USA Weekend Gives Soup Swap the Love

My head still thinks we’re in Hawaii even while my heart is turning to the next adventure, Vietnam. My body, though, knows the hard cold facts: We’re in torrential rainy Seattle. Our first day back we did two things: Went to Trader Joe’s to get some groceries and stopped for pho, the soup that soothes …


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Nerd’s Eye View’s Hawaii Favorites

Best products: Luana Spa in Hana. That lemon grass body scrub? Oh my. Best meal: Chef Mavro in Honolulu. Fireworks for the mouth. Wow. Best smoothie: A tie! The hippies on the road to Hana or the Vietnamese guy in the Honolulu Chinatown market. Best bathrooms: Molokai Ranch. Deep claw foot tubs and big showers, …


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For Travel Writers: Seven Successes from the Road

Given the overwhelming nature of the task – find out everything about traveling in Hawaii in three and a half weeks – some things were bound to go wrong. But things went right, too, from time to time. At reader L’s request, here’s the list of things that went as they should have. 1. Took …


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For Travel Writers: Seven Lessons from the Road

I’d do it differently if I had the chance to do it again. I’m sure you’ve said that before, and certainly, it’s not the last time I’ll say it. But frequency makes it no less true. I made more than a handful of rookie mistakes, though the trip, planned with a mere four weeks notice, …


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Aloha Oe: Seattle, Again

Five islands, three ferry trips, a handful of inter-island flights and two trans-Pacific flights later, we are back to a shockingly cold and dark Seattle. On three separate occasions, I did not buy an 800 dollar ukulele. I also did not buy a number of bone fishhooks, a shell lei, a timeshare, or a dozen …


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