Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: Hawaii

A Bit of Beach Therapy

It’s that time of the year, when it has turned unbearably cold in Virginia and I’m dreaming of sun and sand. Chris and I don’t tend to try to get away to the islands during our winter months because we typically use our free time to play in the snow, but right now we’re at the point where it’s bitterly cold without any snow. When that happens, I turn my daydreams toward beaches. Thankfully I can look back on my images of sandy shorelines, and look forward to island trips ahead (Mexico is calling our name this year)! So on that note, here are some of my most favorite beach photos from the past several years. It’s the closest to beach therapy I can get at the moment!

Outer Banks, NC

Would you believe the first time I remember ever going to the beach wasn’t until I was twenty years old? I grew up in land-locked Missouri and Colorado, and when I lived in Texas we were a good five hours from any sandy coastlines. My family took plenty of vacations, but not to the beach, so it wasn’t a familiar sight to me when I went on my first trip to the Outer Banks with Chris. It has taken me many many years to get used to the water, but this first trip to Corolla will always be special to me.

Oahu, HI

A few years later Chris and I found ourselves on Oahu for a conference. Despite my adventurous nature and love for exploring, I still harbored a pretty serious fear of ocean creatures at this point. So after seeing a sign on Waikiki Beach warning swimmers not to go in the water due to jellyfish swarms, that was it for me. I didn’t get in the water the entire trip! But I enjoyed gazing at the water from a distance, and of course I took pictures of the enchanting colors. These photos are actually from our return trip to Oahu in 2008 for a friend’s wedding.

St. John, USVI

When Chris’s dad invited us to spend a week with him on St. John, it began our love affair with the island and we ended up returning two more times after that. I don’t have photos of my favorite beach, Cinnamon Bay (where we went for a short snorkel before a sting ray freaked me out), but I do have a photo of one of the most photographed beaches in the Virgin Islands. Trunk Bay is the one that shows up most frequently on postcards from St. John. I snapped this photo on our third visit after a tropical storm had just visited the island.

And it’s easy to get that view of Trunk Bay – there is a road that passes by overlooking the beach, and there’s plenty of room to pull off for a photo op!

Virgin Gorda, BVI

Without meaning to, I turned this post into a timeline of my ocean phobia, but this day trip to Virgin Gorda (from Tortola) was a huge turning point for me. Chris talked me into getting in the water at The Baths because he knew I’d be crazy about the cute, brightly colored fish. Sure enough, I put my face in the water to see a school of blue tangs trailing nearby, and it was enough to make my fears melt away. I’ve been more and more curious about the sea ever since.

Tortola, BVI

Smuggler’s Cove on Tortola is still one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. Being able to see everything around me is key to my comfort while swimming, and the crystal-clear water at Smuggler’s Cove put me right at ease.

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

By the time we booked a trip to Grand Cayman in 2014, I was ready to go all-in with snorkeling, diving, and playing with sting rays in the water. We missed the chance to dive on this trip, but we did get to see some stunning beaches. Seven Mile Beach and Starfish Point stand out in my mind as favorite stretches of sand on the island.

Vik, Iceland

When you think of Iceland you probably don’t think of beaches, but our visit to the shores of Vik was my first sighting ever of dramatic black sand.

Ambergris Caye, Belize

This long, narrow island in Belize isn’t typically known for its beaches, but we did enjoy the little strip of beach outside our villa on Ambergris Caye.

Vieques, Puerto Rico

Even though this beach wasn’t really swimmable, Chris, my sister, my brother-in-law, and I loved the view from our villa in Vieques along the northern shore.

Derrynane, Ireland

Speaking of unswimmable beaches, Chris and I had a great time exploring the rocky coastline of Ireland when we stopped at Derrynane Beach off the Ring of Kerry. It was too cold to even dip a toe in the water while we were there (and signs warn visitors not to swim there due to strong currents), but it was beautiful to photograph.

Islay, United Kingdom

Last but not least, one of my favorites of the favorites: Saligo Bay on the Isle of Islay in Scotland. I just didn’t realize we would find such pretty beaches in Scotland, but lo and behold they’re all over, and here is one of them.

Even thinking about beaches that are too chilly for swimming makes me feel warmer on this blustery day in Virginia. I’m hoping to add some more shoreline images to my collection this year with a visit to Isla Mujeres, and I’m hoping even more that we have warm, sunny weather while we’re there. Something to look forward to, for sure!

January 12, 2016
Travel Moments That Changed Me

I recently read an article with the title, “Traveling Doesn’t Make You a Better Person.” The first time I skimmed it, I dismissed the idea because I may have misunderstood the author’s intended message. I read it as, “traveling can’t change you and doesn’t ever make you a better person.” And like the author’s reaction to a friend who made a similar comment, I was stunned and perhaps a little put-off by it. However, a proper read-through clarified what I think the author was trying to say. (The title of the article is perhaps a little misleading.) My interpretation of the overall message is that traveling doesn’t automatically make you a better person since it depends on how you travel, and traveling doesn’t make you better than someone who doesn’t travel. I wholeheartedly agree with that on both accounts.

