The ABC Adventure is meant to encourage you to explore deeper and is intended to assist you with documenting your journey, You are using your camera and language skills to document a story while adding some creativity to both.
An ABC Adventure is part personal guidebook, part word game, part photography challenge and part Scavenger Hunt. It is all fun.
“Rules” of the Game
- The first rule is that there really are no rules! There are however a few missions. The purpose of the ABC game is to live more deeply and to document the journey, but mostly to have fun along the way.
- The game is similar to a Scavenger Hunt. It may be played by yourself, with a group, or in teams. You will take one photograph representing a word or phrase (that you choose) for each letter of the alphabet. You do not need to complete the alphabet in order. There is no time limit to the game (unless you choose to set one).
- Begin by choosing an anchoring theme for your game. Put your anchoring theme at the top of the page. This offers a little confinement to your mission. ABC games are not limited to travel. Here are a few themes we have used:
- Art in an Airport
- Birthday Celebrations
- Date Nights
- Exploration By Country
- Exploration By the City
You could also do an ABC food tour, an ABC cruise ship tour, an ABC art in the airport tour, your ABC Adventures are only as limited as your creativity.
- Write out the alphabet leaving blank space next to each letter. Each letter will represent a single word or phrase. Once you assign the word or phrase, you will take a photo to represent it (or you can take a photo first and then assign it to a word). There are no limits to how creative your photography or word choices may be. In fact, the more creative, the more interesting the game becomes.
The choice of creating a guide before you begin a game is entirely up to you. You can follow our process below, or jump straight to the Scavenger Hunt section.
Creating a Guide (Wordplay and Personal Guide)
- The value in making a list is to see where you are going to be challenged. Some letters are more difficult than others to represent. Write out the alphabet leaving blank space next to each letter. We generally create our lists on the computer because the word list can become very long. By having all the options, you can quickly see where an alternate word or phrase choice might exist. Mostly the guide is a long series of questions.
- Where are you going? What is the mission of this ABC Adventure? If you are doing a travel themed ABC Adventure, this may be continents, countries, states, cities, towns and/or villages. If you are limiting your exploration to something like the cruise ship, then you might write “C” for cruise or “I” for Island Princess (or whatever specific ship you are on). If you were looking just for art in a museum then you might just record the name of the museum. In our example below, My theme is ABC’s By State. We knew we would be visiting several Hawaiian islands but I began with H-Hawaii then added K-Kauai since I knew we would be experiencing at least that much. My list will eventually expand to include Maui and Oahu as part of an overall Hawaiian Adventure.
- Next ask yourself who is going to play the game/travel with you. In our case, it will just be Alan and I, so I will add and “A”-Alan and “D”-Deb to my list.
- How will you get there? (example A-airplane, C-cruise, “R” Rental car etc). Do you know of any other transportation you would like to experience? *Since much of Kauai inaccessible by road, it is recommended to see from a sailboat “S” , “C” catamaran and/or “P” plane. Do you already know if certain tours use a specific kind of transportation? You could use “K” for kayak.
- Next, begin to research tours or activities you might be interested in. This is your “what will we do question”. I often visit Trip Advisor or Pinterest to find fun things to do. We knew we wanted to take a flight tour over Kauai so our abc list began to look like this… A-airplane, F-flight tour etc. Always list multiple terms for each word, this is how you will eventually fill the entire alphabet with options. Move from broad to specific. You could also begin to get creative here…what about the letter “U” for Up (as in up in the air). Each guide will be personal to your interests, activities and goals.
- Begin to fill in things you will likely see on the tour. For example, as we researched the flight tour we knew we could use “N” for Na Pali coast and “W” for Waimea Canyon. These were both included on the tour. As we read about these places we noted that Waimea Canyon was also referred to as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. We cross referenced the list with a “G”. We knew these areas would be “L” -lush. Our words were beginning to get a little more descriptive. We knew that we would be seeing “W”-waterfalls and “R” rainforests. We noted that the Na Pali coast was undulating. We added these words. Hint, words spark creativity of photos and vice versa.
- Stay open to discovering new things to explore. As we researched our options, we also discovered many other things we might be interested in exploring such as “F” for Fern Grotto and “R” for Riverboat cruise, if we had time. My mind raced with the possibilities of how we could spend our time. What restaurants are recommended? What sites are top to see? You likely won’t “do” everything on your list but writing down everything which interests you, means that you will have numerous options when it comes time to actually going on your personal journey. If it were raining, you might need to move an activity indoors, you will already know where to go. This is the personal guide portion of the game. Think of it as a travel guide.
- Now imagine the culture. What foods, games, dances, music, language etc do you want to discover. Your abc list might begin to look like “H”-hula and “U”-ukelele. Is there a traditional dress which people wear? For example, “A” Aloha Shirts.
- Begin to add other categories which interest you such as A-architecture, animals, B-boats, beaches C-churches etc. Continue to move from broad to specific for example you could add A-animals but research showed that we would likely see C-chickens and W-whales on this trip, so they were also listed.
- Keep asking questions and adding to your lists. What foods are eaten? Example “M” Macadamia nuts, “S”-shave ice. How do they taste or smell? Sweet, sour, pungent? What time of year is it? What season are you in? What month is it? Is it dry, arid, wet or humid? Sunny or cloudy? What do you hear? What colors could you add? What emotions are triggered? Do you expect to stand in awe?
- *The more descriptive terminology you add, the more interesting your writing will become when it comes time to tell your story. This may also give you some interesting ideas for photography.
- Keep building your alphabet lists with creative exploration of language. For example “C” could be coffee (which Kawaii is famous for) but perhaps you already have a “C”, you could also use “J” for Java.
- Add some colors to your list. Kawaii is very “G”-green but dig deeper and add interesting words like “V”-verdent.
