Snapshots - LOST in Hawaii

I didn't sleep well the night before my flight; I was too excited about the trip, worried about getting enough sleep, if the cab would be able to get into my gated community OK, etc.  Trying to make myself sleep never really works, and that night was no exception.  I think I only slept a few hours here and there.

Fortunately, the cab showed up on time, and the trip to the airport went fine.  The first hitch came when the plane arrived late; then, for some reason, we were delayed for departure, by about 25 minutes.  This really worried me because I had a one hour layover in LAX, and my other flight probably started boarding about 20-25 minutes before departure. 

I couldn't help watching the clock during the short hop from San Jose to LAX, wondering if I would make my connecting flight.  I heard a few people near me also discussing the possibility about missing the connecting flight to Oahu, and wondering if they'd have to pay for a different one.  As we approached LAX, the flight attendant started to announce information for all of us on connecting flights, causing me to worry even more.  Apparently, we were landing in a 'remote' terminal, and would have to take shuttles to one of the main terminal in order to make our connecting flights.  She also warned some of us may miss our connections, including specifically those of us heading to Oahu. Oh joy.

We landed about 10-15 minutes before my other flight was supposed to depart.  I quickly walked got out, found the shuttles outside and boarded the first one gong to the appropriate terminal, along with a group of others passengers.  The guy closed the door behind me, started to go...and then stopped to wait for others.  Sure, it was nice of him, but inside I was screaming for him to just go, haha!  There was a second shuttle behind him announcing it was going to the same terminal, too, so I'm not sure why the guy didn't take off and let the other shuttle pick up the rest. 

After the shuttle arrived at the main terminal, a lot of us start jogging/walking fast, making breaks for our respective connecting flights.  Fortunately, mine wasn't far, and the lady there was watching for us.  She asked if I was from the San Jose flight, and I said yes.  Apparently, the plane was supposed to have taken off already, but they were holding it for 7 of us on my flight.  Guess I should've hugged the lady, Hurley-style. 

As I walked back to my seat, a few people smiled and greeted me with cheers and clapping, seriously.  Everyone was waiting for us stragglers, apparently.  Again, I felt like pulling a Hurley, winking and smiling, heh.  I wouldn't be surprised if I was sweating as much as he was after all that.

In short order, the others behind me arrived, got seated, and we took off.  I thought all was good...until we hit the turbulance.  Not just normal turbulance, since I've flown a decent number of times before.  Pretty bad, where people start screaming, and you feel like the bottom of your stomach drops out.  Fortunately that didn't last too long.  My friend Steph, who was leaving from the East Coast and would go through LAX hours later, wasn't so fortunate.  (Unless she was exaggerating for a good story...kidding, Steph!)  You can read her own trip blog here:  http://gettinglostinhawaii.blogspot.com/  

I watched a few movies on my video player, and 5+ hour flight passed relatively quickly.  And yes, I wanted the Lost Pilot...and got a stare or two.  Before I knew it, I was back in Hawaii, and VERY happy!

 

 

 

So, when I landed in LAX, I turned my cell phone on, since I had been texting back and forth with Ryan Ozawa about LOST filming that was going on that day.  He told me that LOST would be filming at the park next to the hotel my condo was in (The Ilikai), but that it was due to be over by early afternoon.  Since my flight was arriving around 3:30PM, I was almost sure to miss it.  I was pretty disappointed, but hoping they'd go longer.  I was probably more disappointed because they had been filming the week before at the Ilikai marina, which our room looks down on.  No only did I narrowly miss that shoot, now I was going to miss another one, by mere hours, both of which were within walking distance of my condo.  What were the odds?!

So, I land in Oahu (beautiful views, of course) and turn on my phone as soon as they announce we can.  My phone updates with a flood of texts...and sure enough, shooting at the park has been over for hours.  I was disappointed, but not too much; I was already assuming I'd miss it. 

The good news was that Ryan said they were setting up at Popeye's Chicken, AKA Hurley's Mr. Clucks!  And it was on my way to my hotel, so, I got my rental car and headed for it.  I think it was only about 10 minutes away.

Sure enough, as I drive up to it, I notice a bunch of trucks, vans, and semis surrounding it..and tents...and a Mr. Cluck's van!  I immediately pull into the lot, near a couple of the crew not doing much.  I ask about taking pictures, and he said he's told to ask people not to.  I think by the way he said it, he can't stop me since it's a public place, but I figure I'll play nice and not whip out a camera and take pictures of everything.  Not until the stars show up, anyway.

There was a gas station sharing the parking lot, so I went in to get a drink while I waited, hoping to see something interesting.  I also took a quick shot with my phone from the window.

 

As I come out, I see a car parked near the door, and a somewhat familiar face, watching the LOST crew.  Yes, it turns out it was Ryan Ozawa, of The Transmission podcast; I recognized him from the picture on his website.  I introduced myself, finally meeting after exchanging a bunch of emails, and then a bunch of texts that day.  We chatted for a while about LOST, Hawaii, and other things, before he had to leave to pick his wife up for a dinner.  He was a very cool, friendly guy. 

So, I went back to my car and hung out; they were apparently filming inside, but had blocked most of the windows.  It was amusing to see people periodically show up and walk right up to the door to buy dinner, only to be turned away by security and other staff.  Most of them didn't appear to notice the dozens of staff, vehicles, tents, etc.!

I had about 3 hours to kill between my arrival and when Steph was coming in, so I decided to hang out at Popeye's until I had to pick her up. 

Perhaps about half an hour after I got there, Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond) come out of the restaurant and go to relax under one of the tents.  By this time, several other fans had showed up, and they moved over near the tents; I joined them.  Security moved between us and the actors, not that anyone was getting that close anyway. 

I ended up chatting with the other 4, all nice people.  A dad, with his son and daughter, all LOST fans, and a separate guy Eric; all were locals.  They all told me about other filming shoots they had seen, actors they had met, etc. When one of them found out I just flew in from LA, he asked about the tornados. I thought he was joking but he said he had just heard on the news about tornado warnings in LA...which explained the unusual turbulence! 

Most intriguing were the rumors about filming locations for the next day, which of course I'd have to check out with Steph. 

The group of us debated about approaching and asking for pics, and eventually the son went up to ask someone about that; she turned him away, saying they were too busy.  It wasn't really true, since they were sitting and joking around, but very understandable; they looked like they were on a break.  The actors were very aware we were there, and if they wanted to meet us, they could have walked over; I'm sure it gets old for most of them to come over to talk to fans in the middle of their work day, so I don't blame them at all.  

Anyway, they went inside to shoot some more; the same guy drove the Mr. Cluck's van around and around the restaurant, presumably for background.  Guess I should have walked by the windows back and forth, hoping to get in a shot, LOL.  Eventually, the actors came back out, and Jorge went to the back area.  The son showed himself to be bold again, and went up and asked if he'd take pictures; Jorge kindly said yes.  It was very nice of him, because he was taking a quick break.  Eric and I briefly joked with Jorge about the infamous rat episode he and his girlfriend Beth experienced.  If you haven't seen it, you really should, it's hilarious.  He was great, especialy when you consider we were basically interrupting his work day. 

 

 

The family eventually left, so it was just Eric and me.  A bit later, Ryan showed up with his wife Jen to get gas at the gas station, check in on filming.  I introduced myself to Jen, since we'd also emailed back and forth a few times.  She was great to meet also (a theme I will probably repeat over and over, since pretty much all the fans we ran into were great).

At one point, Eric and I joked about the possibility of walking away with some Mr. Cluck's posters we saw rolled up at a table outside, but we'd have to somehow get by over a dozen people, including two security people who were eyeballing us the entire time.  So, we didn't end up with those, or the Mr. Cluck's buckets we saw staffers eating chicken out of.   What's funny is you can now buy those posters on ABC's website. 

Eventually the actors left and the crew started wrapping up, shortly before I was to pick up Steph.  I said bye to Eric, who also gave me a lot of good restaurant recommendations, and went to the airport, disappointed Steph missed it.

I picked her up, and heard her horror story about her trip, much worse than mine.  As it turned out, the tornado-type weather had gotten worse by the time she went through LAX; it doesn't help she's afraid of flying on top of that. 

I took her by Popeye's, told her about meeting Jorge, etc.  She didn't seem too disappointed, just excited for me, and very, very tired, so we grabbed food and checked into the hotel.  I don't think it took long for both of us to zonk out.

 

 

 

Our first full day in Oahu, and we were both eager to check out the two possible filming locations I had heard about the afternoon before.  In short order we got ready and headed out.

I had read about difficulties of driving in Hawaii in a couple of tour books; lots of roads that change names, that end unexpectedly, etc., but figured we wouldn’t have to worry about it.  Any problems we encountered, I had my iPhone with Google maps which should help, right?  Wrong.  We ran into issues just trying to get on the freeway. 

The first onramp was blocked off; no signage to warn us, just a cop car with some cones, parked on the onramp.  No problem, I thought, we’ll drive to the next one…which was far away.  Then it turned out THAT one was blocked off too.  The next one was also far away, and after almost got hit by an old lady who pulled out into traffic without looking, much, much later we finally got on the freeway.

The first rumored location was wrong, but we found the LOST base camp; a group of vans, trucks, etc. taking over a park near the school.  I texted Ryan to see if he had any ideas while we headed to the other location, a few miles away, a Mexican restaurant called Banditos.   We headed over, and it turned out they were just setting up, probably hours away from filming. 

Ryan texted back, suggesting we try August Ahren’s Elementary, another school near the base camp.  Sure enough, he was right.  We parked around the corner (everything on the street was taken by LOST, cops, and a waiting ambulance; more on that later.

I went up and asked one of the security guards who I should speak to about where we were allowed to watch, and was directed to someone nearby. I believe he was a PA (production assistant) talking to the two cops.  He told us it was OK for us to hang out right there by the cops, but that later they may have us move because of the camera angles and that there would be a potentially dangerous stunt scene.  Then, he thanked me for asking; his tone made it obvious he was pleasantly surprised, not used to fans asking; I guess they just show up and start snapping pictures and getting in their way or something.  That was another recurring theme; be nice and respectful of the fact they’ve got a job to do, and they’ll treat you well.

The LOST crew was set up in the parking lot behind the school, and we were allowed to watch from the entrance of the parking lot.  Not much happened at first, while they were setting things up around silver BMW, pointed in our direction. 

