Hawaii!

Coming up on two years ago, I reviewed a travel book about Hawaii and concluded,

"I think we definitely need a homeschool field trip to Hawaii before the next edition comes out, don't you? We could call it a unit study. Read some more Graham Salisbury books...study Pearl Harbor and volcanoes..."

Guess what? We're doing it.

Gosh, I sound so serious.

Insert happy Hawaii hula dance here ------> whee! <------

Well, we're in the middle of that stressful trip-planning time where, having bought the plane tickets, unless we want to spend 9 days at the airport, we now need a place to stay and a car. Travel tip: allow plenty of lead time when planning travel to a popular tourist destination during the high season. We've made some of the arrangements, some we've made twice and still have to cancel the outrageously expensive one, and then there's all these exciting things we really want to do but holy moly, that's a lot of hula moolah! And some of them are not only spendy but meeting with mixed reactions from certain members of the family. ("A 1-hour submarine trip 100 feet under water? Did you not see what happened in The Abyss??? And snorkeling--doesn't that require getting wet? And what about the sharks? And no, we're not going to Hilo, that's where the tsunami was in Night of the Howling Dogs!")

The kid is totally excited to go, he just doesn't want to actually do anything once we get there.

So, what I need is a book to read. Inspired by Care's review of Honolulu, it occurred to me that a good novel or memoir set in Hawaii is just the thing.

I thought of Michener's Hawaii, but it's a) lonnnnnng and b) written in 1959. If you want to try to convince me to read Michener, you have my permission, but I'm hoping for some other ideas as well. Any recommendations?

Also the kids and I need a book to read together once we finish The Scorch Trials. Preferably something set in Hawaii that doesn't involve death or destruction.

And if you haven't got a single idea, a simple "Yay, you're going to Hawaii!" would be helpful.