We Just Flew In From Hawaii...

We Just Flew In From Hawaii... and yes, I am tired.  Not just my arms.

It was a challenge to fire out of bed this morning and even harder to wake the kids.

We spent a week snorkeling, touring and generally relaxing in Kona, Hawaii.  I would recommend that as a place to spend the week.  You can be as busy as you want to be and the food is good.  In a lot of ways, it reminded me of "up north" Minnesota... the primary businesses are farming and water-related tourism in this economy.  Climate wise, The Kona Coast is the dry side of the Big Island.

For those of you wanting some tech ideas when you read this blog, I have a couple.

1.  The iPad is pretty handy on the road.  It is probably all the computer you are going to need if you are on vacation, especially now with all of the iCloud services that come with it.

2.  Nikon has a pretty nifty digital camera that is pretty close to indestructible and waterproof to 33 feet.

I really liked being able to check on things with the iPad.  It is great for checking e-mail, reservations, schedules and all the other things that you want to keep posted on while you are away.  I especially liked being able to check my photos for quality before getting too far away to reshoot!  Use the camera connection kit and you can look at how things are really working.  Use the iCloud Photo Stream to send you work to your other devices for sharing and you have a great set-up for the road and when you get back.  It works.

The Nikon AW100 is a great little camera.  The first thing that attracted me to it was the underwater camera features.  I wanted to snorkel and take pictures and this was just right for the job.  It is only rated to 33 feet, so if you are a scuba diver going deeper, you probably want something else, but since most of our adventures are in 10 feet of water (or less) this was more than adequate.  It has a 16 megapixel sensor in it and is easy to use.  I had a hard time getting it away from my kids because it was fun to use and the results they were getting were outstanding. 

Photo Credit: The Whaley Kids.

For those of you who read this for the music ideas, I have a couple of those too.
This island (and culture) is filled with music.  The music from centuries gone by lives here, not just in the Luau shows that rival any Vegas show for complexity.  Everywhere you people watched, someone was carrying their ukelele.  Every state park we stopped in had musicians playing and singing in it.  It was as if sunshine, air, sand, surf, and music were all supposed to be there together.  Every nice place is a place for music.

Hopefully, my kids and students grow up in that kind mind-set... when they are someplace nice, know that it is time to make music.