Hawaii Vacation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

My wife and I plan our vacations with long lead times. Sometimes we have plans for a vacation more than a year from now. This helps us get good travel deals and allows us to give our employers plenty of notice. We planned a trip to Hawaii before we had ever heard of COVID-19. We had also planned a July vacation in Iceland. And I had planned to cycle across Iowa in RAGBRAI 2020. We cancelled both of those trips. Or, more accurately, they were cancelled for us. Back to Hawaii... 

As the date of our trip approached, we considered cancelling. The COVID infection rates seemed to decrease over the summer, only to worsen as winter approached. Should we stay? Should we go? 

 The state of Hawaii imposed strict testing/quarantine requirements as the government allowed businesses to reopen. It was possible to make the trip, but should we? I study things that interest me. A lot. I don't want to get sick. I don't want my family to get sick. Whether staying home or travelling, I wanted to know what to do to improve my chances of staying healthy. How does one get sick with COVID? How can we protect ourselves? 

Bottom line: To get sick, one has to stay in close proximity to an infected person who is talking, singing, coughing, or breathing heavily (perhaps while exercising) for some number of minutes. Keep your distance, and you're safe. Can't keep your distance? Like passing someone in a store aisle or on a sidewalk or in a hallway? Make it very brief, and you're safe. How about masks? As far as I can tell, and this is based on a lot of reading and talking with health professionals, a mask won't protect you. Why wear one? A mask wearer's mask will trap a large fraction of the droplets that are expelled when coughing, talking etc. In short, a mask protects everyone EXCEPT the wearer. And while wearing a mask, you are less likely to touch your own face. If an infected person contaminates a surface, and you touch that surface, you are less likely to then touch your own face when you have a mask, so there is a small benefit to yourself when you wear a mask. 

In light of that analysis, what is the best course of action? We have to continue our lives and work. We have to go to the store, job site, doctor's office. We have to exercise and maintain the house. Life does not stop during a pandemic. The pandemic imposes a requirement to be careful, to be smart about what we do, but it does not mean we have to shut ourselves up inside. At least COVID-19 does not impose a requirement to cower at home. In my judgment, the most dangerous part of a trip to Hawaii is the time in the airport and on the airplane. We took our COVID tests, got our (negative) results, and flew to Hawaii. We wore masks in the airport and on the planes. We social-distanced as much as possible in transit. We got off the plane, showed our negative COVID test results, then promptly got tested again. Then to rent a car, we had to show our negative COVID tests. Then when we checked in to the hotel, we had to show our negative COVID tests. 

As I write this, I'm on the balcony watching the surf crashing. There are surfers playing in the waves. I saw a pod of dolphins swim by earlier. What's it like on the island during the pandemic? Lots of stores are closed. Traffic is lighter than I've seen in my four trips to this town. Everyone wears a mask in the stores. The tourist sites are still popular, but not crowded. We've travelled a lot around the island; we are NOT required to quarantine. We wear masks and keep our distance. And we're having a peaceful vacation. 

The last time we came, the Kilauea volcano had just gone through an increased phase of eruption that destroyed 700+ homes. But by the time we arrived, there was no eruption any more. That pause lasted two years. Hours after we arrived on this trip, a new eruption started. We were able to visit the Kilauea summit to see the beginning phase of the eruption as the summit caldera has a new lava lake forming. Along with several hundred other people, we went to the edge of the caldera as night fell and watched the cloud of gases rising as the glowing lava illuminated the crater walls and the cloud.

Kilauea/Halema'uma'u Eruption

The Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park is near Kona. I went there several times last trip because it's a good spot for turtles and sunsets. On my first trip there this week, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of turtles AND an extremely rare monk seal. In fact, the monk seal was playing in the surf with a green sea turtle.

Monk Seal and Green Sea Turtle

I had so much fun watching the seal, I went back the next day. Unfortunately the seal wasn't there. But the sunset was wonderful and a surfer passed right in front of the sun at sunset.

Surfer at Sunset

Stay safe; stay healthy; Aloha!