While in Hawaii, we took the opportunity to find some Letterboxes! We ended up finding five of them: three on Maui and two on Kauai.
We attempted another two in Maui and another one in Kauai, but to no avail.
Still, even if you don’t find a Letterbox, you’re still in Hawaii!
I dare say my husband is hooked. Prior to our trip, Claire and I have been Letterboxing buddies. (I’d asked Claire if it was okay to go letterboxing without her, and she was fine with it. She was excited to see the new stamps!) Daddy has declined joining us, and I never pressed the issue. I knew he’d love it, but it’s something he’d have to figure out on his own.
Well, by the time we’d searched for our second one in Hawaii, I could tell he was just as excited about it as I was. Now, instead of a little preschooler saying, “Let’s just look a few more minutes, Momma!” the pleas came from someone a little taller with a deeper voice. Always thinking the same thing, I was happy to oblige.
The cool thing about Letterboxing in Hawaii was it gave us an excuse to see things we would have never seen otherwise. I mean, there is so much to see in Hawaii…you have to draw the line somewhere.
One place we wanted to see was the Black Sand Beach of Maui. Yes, there is a black sand beach on Maui, and it was in our guide book. It had also come highly recommended by some other people. Imagine my surprise at finding clues to a Letterbox near that very beach!
I printed the clues in advance, since I wasn’t sure if I’d have coverage (I did, mostly, but it’s best to be prepared). We explored the beach, but could NOT find the Letterbox. The clues weren’t making sense, which is a sure sign that we were in the wrong place. For the life of us, we could NOT find the right trail where we were supposed to be on at that beach!
We decided to have a picnic lunch at the park there, rather than bite each other’s heads off over a silly Letterbox. Not being able to figure out clues can make one grumpy…one of the only dangers of Letterboxing, if you don’t count bees, spiders, and falling rocks (that’s a story for another time.) After eating, we had renewed patience and energy, and we did what all good Letterboxers do: We started back at the beginning of the clue.
And guess what??
We found the elusive trail! The trail was one of the coolest we’ve ever been on!
You can't tell from the picture how dark and wonderful this trail is! It was very private.
It was secluded!
We would have never found it without knowing it existed, and we wouldn’t have known it existed without the Letterbox clue.
As soon as we found it, the clues just fell into place.
I found the box!
We found an even more secluded area off the main trail for me to do the stamp transfers!
He stood guard and pretended to take photos of the view…
...but he really took photos of me.
He also took photos of the view.
And that’s one reason why Letterboxing in Hawaii was so much fun. All we needed to be “sneaky” was to make sure our camera was out. “Don’t mind us,” we’d think to ourselves. “We’re just taking photos of the scenery.”
And, it was almost always true.
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