Farsighted Fly Girl

The red dirt of Kaua'i's gorgeous coastline will be clinging to my feet as I explore the culture and history of Hawaii's oldest island, courtesy of the Kaua'i Visitor's Bureau.  I'll be covering the Prince Kuhio Cultural Celebration, a week-long festival in honor of Hawaii's most beloved monarch, who was the last  royal heir to the throne at the beginning of the 20th century. I'll also hike through the valleys of the striking Napali Coast pictured above, as well as checking out the Waimea Valley (The Grand Canyon of the Pacific), endangered Hawaiian monk seals at Poipu Beach Park and tracing the Koloa Heritage Trail, including a volcanic cone and sacred heiaus or temples. A tour of the Hanapepe artist colony and mountain tubing will round out my schedule for next week. Stay tuned for posts about my Kaua'i adventures at the end of the month, aloha!

The term "Geek Chic" certainly doesn't sound appealing to me but it's the category that the creative folks at Blend Creations use to describe this hot necklace.  What's cooler than your own twitter  handle necklace? Not much.  When I saw the tweets about this piece, I immediately ordered one. I'll be working this necklace on all my trips and meetups. Now if I could just get some cute "tweet bird" earrings to match...

Visiting Puerto Rico is always exciting but this time we had an unexpected dose of excitement. The day we were scheduled to leave, Hurricane Earl arrived with gusting winds and a vicious downpour.  I've experienced many tornadoes but never a hurricane so I was a little dumbstruck. What exactly do you do during a hurricane? Of course, El Conquistador Resort staff is used to dealing with hurricanes so all the electricity was shut off and guests were advised to stay inside. As the palm trees bowed with the powerful winds and buckets of rain puddled everywhere we stepped,  we stood in a long line to check out. Dozens of panicked travelers were trying to book early flights to escape Earl but we already had our flight and we didn't worry. We flew safely back home and when we arrived, news shows flashed images of El Conquistador, which was located in the heart of the hurricane, as well as mudslides and flooding on the Eastern side of the island.  We had apparently just missed disaste