tourists who didn’t want any adventure and that it was too expensive and not worth the hype. I am very glad I did not continue to have this bias as we planned our trip and made our way to the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii was very expensive and I am lucky to have someone that was willing to bring me along on a trip that would have had to go into debt to afford. It was a beautiful place and there were plenty of adventures to be had. It was an amazing place to photograph and document visually with video.

Thank you to my mom, Karen, for inviting me and allowing me to experience such a beautiful place with you.

The following is an account of our trip via photos, video, and written exposition.