Maui and Haleakala Crater

On the morning of Friday, April 28, the Grand Princess arrived at Lahaina, Maui. I watched from our balcony as we sailed into the harbor.

We took a tender to Lahaina, and then boarded a bus for our excursion to Haleakala Crater, a dormant volcano.

Our entertaining guide introduced us to the "silversword" plant (above), or Haleakala silversword, a rare plant that is part of the daisy family Asteraceae. The silversword in general is referred to as ʻāhinahina in Hawaiian. A threatened species due to excessive grazing by cattle and goats and vandalism by people, it was once near extinction but is now protected, though threats remain. The silversword is found only on Maui and on the western slope of Mauna Kea on the Big Island.

After a two-hour bus ride, we reached the crater, but clouds covered much of it. So disappointing.

I waited, however, and after fifteen minutes or so, the clouds cleared momentarily, allowing the above view of some of the crater, which is seven miles long and three miles wide. Stupendous colors. The volcano last erupted in 1790, so it's due. We left without any rumblings. Except from my tummy.

We stopped for lunch at Casanova Ristorante and Bar in Makawao, an adorable upcountry village.

Our hosts were expecting us and soon had a pasta buffet ready.

Robin and I finished our lunch and still had a few minutes to browse the inviting shops in Makawao. One of our few regrets about our trip is that we didn't buy anything in Sherri Reeve's Gallery and Gifts. We loved everything she had to offer.

Travel Regrets: Missing the Durango-Silverton Railroad

Back in 2008, the lovely Robin and I had a wonderful vacation in and around the Durango, Colorado, area.

Though our arrival in Durango was delayed two days by a closed mountain pass due to heavy snow, once we arrived we stayed in a beautiful cabin with breathtaking views. We enjoyed the unique town of Durango, drove to Four Points (the only place where it is possible to stand in four U.S. states at once), and spent a lot of time relaxing and reading (but I repeat myself).

But the trip was not without its regrets. Foremost among them was our inability (despite calling every day) to take the famed Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to the old mining town of Silverton and back.

The rail line between Durango and Silverton was constructed to haul silver & gold ore from the San Juan Mountains, but it quickly became a popular journey for passengers due to the breathtaking vistas. The route has been in continuous operation for 131 years, "carrying passengers behind vintage steam locomotives and rolling stock indigenous to the line," according to www.durangotrain.com.

The heavy snowfall before our arrival in Durango made for beautiful surroundings...but it also caused us to miss a chance to take the part of our visit I coveted most.

(train photo courtesy of www.heiditown.com)

Travel Regrets: Charles Dickens's House, London

I've been blessed to travel pretty widely for a man of my limited intelligence and means. Still, as I've mentioned before on this blog (here, here, and here), I have some regrets.

One regret is not having visited the only surviving London home of Charles Dickens (who lived in the above house at 48 Doughty Street from 1837 until 1839) when we visited London some years ago. This is the home where he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. It is now the Charles Dickens Museum, containing manuscripts, rare editions, personal items, paintings, and period furnishings. It is a mere three miles from the Tower of London, which we visited. and just 2.5 miles from 221B Baker Street and Madame Tussaud's, which we also included in our itinerary.

Of course, a tourist can't do everything. Hard choices have to be made. And I may be able to correct the omission on a future visit. But still, if I had it to do over again, I would have liked to have found a way to pay homage to one of my favorite authors.

Travel Regrets: Missing the Monastery

The lovely Robin and I traveled in Egypt in 2010, before the Arab Spring and uprisings in Egypt in early 2011. It was a wonderful trip, during which we visited the pyramids, the Sphinx, the Valley of the Kings, and so much more. I'm so glad we went.

But I do have a regret. I wish that I had planned and pressed to visit a Coptic monastery while in country. One of the most impressive is in Cairo: the Monastery of St. Simon the Tanner (above).

Saint Simon the Tanner (St. Sama'an, in Arabic) lived towards the end of the tenth century. At the time, the Copts (Egyptian Christians) engaged in handicrafts. St. Simon worked as a tanner, a craft still practiced today.

The monastery was erected and dedicated to him a thousand years after his death, behind "Mansheiyet Nasser," the village of garbage collectors. This village was created in 1969 when the Governor decided to move all the garbage collectors of Cairo to one of the hills of the Mokattam. There, they built themselves primitive houses of tin, and tens of thousands live there now.