We could hear them getting ready over the radios carried by security standing near us, and were curious to see what would happen.  Then, the BMW took off, racing down the parking lot towards us…and then it stopped.

At the time, we were disappointed, thinking, ‘that’s it?’  I hoped it was just a test run.  

As you know by now, this was the scene where Desmond runs down Locke.  On a re-watch of this episode after airing, I noticed something:  Steph and I were caught on camera, watching! 

 

After that, they reset things, driving the BMW back.  Security asked us to move back a bit before the next shot, but we still had a clear (if distant) view, thanks to a chainlink fence we could see through.   They put something black in front of the BMW, but we couldn’t really tell what it was.  I mistakenly thought it was mounted on the grill, that perhaps it was a camera mount, so they could film the driver.  Then, a stuntman climbed on top of the hood of the car.  At ‘ACTION!’ the BMW sped forward, hit the ‘black thing,’ and the stuntman flipped up and over the car.

Obviously, this is where Desmond hit Locke, but we didn’t know that.  It took a split second for us to realize it was a wheelchair spinning away, and we instantly realized what the scene was.  We were pretty excited to see such a cool scene on our first day there!

A few guys opened up the BMW’s hood and started working on it; maybe they damaged something when it hit the wheel chair. 

Behind the car, they had Terry O’Quinn lay on the ground, setting up the post-crash scene.   We figured it must really be him, not the double, because he was wearing a different colored top.  Yes, LOST has trained me to look for something like that, which is sad.  Right when we were talking how people on Lostpedia and other forums were going to read too much into how the color of his clothes changed, talking about how it meant an alt-reality, ‘perspective’ theories, etc., Terry O’Quinn got up and changed into the right jacket.  Crisis averted :p

I wasn’t going to take pictures, but a couple of women behind us who had just shown up started taking pictures after the stunt scene.  The cops and the film crew near us didn’t stop them, so Steph and I quickly took a couple of pics ourselves.

 

They broke for lunch, so we thought we would too.  We saw this interesting sight on the way to lunch:

 

It reminded me of when I had worked in Maui; some of the electricians on the job said they were from Oahu, and that they regularly went bow hunting for wild boar.

After driving past a few choices, we ended up at a decent Chinese restaurant, where I taught Steph how to use chopsticks.  I have to say, she picked it up pretty quickly.  She wasn’t going to be catching flies or anything, but at least she could get the food to her mouth without scooping or anything. 

After our meal, on the way back to the car, we ran into Eric, the guy I had chatted with at Popeye’s the day before!  I told him about the shoots, but unfortunately for him, he couldn’t watch since he had to work.

We went by the school and they were obviously done and packing up, so we drove the few blocks back to the base camp.  We parked across the street for a bit, and I felt really weird and stalkerish hanging out there, and really wanted to leave.  Steph took a few pics, and a surprise Terry O’Quinn sighting really got her excited (if you know her, you know she’s a HUGE Locke/TOQ fan), but fortunately I stopped her from getting out and running across the street.

It wasn’t long before a stream of trucks, vans and cars started leaving.  We figured they were heading to Bandito’s, and headed over there.  If you’ve seen the episode, you probably realize this is where they shot the ‘Spanish Johnnies’ date scene.

At the restaurant, there was a lot more activity, plus a lot more fans hanging out watching. Not too surprising, it was right off a busy street, across another street from a busy shopping mall. 

Shortly after we got there, several recognizable actors showed up.  We were surprised to see Cynthia Watros (Libby), and Bruce Davison (Libby and Hurley’s psychiatrist).

At one point, I went up a nearby stairwell for a better view.

Unfortunately, the filming was all inside, and they kept us outside.  Steph and I chatted with other fans, some of whom were just wandering by and saw the trucks and crew.  We could see the audio/video setup where the someone was sitting with headphones, watching two small monitors.  They kept us far enough away it was hard to make out details.  They shot and re-shot the scene all day, from multiple angles.

At one point I went up to one of the crew and asked if he could tell me what episode they were shooting.  He checked with someone else, and they thought it was 12 or 13, but weren’t 100% sure.  The first guy later came up to me and explained he wasn’t sure because they often filmed multiple episodes concurrently.  He chatted with me a bit before going back to work; another nice guy. 

Later, he came up to Steph and me and asked us if we wanted to watch from up close.  HELL YEAH!!  He warned us to be very quiet, and then took us right behind the person at the sound/video board, close enough to touch him.  Plus, we could see the monitors clearly!  He also gave us the actual rundown of the scene, along with the background of it.  Since he asked us not to tell anyone, neither of us revealed to the other fans what he told us, or anyone since.  Of course, now it doesn’t matter since the episode has aired.

It turns out our new friend was a stand-in, and they called him away after they cut.  Later, I thanked him for the cool experience, which he appreciated.

A little later, he came over to us shaking his head.  Turns out he was inside and they wanted two more extras for the scene.  He tried to suggest us, but since he had to stay where he was, he couldn’t get into the conversation in time; they ended up using two of the crew.  We missed that opportunity, but it was still very nice of him to try.  How cool would THAT have been?

During another break, one of the extras, a kid probably about 15 or so, started hitting on Steph, who’s married and in her mid-30’s.  The kid was trying REALLY hard to impress her, which I (and the other fans we’d been chatting with) found hilarious.  We thereafter referred to him as the 12-year-old (maybe he looked old for his age).  I think Steph regrets not getting the kid’s phone number…j/k.  We still joke about the kid to this day, though.

They wrapped up filming as it was getting dark, and I saw one of the crew rolling away a prop box; he kindly let me take a picture.

 

Many of the crew wore different LOST-themed shirts, ones not available to the public. 

 

 

During all the clean up, one of the staff started handing out call sheets for the next day, within a few steps of us.  One of the crew took one, stopped next to us, and started shouting, as if reading from it, VERY quickly.  It sounded like he was making stuff up; and at the end, he said something like, “blah blah blah, and then the Black Rock EXPLODES!!!!!”  Then he laughed and walked off.

At the time, Steph and I thought, wow, that would be cool, but he was just f*cking with us.

Now that we’ve seen the episode, I guess he was, but in a different way, since they really did blow it up.  I’m sure he knew we’d assume he was lying. 

 

The only rumors about Lost filming this day were  about filming on private land, so we decided to actually do some Hawaii stuff.

 

First, we hit the breakfast buffet at The Shorebird, a place I had seen recommended on some sites, such as TripAdvisor and Yelp.  Well, neither of us was impressed.  The view was great, but the food was underwhelming.  It wasn't bad, just nothing special.

 

 

Then we hit a local store that Steph had found on the net before the trip, not far from the Shorebird.  The purpose was to buy a pair of wedding rings for her and her husband, cool Koa wood and titanium rings.  I considered buying one for myself, since they weren't specifically wedding bands, but decided to pass; I'm not that into jewelry, but if I wore a non-wedding band, it'd probably be a moku gane-style ring. 

Steph was very happey to get that out of the way, since it was something she'd wanted to take care of for a while.  After that, we enjoyed browsing through the main Waikiki beach/shop strip, and then hit a place I had wanted to try, Iyasume, which specializes in Japanese Musubi (Japanese rice balls wrapped in seaweed, with various ingredients inside the rice).   

I was stunned by the variety this place had!  The ones I'd grown up on (ala mom) were pretty basic.  I bought a few to have as snacks later.  Yes, I even bought some Spam Musubi, a guilty pleasure.  Definitely looks like a mom & pop type establishment.

 

Spongebob musubi?

 

 

Then we headed back to the hotel to head out.  We took the beautiful H3 highway through some mountains to Kaneohe to hit the Byodo-In Temple in the Valley of the Temples. 

When we got to the area, we were both hungry, so we stopped at a shopping mall across the road from the Valley of the Temples.  Steph ended up trying chickenkatsu, since I had showed her pics of it a time or two (one of my favorites) and she'd wanted to try it ever since.  While she was waiting for her food, I went to a place a few doors down called Ninja Sushi.  I ordered some...surprise...sushi, including some awesome garlic shrimp rolls that I MUST go back and have my next time in Oahu. EDIT - As it turns out, I went back less than a month later, and yes, I got them again.  And they were still good.  

We ate in our car, parking at the edge of the lot closest to the view of the Valley of the Temples.  Must be a popular thing, there were about 4 other cars with people having lunch, sharing the view.  Note: The pic below is from the restaurant, BEFORE we drove the car to the edge of the lot.

Fortunately Steph loved the chickenkatsu; enough so that after she went back home, she hunted down the recipe, eventually found some Panko, and made it herself.  I was told her whole family loved it. 

After we ate, we headed across the road, but the whole place was so hazy and overcast we were worried about how the pictures would come out.  We figured hey, our hotel is only a short drive to the place, and it was only our second full day in Oahu, we’d come back some day when it was sunny and clear, get some great pics, right?  So we left…but unfortunately never got back; we ended up doing so much LOST stuff, and other Hawaii stuff, we were too busy.  Another place I’d have to hit on my next trip, along with the sushi place.

 

 

 

We then went up the Pali Highway to check out the Nu’Uanu Pali lookout.  On the winding road up, there were several lookouts, and we pulled over at one.  The view was great, if a bit hazy.  These pictures look a bit better than what I saw with my naked eye, maybe because I was using a polarizer.

 

 

After passing one of the lookout turn-offs (the sign was RIGHT before the exit; I had expected more warning on a 55MPH freeway; I don’t think Steph even saw the sign), we ended up turning around, then hitting the exit on the other side. 

The view was spectacular; it was hard to imagine a huge, ancient battle taking place there. 

And then came what felt like an endless series of driving misadventures.

We decided to try to go to that first turn off, in case there was a second view. We had to go all the way down the hill before we could turn around (no U-turns allowed, had to make several turns to head back up).  Then we hit the other exit, and it just led to the same parking lot, just at the other end we didn’t go to (it was the end for bus parking). 

THEN we decided to hit Costco for supplies.  Google Maps showed a bunch of locations in the Waikiki area.  I dismissed the ‘Optical’ only ones, leaving three locations.  Guess that's one problem with user-submitted info; the users aren't always right.

We headed to the closest one, just down the Pali Highway towards Waikiki.  Just looking at the map, we suspected the location was wrong, and we were right.  According to Google Maps, the store should have been in the middle of cliff, near a residential area.  Not.

We passed this pagoda at a a cemetary, and I couldn't help wonder if this wsan't the place where Sun and Mr. Paik talked at Jae Lee's funeral.

