Hawaii... The land of crashing waves and colorful tropical flowers. We escaped the cozy, cool and wet northern CA for a week to explore one of the least-developed islands besides Lanai for five days and the much-developed and still-growing Maui for two days. We lucked out with dry weather and humidity is almost non-existent at this time of the year. The quiet elongated island with its sparsely population measures some 36 miles long from west to east. It has one highway (Hwy 460/450 East-West) and one traffic light in the tiny and quaint downtown. The west side of the island is dryer than the wetter east side with more rain, lush vegetation and better landscaping. In the late 19th century, Molokai was a leper (caused by Hansen disease) colony until the 1040s' when leprosy was brought under control by sulfone drugs. A Belgian priest, Father Damien De Veuster, settled there in 1873 to help those stricken by the disease. Later, he ultimatedly contracted the disease himself and died in 1889. He became the "Martyr of Molokai" and the most beloved heroes of Hawaii. In 2009, he was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI to be a saint... Nowadays, the island has only two resorts, one on the far west of the island where we stayed and the other one is much closer to the downtown area. The highlight of the trip was the chartered deep-sea fishing and snorkeling trip with the friendly sea turtles in the coral. Inter-island transportation is only by single-propelled engine Cessna with capacity of 8 passengers and limited luggage weight. Inter-island fare is $50 each way. Gas is $4.80 per gallon on the island.