The monastery contains seven churches and chapels hidden in a series of caves in the Mokattam (Muqattam) hills, one of which is pictured below:

It may not have been possible, though my tour company has always bent over backward to respond to such requests. Reaching the monastery is reportedly quite an ordeal. It must be reached through narrow village streets, navigating past trash carts piled high with garbage, plastics, and tins.

But I wish I had at least tried. It might have been as close as I come to another dream, and that is to visit St. Catherine's, the world's oldest monastery on the slopes of the traditional Mount Sinai, in the Sinai peninsula.

Travel Regrets: Cruising without a Balcony

The lovely Robin and I have enjoyed several fine cruises over the years. Our first, I think, was our twentieth anniversary cruise to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios, Jamaica, in 1997. We took another Western Caribbean cruise (also on Carnival and much the same itinerary, I think) a few years later as part of a Christian Writer's Conference Cruise for which I spoke. Our most recent cruise was in 2007, a Norwegian Cruise Line voyage departing from New York and visiting the Bahamas (Nassau and Great Stirrup Cay) and Port Canaveral, Florida.

It wasn't until our third cruise that we got it right.

See, the lovely Robin likes to sleep in. I do, too, but we define the term differently. As a result, sharing a small stateroom can be a challenge, as on our first two cruises I was faced with the choice of disturbing her rest by turning on lights, shuffling around, having breakfast, reading, etc., until she was ready to be up and about--or going up to breakfast by myself, etc.

But on the Norwegian Cruise, we shelled out the money for a balcony room, which made all the difference. With room service breakfast (at no added cost), I was able to rise as early as I liked and tiptoe out on the balcony with breakfast and a book while she slumbered away. I had "alone time," she had "sleep-in time," and everyone was happy. And it's particularly fun to read Charles Nordhof's Bounty trilogy while sailing the open sea.

It made the trip so enjoyable that I regret not having had a balcony for our previous cruises. Live and Learn.

Travel Regrets: Oxford, England

In 1995, the lovely Robin and I enjoyed a splendid tour of England and visit with our dear friends Nigel, Rachel, Samantha, Carlene, and Dathan Horridge.

We squeezed as much as we could into those seven or eight days. London, of course, with its Tower of London and 221B Baker Street and Madame Tussaud's and Piccadilly and Trafalgar and Westminster and more. Nottingham. Warwick Castle. Chatsworth. Coventry. Stratford-upon-Avon. And more. So much more.

In such a trip, there are so many tough choices. You can't do everything. But I do regret not having been able to squeeze in a visit to Oxford. I may even have raised a pint to C. S. Lewis at The Eagle and Child. I'm reminded of my regret every time I watch an episode of Inspector Lewis.

But we hope and plan to return to that green and pleasant land in just a few years, and then I will do all I can to make Oxford a point in the itinerary.

(photo by Jeff Wilcox)

Travel Regrets: The Inca Trail and the Sun Gates

With this post, I start another occasional feature on Hither & Yon. After much deliberation, I've come up with a truly clever title for the series: "Travel Regrets." Really sings, doesn't it?

The first travel regret I will share is from our 2009 trip to Peru, when we visited Arequipa, Cuzco, and Machu Picchu. The lovely Robin and I were dazzled by Machu Picchu, as everyone is. And we were breathless, too. Not only from the spectacular views, but by the arduous climb to the spot in a high altitude. So when our guide pointed to the portion of the Inca Trail leading to the Sun Gate high above Machu Picchu (you can see the trail in the photo above; the Sun Gate is also visible in the photo, as two little black protuberances at the top left, in the declivity between the mountain in the foreground and the peak behind it), we decided against the trek, which would have taken ninety minutes or more round trip. Sure, we were tired. Sure, it had already been a long day. Sure, we were breathing heavily. But I regret not taking that walk.

The Inca Trail (Camino Inca) is a four-day trek in the Andes mountain range, from Cuzco to Machu Picchu. We were at one end when we left Cuzco early that morning (in a cab) and at the other end as we toured Machu Picchu. The Sun Gates of Machu Picchu consist of those two stones perched at a narrow passage in the crevice of the mountain just above Machu Picchu. The sun shines brilliantly through this portal each day when it rises, which of course gives the pass its name.

I doubt that we'll ever have the opportunity to return to Machu Picchu (we plan to return to Peru, but hope to experience the Amazon River and/or Lake Titicaca then), so I have often kicked myself for missing that chance to hike at least that much of the Inca Trail and to stand in the Sun Gate overlooking Machu Picchu.