We headed towards the second, which was supposedly located on the grounds of the Iolani Palace…yeah...probably not.  Still, we drove around it in case it was a block off or something, but no such luck. 

We tried the third place, FINALLY finding a damn CostCo.  We got a few things, including some garlic shrimp I think was unique to Hawaii Costco, and Steph got a couple of shorts, since she hadn’t been able to find any back in Canada since it was winter.  I kind of found this amusing, being from California.

I think were both tired from all thedriving and frustration trying to find the CostCo, so we headed back and ate and drank at the hotel room.  We enjoyed our ocean view, drank and relaxed.

This day, we decided to hit the famous North Shore, and see some past LOST filming locations in particular. 

On the way out, we make a quick stop at the Hawaii Film Studios.  We drove into the parking lot, and asked if they give tours or anything figuring they didn’t, and we were right.  Oh well, didn’t hurt to ask.  It was a bit amusing to see that all the reserved parking stalls had Dharma symbol name signs.

 

 

At the back of the studio is a community college, with only a chain link fence separating them.  That, in combination with the fact that the community college side is on a hill above the studio side, means that it was easy to see all the props and miscellaneous stuff they have out there. 

Piece from The Temple….or the pillar Locke's father was tied to?

 

 

 

I think this piece is in the inner courtyard in “What Kate Does.”

 

 

Outside of The Temple Interior courtyard set.

 

Kayak from Season 5 (and maybe S6, to show who was shooting from the 2^nd kayak).

 

 

 

I was surprised to see the Frozen Donkey Wheel propped up outside.

We could see them working on some big set pieces, but couldn’t really make out what they were.

 

 

 

 

The drive from Waikiki in the southern Oahu to the North Shore wasn’t too bad, less than an hour and most of it afforded nice views.  

First, we headed west along the shore and stopped at Dillingham Field, where they filmed Eko’s drug plan taking off, and where they store the fuselage.  I had expected some type of security, but there was none, so we drove right in.  We had seen the covered fuselage from the road, so drove past the hangers and drove up to it. 

Unfortunately, it’s now covered by a tarp and surrounded by a fence.  Several people drove by and stared at us, but didn’t approach us since we stayed outside the fence. 

 

 

Also inside the fenced area was Eko’s drug plane, along with a lot of pieces of the original wreckage.   I wasn’t expecting all that, I thought they just had the fuselage here.

 

 

Then, we let and decided to enjoy a beach, one of the many along the shore.  I wasn’t sure if we’d find the  exact one they used for parts of the pilot, but I think we did by accident, Mokule'ia Beach.   The water was wonderfully blue, something I don’t get going to the beaches here in California.  Plus, there were only a handful of people on the beach as far as the eye could see, which was also great. 

 

We enjoyed the beach for a while and chilled; Steph ate lunch, and while she did that,  I noticed the tree at the far end of the beach.  It looked like the one Christian’s ‘ghost,’ or MIB as Christian, or whatever, was standing under in White Rabbit from S1.   We drove over to a closer parking lot (too many people warn of car break ins in Hawaii), and after Googling it on my phone sure enough it was the tree. 

Apparently there were originally two trees and one burned down, and the current one may have had a branch or two broken off by a storm or something, but there’s enough left that it certainly appears to be the same tree.

 

Next we hit the nearby YMCA Camp Erdman, which is where New Otherton/The Barracks has been filmed.  After checking in at the office and getting a visitor’s pass, we headed across the road to the section used in the show.  The buildings looked weathered, and one of the staffers told us that the LOST crew had done that the last time they were there.  You can see why  in the recently aired, “What Kate Did” and “The Substitute.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The interiors were nothing like the show, just bunk beds and such.  They obviously filmed the interiors at the studio or somewhere else, since it seems like the interiors are about 2-3 times the size of the exteriors. ;) 

Me taking a shot of New Otherton:

Then we headed to the Assembly Hall/rec room, which was used to hold Kate at one point, and possibly a few scenes in S5. 

 

We left Camp Erdman and headed back east along the North Shore.  After stopping at a place in Haleiwa for lunch, we headed for the new LOST beach camp, Papa’Iloa Beach.  

As we passed a parking area, the last public stop before Papa’iloa road, I thought I spotted  one of the white vans I’d seen at all the LOST filming locations to shuttle actors and others between shoots and the base camp, so we pulled over, wondering if we got lucky. 

Well, after taking a better look, I’m not sure it was, but we DID see a yellow-shirted security guy near the van, just a few yards from the parking lot.  We walked over and asked the guy if the LOST beach camp was near here, since I had heard there were two parking areas to park at to reach it.

The guy told us yes, the set was behind him but it was on private property, and that we couldn’t go see it.  This didn’t jive with what I’ve heard from other people and read on the net, including the people I chatted with at the Popeye’s Chicken set.  Sure, maybe you couldn’t walk up to the shacks, but you’re supposed to be able to get close.  I kept pressing him, but he kept saying no, we couldn’t see it at all.  A second guard showed up and he agreed with the other dude.

I remembered that all Hawaiian beaches are supposed to be public, so I mentioned that.   The guy reluctantly admitted that yes, we could walk up the beach to the camp, but it was fenced off.  Well, that was fine, because that was what we expected.  But I still thought it was weird they didn’t want to admit that, if they weren’t filming there right now.

THEN he got all friendly and insisted we wouldn’t want to walk from this location, it was too far.  We should go to Papa’iloa, which was where we’d been heading originally, because I had read that was closer online somewhere.  So we headed to the car, and I still was wondering at the guard’s weird behavior. 

On a side note, the guy was standing next to a palm grove, which I guess is the location of Sun’s garden.  Like an idiot, I had looked at it and wondered where Sun’s garden actually was, not thinking THIS is the location, but in my defense, it’s now all grown over with tall weeds/grass, plus I was distracted by the guard’s weird behavior.

We passed a surfing instructor sitting under a tent near rental boards and a van, who was talking on a cell phone.  He waved us to stop, and actually quickly got off his call to talk to us.  He had overheard us asking about the LOST beach, and he told us that the guards were lying, that the beach camp wasn’t far, about the same distance from  this lot as the other one.  He was a really nice guy, talked about giving surf lessons to some of the actors on the show, and even gave us water.

 

 

So we gathered our packs and headed up the beach.  I don’t think the guards were happy seeing us do that.  Just beyond the palm grove was Pua’ena Point, which I took a few pics of. 

 

 

After I got back, I found it was the filming location of a few scenes, including when Hurley steps on a sea urchin or jelly fish, and then begs Jin to pee on his foot.  As much of a LOST geek as Steph is I doubt she would have wanted to re-enact that and have me to pee on her foot.   As a coincidence, my photo matches the show’s scene pretty well.

Past that, we walked…and walked..and walked.  Being the LOST geek that I am, I commented on how we needed the typical Lost hiking music (Hollywood and Vines) playing for us.  Turns out the surfer dude was wrong, and the guards were right.   This end is MUCH farther from the camp than the Papa’iloa lot.   It wouldn’t have been bad, except we had to walk on the sandy beach (much more difficult than walking on a street or sidewalk), in hot, humid weather with no shade.   We couldn’t go up on the more solid grassy area, since that was where the private land started, and there were MANY signs along the way to point that out. 

 

Then, at one point, Steph hisses and whispers loudly at me about seeing  something.  I thought she was screwing with me.  I looked to where she was pointing inland, and saw only trees and bushes.  She was still whispering and motioning, so I went up to where she was.  I had been closer to the water, while she’d been near the grassline, which meant she was probably about 4-5’ higher than I was, given the slope of the sand.   Once I got to where she was, I saw what got her so excited, and it was really cool.  I’m fully convinced THIS is why the guards had acted weird and tried to discourage us from going to the beach camp at all, and once that failed, to try to go the other way instead of this route.

EDIT - I've removed the links to these pics and am just showing them, because they're no longer spoilers; the Ajira plane was shown on episode 6x08, "Recon" through the end of the show.

 

Obviously the prop was in the early stages.  I texted Ryan Ozawa if he knew about it, and it turns out he hadn’t heard about it being constructed out there yet, although someone had seen pieces at the film studio.  We sent him the pics later, and I guess we were the first to report it.  The pics ended up over at DarkUFO and other LOST sites somehow.  Thankfully, seeing  that made the long trek worth it.

We also saw a lot of turtles sunning themselves on the beach.   Huge ones.  Ones you could ride, if that were legal.   But it’s not, so we didn’t.  Not that we would.

 

 

 

 

Eventually, we arrived at the beach camp area.  We reached Eko’s Church and the graveyard first.  There were more graves than we thought there should be...I guess now we know at least Locke had been added recently.

 

 

And then the beach camp, equipped with security guard.  As you can see, although there’s a fence, it’s low and you can still get plenty close and see the camp, which was very cool. 

 

The whole stretch of sand, including the part I hated walking on forever, was beautiful.  I know some people go to Oahu and just spend all their time in Waikiki, hitting the crowded tourist spots and shopping; I don’t understand why they don’t also hit the North Beach; Steph and I both preferred that to Waikiki.

One the other LOST  fans we bumped into near the camp said they heard they were filming in the area the next day, so of course that meant our plans for the next day were set. 

We returned to the North Shore and the LOST beach camp, hoping to see some more filming, maybe a cool beach camp scene.  This time, we avoided the other lot we used the day before, hunting for Papa’iloa Street.  We passed one road that allowed access into the large private area, and we saw an A-frame with a sign for the production company and security guarding the entrance.  Unfortunately, tall trees and thick bushes prevented us from seeing anything in there along the road.

The next road towards the ocean was Papa’iloa Street so we turned in there.  It was a very nice, secluded road with million-dollar homes on the beach.   We drove down until we found the public lot, across the street from the beach access path.  The narrow path between the fences of two houses reminded me of the public access path to one of my favorite tiny beaches on Maui.

We passed through the path way and popped out onto the beach, finding only a handful of people enjoying it.  Not too surprising, given how we accessed it.  Probably only locals and LOST fans came here.  We turned towards the Beach camp, and in short order rounded the little point…and saw the beach camp.  Holy crap!  It was only about 5 or so minutes walk from this end, as opposed to the 40+ minutes it took us the other way.

 

 

 

At the beach camp, we could barely see trucks and vans back in the trees behind the camp.  Looking up the beach, we could see other trucks here and there at other locations in the stretch of private land between Papa’iloa and the other parking lot.  The guard told us there were 7 active shooting locations, confirming what another fan had told us the day before.

