One cannot know the big picture if that is all they see. One has merely seen the surface of things. For a large swath of our population, this is adequate and satisfies their need to have seen something. Here I am in Hawaii, and indeed, the view is beautiful, but so too is the Oregon coast I was on last month. There is so much more to this place than warm breezes, tepid waters, and waving palm fronds. Even in strong, cold winds, dark, icy waters, and howling evergreens, there is immense beauty in the minutiae of details aside from a bit of discomfort. While in the luxury of Hawaii, it would be easy to only see perfection, but in the tiniest of details, there is something waiting to be found.

And there it is a tiny abandoned crab shell perched perfectly on the rocks as though the crab stepped away from it just a minute ago. That’s right, not only will this trip be about palms and beaches, though they certainly play a central role, it will also be about finding the unseen. Here in the open and in some respects obviously apparent is the work of the internal engine that helps power our Earth, and then again, it’s hidden behind the luxury of a tropical paradise. These islands are relatively new land areas where there is no ancient fossil record. Back when our continents were being torn apart and scattered around the globe, Hawaii was yet to rise out of the sea. The oldest landmasses in the area are said to be about 65 million years old, while Oahu, where we are today, is a mere 2.95 million years old.

Back then, early humans were just diverging from our non-human ancestors, and it would take 99.5% of the time from then till now before people crossing through Siberia passed into North America. That was approximately 12,000 years ago, or about 10,000 years before Polynesians would set sail into the middle of the Pacific Ocean and start to populate the Hawaiian Islands. For millions of years, these islands had never seen humans, and now, less than 2000 years later, we are responsible for incalculable damage to the environment and the life that took up residence prior to our arrival. I don’t mean to suggest the Polynesians played a heavy role in that disruption, nor the Hawaiians that were their descendants; it was modern man that brought invasive plants and animals.

Maybe this is another beach, or maybe it’s the same one in the photo above. No matter what, we were here and deemed the view to be of such extraordinary beauty that we needed a photo to capture the moment in order to remind us of just what the ocean looked like during the moments we walked its shore. A shore that offers hints of a perfection nature is able to muster. But just into the sea, we can find a dearth of whales and an abundance of plastic, which is evidence just out of our view that cannot be immediately seen, but it is known. For centuries, we explored our world we traveled with the purpose of better understanding the planet. Now, we passively observe our environment with little to no thought about our origins, direction, or impact. The Polynesians who arrived on these waves struck out on a vast ocean with hopes of finding somewhere to land before being taken by the ocean; they traveled with dreams and purpose. Today, we travel for laziness and call it a vacation.

Notice how the blue in her eyes and shirt complements the color of the ocean? Would you be freaked out if I told you her blood was the same color? Well, I’d be more than a little alarmed because that would mean I married a horseshoe crab, and while Caroline has been known to be crabby, she’s certainly far from being a crustacean, not to say she hasn’t been crusty from time to time. I better quit.

Hmmm, I can’t remember if we saw bananas growing in the wild on our previous visit to Hawaii, so I’ll just go ahead and exclaim my wonder at seeing bananas on the tree growing right there in front of us like one might imagine bananas would do. We did see pineapples on our previous visit and mangoes too, but hey, these are bananas! And bananas remind me of breakfast this morning, where we sat on our balcony on the fourth floor (room #402 as a note for our memories) and ate local oranges and our favorite apple bananas. Okay, now I’m hungry

We headed east looking for lunch but were snagged by indulgence and instead opted to drop in on Haleiwa Bowls, which was serving up Acai that, up until this point, neither Caroline nor I had tried. It was a perfect introduction to Acai, and we will certainly return should they still be there during a future visit. The only problem with splitting this “Mana” bowl of dessert was that we were still hungry for a proper meal, but that wasn’t too big a problem because not far away was the Beet Box Cafe.

This vegetarian cafe is actually in the back of the Celestial Grocery, so when we were done with our Big Healthy Plate and Three Little Birds, we were able to pick up more bananas.

A beach enhanced with a rainbow makes for even more romantic experiences. The only thing missing is breaching whales. Please don’t read into my musings that we need rainbows for greater romantic effect or breaching whales, for that matter. Just last month, we were in Oregon, and with occasional gray skies and intermittent rain, we still had a wondrously terrific vacation full of all the romance and love anyone could ever hope for. Heck, on day one of that adventure, we were even graced with a double rainbow; click here to see how beautiful it was.

The rest of our day was spent shopping and basking in the beauty of the world around us. Our first stop after lunch and rainbows was at the Waialua Sugar Mill, where we enhanced our ability to stay awake with some coffee. Next up was a sampling of their Waialua Estate semisweet cocoa nib bar, which put us in the mood to go deeper into the tastes of Hawaii. And what is more Hawaiian than lilikoi also known as passion fruit? Ooh, that passion fruit honey is great; let’s get some, and what about that passion fruit curd?

If rainbows weren’t enough, we were offered God Rays to extend the romance of our first full day here in Oahu, Hawaii. Here I am going on about that thing related to love again; you couldn’t be blamed for being under the impression that Caroline and I revel under the umbrella of things that inspire astonishment and awe. But then you might ask, “Well, just what are those things?” It is everything that comes remotely close to putting smiles on our faces.

Dinner was courtesy of Kahuku Superette and their famous Shoyu Poke, accompanied by the sounds of helicopters and airplanes as the arrival of President Obama was being prepared for just 30 miles south of us. Maybe we’ll run into him and his family while we’re up here, and we can buy them shave ice?

From great to amazing to spectacular, the smiles on our faces grew larger and larger with every passing moment of our wintry visit to Hawaii. As the sun began to set, we took an oceanside walk, marveled at the clouds racing by, and after it was dark, we were afforded the opportunity to catch a few shooting stars from the Geminids meteor shower that happens to be going on right now. Just another ordinary day in an extraordinary life. If you can find a better day, live it.