It was a lovely, warm day on Molokai’s Kalauapapa peninsula last July, and I was getting a tour of the area from local resident Rick Schonely. Schonely, a musician and high school sports coach, is one of several Molokai residents who gives tours of the peninsula, an infamous spot where leprosy victims were exiled for decades, living in a state of quarantine that makes what we’re going through child’s play. The peninsula is now a U.S. National Historic Park, and you can only visit if you have a permit. It’s a very sad place, where people lived far from their Read more
Molokai
With so many folks in the world not able to travel for a while, I’m dusting off some of my blog posts to provide folks with a bit of inspiration. Be sure to get back out there once we can fly and travel again. Here’s a post from the fall of 2017 on magical Molokai. MOLOKAI, HAWAII – I’m standing on the edge of a windswept cliff on the northwest edge of this Hawaiian island with a group of locals who are learning about efforts to restore the area’s natural ecology. The views are stunning, with craggy, brown-gray rocks plunging Read more
Favourite Sign: This one in the Cayman Islands. It’s particularly notable for folks in the travel writing world, as “off the beaten path” is one of those phrases most of us would like to see banned from every travel story. If only I could have found a street called “Hidden Gem.” Most romantic sunrise: Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on the Norwegian Bliss on a TravelBrands SeaU cruise in October. I grew up in the Bay Area, so to see the bridge and sail under it like that was a big treat. I wish I had Read more
This story appeared on Sunday, Oct. 13 in the Los Angeles Times travel section, which requires a subscription to read. I’m providing a link to the story here but also printing the story on my own site for ease of reading. Here’s the LA Times link: https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2019-10-12/ On Lana’i, they’re putting the finishing touches on a multimillion-dollar remake of the old Four Seasons Lodge at Koele, which is being turned into a sumptuous spa and wellness retreat and is set to open November 1st. Its sister hotel, Four Seasons Lana’i, has rooms that start at about $1,000 USD a night. Read more
I first visited Molokai maybe 20 years ago. It was just for a getaway night for my wife and I, who were on vacation on Maui with my family, and I don’t remember a lot. The weather wasn’t the best but it was quiet and restful. I went back for a day trip with my sister five years later and rented a car, so we were able to enjoy the drive to the Halawa Valley and got to briefly check out the valley and the pretty bay and beach. I went back for a travel story in the Toronto Star Read more