We couldn’t see any filming at the camp itself, so we decided to head up the beach towards the other trucks to see what was going on.  There was an old cement building on the first point west of the beach camp and trucks parked near it, so we headed that way.

 

 

 

We saw lots of turtles on the beach, just like the day before.

 

 

 

We didn’t see any filming there either, so we kept going to check on the big ‘prop’ we saw them setting up the previous day, The Ajira plane.  From our current location, it wasn’t far.  When we got there, it didn’t look much different than the day before, but there was someone working on it.

EDIT - Removed spoiler tags/hiding the picture, since the Ajira plane has now been shown on episode 6x08 (Recon). 

Although they were filming Episode 12 at the time we saw this, apparently the construction of this prop was greatly delayed due to rain and weather.  They probably finished the prop days later, filmed the Sawyer scene, and inserted it into episode 6x08.  They may also be deliberately filming certain scenes out of sequence to make it more difficult to piece together spoilers and what they mean.

We headed back and decided we’d hang out on the beach for a bit between Eko’s church and the beach camp.  If you’re hanging out and waiting for something to happen, this beach wasn’t exactly a horrible place to do it.  Although, now I realize we were basically hanging out near a (fake) graveyard.  Speaking of which, I think this was the day we noticed there was a freshly dug grave, but I’m not sure.

I took pictures of this separate shelter, which was set up in the area; not sure why it was away from the camp, and we weren’t sure if we’d ever seen it before on the show.

 

We saw more turtles coming and going, and even more swimming around just off shore.  We also saw some whales breaching and tail slapping, but couldn’t get good pictures.  

We also ended up chatting with a lot of LOST fans, including some we had met before.  I think I mostly just hung out and enjoyed the beach and the sun.  It was very relaxing, much more so than the California beaches I frequent during the summer.

At some point, I got hungry and went back to our car to get some more water and our lunches.  When I got back I saw Steph talking with a nice couple from Spain we had talked to earlier.  I sat down at our spot and prepared to eat my lunch, but Steph called out to me.  She was clearly worked up over something and waving at me, saying ‘come here, come here!’  Since I had just sat down, I asked her what it was; she wouldn’t tell me,  just waving and telling me to come over.  We went back and forth, until I finally got up and went over there. 

She (and the couple) told me the couple had just run into a woman while taking pictures of one of the many turtles on the beach.  The woman had asked them if they were fans of LOST, which they were.  She said her husband worked on the show, and she’d try to bring him out later, since he might have a break in an hour or so.   Her name?  Lori O’Quinn, the wife of Terry O’Quinn, AKA Locke (and now Flocke, MIB, Smokey, Mr. Tikka Tikka Tikka, etc.), who just happens to be both Steph’s and my favorite actor on the show. 

So, of course we camped out on the beach near where she had gone back into the ‘private’ area, between Eko’s church and the graveyard.  I think it was only about 15-20 minutes later when Terry O’Quinn and his wife appeared.  He was very personable and friendly with everyone, and interacted with each person as he took pictures and signed autographs.

Lori O’Quinn was also really great, offering to take pictures for everyone, smiling and chatting with people.  I thanked her for everything and said I hoped we weren’t interrupting their day or anything; she laughed said it was no problem, she thought it was fun. 

Since she is a somewhat public figure, having been photographed often with her husband at the Emmies and other events, I hope neither of them mind that I post this picture of her taking a pic with Steph’s camera.

 

 

I believe he would have stayed longer if he could, since it seemed both he and his wife were enjoying talking to eveyone, but the director we had seen at Bandito’s came out and told him they needed him back (I guess we were interrupting the crew’s day…whoops).  Still, Terry O’Quinn stayed a bit longer to make sure everyone got a picture.  He also signed a few autographs, but left before I could run back and get my backpack.  That’s OK, meeting him was the cool part, and I did get a picture.

 

 

Afterwards, we chilled on the beach some more, something which I enjoy doing whenever I can back in California, and of course it was a nice change for Steph, coming from currently-freezing Canada.   We had probably discussed leaving and doing other stuff, but we were content just to hang out. 

Lots of other fans came by, probably in town for the Sunset on the Beach Premiere event on Jan 30.  I’m sure checking out the beach camp was high on the list of most visiting fans, and they were all interested to hear that O’Quinn had come out for a bit.

Later we were chatting with the camp security guard at the moment (they periodically switched off), who was also a very nice guy.  He commented on seeing us get pics with O’Quinn, saying how O’Quinn was probably the nicest of the actors, and that it’s not unusual for him to talk to the fans.  He said there were other actors back there filming, and he’d try to see if he could get them to come out after shooting, probably around 5PM. 

Well, we knew where we’d be hanging out the rest of the day. 

 

By the end of the day, there was a bigger group of fans hanging out, hoping to see filming and meet anyone that might come out after filming.  We couldn’t really make out details from our vantage point, only that O’Quinn was back there taking breaks every once in a while.

 

 

It was amusing to see where the group of fans started on the beach further back, and that little by little, we ended up in the private area under the careful (but friendly) eye of security.  In the picture below, we started further back on the sand by the left side of the picture.  By 5pm, the group was about at the right-most edge of the picture, maybe closer.

 

Somewhere shortly after 5PM, we heard them cut and saw activity that looked like they were wrapping.  Then we saw Terry O’Quinn approach us, with another popular actor, Henry Ian Cusick.  As it turns out, they were probably filming the Locke/Des/Mysterious Kid scene. 

 

 

Like earlier, Terry O’Quinn was friendly and charming, as was Ian (as I’m told he generally goes by) , although a bit quieter.  They took pics with everyone which did take a while, given the larger crowd that had gathered.  I think I was the last one to get a pic with them, and as I stepped up, O’Quinn made a joke (or…not?) about how Ian hadn’t wanted to come out to meet us, he had to make him do it; hilarity ensued: 

 

Many thanks to Stephen for sending me 5-6 pics of me with the actors, including the one above! 

Afterwards we all thanked them for their time and generosity; they certainly hadn’t had to come out to see us after a long day at work.  They headed back and met another actor, the kid playing Young Jacob:

 

The evening before, we had heard from another fan that he had been by the Hawaii Film Studio earlier that day and had seen some props out in the back that we hadn’t:  the Dharma sub, the Jughead nuke, and the new Widmore sub.  We wondered if we just missed them, or if they had been put out afterwards due to filming or something else.  Since the studio wasn’t too far from the condo, we swung by to check it out.

We quickly found Jughead, and I’m pretty sure we had just missed it before.  I suppose because from the side we went by the previous time, it was obscured by piles of other things.  From another angle though, you can see the whole thing clearly.   Although it’s from an angle we hadn’t seen on the show, I still feel a bit foolish that we missed it, thinking it was just a barrel or something.

 

The Dharma sub and Widmore's new sub were at the opposite end of the lot.  That section of the hill on the college side of the fence there has a building and there were people working there, so we just stayed away.  I suppose that’s why we hadn’t spotted them the first time; plus as you can see the fencing there with vines and grass obscure it a bit, much more than the other sections of fencing.  This time, we got up close.

 

 

We also saw part of Henry Gale’s balloon, and wondered if it would show up again in S6.

 

 

Since we were there I took a few more pics of stuff we had seen the other day, but hadn’t photographed.

You may not be able to make this out, but it’s marked “HYDRA ELEC.”

 

 

And here are the solenoids used on Desmond this season; obviously, at the time, we didn't even know if they were props for the show or something else, but I speculated that they were going to be used for creating an big electro-magnetic field (in case you don't know, I'm an electrical engineer).

 

 

So, right next to the studio (literally across the street) is Diamond Head, one of Oahu’s most famous landmarks.  We drove into it and parked to do the typical tourist thing, hike up the inside of the crater to the summit.

 

 

I’m not going to lie, I’m not currently in the best shape, and I had to stop a couple times on the way up to give my legs a break or drink water.  Most of the trail is sloped and kind of falling apart here and there, but there are 2 monster sets of stairs; one of 99 steps, and then another of 76, all to get you to 760 foot elevation at the summit.  and, of course the stairs are near the top.

 

 

Near the summit there's also a 225 foot tunnel.  To call it 'lit' by the lights mounted in the floor is being generous; they barely give off any light, sort of akin to the courtesy lights at movie theaters. 

Steph stopped here for a minute due to claustrophia, but after a short pause she fought it off and walked quickly through the tunnel. 

I followed at a more casual pace.  Not because I was brave, but because after climbing that last flight of stairs, I was't about to go anywhere fast, heh.

The view from the top was a bit disappointing to me, but that’s probably because it was an overcast, hazy day.  I probably would have been more impressed if it had been clear. 

 

Next, we headed by China Walls, the fantastic-looking location of several Lost-shoots.  I recalled that the walkway was in a neighborhood, accessed between houses (something like that), and I had tagged the location on my Google Maps app.  We easily found the right neighborhood, but couldn’t find the right area.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t pull up the description of the exact location on my phone; I wasn’t getting data reception out there.  Since we couldn’t find the access point and I recalled the description said the location was very dangerous and they didn’t recommend going out to it, we decided to just head off to the next site, Hanauma Bay.

We knew it was famous for easy snorkeling and lots of fish to view, but hadn’t planned on actually doing any of that, just checking it out.  As it turned out, you had to pay to get in the parking lot, and then pay again to go down to the beach itself.  We settled for just taking a few pictures from the top, and then headed out because we had other stuff to see.  We ended up getting our money back for parking, since we’d been there under 15 minutes

 

 

In short order, we came across our next stop, Lana’i Lookout.  This was the location of several LOST scenes, including where Desmond kills Kelvin.  Even if it hadn’t been a LOST location, it’s a fantastic spot for pictures; it almost looks like a different world.  Of course, I took a bazillion pictures.

 

 

One funny thing to note; just before the turnoff, on the other side of a freeway were signs for a shooting range with archery targets (presumably popular with the boar hunters).  It was a bit strange to be walking around this area, hearing echoing gunshots coming from it. 

We continued on up the road, stopping at the next turn off, the parking for Halona Beach and Halona blowhole.  Halona Beach looks like a great place to relax, as long as you can navigate the steep trail down to it.  I can’t imagine too many people are taking huge beach chairs, umbrellas and large, full coolers down there.

 

 

We kept going, enjoying the beautiful views along the way.  We soon rounded the south-east tip of Oahu and headed north, along the eastern shore.  