It got me thinking about moments in my own travels so far and I was able to identify a few special experiences that did change me as a person. In general, travel makes me a better version of myself simply because traveling makes me so happy, but there have been a few moments that altered me in a very specific way. And I’m not even talking about my scars from various bug bites or injuries, or the pounds I have inevitably gained enjoying international cuisines.

England 2003

Ah, my first trip outside of North America. I suspect you’d have a hard time finding someone bitten by the travel bug who wasn’t changed by their first trip overseas. I went to visit my parents who were living in England at the time, and I was mesmerized by the entire country. I’ve always had wanderlust on some level, but this trip introduced me to what it actually feels like to see and photograph far away places. Despite coming down with a horrible cold while I was there, I remember my magical trip to England with a very full heart and my love for travel has grown exponentially since then.

Hawaii, Switzerland, and Italy 2004

Thanks to Chris’s job at the time, I had the opportunity to tag along on a couple of conferences in fantastic locations: Hawaii and Switzerland. While Chris worked during the day on these trips, I set out on my own to explore and had some independent moments that allowed me to grow as a traveler. Oahu felt easy enough to navigate and it was a good starting point for a solo adventure. I rented a car and felt perfectly comfortable driving around the island alone during the day. In Switzerland, I wandered around Lugano by myself, shopping, eating, and navigating public transportation. On an overnight trip to Gimmelwald, I ended up taking the most peaceful, solitary hike where I was dwarfed by the surrounding Alps. And since the Italy border was so close to Lugano, I even hopped over to Milan for a day on my own.

Aside from a few potentially scary moments (getting lost on a mountain, wrestling my camera away from a stranger, etc.), these independent experiences gave me confidence as a traveler. I learned about navigation and safety in ways that will stick with me in my travel tool belt forever. Chris is my dream travel partner and I’m so very thankful to share adventures with him for the rest of our lives, but I’m also glad I had the opportunity to do some solo travel, albeit brief and on a small scale.

Colorado, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania 2012

“Let’s go snowboarding while we’re in Colorado,” he said. “It’ll be fun,” he said. Never have I ever attempted to do something with such a steep learning curve. I heard from plenty of people beforehand that snowboarding is difficult to learn, but I needed to see for myself. I had been skiing once before and picked it up pretty quickly, so how much different could snowboarding be? Answer: completely different. I spent more time on my tailbone than standing up during my half-day lesson in Colorado.

It took four more tries – one trip to Snowshoe, West Virginia and three visits to Whitetail Ski Resort in Pennsylvania – before I got the hang of it. I’m a little stubborn in general (let’s call it persistent), but learning to snowboard really put my perseverance to the test. We can all use a good never-give-up lesson now and then, can’t we? I stuck with it through some really painful injuries. I didn’t give up despite how much it hurt my body and my pride. Then one day things suddenly clicked and I managed to link turns. That was a very proud moment! Now whenever I’m faced with a difficult task, I use snowboarding as the benchmark. Most things are easier to learn than snowboarding, so that helps keep it all in perspective.

Tortola and Virgin Gorda 2013

I realize it might sound a little silly when I say that snorkeling changed me, but it did! And it happened on our trip to Tortola. I had attempted snorkeling a couple of times prior to this trip, and both times I got scared and didn’t last very long in the water. This was the trip where I vowed not to chicken out and I bravely faced my life-long ocean creature fears. Our island-hopping day trip to the Baths of Virgin Gorda was the perfect place for me to realize why other people love snorkeling so much. The water was calm, and the fish were colorful and friendly, and the positive experience enabled me to spend the rest of my time in Tortola happily exploring the beautiful underwater world.

Any time you step outside of your comfort zone and face a fear it’s a life-changing moment for sure, and this one led me to my next big moment…

Belize 2015

Last but not least, my scuba diving debut in Belize earlier this year. Conquering one of my biggest fears certainly changed me and I wrote about it here. There’s nothing I was more scared to do (other than say, scuba diving at night or in a cave), so knowing that I was able to go through with it and come out perfectly unscathed makes me feel like I can face just about anything. I will always remember how I felt that day in Belize – the build-up of fear in the hours before we headed to the dive shop, the butterflies in my stomach on the dive boat, and the I-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-it feeling once I was submerged and breathing underwater among the fish.

So what about you? What moments in your travels (be it local or long distance) made a life-changing impact? It can even be something as simple as putting your face in the water wearing a mask to gaze upon tropical fish!

