THEN + NOW | Hawaii

I can’t believe it’s been seven years since we were last in Hawaii. Everything seems so similar yet so different. I can’t tell if things really have changed that much or if my memory has become that bad.

The last time we were in Hawaii was in 2008. We rented a VW campervan and camped all around Oahu and Maui sleeping any place that would allow or at least tolerate us being there for a night. This included the side of the road and illegally camping on a beach (we didn’t know it wasn’t allowed).  I mysteriously lost most of the shorts I had packed — how is still a mystery, but we think they fell out of the van somehow? — so I had like one pair of ugly brown culotte type pants that I pretty much wore the entire trip. I hated those shorts. We ate so much passion fruit and so  much spam — I never really liked Spam much before then but now whenever I eat it, it reminds me of Hawaii. It was our first trip together. and the first time I met Sly’s side of the family.

So much happened on that trip — so many memories. I’m sure I’ll recap it all in excruciating detail one of these days, but for now a video I made way back when (back when I actually edited my crummy video clips to cheesy music) — on our FIRST trip to Hawaii (Oahu and Maui) —  that pretty much sums it all.

PS — I usually pick music that reminds me of our trip. In this case, this song played NONSTOP when we were in Hawaii back then. Years later, this song is still going strong on the Hawaiian airwaves… Good to know some things never change.