 

 

About this time it was the afternoon and we hadn’t eaten yet.  We were getting hungry, and Steph saw a food truck advertising ribs, hot dogs, steak and all manner of deliciousness.  She got excited about the ribs and started shouting for me to turn around; it didn’t take much to convince me, I was hungry and it sounded pretty damned good.

 

 

The menu all sounded tasty and the prices were cheap; I think each of our dishes were about $6 or so, cheap enough to make me wonder about the meat.  I looked around for stray dogs…kidding.

Both of our plates came with good portions of meat; and since it’s Hawaii, it came with rice and mac (macaroni) salad.  I actually typically eat my steak with rice anyway.  I was pleasantly surprised to find my steak cubes were really good.  They were spiced and flavored well (not sure what it was, salt, pepper and something else…but it was effin’ good), and the meat was tender; Steph was really happy with her ribs.  They were so good that when I reminded her of it today as I was writing this up, she wrote back about how much she was drooling at the mere thought of that meal, haha!  On my next trip back, I’ll be trying to convince my travel-mates to stop here.  If they don’t want to eat, they may have to watch me.

I had actually taken pictures of our food with my iPhone, but unfortunately I lost them when the phone died on the last day of my trip.  And I mean it totally died, even the Apple ‘Geniuses’ couldn’t revive it and had to replace it. 

After using the convenient hand wash station thoughtfully provided there, we continued on up the windward coastline, taking our time and enjoying the views. 

We did take a detour towards Kailua Bay, but got turned around, and after looking at some maps, there didn’t seem to be any convenient beach access points anywhere close to where we were; it was the afternoon, and we had planned on going all the way up and around the coastline, so we skipped it and turned around.

We passed Kualoa Ranch, the private land where many LOST scenes like Hurley’s golf course and other movies (Jurassic Park, for example) have been filmed; lots of beautiful beaches and other scenery; the Waikane Pier/Pala Ferry, also accessed through private land; and other great locations.  Most of it had beautiful beaches and blue water on our right, and the cool, green jagged mountains on our left.  Unfortunately, it was getting late and the sun was going down, so we made few stops. 

We hit the north-eastern point near Turtle Bay and headed along the North Beach stretch.  We were both pretty bushed, and stopped at a Starbucks for some coffee; somehow, Steph knew this was the Starbucks frequented by Terry O’Quinn.  There was no sign of him that evening, but that was probably for the best.  After having seen him twice the day before, he’d probably think we were stalking him.

We drove a little further and decided to pull over and relax with the sunset while we finished our coffee. 

 

Finally, we headed back across the island to the condo; even with the coffee, we were both wiped out.

 

When we were last at the Lost Beach, someone had told us they saw an interesting set being built near Kawela Bay next to a grove of banyan trees, and that they were told that LOST would be there on Monday, for a day shoot and a night shoot, with an impressive list of actors.  So, this being Monday, of course we headed up that way. 

We were told we could access the area from the Turtle Bay Resort, so we headed up to the north east corner of Oahu where it’s located. 

Once there, one of the men at the desk showed me a large map they have, showing the resort, including the banyan trees we were interested in.  He indicated the path we’d have to hike to get to the banyan trees; past their large golf course, hiking through some vegetation or something…<flashbacks to our long hike to the Lost Beach>…uh, no thanks. 

I asked about a closer place to park, and he said there was a fruit stand we could park at, right on Kamehameha Highway (the only main road up and down North Beach).  Apparently it’s common for locals to park there and walk to the beach. 

We had noticed the fruit stand on the way to Turtle Bay Resort, so finding it was easy.  Across from the fruit stand was an entrance with bushes on one side, and a fence on the other.  Past the fence we could see production trucks, but there also a sign there declaring, ”No Trespassing, Keep Out.”

 

Just in case I went into CYA mode and asked a woman running one of the fruit stands there if it was ok to park there and walk in, and she said yes, ignore the sign, it’s public land, people did it all the time.  The fruit looked good, so partly in thanks, I bought a bag of chopped fruit from her and we headed inside.

I was later told that the land actually is public land like she said, but the Turtle Bay Resort is under obligation to maintain it by some agreement; the road access is through the, which is gated.  So they put up those signs to discourage people from walking through and using the beach, which might add to their maintenance costs.

We headed in along a dirt road and quickly saw banyan trees and the LOST filming crew setting up.  We also saw the…’set’ area they were obviously going to use for filming, and it looked kind of neat.

A few of them glanced at us as we approached, but no one told us to move away or anything, not even security, so continued to walk up to them.  Nearest us was a huge banyan tree, one of a cluster of them.  I spotted someone that didn’t look busy, and asked if any of these were the trees used in the show, like where Charlie was hung or the polar bear attacked Walt.  The guy obviously considered his reply, before saying, “I can’t say if it is…or if it isn’t.”

Alrighty. 

So, I then asked if I could take pictures anyway, as long as I stay out of people’s way.  His next response was like the first, something along the lines of “I can’t say if you can, or if you can’t.” 

Mmmmkay. 

Well, Steph and I stepped away and shrugged.  I don’t think he cared if we did, and legally, we’re on public land, but I think he’s probably been ordered not to say it’s ok; it was similar to the vague response I got from the other crew guy at Popeye’s.  

So, I snapped a few shots of the tree and the ‘set.’  What’s strange is that when I got back to the hotel that night, I found all the other pictures I took later that day…but not a single one of the group I took then. 

Later, I figured out I had accidentally saved them to the built-in memory, not the SD card.  Whoops.  This was my first trip using the camera, so I was still learning all of its functions.

This is Locke’s camp, as you’ll probably recognize from the episode.

They were obviously still setting up and we didn’t spot any actors around, but we could see the beach not far away (Kawela Bay).  We headed over there to check it out and it turned out to be a really nice secluded beach, with only a handful of people in either direction.

We decided to hang out there for a while, which was really relaxing.  As you can see from this panoramic shot, trees overhang parts of the beach, and for most of the day, much of it was shaded. 

 

Just beyond the tree line was the crew food service truck and pretty nice porta-potties for the crew and actors…which we used when needed, the guys there didn’t care.  They had Dharma toilet paper, too.

OK, not really, but I would have laughed if they did.  They were cleaner than any public bathrooms and since there didn’t appear to be any public ones around, we were glad they weren’t too far away.

Later some activity picked up, we saw some of the main actors walking around.  While I was trying to take photos to stitch together for a panoramic shot, three Others happened to be walking on the beach for my last photo (far right of the picture).  Guess they were hanging out the beach while they waited, too.  It was a bit strange to see the Others playing with Frisbees and such on their breaks.

 

Eventually, they started filming, but security kept our group of fans back, and later pushed us back even further, almost to the beach.  I think it was mainly because we would have been in the shot if we were closer, so we didn’t mind.

We chatted with the other fans that were hanging around, of course all nice people, and after a while, relaxed on the beach. 

I got a close look at the scene and a bunch of the actors when I passed it a couple times, getting lunch from our car; it looked pretty cool; there were a LOT of actors there for that scene, both main actors and extras.  Sorry, no pics of it.  If you want a list of the actors there, check Stephs' blog, or email me. 

As I was taking our food back from the car, one of the main actresses was walking away from the scene; I could tell we’d basically intersect at the junction.  I wasn’t going to bother her or anything since she’s pretty infamous for being unfriendly to fans, but she looked at me out of the corners of her eyes, looked away and sped up so she wouldn’t have to talk to me.  For some reason, this really amused me; I just smiled to myself, went back to the beach and ate. 

Other than that, they pretty much kept us away the entire day and we didn’t see much of actual filming; at one point, a group of surfers arrived and set up camp near us.   Turned out it was Dennis Quaid, his girlfriend, and others with them for surfing lessons.  Apparently he’s there for a surfing movie.  

 

Sometime around dinner time I got really hungry and decided I was going to make the drive to Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck, which I’d been dying to try the whole time.  I probably had annoyed Steph, menting the garlic shrimp before the trip as often as I did.  Steph said she wasn’t hungry (or she already had a sandwich?), so I headed off, hoping I didn’t miss something big.  I had almost offered to take orders for the other three fans still there chatting, but I had heard that getting Giovanni’s garlic shrimp to go doesn’t work too well; the garlic butter on the shrimp soaks through the plates, plus eating peel-and-eat shrimp on the beach sounded pretty messy.

Giovanni’s was close by, and I saw they had garlic hot dogs, too.  I called Steph and asked if the others wanted hot dogs; they all did, including Steph.  I first ordered my plate of garlic shrimp, which was as good as I’d hoped.  I'm practically drooling thinking about it as I write this.  After I finished the shrimp, I ordered the hot dogs, including one for me, since I was still a bit hungry.

 

A lot of the film crew eyed the food as I passed through for a fourth time, and a couple of guys even joked if I had brought enough for everyone.  As it turns out, I hadn’t missed much beyond a bunch of the film crew getting autographs from Dennis Quaid.  

When the sun was going down, I left the little group of fans for the beach and I started to take some shots of the sunset.  My camera was relatively new so I played around taking a lot of pics with different settings to see how they’d turn out.  Most didn’t come out well, but a few did. 

 

One of the crew had picked some coconuts from somewhere down the beach, and headed back to the scene; as he passed me, he decided to stop by me to chat, commenting on the sunset, the relaxing beach, etc.  I kind of wish I got his name, he seemed very friendly, just like most of the crew. 

A little bit later, I turned around to look down the beach behind me.  Not too far, walking towards me was Josh Holloway/Sawyer!  He was just strolling along, staring out at the water, and obviously enjoying some peace and quiet.  He noticed me looking at him and smiled and nodded, so I nodded back.  For some reason, that was really cool.  I wondered if I should take a picture, but figured it would be rude; can’t just snap a shot after I got the “ ‘sup dude?” head nod, right?   So I turned away from him and went back to taking pictures of the sunset, hoping he’d keep coming.  The beach was narrow and he’d have to walk within 10’ or so of me, so I figured I’d chat with him in a few seconds when he reached me, and then I'd ask for a picture.  If he did, I was sure he’d take pictures with everyone. 

I looked over at the other fans chatting, HOPING no one saw Holloway...and like a movie (or show about coincidences and fate) right then I saw Steph freeze and point behind me, saying something to the others (probably along the lines of, “Holy f*ck, it’s Josh!!!!!).  Then the group started running down the beach towards us.  I just closed my eyes and sighed.  Of course, Steph couldn’t know I was already aware Holloway was right behind me, so she was telling me to turn around.

