Triangle Fare- At twenty-three I took advantage of a discount rate offered by Alaska Airlines to fly the pacific triangle between California, Hawaii and Alaska. I left my home in Southern California to visit my parents who lived in Haines, Alaska. My father wanted us to spend Christmas at a lodge on a lake just over the Canadian border. When I arrived in the frosty wonderland, I was treated to a snowmobile ride across a frozen lake in 25- below to my father’s fish house. We trundled threw a forest of spiky trees stacked with shimmering nodules of ice. That night the northern lights wafted across the heavens in blue green and red diaphanous curtains. I left there reeling from ethereal northern exposure and headed to Hawaii for New Years.
Like Captain Cook who sailed from the northwest to Hawaii in 1779 I was need of sunshine, warm seas and rest. Unlike Cook, who took months to make this journey I did it in about eight hours. When I arrived on Kauai it was a balmy 90 degrees . My body couldn’t catch up and I was bed-ridden for two days. Once acclimated to paradise, I didn’t want to leave. I returned to the garden isle years later exhausted from putting myself through school selling real estate in Los Angeles to live on the north shore of Kauai for the most carefree year of my life.
My love triangle of extremes has proven to be a solid base for my writing. From my roots in Alaska I receive strength, solitude, centeredness and respect for the awful power of nature. My short story “Raindrop People” and numerous adventure articles including my most recent “Raven Brings the Sun” about my river trip in 2006 down the Tatshenshini River take place in my homeland. In Hawaii I found nurturing, a spiritual awakening, sensuality, peace and my heroine for my historical fiction Wai-nani-High Chiefess of Hawaii. In proud California I obtained a degree in English Literature and a doctorate in urban savvy. I continue to enjoy opportunities here for intellectual stimulation, exciting contacts and friends. It makes a great base for exploits that I will share in my travel collection Lost Angel Walkabout. What started out as a head-spinning, bargain holiday bargain was the beginning of the beautiful harvest I am enjoying today.
www.LindaBallouAuthor.com
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