The island of Oaho is home to Honolulu, Pearl Harbor, and Waikiki Beach. Maui is where Iolani and I were married. Kauai is the "Garden Isle". The Big Island has many separate climates, with three main areas: the drier western half with great beaches called Kona, and the grasslands and cattle ranches around the mountain town of Waimea in the center, and the wetter junglier eastern side with its many seacliffs, occasional beaches and the small port of Hilo.

Cruise ships stop at both the port of Kailua on the Kona side and in the port of Hilo on the eastern side. but most tourists who fly there just visit the Kona side or the fancy resorts a little further north. My companions and I spent a couple days in Captain Cook, Hawaii, just south of Kailua, and the traffic there was "a real bummer", use a local phrase. There is one main road that runs around the island. The center of the island is two giant inactive volcanos: Mauna Loa to the south and Mauna Kea to the north, and one active volcano, Kilauea, on the south east flank of Mauna Loa. The main road through Kona is jam packed all day during the week. But on the east side, the Hilo side, much less crowded, and down southeast in the Puna area, it's downright rural in some places. Subdivisions with dirt roads. Rutted jungle four wheel drive roads. Old lava flows breaking up into jungle again and new lava flows blocking four lane roads forever. This is it, this is paradise.