I turned around and sure enough, Josh had changed directions and headed into the tree line.  Some of the group changed direction towards where he was heading, and he apparently changed his mind, and stopped to chat.  I have to give him credit, he had his break interrupted, but he was very personable and charming, with the trademark Holloway smile, complete with dimples.  Like O’Quinn, he talked to everyone, asked where we were from, etc.  Steph asked him about parenthood and talked to him a bit about it.   

Unfortunately, my pic didn’t turn out well, but hey, it’s not too bad, and better than nothing.

They went back to filming, and not much happened; I took some more pics. 

 

 

It quickly got dark, and you may wonder why we were still hanging around; well the list of the actors that were there for the night shoot is impressive.  They set up extending lighting booms/towers and the banyan trees looked very cool. 

We all decided to get up closer from a different angle, so headed up one of the roads.  I took a pic with my camera, which didn't turn out well, but another fan, Stephen, got a better picture (thanks Stephen!).

 

We reached the intersection, just across the road from the trees.   No one took pictures there, and everyone was very quiet, speaking only in whispers, when speaking at all. 

Then a van drove by with a bunch of the actors, and then two of them (Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly) walked right by us, not making eye contact, and with a crew members stationed near us in case someone tried to leap on them or something stupid like that.  Their serious demeanor was noticeably different than the other actors coming out of the van, which were joking and laughing together.

List of characters on location: Locke, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Claire, Sun, Frank.  Quite a list, eh?  Although we didn’t get to talk to any of them, it was a cool experience to see so many together for filming.  If you've seen the episode, I'm sure you'll recognize the night camp scene.

We watched for a while; there were about 10-12 of us, all being quiet and respectful, while one of the crew and one security guy eyed us back; we could hear them coming up with reasons to tell us to leave, and finally security started telling us to move back, safety hazard since we were near one of the light towers (which was very true; if that thing fell the wrong way, someone could have been injured).

Although we were on public land, we all figured we wouldn’t see any more, so as a group we all decided to leave.  The crew member and the security guy followed us the whole path to the freeway to make sure none of us doubled back, which I found amusing.  Everyone said bye to each other, and then Steph and I headed back to Waikiki.

As we neared the Ilikai, we passed one of the marinas…at NIGHT, mind you…Steph suddenly called out about how she had seen the Searcher, Penny’s Boat (not “Not Penny’s Boat”).  I can’t believe she spotted it; I think even if I had seen it, I wouldn’t have made the connection with the show, I would have just thought it was just another one of the dozens of ships and yachts docked there.

We pulled over and took a couple of pics.  I Google’d the Searcher on my phone, and sure enough, it was the same ship.  As it turns out, this is one of the ships in the show that uses the actual name.  

 

 

 

Finally, the day arrived for us to make the hop from Oahu to the Big Island.

Now, if you’re a big LOST fan, you may notice that we’re leaving before the big Sunset on the Beach LOST Premiere event on Jan 30.  Well, we had planned the trip before it had been announced; otherwise we would have arranged things differently.  Once we found out, we tried to reschedule things, but it would have cost a ton for me to shift around condo and car reservations on 2 islands, plus our 2 tickets, so we settled on flying back on the day of the event.  Steph changed her flight home to leave from Waikiki instead of the Big Island, and I would go back to the Big Island to finish off my last few days of vacation.

Our flight was around noon, so we didn’t do much that morning beyond packing up and heading to the airport.  The flight was short, but still neat seeing the other islands we flew over.  Unfortunately, the windows were scratched and dirty, but I still managed a few pics.

The view approaching the Kona airport shows that it’s built upon old lava flow, which looks very cool.  The airport itself is tiny, and basically it’s all outdoors; no enclosed terminal, which surprised me. 

 

Steph took some really good shots as we were landing:

 

 

 

 

 

After we got our luggage and rental car, we headed out; the house we had rented was over 2 hours away, because we had deliberately chosen a place on the opposite side of the Big Island (which is bigger than all the other ones put together).  We chose the location because the house was near Kilauea, the currently active volcano, within a few miles of where lava flow had broken out around last Thanksgiving.   Arriving at the Hilo airport would have been closer to the house, but combined with all of our flights, and returning the rental car, etc., the Kona airport was cheaper overall.

Anyway, we wanted to be near the volcano, because one of the must-do’s for both of us was to see flowing lava, and that’s the main reason we hopped over to the Big Island. 

Keep that in mind.

In order to get to the house, we had to drive around the island’s coast, which was fine by us.  Judging from maps, there were lots of sites and beaches along the way, so we had planned on taking our time.  As it turned out, the traffic was worse than I expected, slowing us down. 

Also, the freeway was further away from the water for most of the way than I had expected, making it harder to spot fun beach spots or scenic areas to stop at, but it did have a few interesting sites.

 

 

If you squint, you can make out wind turbines in the distance.

We made a stop at a coffee/macadamia nut farm fruit stand.  The man there happened to be the owner of the farm, and was very nice and friendly, despite this sign (I'll let you guess what okole means):

 

We both loved the non-baked macadamias, which had a rich, fruity flavor that neither of us had ever experienced, having only had the roasted/salted ones in a can.  We bought a bag of them to snack on; I wish I could get them fresh like that here on the mainland.

Closer to the house, I believe in the town of Volcano (yes, there is one, next to…wait for it…the volcano), we stopped a tiny grocery store and bought a few essentials, like, of course, alcohol. 

By the time we got the house it was dark; it looked terrific even in moonlight.  As I fumbled with flashlights and the lock box holding the house key, a friendly white cat joined us, trying to get inside.  Since the house owners had never mentioned the cat, I assumed it wasn’t theirs, and we kept it outside.

The cat remained in the area during our stay, there every time we left or came back.  I had emailed the owners, and verified the cat wasn’t theirs, although the cat certainly acted as if it was.  I suspect one of the previous renters had been feeding it.  At one point, Steph dubbed the cat Wheelchair, although I don’t remember the story behind that; a Locke story and alcohol may have been involved.  I’m sure she’ll include it in her blog.

After picking rooms and putting away luggage and groceries we broke out the alcohol and relaxed.  Steph wrote in her journal (which, by the way, was great; I keep referring to her blog to remind me what we did on which days, and for things like the story behind Wheelchair), and I attempted to take some night shots.  Mostly, I failed, but at least a couple give you an idea what the house looks like at night.

I woke up much earlier than Steph, which was not a surprise; that had been the routine every morning.  Our rooms were downstairs, and the living room and kitchen were upstairs.  I spent the morning taking pictures of the house, which lived up to expectations.

The owners call it ‘Hale ‘Ohai.’  ‘Hale’ is Hawaiian for house, and ‘Ohai’ means monkeypod trees, three of which seclude the house from the few neighbors.  You can find out more about the house at the owner’s website:

Hale ‘Ohai website

Since Steph was still sleeping, I decided to take a walk down the street towards the ocean, which was only a couple of blocks away.

 

 

 

Instead of walking across the lava to the ocean, I decided to head back, in case Steph was up and wondering where I was.  On the way back to the house I met a friendly guy walking his dog.  The dog a malamute-mix named Honu, Hawaiian for ‘turtle.’  I told him my friend had a malamute back home, and he invited us over to visit Honu any time.

 

Back at the house I took a few more shots.  Of course, Wheelchair showed up, trying to get into the house.

 

Here you can see Steph’s side of the house, and the outdoor shower outside of her room, shrouded by frosted glass.  My room had a different style shower, but it was also outside.

 

Once Steph was up, we both kind of lounged around with coffee and bagels.  There wasn’t any urgency to go out and do anything, like find a film shoot that might only be there for a few hours. The house is obviously designed for relaxation and peace, and it worked.   It’s also away from any towns and cities; the ‘neighborhood’ is only a few blocks surrounded by lava and vegetation, and doesn’t even have a TV or internet access.  Our cell phones didn’t work there either. 

Of course, I took more pictures.

 

 

 

We also spotted a brightly colored gecko, which was pretty neat; I’ve always liked lizards. 

 

Eventually we got ready to head out; Steph kindly made some egg-salad sandwiches and we packed up and headed out.  Out of curiosity we drove to the end of the road towards the volcano to see what we could see at the end of the road.  It reached a dead end, with a restaurant, food stands, and a guy selling lava pictures, next to a lava field.  We walked around a bit on the lava, but not for long, since we’d figure we’d come back to the area at night. 

 

We also swung by the ‘official’ road access to the Thanksgiving flow, but there were signs about it being closed until 5pm, so we headed off to Volcanoes National Park for the day.

Just through the gates, there were two direction to go; straight ahead, around the north section of the crater, and left, towards the south east.  The ranger at the gate told us that the northern section was closed off for now, due to the vog, the poisonous gas coming out of the crater.  The wind was blowing the volcano’s plume to the north and the high levels of SO2 made the northern section too dangerous.  We figured we’d come back later in the day, or some other day to check out the blocked off area.

We headed to the left, and turned off at the first overlook.  There was definitely a haze covering the area, as you can see.

In the parking lot, there was a group of park rangers clustered together, discussing the current vog situation.   Someone asked about trekking down into the crater itself, a popular trail; a ranger replied that it was currently ‘safe,’ but winds could shift at any time, and they wouldn’t recommend doing it.  It was also interesting…and a bit worrisome…to see that most of the rangers were carrying gas masks.  I began wondering how much of an issue the vog was.  I wondered where the hell MY gas mask was.  Maybe they sold gas masks in the souvenir shop.  That’d be a kickass souvenir!

The we heard the REALLY bad news:  the Thanksgiving lava flow had stopped less than two weeks before the trip!  Steph and I were very disappointed; that’s long been something I’ve wanted to see, ever since I was a little kid.  Apparently the only active flows were either inside the crater, which you can’t see unless you go on a very expensive helicopter tour, or another tiny bit that can barely be seen from half a mile away, as close as you’re allowed to get.

After some discussion, the rangers announced one of them would be leading a hike which would take a couple of hours, through lava trees, various types of lava flow, and up to a vantage point where you could see a smoking crater.  We decided to join the group and followed their directions to another parking lot. 

We made a quick stop along the way for a couple of pictures:

 

The ranger was very personable and knowledgeable, giving us all manner of interesting info, and also handling all the questions thrown at him.  After he gathered our group at the parking lot, we headed off onto lava flow, which covered one of the roads leading from the parking area. 

