Kaua'i: the most beautiful, complicated island

I'm going on a trip to revisit childhood memoir locations

At the end of this month, I’m traveling to Kaua’i, the Garden Island, most gorgeous of the Hawaiian islands, for book research.

Photo by Braden Jarvis on Unsplash

I’ll be there two weeks. I’m doing a book event in the middle of it.

Every time I tell anyone that, they roll their eyes and go “Living the dream!” or something like that.

To a degree, that’s true.

Yes, I’m grateful that I make enough money as a writer to travel to Kaua’i on my business’s dime. I will stay in an expensive vacation rental, rent a car, eat out, visit old friends, take hikes, walk the beaches, and go swimming as a part of my research.

Yes, I get a tax write-off for visiting one of the most beautiful places on God’s green earth.

What people don’t realize is that I can’t ever go to Kaua’i without battling mixed feelings. There are memory-ghosts around every corner. The woulda-coulda-shouldas of missed opportunities, risky choices, broken relationships. Old pain lurks everywhere.

It would be like returning to your hom…