“I sit at the Seaview Terrace at Kauai’s Grand Hyatt hotel, Kauai coffee in hand, waiting for the sun to rise. The sounds of birds and nearby waves create the symphony of the morning. I think about the previous day, where whale spouts dotted the horizon, as breaching whales delighted me and the other guests with a show. I may be leaving soon – I’m on the island for a mere three days – but that does not affect today’s enjoyment.
It is quiet times like these that I enjoy. Ah, the solitude of solo travel.” Continue reading the article in OC EXECUTIVE, in which I write a travel piece on Kauai, the food, the hotels, things to do.
What I wanted to share with you this Travel Tuesday, however, was about something else. Sure travel allows you to see sights you’ve never seen, experience things you’ve never done before. But one of the things I value most about travel is meeting new people.
Travel is magical — there’s the food, and the exotic locales. But usually, for me, it’s the people you meet that add the magic.
On the Kauai junket I wrote about I met some really amazing journalists, fellow life-travelers, including the beautiful Arizona-based radio personality La Eidson, the sweet Hawaiian author Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi, and the witty food and television writer Jason Kessler.
Over the years, I’ve met many interesting people. There was Annika, the Dutch girl I met in a Malaysian hostel, and Yuki, a Japanese girl I had coffee with at Death by Chocolate in Vancouver, Canada and so many others. Some I kept in touch with, others I kept in touch with but only briefly. And there are those that remain a part of your travel stories but you lose touch with after the trip. You don’t connect on Facebook or Instagram or any other social network. And that’s just fine too.