Leaving LA County

It's been real cali. Honestly it has been.

But I'm too young to be staying in one place for too long.

My feet begin to itch. I become curious, knowing my surroundings begins to bore me. That feeling of comfort isn't so comfortable any more.

I feel so young, yet so old. Twenty one in October and while it's a major milestone in many peoples lives, I'm not even excited about it. This world is so big, so many people in it and so many experiences just waiting to happen. I've only seen a select few parts of it.

This is the time of such little responsibility and even greater opportunities. Nothings holding me down or keeping me in one place.

Nothing is off limits.

"It is this idea of self-exploration that can often lead a person to some insightful conclusions about themselves."

Traveling has become a passion of mine this summer and I'm not going to just stop here. This is just the beginning to something better. It's not only the Magellan factor, it's the self discovery that comes along with it. The hands on learning. The type of learning and discovery that cannot be done anywhere else. The idea of circumstances, the idea of making connections and the idea of being open minded and uncomfortable. I'm hungry for it.

But after living without money for the better half of the summer makes a week in Kauai with the rents sound pretty amazing.  One last breath of fresh tropical air, before a semester of school near polluted Philadelphia encompasses me.

Kauai in itself is a dream. Everything about it belongs on a post card. It's such a surreal feeling.

It's such a isolating feeling, being on island. I've never been surround by so much beautiful water in my life. It's located half way between California and Asia so there is this interesting mixture of Pacific Islander and American. The island is so small though. No joke when it comes to island fever many locals have mentioned this downside to living here year round.

It was a shock leaving Long beach, which is a city to somewhere so small and isolated. I started to miss the buzz of the city and it was hard to accept this slow way of island life. The island has approximately 56,000 people on it and it's economy is primarily run by tourism. It's known to be one of the most untouched beautiful islands out of all of the Hawaiian Islands. I most definitely agree it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

The  Big Vast Beautiful Blue: the water of Kauai is so blue and beautiful yet extremely dangerous and deadly. It's so hard to believe that the water kills so many each year. Between the currents, tides and just plain tourist's ignorance or lack of knowledge. I noticed on most beaches that we went to about half had lifeguards the other half just had a red or yellow lifeguard inner tubes set up on the beach in case of emergencies. Yet if you're all alone on the beach, you might just be out of luck that day.

I love the water but I was pretty cautious because I kept having this image of myself floating too far from the island. Just the thought of how far you are away from the nearest land mass is not too comforting. I'd like to visit Asia but I don't think if i floated away from Kauai that I would make it.

The first day after arriving kind of jet lagged I dove off Kauai on a drift dive a long the Na Pali Coast. seeing spinner dolphins and mass amounts of tropical reef fish. They really made the dive an all around experience including food and ancient Hawaiian stories.

 

Horseback Riding Kaua'i: Taking the scenic route.

We took a 3 hour long scenic ride up through the volcanic ridges and down to the blue beaches of Kauai. Most likely my favorite part of the whole trip. On the best mode of transportation, on horse back, seriously no better way.

 

Precious, my horse on the left.

The red lava dirt is a significant landmark on the island. They sell Red Dirt T-shirts because there was a hurricane that flood the island dying all the tourist t-shirts. Instead of taking the flood as a feat the locals sold the red dirt dyed shirts. To this day they are a big hit on the island. The red dirt dyes the horses mane and tails on the island giving them a luscious auburn highlights. I was tempted to start rolling around in the dirt because I am in need of a new dye job.

We arrived to see 3 sea turtles swimming in the fold in the rock.

Queens Bath: one of the most beautiful places, also one of my favorite places on the Island. The water is so blue against the black lava rock. The rock is soft and smooth beneath your feet with a slight porous exfoliating texture. It held pockets of water almost like little tide pools with assortments of small crabs and fish swimming around eating the algae growing on the rocks.

Sea Turtle!

Waterfall on the walk down to Queens bath

The week was flying fast than any other ordinary week. It's crazy thinking there's places like this on Earth.