Maui/ Fall is Here

 Here it is folks another nostalgic post out of San Diego. Another stream of consciousness mixed with a dash of reflection. I went to Hawaii for a few days with my father to relax and wrap up my summer on an excursion high.

I have been to Oahu a handful of times and this proves to be an amazing destination complete with prestine turquoise water, yet its commercialization is a playful reminder of the greed of the tourism industry. It also leaves me feeling a lack of authenticity. If I had it my way I would take in Waikiki as it was known to the locals, instead of a Marriott sponsored luau complete with fireworks show. This is pretty ironic considering I work for the Hilton corporation, but I guess I am a walking contradiction amongst other things.

Maui has a more untouched feeling which I enjoyed. We stayed in Kihei in a condo right across from the water, thanks to a friend of my Dad. Our itinerary included a windy and long road to Hana which led us to a 6 mile hike to beautiful waterfalls (seen above). The lower half of the hike included large pools of water in which you could bask in the clean water and swim up to these liquid drop offs. While swimming I heard an older lady mutter to her friend, "You have to give the Hawaiians credit for keeping this place authentic and not capitalizing on its beauty." At that moment I had a temporary day dream which included uniformed men snapping landscape portraits at $5 a piece, T-shirts with the all to famous line "I survived", and annoyingly informative tour guides leading the trail all at the wonderfully negotiated price of $30 (kids under 4 are free!). 

The truth is I'm searching for some nostalgic Hemingway storyline of drunken discovery. Some untainted wilderness or dark bar where conversations hold as much heaviness as the bartenders pour. Don't get me wrong I love suites and being pampered but as Alison Mosshart once said" “I would have been born in the late 40’s, a kid without a TV, surviving on mail-ordering photographs and autographs and sacred knick-knacks, when the implication was more obscure, more beautiful, and people talked, in a time when philosophy and strange habits were admired, in a time when things were inky and still poisonous, in a time before the remote control, in a time when the questions were more obscene than the answers, in an age of opinion when people really took sides, in an age of thinkers and good service, in a time when real con men and bank robbers were hard to catch, in a time before sky high security, in a time before marshal law, in a time when one could walk right off the map, in a time when entertainment was artistic, not mathematic, in a time when value was valuable, not obese with emptiness."                                I can't help but feel everything these days is too calculated. The times when I feel most myself is on trips like this to Hawaii, when I can forget my societal expectations and just explore, but I guess that's the beauty in travel right? It wouldn't be as pleasurable if I did it all the time.......right?