There are so many possible sites to visit in Hawaii that the approach will be different in this final trip. Instead of picking individual sites, the different types of sites that exist here, and throughout the United States, will be explored. The pages of this trip are split into the body that administers the various sites. An example is the National Park Service, which runs nine sites in Hawaii. The focus or mission of each organizational body is different but all are worthy in their own way. Inevitably, this approach will lead to experiences involving politics and value judgments, which seems an appropriate place to which to graduate after the other eleven trips. We, as a society, have to decide how much value we place on experiencing life, as opposed to acquiring resources and money. As with most things, a compromise is the likely end-point.

But Hawaii is unique among the fifty states for having true tropical rainforest, so that environment will be a major focus here as well. It is also unique in the world for being the chain of islands most isolated from large bodies of land, and is an excellent place to experience island biogeography and the resulting biodiversity.