- Did you know the “Y”-Yellow Hibiscus is the state flower? Build, build, build on the ABC/word list before you begin playing the game. The more time you spend here, the more options you have once you begin the game.
Scavenger Hunt
- Use your blank alphabet list. The goal is to try to represent each letter of the alphabet with a word or phrase and a photo. Hint: take more photos than you think you need.
- You are using your camera and language skills to document a story. Add some creativity to both. How do you document words like yellow? Did you know that the state flower of Hawaii is yellow? Since my theme is ABC’s By State (Hawaii), this would be a great way to document my “Y” for yellow. This can often be a tough letter to find, so it will be high on my list to get this photo. if I see the word pineapple, I might choose to photograph a pineapple plantation, a single pineapple growing, or a wonderful pina colada (or all of the above). I might also try to experience the local pineapple french toast with coconut dressing, all would be wonderful ways to represent the word pineapple.
Detours-Sometimes you won’t have an idea for a letter. This is your chance to become very observant. Words and opportunities are everywhere. Detours are what create the adventure, don’t be afraid of them.
- Did you see a sign which begins with your needed letter? Detour.
- Could you find a quote which begins with your desired letter and fits the theme of your adventure? Detour.
- Could you rearrange your photos/words to be able to use something somewhere else? Detour.
Share Your Story
By the time you finish this game, you are sure to have had some grand adventures. It is likely that you took more photos than just those that you selected for the Scavenger Hunt. It is likely that you imagined more words and phrases than you used (you did save your list didn’t you?). I know that I will have tried to capture every single word on my list. I will have let my creativity flow through my photography and word choices. It is now time to use these to put the words and photos together because a photo without explanation is left to interpretation and words with no pictures means it never happened. By the time you complete an ABC adventure, your photos and descriptive writing should represent who, what, where, when, why and how of the adventure you set out to enjoy.
We experience the world one letter at a time and discover our world one word at a time, but we write our legacy by one story at a time.
The Overall Kauai ABC List
Here is how our Kauai, Hawaii list eventually shaped up. (Yours may look different based on personal interests/goals).
- Allerton Gardens/Aloha shirts/ Aloha/Airplane/Alan/animals/Awe
- Blow Hole (Spouting Horn)/Beaches/Botanical Gardens/blue
- Chickens (thousands occupy the island)/coffee (see also java)/coconut/crater/chocolate/cruise
- Deb
- Eucalyptus trees (Tunnel of trees on way to Koloa Town and Poipu Beach)
- Fern Grotto (lava cave overgrown with ferns-about 2 miles up the Wailua River-accessed by kayak or boat trip)/Flowers/Forbidden Island (Ni’Hau)/Flight
- Grove Farm Sugar Plantation Museum/Grand Canyon of the Pacific (Waimea Canyon Park)/gardens/ green
- Hanalei (shopping)/Hanalei Bay/Hanakapi’ai Beach/Hawaii/Helicopter tour (Island Helicopter Tours are the only one which land at a waterfall)/Hula Dancers (Sheraton Kauai Resort, Grand Hyatt Kaui and Kilohana Plantation estate)/humid
- Island Plane Tour
- January/Jurassic Park Falls/Java (see also coffee)
- Kalaheo Coffee Co (breakfast/baked goods)/Kawaii/kayak/Kilohana plantation/Koke’e State Park/Kalalau Trail (first half mile)/Koa wooden bowls/Kauai coffee/Kilauea Point/Kilauea Lighthouse/Koa wooden bowls/Kipu Kai/Kalapaki Beach/Kalua (the act of cooking a pig in the ground for hours)/Kauai/Koloa Town
- Lighthouse (Kilauea Lighthouse)/Luau/leis/Lanai/Larsen’s Beach/lava cave/lush
- Mountain tube/monk seals/Moreton Bay fig trees/McBride Gardens/Mount Waialeale-(wettest spot on earth)/Mahaulepu Beach (monk seals/beauty/hiking)/Macadamia nuts/ Moloa’a Beach/music/ Mountains/mango/mai tai
- Na Pali Coast/Na ‘Aina Kai Botanical Gardens)/Ni’Hau (Forbidden Island)
- O
- Pineapple/Pineapple French toast with coconut dressing (at the Kalaheo Coffee Co)/Passionfruit/Pupu Platter (cross between tapas and bar food)/Poipu Beach (Tunnel of trees and spouting Horn)/Pu’u O Kila Lookout (Kokee’e Park)/pottery/passionfruit/Polihale Beach/palm trees
- Queen’s Bath (Kalapana)/Poke (Hawaiian sushi)
- Rainforests/Red Dirt Falls (Grand Canyon of the Pacific-located in Waimea Canyon Park)
- Shave ice/Spouting Horn/Shop/surfing/seashells/Shipwreck Beach/Smith Family Luau/Sticky rice pudding/Spouting Horn (blow hole)/sunset
- Tunnel of Trees (see also Euclyptus trees)/Tidepools
- Ukulele/Undulate
- Vintage train (Kilohana plantation)/volcano/verdent
- Waterfalls-Wailua Falls& river/Waimea Canyon/Wailua River/Wai’oli Hui’ia Church (Hanalei)/Whale watching (winter only when Pacific humpbacks migrate to mate and give birth), wasabi mustard, wooden bowls/ Wai-ale-ale Crater/wet/winter
- X
- Y yellow
- Zen/Zipline (Skyline Hawaii)
The words above words also give me an opportunity to expand my language as I write the descriptions and stories of each experience. How interesting does a story about cooking a pig in an underground oven (Kalue) become when I use local terminology and/or language? How much more authentic does the experience become when local culture is infused into the adventure?
The ABC’s give us structure but this is your adventure to design in any way which you choose. Enjoy the journey!