June 8, 2015
Photo Friday – Aloha

Another photo to be filed under Warm Places I Think About While There’s Snow on the Ground in Virginia – this brightly colored lei I received at my friend Jenn’s wedding in Hawaii. If I close my eyes and try really hard to remember the warmth of the sun and the breeze of the sea-salted air on the beaches of Oahu, I can almost feel it again. Almost, but not really. It’s so cold here right now! (Remind me of this moment when we’re all sweaty in August.)

February 27, 2015
USS Arizona Memorial

When I recently scanned some photos from a 2003 trip to Oahu, I couldn’t find any prints from my visit to the USS Arizona Memorial. I was pretty sure I took photos, but they weren’t in with the other prints. Later I realized I took the images on black-and-white 35mm film (Ilford Delta 400) and developed the roll myself, so the negatives were in with my other old darkroom work. I scanned a few of the negatives so I could see what I shot – easier than looking at the contact sheet thumbnails. While I had fun learning how to develop film, I wasn’t awesome at it, so a lot of the negatives are grainier than they should be. Or maybe we’ll just call that a purposeful creative decision. Yes, that’s it!

If you’re on Oahu, it’s certainly worth a visit to the memorial. I rented a car while on the island so that I could explore while Chris was working during the day. The drive to Pearl Harbor was easy, and only about 30 minutes from Waikiki beach where we were staying. I went during the middle of the week in the morning without a reservation, and I don’t remember having to wait for admission, so depending on the day/time of your visit you might be able to do a walk-in without advance tickets. We watched a documentary film before heading over to the memorial site via boat, which was a beautiful opportunity for photos. My visit took around 1.5 hours, and I remember being most impressed by the manner in which other visitors conducted themselves – everyone was appropriately solemn and respectful. It’s a place of great honor, so I was glad to see it being treated as such.

Morning seemed like a decent time to beat the crowds and get good lighting for photos. I wish I had shot at least a few color images, but I only brought one camera loaded with b&w film. Maybe the mood of the b&w is fitting anyway. Here are a few of those scans.

July 16, 2014
Hawaii 2003

I recently spent some time with my scanner and digitized a few more of my favorite 35mm film prints from my first time traveling to Hawaii waaay back in 2003. It was such a fun trip, so I definitely wanted to give it some space here on the blog! Chris was working at a conference in Honolulu for a week in June that year, so I was able to tag along and enjoy my first visit to Oahu. I filled the week with restful days at the pool at the Sheraton Waikiki and did plenty of sight-seeing. We rented a car and drove around the whole island when Chris had time off. When he was working, I explored Pearl Harbor and the Byodo-In Temple. (For some reason I can’t find the handful of photos I took at the USS Arizona Memorial, but it’s definitely worth a visit.)

Here’s one of only a few photos of me from the whole trip – we were at the Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu. Doesn’t Chris look thrilled to be posing for a photo?

Hiking to the top of Diamond Head is one of the first things we did on the island. I highly recommend this hike if you’re up for a bit of exercise! It’s a short hike, but the 0.8 miles to the summit are steep and strenuous, with stairs, switchbacks, and tight crawlspaces. Good sturdy shoes are a must, and some people chose to bring flashlights although we didn’t. The little tunnel was short enough that you could illuminate it with a cell phone if needed. Your reward awaits at the top – stunning views fit for a postcard, so bring your camera!

The Byodo-In Temple is one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever visited. The grounds were immaculate and wonderful to photograph. Non-commercial photography is allowed without a permit, and the website even offers suggestions for the best time of day to photograph: “The best time to take photos of the temple and grounds is in the morning when the sun is still in the east.” The temple is a work of art, as is the Buddha statue inside. Before entering, I happily rang the bon-sho bell (or “sacred bell,” pictured below in the small structure), said to bring happiness, blessings, and a long life.

Sadly we didn’t spend much time in the water on this visit. I got completely spooked by a sign posted on Waikiki beach one day that warned swimmers not to enter the water due to the amount of jellyfish swarms! So of course in my head, that meant Hawaii = death by jellyfish. The sign was only posted one day, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I think I’ve made good strides towards getting over that fear, and I’d like to go back one day. (Of course, if the sign was posted again I certainly wouldn’t jump into the water, but I’d go in another day.) I hear the snorkeling is awesome! Plus I would love to see Maui.

Chris and I did explore other beaches, even if we didn’t swim.

This last photo is what happens when you hand a stranger your 35mm film SLR and ask him to take a photo of you on the beach. To be fair, properly exposing a sunset and people in the foreground is one of the toughest shots to get right, and I should have dialed in the settings for him. He actually made me super nervous because he approached us and offered to take the photo, but once the camera was in-hand, he kept backing up and backing up a little bit more. It turned out he just didn’t know how to use the zoom lens, but I thought for sure he was going to run off with my camera once he had some distance from us. Thank goodness for kind, honest people.

It was a gorgeous sunset though, and I still love this photo!

June 18, 2014