Hawaii was never on the top of my list of places to travel. It seemed so obvious, so safe, so old-school. The “exotic” destination you book a trip to when you didn’t have the guts to travel to a country completely unknown or if you were time traveling to the 1950’s for your honeymoon.

During the pandemic, like the majority of America, we canceled all of our travel plans and our accumulated airline credits collected dust in the back of the closet with my high heels and yoga mat. When my husband suggested we travel to Kaui to use up those airline credits, at the imminent risk of losing them, I said, Sure.*

*Hi––I’m not going to say “No” to Hawaii, but I wasn’t super excited about it either.

This is the part (right when you start to hate me) that I humbly and happily admit to you— I was completely wrong; Get a pie, shove it in my face–– that kind of wrong.

The food, the kindness of the people, the scenery, the beaches: Go. to. Hawaii.

We went to Kaui, home of the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific” and one of the more rural and laid back of the Hawaiian islands. Our agenda was:

Hike.
Photograph.
Swim.
Hike.

Our expectations were surpassed every day by the incredible vistas, diverse landscapes and seascapes and technicolor sunsets.

If I could figure out a way to get there minus four connecting flights and 13+ hours of travel, Kauai would be a yearly pilgrimage. Alas, I will just have to content myself with flipping through my photos and dreaming of our next trip to Kauaii, TBD.

Growing up in the 1980s, I’m pretty sure I was one of only a few little kids who knew the Dark Shadow theme by heart. My mom loved the tv show and taped reruns off of TV to watch at night while my sister and I would cower behind couch cushions with our toys.

Dark Shadows was a gothic sci-fi soap opera created during the late 1960’s featuring the cursed, but rich, Collins family and a full complement of supernatural beings (vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, and the like) causing mischief and mayhem at the family homestead, Collinwood. Collinwood itself, was a sprawling mansion perched atop a seaside cliff battered by seemingly never-ending storms and hidden in thick banks of fog, on the coast of Maine.

In my heart, Maine has always been an extension of Collinwood: dark, sinister, and haunted. And despite a recent road trip this summer that stretched from Portland Maine to Campobello Islan, filled with picturesque seaside towns, busy harbors, oppressive humidity and luscious, buttery, lobster rolls, I still fit in plenty of cliff-side walks, foggy mornings and lonely, rocky beaches to sate my childhood nostalgia and raise goosebumps on my arms.

To that end, I hope you enjoy my photos below and check out my TV inspiration Dark Shadows for a scare (and maybe a laugh) on a dark and stormy night.