 

This field of lava trees was also very interesting.  They’re formed by flowing lava being pushed up against something, such as a tree, which results in some of the lava moving upwards before cooling and hardening. 

 

 

Some of the lava had an interesting rainbow sheen, which the ranger explained was titanium.  I hadn’t known titanium came from lava.

 

 

The ranger guided us to an up-close look at this lava tree, showing the hollow center, a mold of the tree. 

 

We hiked across fields of the two major types of lava, “a’a” – the more jagged, rocky lava, and “pahoehoe” - smoother and typically has a billowing or ropy appearance. 

 

The trail was dotted with these bushes, which bore small, red fruit.  Apparently, people are allowed to take a certain amount to eat, but I don’t recall how much that was, or the name of the bush.  The fruit turned out to be sweet, sort of like a raspberry.

 

For the finale, we hiked up a hill, next to a smoking crater; other smoking craters and fissures could be seen far off in the distance.  There was lava fields about as far as the eye could see in any direction.

 

As we reached the parking lot, we ran into a couple of ‘nene.’  These are a protected species, and killing one earns you a hefty $20,000 fine.

 

The ranger announced he’d be leading a tour in the Thurston lava tube, which sounded interesting to me.  I checked with Steph, because of her claustrophobia, and she thought she’d be OK as long as we had flashlights.  I had hoped to go through some lava tubes on this trip, and had brought 4 lights.

The lava tube started with a lighted section, and then transitioned into a completely dark section; probably about half of the people didn’t have flashlights. 

 

 

At the end, the guide requested us all turn off our lights and remain silent for the experience; Steph got a bit nervous at the idea; again, she has claustrophobia, and it’s not something one can easily dismiss.  I wondered if we should skip it and leave, but she wanted to do it.  Once all the lights were out, Steph did an admirable job, lasting quite a while before turning on her flashlight.  Phobias aren’t exactly easy to overcome, and it probably seemed like forever for her.

We were starving by the time we got back to the car and wanted to eat; down the road a short way we found a spot that overlooked a lava-filled pit, and had lunch. 

 

As we travelled down the road, we passed not only lava fields, but many signs warning about the vog; the area was also very hazy from it.  I don’t know if it was a psychosomatic or not, but I got a headache and we both experienced itchy throats, both symptoms of vog.  

We decided we wanted to see the Pu’u Loa petroglyph field next, which was far down the road, near the ocean and where the road ends, covered by an older lava flow.  The field has over 15,000 petroglyphs carved into the lava.  The ones that are holes were for a ritual related to babies.  People would come to the field, even from other islands, and carve a hole and put the piko (umbilical cord) of their baby in the hole.  If the piko was still there the next day, it meant the child would have a long life. 

Since the sun was doing down, we passed a bunch of lookouts and headed right for it.  We parked, and took the 0.7 mile hike to the field. 

 

 

Before we left, I took a panoramic shot:

 

After that, it was too dark to see much else so we headed back to the house. 

Desperate to see some lava, even from half a mile away, we did try to find some areas where we might be able to see it, but ended up just driving around some neighborhoods and giving up.  After a quick grocery stop, we headed home.

I woke up early again, and went for another morning walk.  This time, I headed out onto the lava to the coastline. 

 

 

Nearby I discovered a little rocky beach, more like an alcove, with waves crashing into it as the sun rose.  After climbing down into it, I took a couple dozen shots, most of which didn’t come out well, but a few did.

 

 

 

After enjoying the sunrise, I headed back to the house, snapping a few shots along the way.

Back at the house, I took more pictures (sorry!).  Steph was up and making coffee, and like the day before, we relaxed and took our time.

 

 

My room:

Steph's room:

Again, we found a few visitors.

 

 

We drove to the end of the road we had seen the day before and ate breakfast at the restaurant there. 

Then, we decided to check out the ‘official’ road to where the old Thanksgiving flow was.

Mainly, I wanted to take a picture of this guy’s sign, which I hadn’t gotten the day before; I guess he has tourists going through his land to see lava, since his land was next to the entrance. 

 

Then, we headed off for one of the Big Island's larger towns, Hilo.

After a quick stop at the tourist shop Hilo Hattie, we headed for Rainbow Falls.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be disappointing since there wasn’t much water flow. 

 

Next, we headed up the road to view Boiling Pots; as it turned out, there wasn’t much water here either and it didn’t look as interesting as it could have.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Doesn’t it look like the man is running TOWARDS the tsunami?  Maybe it's for surfing.

We decided to revisit the Volcanoes National park.  On the way, we made a quick stop at a coffee mill place to try to find Lion Coffee, a Hawaiian coffee I liked from my trip to Maui.  We’d been told at the grocery store the night before I could get it there, but they were wrong. 

Turns out I can order it online, so it worked out in the end.   Ain’t the internet wonderful?
I took a picture of these flowers there; there was some significance to them; I think they’re unique to the island, but unfortunately I can’t remember.  Hopefully it’s another detail Steph recorded for us.

 

This day the northern section was open; less poisonous vog today.  We went into the visitor center and wandered through the displays, then headed on to the Steam Vents, which also overlooked the large crater.

 

After that, we found a lookout with a view of the crater, and decided it was a good spot to eat lunch. 

Then we hit the final stop on this section of road, the Jaggar Museum, which had a closer view of the crater. 

 

 

We were told you could see the glow of the lava at night, so decided to come back after nightfall.  For the meantime, we decided we’d head off and see all the stops and lookouts we’d missed the day before, so headed back around the crater, stopping at various places for pictures.

 

 

As you can see, there’s a huge drop off here, and then the lava flow stretches out far to the ocean.

 

 

If you compare the above picture (looking away from the volcano) to the one below (looking towards the volcano), you can really see the difference the vog makes in the sky.

Then we drove down the road to the coast.  At this spot, we saw several whales, and waited to try to get a picture of one breaching.  They were much closer to the island than before, so if one breached, we had a decent chance.  Unfortunately, all we ever saw were the spouts of water from their blowholes, even though we both waited for quite a while.

 

 

As you can see, the vog did interesting things to the colors in the sky.

 

The sun was setting quickly, so we drove the rest of the way to the end of the road, which is now covered by lava.

 

 

After that, we drove back to the crater view.  It was fairly crowded, and COLD.  I set up my tripod and took a series of long exposures; the 60-second one turned out the best.

 

At the other end of the crater there were clouds (or fog?) spilling over the crater edge, so I took a shot of that before we headed back to the treehouse.

 

Originally, Steph had been going to head home on Jan 30, and since I was staying for a few more day, we’d leave the Puna Treehouse, I’d drop her off at the Kona airport, then stay in condo in Kona I had booked. 

Then we found out about the Premiere on the Jan 30, causing us to juggle things.  Steph extended her stay, we booked flights from Kona to Honolulu for the morning of Jan 30.  If we were to leave the Treehouse on Jan 30 and drive across the island, we’d have to get up extremely early to drive across the island to the airport the next day, and also risk running into traffic and other delays and miss the flight.  So, we decided to leave the Treehouse one day early and stay in Kona. 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t just extend the stay of my Kona condo; someone else had it booked that night, but the nice woman that owned the condo suggested the hotel basically next door, so that’s where we were going to stay.

Because of all this, we needed to get ready to leave.

 

While we were getting ready, Steph called me outside, where the shower on her side was.  There were three geckos and a little frog all hanging out there.  Plus, I found more geckos inside after that.

 

 

We packed up and cleaned up, which didn’t take long.  Before we left, though, we decided to drive along the coast to the east, and hit a few spots; then we’d come back, grab our stuff, and head for Kona.

The coastline in this area was full of nice places to pull off, along with houses with fantastic views. 

 

 

 

 

We had noticed a lighthouse on our map, so we decided to check it out.  It took a bit of effort since my GPS signal wasn’t that great and not all of the roads in this rather isolated area were clearly marked.  Eventually we found this gravelly, BUMPY road that led to it.  It took us quite a while to reach it, since we had to drive slowly because of the condition of the road. 

Once we got there…we were disappointed.  Seriously, this is a lighthouse?

 

After the painful drive back up the gravel road, we drove to the nearby Lava Tree State Park.

 

I’m not sure what kinds of trees these are, but they’ve got an unusual appearance, the way their branches canopy out, and they’re extremely tall.  If you squint, you might be able to make out a speck of purple at the bottom middle of the picture below.  That’s Steph.

 

 

Afterwards, we headed back towards the house to get our things and head for Kona.  On the way back, we found a spot for lunch.  The view was great, no one else was around to bother us, and turtles were swimming just off shore.  Steph had a beer or three with her lunch.

 

 

 

 

Then we went to the house, packed up, and left.  We were both a little sad to leave the place, which had been relaxing and fantastic, but were also eager for the Premiere event the next day.

We had originally planned on making stops along the way, especially at Pu’uhonua o Honaunau, also known as the City of Refuge.  As it turned out, we had burned a lot of time doing the other things in the morning, and it was afternoon before we left the house, so I wasn’t sure we’d make it.

I drove as fast as traffic allowed (i.e., not very fast) on the way to the City of Refuge, and I’m not sure about Steph, but I was getting more and more anxious as the sun was going down.  Now, since I was coming back after the Premiere, and it wasn’t far from my condo, I knew I’d have the opportunity to see it in a couple of days.  But Steph was leaving for good, so this was her last chance. 

Unfortunately, the sun went down as we were trying to find the right road from the freeway to the entrance; we pulled in a little after the sun had gone down, and it was dark; too dark to visit the place.  Disappointed, we headed for the hotel, the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort. 

We checked in, dropped off our stuff and checked out their restaurant; it didn’t seem appetizing, so we decided to try the Kona Brewing Company and Pub.

The drive into Kona along the coastline was nice, but busy and crowded.  We went through touristy part of Kona before finding the restaurant, obviously popular.   The service was terrible, practically non-existant, but the food was good, especially the kahlua pork nachos, and Steph also enjoyed her beer.

We drove back and I think we both pretty much zonked out immediately.

 

Since I was only taking one change of clothes with me, I wanted to leave my large luggage back on the Big Island.  The owner of the condo I had reserved for Kona was very accommodating, and let me drop off my luggage for the day, even though I wouldn’t be there. 

I don’t recall what my airline was, but we went to the desk to check in, and ran into a problem:  they couldn’t find a record of Steph’s ticket.  The lady checked again with no luck; we were both confused, made sure the woman at the desk was spelling Steph’s name correctly, etc.  Eventually I dug out the flight info I had printed out.  As it turns out, Steph and I had different airlines to Oahu. 

