Big Island of Hawaii

It is true, we just returned from an extended vacation. Even by European standards, our camping trip to Scandinavia was sufficiently long to be relaxing. Just barely caught up on email, my friend Ben shows up in my office, asks for a can of disgusting yet amazingly refreshing Cherry Coke from my fridge, and proceeds to more or less mandate that I pack up my photo gear and fly to the big island of Hawaii right away due to the current amazing display of flowing lava. The somewhat lobstery skin tone on Ben's face suggested that he speaks with the authority of someone who is just coming from there.

Research showed the lava indeed flowing on the surface, and airline tickets at the usual high rates. There aren't that many days per year that you can get the perfect light for something, lava flowing or not. But it so happened that this years equinox coincided with the full moon, which is hard to beat. The look on my boss' face was between amused and confused when I asked for two days of vacation: "And you just were gone for how long?"

I told Essan only as much that we are flying somewhere, and when, but not where. Soon the 19th September 2002 arrived, and with bowed head I learned that my boss doesn't have the same interpretation of "leaving a bit early" as I do. Ok, 11 is maybe not "leaving early" but rather "just coming in briefly".


Some people joke that I have ADD since I can't sit idle for more than a few minutes. Boredom is my mortal enemy, what can you do... My productivity at the LAX airport was somewhat impaired by the lack of power outlets, but I scored what looked like the only functional outlet in Terminal 4 and charged up enough to last for the whole trip. Not that I actually needed the full charge: after about 2 hours of flying (and working), my neighbor started asking me questions about my Powerbook and soon his wife (across the aisle) and the passenger in front of her were involved looking at how easy it was to connect a digital camera to the amazingly thin and light laptop, and how fast it was, and all.

With more battery charge than I really cared for we landed in Kona, which is an amazing airport. First of all it didn't seem to have any closed rooms. The whole thing is open air, with some basic roofs on posts and a few benches. The Hertz rental car place was equally quaint, which can't quite be said about the Ford Escort which we were given.

Once at the hotel we entered the room and were greeted by a gecko on the wall and a shriek in my ear. I spent the following minutes taking pictures of our guest, very much to Essan's distress, who was standing pinned against the wall at a safe distance and stayed there until I finally escorted the gecko out of the room. She will camp in the snow, won't shower for weeks if needed, but still doesn't like the company of some critters. I guess that's an ok compromise.

On to next chapter -->

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