Possibly because he had never seen the beach until we got married – don’t even get me started on how unbelievable this is – Tom is not the beach-loving fanatic that I am.

My mom was born in Pensacola, Florida and we spent most vacations there my whole life so to me the proper travel equation is:

perfect travel destination in any scenario = beach

Tom. Not so much. He thinks the beach, any beach, is pretty much just OK. His perfect travel equation is more like:

perfect travel destination anytime = mountains

So, needless to say, we often have to negotiate. Beaches this trip, mountains next time. Stop in the mountains on the way to the beach. A state that has both beaches and mountains. Somehow, we manage to work it out. The next destination we are working on is a perfect example of beaches vs. mountains.

I have recently seen several articles about the rather obscure Hawaiian island of Lanai and I am very intrigued. We loved our visit to the Hawaiian Islands two years ago but there were some things we very much did not like, such as the overwhelmingly urban city of Waikiki and some of the beaches and other locations crowded with tourists.

I realize we are tourists and it’s rather unfair to not like a place with too many tourists but there it is. Apparently we are tourists who want lovely and fabulous destinations all to ourselves. So lovely, quiet and rather deserted Lanai sounds like a paradise. And it’s rather a unique place as well with some desert-like topography and spinner dolphins playing right off the shore.

But then I found out that there are actually Grand Canyon Hotels where you can stay and spend time exploring this marvelous sight.

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