[digest-style reply, somewhat reordered -- thanks for all the tips!]
> As far as the Portland/Oregon part, just look around at the
> cameras on this site. [snip]
> http://www.kgw.com/livecams/livecams_or_p3.html
Oh, very nice! It's helpful to see what the scenery actually looks like,
rather than the generally-more-favorable shots that touristy web sites tend
to have..
> NO, NO, NO! Don't take the bus. This will be the honeymoon from hell.
> Take the train. My daughter takes the train down to Portland
> regularly.
> Also I believe that Amtrak has some very good deals to LA in December.
Looks like we can get 350ff if we book online with mastercard, which is
probably worth having; the thing about taking the bus down, though, is that
we get to stop off at places on the way down and look around. It sounds as
if there's not a lot to look around _at_, but, still, anywhere I've not been
yet is interesting to me just because I haven't been there..
Still, if there's some way to take the train that would be nice -- we're
planning on taking a week or so to get down there, so we won't just be
sitting on the bus for a day solidly, we'd be stopping off to see things
along the way. It might well be worth seeing if there's some way to take
Greyhound through more scenic places, though.
[flights to LA]
>So sometimes it is cheaper to fly into a nearby
>airport instead of heading for the main airport.
Ah, that makes sense -- that's how all the European budget airlines that'll
do a return from London to Italy for UKP50 work, you end up landing
somewhere that you might not be expecting which has lower airport fees.
>If time permits, you may want to take a detour out to the San
>Francisco Bay Area. It is about half-way between Portland and LA,
>so it will be a good place to take a break. Just a thought.
That definitely sounds like it'd be worthwhile, and I think we'll have the
time to do it, it's just a matter of working out when we want to stop
heading south-ish and pop west for a bit.
> [lotsa Portland stuff snipped, but saved away]
>There is a good air museum at Tillamook in an old Navy dirigible hangar
Apparently there's a cheese factory there that I'm obliged to see, because
Julia's parents forced _her_ to see it when she was there on childhood
journeys, so now I have to suffer equally to keep things balanced, or
somesuch.
> I like Mt. Hood Meadows (a little further on around the mountain) better
for skiing
I'd never thought of that -- I snowboard around here when the season's on,
so if it's opened up down there while we're passing through, it certainly
makes sense to see what's up. (and, heck, even if it's sketchy
board-destroying early-season conditions, I'll be renting kit, so it's
automatically a rock board..)
>Bus to L.A. Ugh. I-5.
> [and]
>Not a damn thing on the inland route between san francisco and LA,
>unless you really
>adore making compositions out of above-ground irrigation sprinklers.
> [and]
>Otherwise you will be going strictly in the
>central valley of California and it is all farmland and dry grass.
Heh. I'm starting to get the point here.. Okay, definitely worth either
taking detours to save our sanity, or working out an alternate coastal
route.
> [hawaii] By all means, take a trip out to the north side of the island
We were almost tempted to stay on that part of the island instead of
Waikiki, because I have some unrealistical mental image of myself spending
all my time shredding the surf; in practise, I don't know how to surf now,
and I'm not sure I'll have the dedication required to learn while I'm there,
rather than looking at scenery..
>The cruise from Hawaii... wow... you lucky dog. DEFINITELY get up for
sunrise at
>sea if you can, and watch for the green flash at sunset. If the ship is
dark enough
>at night, or you can find a dark spot somewhere out on deck (probably
forward of the
>bridge), the stars will knock your socks off!
Yeah, the cruise part is the "luxury" part, and that's why we're looking at
doing everything else as cheaply as possible.. (and have been saving up for
the last year or so in preparation) I'd not thought of the stars at all, for
some reason -- though I guess astrophotography isn't going to work too well
from on board a ship.
>But much of the
>spectacular scenery is on other islands, particularly the Big Island
>and Maui
Okay, that's very worth knowing -- it's unlikely we'll be on the other
islands other than relatively briefly when the boat stops there, so now I
know what we should be trying to do while we're there.
>Polarizers are a mixed blessing - some like what they do to water and
>reflective sand, some don't. I think in some cases graduated ND's work
>better.
I guess I can always shoot multiple shots with different options if I'm not
feeling confident -- film's a lot cheaper than getting back there again..
> Waikiki is actually not a bad place to shoot. Keep an eye on
>your camera stuff, though.
Yeah, I'm looking at putting it in a backpack-shaped camera bag, or
possibly just in a backpack in lens cases to keep things unobtrusive.
>It is a fairly large area encompassing a
>beautiful public park (Kapiolani), a notorious beach (Waikiki) and a canal
>(Ala Wai) that separates it from the rest of Honolulu. It is great for
>"people" shots.
I should definitely try taking more shots of people; I tend towards
buildings/scenery/suchlike for some reason, so this should be a good chance
to get the hang of it.
>Winter is the rainy season and it will probably rain every
>day; you might consider a warming filter (KR3?). Everything is green -
>bring some Velvia.
Thanks! That's definitely the sort of thing I want to know.
> [many more suggestions for things to see snipped, but all gratefully
received]
>That's a lot of kit, especially for the hot, sunny days in Hawaii
That's a really good point -- I know I can hike up a pretty decent-sized
mountain with the single-camera version of that lot (ie no spare body, no
flash, etc), because I've done it; but that was certainly not in Hawaiian
temperatures.
Again, thanks for all the pointers -- it's interesting going from basically
no information to a whole lot of it that I now need to get sorted out
mentally..
-- dan
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