Whoops; my bad.

By the way, did I mention how open the design of the Kona airport is?  Instead of a normal concourse, you wait outside, which (from later experience) I can say isn’t that pleasant when it’s cold, windy and raining.

Our flights were leaving only about 10 minutes apart, so I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal.  I’d arrive first and wouldn’t have to wait long for Steph, right?

Wrong.

I got there, checked the arrival monitors, and went to Steph’s gate; everyone got off the plane, but I didn’t see her, so I went to baggage claim.  I saw her bag, along with people from the plane, but not Steph.  Eventually I took her bag off the machine, and talked the airport people there.  Turns out her flight was delayed for over an hour due to engine problems.  But somehow, they stuck her luggage on a different flight.

After she finally arrived and explained the whole fiasco, we took a bus, Roberts of Hawaii (a cheap $9), to the hotel we had booked, The Park Shore, the hotel recommended by Ryan Ozawa.  It was inexpensive and literally across the street from where Sunset on the Beach is held. 

After checking in to the hotel, we headed for the LOST brunch Ryan and Jen were hosting in the hotel restaurant to say hi.  Fortunately we hadn’t signed up to attend the brunch, since it was pretty much over by the time we got there; I had assumed we’d get there late, and it turned out even worse with Steph’s delay.  It looked like most of the people had already left, but I said hi to Ryan, introduced Steph, and thanked him again for earlier help in finding LOST locations.  We asked about the beach event and finding seats, and Ryan generously said we could sit with his group.  We didn’t stick around long because he was busy talking to others who had been to the brunch.  We headed across the street to the beach.

The beach was already crowded, and I guess had begun to get crowded even early in the morning from some texts and emails I had gotten (another reason I was getting anxious when I was waiting for Steph to arrive at the airport).

 

 We found Ryan’s group easily, which was in a good spot, in the middle of the growing crowd.

 

Steph had been talking to Venus, a fan living in Hawaii, so she decided to meet us at the Premiere event, bringing a friend.  They also were nice enough to bring 4 beach chairs, which we crammed into our little space.   We chatted and hung out, enjoying the beach, seeing interviews going on, etc.  Venus wore a LOST crew shirt she got from meeting someone while being an extra on the show, and also brought some for each of us, which was really cool of her.  People kept stopping by, asking her where she got them, and if she was selling them.

There is a rumor we all had some alcohol, which I will neither confirm nor deny.  I will say that one time I politely asked Steph if she was having fun, and if there was anything I could get her, and this was her reaction:

 

I’ll let you be the judge regarding her inebriation.  However, you should know she’s just as likely to flip off random strangers when she’s sober, too.  ;)  Just kidding, Steph!

We also ended up seeing a lot of the fans we had met at various filming locations and had fun chatting with them, sharing stories about meeting the actors, seeing filming, etc.  It wasn't too surprising to run into a few, since we were all there for LOST and all made the effort to be at Sunset on the Beach.

Eventually it got really hot, extremely uncomfortably so, so I went and bougth an umbrella, which we all tried to squeeze under.  We also ordered some food from the nearby food stands which turned out pretty good. 

A couple of hours before the big show, they had a band providing entertainment for the crowd.

 

Of course, the crowd grew and grew.  Our position, which had once been about in the middle of the crowd, was now closer than probably 75-90% of the crowd.

Probably around 6 or later, actors and film crew started showing up.  None of us bothered to go to the red carpet area; it was very crowded, and we figured we wouldn’t get to talk to any stars or anything.  As it turned out, some of the actors talked to people and posed for pics, but I doubt we would have fought our way through the crowd that had already gathered anyway.

Then the show started, with speeches by various people, including Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.  They introduced each of the actors that were there in attendance, which was basically almost all of the major actors from the show this year. 

 

Then, the big event:  the first hour of Season 6.  It was an incredible experience watching it on a 30’ screen on the beach under the stars, surrounded by thousands of fans.  There was a lot of cheering, shouts, gasps, and more.

Afterwards, they had questionnaires to fill out for reactions to the episode.  We turned them in for special T-shirts, which unfortunately turned out pretty ugly.  

Stephen, Ana and their mom wanted to grab some drinks, so Steph and I joined them.  We ended up wandering around Waikiki, with most places closed, which I personally find a bit ridiculous.  People come from all over the world, from different timezones, to visit this city, and most of the nightlife shuts down early, 8 or 9PM. 

We actually ended up stumbling across the LOST party at some restaurant/bar, but of course it was closed to the public.  As we walked away, we ran into Jack Bender, one of the show's main directors, who was leaving the party; Ana got his autograph, and I took a picture with my camera.  Unfortunately, my camera died on my last day of this trip, so I lost the picture. 

Steph and I eventually grew tired of walking up and down the damned streets finding everything closed, so we decided to just to go back to the hotel and crash, while the others continued on to attempt to find someplace.

My flight back to the Big Island was in the early afternoon, and Steph’s flight back home was very late, after 11PM.  Steph had decided she was going to rent a car and head for the North Shore one last time before she left Hawaii.  It didn’t take much to convince me to change my flight to a later one so I could join her.  As you'll soon see, it was WELL worth the extra $50! 

After breakfast in the hotel we walked across the street to see what was left of Sunset on the Beach.  We wondered if the “LOST The Final Season” banners were still there, since we had seen fans trying to take them the night before…but they weren’t.  There was one on top of the frame for the screen, but neither of us was going to climb up there.

 

 

After that, we were off to the North Beach area of the island.

 

 

We met up with Venus at the Papa’iloa beach access parking spot, and then trekked to the beach camp. Venus had been there before, but only when one or two shelters had been set up, not completely show-ready like it was now.  It did appear slightly different on the right section of the camp, but we couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.  We took some pictures, and chatted with the friendly security guard.  

 

 

 

The waves were a lot larger this day, with the surf getting pretty close to the camp.

 

 

While we were talking to him, another guard arrived and also chatted with us.  Both of these guys were very nice, and let us volunteered to let us take pics of Dharma vegetable oil, haha!  

 

 

 

Venus asked if they'd let us in the camp, but they declined, of course.  Eventually one of them said maybe later if no one else was around to also ask, since there were a few other fans there at the moment.  We decided to head over to the Ajira plane Steph and I had spotted down the beach to see how it looked; we had heard it was more ‘complete’ the other day, and Venus hadn’t seen it yet.

On the way, we passed the graveyard (Boone Hill) and Eko’s Church.  We noticed a change in the area, a freshly dug grave.  We later found out this is the grave that Ilana forces Ben to dig in “Dr. Linus.”

 

 

 

Although I believe primary filming for that episode was done weeks before, I heard they re-shot parts of those scenes.  Fans I met on the second trip later told me that they were disappointed, because they had witnessed filming which had been cut out of the show, to be replaced with different scenes.  They had seen Ilana beat up Ben, along with other details which turned out differently on the  show.  Since I know those scenes were leaked, perhaps the writers/producers decided to re-shoot and change the scene up.

As we approached the first point on the beach, probably less than half-way to the prop, we saw one of the guards drive up ahead of us, near the old cement building.  When we got there, he talked to us and said if we wanted to see the camp, head back and they’d let us in.  We joked about getting a ride back with him, which didn’t work, but that was ok, we were happy he’d let us inside the camp. 

He also told us they had used the cement building for filming the other day, as well as these cement blocks.

 

 

 

At the camp, they let us in and we spent a lot of time taking a bunch of pictures, examining things, etc.  I apologize in advance for the huge number of pictures, but I'm sure LOST fans would agree, if you get the chance to wander a set like this, you'd take a bazillion pics too.

If you're one of my family, friends, or someone else, that is not a fan of LOST, you may wonder why I took so many pictures of what appears to be a large homeless encampment.  You can ignore the rest of this entry and move on to the next. ;)

The infamous Halliburton case.   Too bad, there were no guns inside.

 

 

 

We were shown their stash of Dharma items.  There used to be a Dharma beer here, but someone had stolen it.

 

 

This is the area where Steph and I thought something looked different from a few days ago, that one of the tents may have collapsed or something.  Now we know one of the tents WAS down, blown up from where Ilana blows herself up in "Everybody Loves Hugo," which they were filming while we were there.  I find it pretty amusing her shoes were still there at the crater after filming.

 

 

 

 

Of course, we had to take pictures of ourselves sitting in Sawyer's chair.  Can you say LOSTgasm?  Ignore the mosquito bites on my legs, lol. 

 

 

We were allowed to sit in the shelters, poke through things, etc.  It was pretty interesting to see the little touches they put into making the camp look lived in, as well as the little differences from shelter to shelter.  Even eagle-eyed, freeze-framing LOST fans wouldn't be able to notice all the work they put into the set. 

At times, other fans showed up at the fence, taking pictures.  I can only wonder what they thought of the three of us wandering around inside the set.

 

 

At the back of the camp is one larger shelter, which actually hides props and such for the show.  Some of the boxes are labeled with character's names.  Sun & Jin, Desmond, Juliet, etc.  I was curious about what was inside them, and maybe the guard would have let us, but we felt self-conscious about it and just took a few pictures.  Being a juge Juliet fan, Venus had to look for that box.

 

 

 

Below is a shot from the back of the camp, towards the water.  You can see that the background of the camp is supplemented by some potted plants.  One of the main reasons is probably to hide the porta-potty nearby, and possibly crew vehicles and equipment when they're filming.

 

 

 

See the hole in the metal base of the bed?  That’s where the injured Ian Somerholder (Boone) hid his real leg in S1, with the bloody prop leg on top.

 

 

Here is about the only piece of the wreckage we noticed with a recognizable part of the Oceanic logo

 

 

 

This case probably belongs to Sun or Jin, considering the white box with Korean characters on it.  The black purse/hand bag next to it might be Sun's, even through the characters on it aren’t Korean :p

 

 

 

 

Sayid’s shelter.

 

 

 

What I’ve posted above is only a portion of my pictures, and I haven’t even included ones from Steph or Venus. 

After we were done examining every nook and cranny of the camp we thanked the guard for letting us wander around the camp for so long.  He wasn’t the one that gave us permission, but the other guy had left.  The one still there was a great guy, very friendly and accomodating as we wandered around looking at everything; he gave us lots of cool insider stories about the actors and other interesting tidbits, too.  He let us out of the camp the ‘secret’ way, which led us right to the parking lot without trudging through the sand.