“You certainly usually find something if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after".
J.R.R. Tolkien
I don’t want to mislead you into thinking I am a planner when I travel. I am notoriously neglectful when it comes to tromping across state and country lines.
As an example, last September 2025 I visited six countries in five days.
I missed the connection to Malta from France’s CDG airport and wound up in Portugal. From there I bounced over to Oslo, Norway via Switzerland to visit the 1,200 year-old Viking ship, Oseberg, that was unearthed on a farmer’s land back in the late 1800s.
On the way to Olso, I impressed myself by mapping directions from Oslo to the museum and found it was possible via public transportation, but it would take the better part of two hours.
The first morning in Oslo, I woke up early to start the journey, and before leaving the hotel room, I plugged the address into Google Maps, which pointed out that the museum was closed. After a quick search, the internet informed me the ship was moving to a new museum (literally that weekend ) which wasn’t scheduled to open until 2027.
Huh.
So instead I went hiking among the massive and bountiful pine trees on a beautiful, crisp fall day until grabbing a flight to the fairytale land of Krakow, Poland, and lastly landed in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to catch a flight home to the U.S.
Would I have ended up in Oslo if I had known the ship was unavailable?
Who knows, and it doesn’t bother me at all that it worked out that way. In fact, Oslo had some of the tastiest food that I still think about to this day. So I look forward to going back in 2027 to see the ship in its new home.
How I travel is like how house-hunters visit open houses to discover what they like, want, and need in the subject of their future mortgage.
The point in all of this is to say that I didn’t plan on going to Maui for pueo. I actually planned on going to Molokaʻi to visit the old leper colony, but that didn’t work out either…
The morning of day two in Maui, I checked out of the hotel early to hit as many “off the beaten” paths as I could find. Hurricane Lowell was making its way near the islands, which was turning the forecast into rain, so I decided to take the 8 pm red-eye to SLC and see where I would go from there.
My first stop was La Perouse Bay with its lava coast and 10’ swells.
Ocean view from Mākena State Park near La Perouse Bay
Ocean view from Mākena State Park near La Perouse Bay
After a couple of hours on the beach getting my fill of the sun, I drove to find the Olowalu petroglyphs, a site with around seventy cliff carvings believed to be two to three hundred years old.
Both map apps on my phone and AI were hopeless at locating the cliffs, but I found a helpful website that documented the way.
It was a peaceful visit with a tropical, picturesque, rushing stream across from the basalt cliffs.
Video panning from the informational sign at the Olowalu Petroglyphs site up to the surrounding cliffs, West Maui.
Olowalu Petroglyphs, West Maui
From there, I headed to Central Maui, about 40 minutes away, to visit the ʻĪao Valley State Monument. Driving up through the emerald valley, the cool rain started coming down and fogged up my windshield. Th lush, green, tropical winding drive reminded me of the northern part of Kauaʻi (The Garden Island).
ʻĪao Valley
The area is sacred and deeply rooted in spirituality and Hawaiian culture and beliefs. This site was where the Battle of Kepaniwai took place in 1790, which led to the unification of the Hawaiian Islands.
As I neared the park entrance, I remembered that as a non-resident, I was supposed to reserve a spot prior to entering.
I stopped at the little park shelter entrance and rolled down my window as the heavy rain coated the inside of the car door. There was a young gentleman reclined in a chair playing guitar. He stopped playing, leaned over to turn off the music he was accompanying, and said hello. He asked me if I had a reservation.
I apologized sincerely and said I did not.
“That is fine, no worries,” he assured me. “You will just need to drive back down and go to the website because there is no cell service up here.”
“Oh, okay,” I said, adding, “Can I ask you a question? Have you worked here long?”
“About two years, but I grew up here,” he replied.
“Do you ever see the pueo?” I asked.
His expression changed, his face lit up, and he smiled, “What? The owl? All the time!”
He continued, “In fact, I was just talking with a coworker, and he saw one this morning.”
“This morning!?” I exclaimed in disbelief.
ʻĪao Valley
He continued, “He was here first thing this morning and said he was walking along in his own thoughts, thinking about stuff, and all of a sudden the owl flew over him, and it was a big moment because he was thinking about a heavy decision.”
With my wide eyes in awe of the timing, I told him I was trying to see one and he shook his head and said, “If you come to Hawaiʻi and you see an owl, that’s really special. That’s really something.”
I thanked him, drove back down the side of the mountain, paid for my reservation, drove back up, and parked in the lot while the heavy rain poured down. When I say heavy, I mean the drops were so big it sounded like hail was hitting the cars. Unfortunately, I was not prepared and was worried about bringing Sarah’s camera out even though I had a plastic covering for it.
It didn’t help that I forgot my rain jacket at MauiWine, so I was stuck without much rain protection. The park ranger thought it might clear up, so as I waited, I devised a plan to wrap myself and the camera in my beach towel and use the wide-brimmed beach hat in the trunk for coverage.
The second the rain let up, I made my way around the path and took as many photos as I could while scanning the trees and valley with the zoom lens for pueo.
Did I see one?
No.
I wasn’t lucky in that way. But I got closer than I even expected after hearing about the morning’s sighting.
It was tempting to stay another night and return to ʻĪao Valley at dawn. But the reality of the rain and my lack of preparedness rained on my parade, so to speak.
So I departed the island with a beautiful visual record, a big idea for a future trip, and - most importantly - a collection of first-hand pueo stories from locals that I will hold in my heart.
A Letter to a Future Solo Traveler:
Hello - I’m glad you’re here.
I talk to a lot of people who won’t travel simply because they don’t like the idea of traveling alone. If that is how you find yourself, I encourage you to go!
Start small - you don’t need to tackle six countries in five days.
The world is a boundless, miraculous place with kind and generous people throughout.
People who help you when the GPS on your phone isn’t functioning.
People with fascinating stories, advice, and deep ties to their culture.
People who you have a greater chance of meeting when you travel on your own because you are forced out of your comfortable shell.
It is the easiest way to reinvent yourself and be the A+ version of you.
I promise your experiences will be rich, colors will be vivid, and your heart will soar from falling in love with food, art, nature, architecture, and landscapes.
It is just the way it works - doubly so if you are apprehensive.
But, of course, you must begin with an open mind and a sense of adventure, knowing you are a smart, capable adult human carrying plenty of resources with you at all times…
Okay, enough of that. It is time to get back to the owl family. Next post is in the works.
XO,
CMO
