Hawaii, Part 1: How My Summer Vacation Was Like Lost (Minus the Death Motifs)

Na Pali Coast, Kauai

It is probably not the best idea to re-watch the TV show Lost the same summer you fly to Hawaii. I mean, the entire series begins with a plane crash on a mysterious (very Hawaiian-looking) Pacific island. But that is exactly what my husband and I did.

We didn't visit Oahu, where Lost was actually filmed, but that did not stop Dan from referencing the show every chance he got. Yes, we were those kind of tourists this summer. Luckily, no one heard us since we don't like people enough to socialize while traveling.

Here are my summer vacation's top five Lost references: (I am sure there were more. I just can't remember all of them.)

1. On the Plane
"Do you think we're close to The Island?" Dan asked, studying the tracker on the seat in front of him—you know, the tracker that shows a little plane flying on a trajectory with NOTHING BUT WATER underneath.

Again, it was probably not the best idea to watch Lost the week before flying over the ocean.

2. On My Head
I learned it was best to embrace curly hair. Dan called it my "Kate" hair.
He already calls me "Freckles" all the time. Even though you can't see my freckles very well in this picture (you don't even get the full impact of the curliness that haunted my journey), trust me when I say I have a lot of them. Dan, who would like to be "Sawyer" but is more like "Daniel Faraday," was so happy to travel with his very own "Kate" in Hawaii.

3. On a Hike
One morning, while we were hiking in a densely forested area, Dan started whispering incoherently and making wind noises. I, always the theatrical one, spun around, waving a make-believe torch dramatically. You'll be happy to know, no dead people appeared. You'll also be happy to know that no fellow hikers witnessed this performance either.

4. Out in Nature
Dan said, at least once per hike, "These cliffs look like the ones on Lost!" No, Lost Geeks, we never found a cave full of crossed-out names inside them.







There were also unusual-looking trees around Kauai that resembled the ones on Lost. On one trail, we found a cluster of these trees off the path.

"Is this where we hide from the Smoke Monster?" Dan asked.

5. In My Dreams
The night before we flew out of Hawaii, I dreamed that I was starring in the last episode of Lost, and I was an emotional mess.

"I hope it's not a premonition that our plane is going to crash over the Pacific," I said to Dan.

He just rolled his eyes. He doesn't believe in my self-proclaimed clairvoyance. And he was right. We now know that there were no plane crashes involved in our trip to Hawaii.

But I still think that dream meant more, like maybe it was a metaphor for the sadness you feel when something great comes to an end, whether it's the end of Lost or the end of vacation.

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