I know that taking sand is supposedly bad luck, but...

What about shells found on the beach? I have no interest in bringing home same, or even shells for that matter. However, several people have requested shells as souvenirs. I%26#39;m not a very superstitious person, but I%26#39;d hate to offend anyone by a few shells. =)

I know that taking sand is supposedly bad luck, but...

Ohhh, good question. My Mom asked for a shell too and I didn%26#39;t even think twice about it. Is it bad luck?

Kelly

I know that taking sand is supposedly bad luck, but...

Taking home LAVA is bad luck, offends Pele the Volcano goddess.

Sand ... offends dead ground up coral? I%26#39;ve never heard it%26#39;s bad.

Shells ... I%26#39;ve never had any bad luck, but it%26#39;s not easy to find good intact shells here unless you dive--not great shells, anyway, maybe I find some cowries if I get lucky.

Of course if I am wrong about sand and shells I hope someone who knows better corrects me. Always happy to learn!

Well, i guess technically black sand beaches are actually ground up lava.

We didnt take any sand, rocks, or shells just to be safe. To me, it%26#39;s not really about ';luck'; or the gods or anything, it%26#39;s just trying to be considerate. Hawaii is a beautiful (and small) place that thousands of new people enjoy every day. Now I%26#39;m no ecologist, and I guess one little shell wouldn%26#39;t hurt.... but if everybody started taking hawaii back with them eventually it would make an impact.

If somebody you know really wants one, I%26#39;d say just buy a little novelty shell from ABC.

I agree with post above. Go to ABC store and buy shells etc for gifts. ABC stores also have a cute little gift called beach in a bag. It has sand, shells, and novelties such as little plastic flip flops or fish. I think they are $3.99 if memory serves me right very cute and everyone I brought one to loves them.

Yeah, I was just trying to get the ';bad luck'; part of it straight for mmpierce. People send lava rocks back to the Hawaiian Post Offices from all over the world to try to undo the bad luck ...

ecology and conservation are a different issue from the luck. Anyway, Hawaii isn%26#39;t a good place to find nice shells so the best place to find a shell souvenir is in a shop. People imagine we have beaches strewn with shells, not understanding how beaten up shells get in their trip to the shore. It is not like a truly reef-protected beach area.

We have little tiny shells on the beaches, not anything impressive.

In the Cook Islands, where they have great shells, you have to get a CITES certificate that lists the shells you take out of the country, both found and purchased. This gets presented at customs. In the Cooks, there%26#39;s a limit on coral, none on shells, quite different from here where there%26#39;s so much coral it%26#39;s used to write grafitti.

We chose not to remove anything from the natural environment on our recent trip to Maui. It was not due to any superstition, but in order to preserve things as they were, as the other posters said.

You could always send them a postcard! (or take a cool photo of a shell!) :)

mm, the bad luck lava thing is a myth. However, it does serve to keep everyone from taking lava away, which would be a bad thing. Hmmmm. Come to think of it, I did take some lava sand home to CT years ago, and it was about that time I started getting serious about moving to HI. Madame Pele%26#39;s influence, maybe?

Believe it or not, I find that people are thrilled by the shell lei that you get free from Hilo Hattie or can buy at ABC three for 99 cents. If you go to the Swap Meet in Kahului you%26#39;ll undoubtedly find good souvenir-y stuff, too. I%26#39;ve found cowries at Ho%26#39;okipa, but I understand it%26#39;s not a great place for haoles these days.

To add to the list of other ideas, we sent personalized postcards from the birdman on Front St in Lahaina. He takes your picture with lots of parrots sitting on you, then you come back the next day to pick up the postcards. It%26#39;s semi-expensive, $25 for 15 postcards I think, but everybody we sent them to loved them. It%26#39;s a definite souvenir for the refridgerator!

The bird pics are fantastic!! Great idea you gave! We, too, got bird pics but ours were on the road to Hana in the Garden of Eden.

How often do your friends get to see you with 6 giant parrots on you?! Those are my favorite shots from our trip...well, next to the one of us on the slopes of Haleakala, in which I was perched on my BF%26#39;s shoulders, doing an arabesque on the bike!!

Now, those kind of pics will inspire your friends to visit Maui!

this makes me laugh because I am STILL finding sand in stuff that went to Kaua%26#39;i with us last summer!! My swimsuit still has some sand trapped between the outer and inner layers. Took out our water shoes a few weekends ago - they were filled with Kaua%26#39;i sand. Got out the bag of snorkel gear. Yep. Bag had a good collection of SAND in the bottom. And the sand toys that my children INSISTED on bringing home??? We got those out and found.... chunks of old, smooth coral (bet you thought I was going to say sand)!! Didn%26#39;t even realize they were there! The kids had used them to decorate a sand castle and I guess they got shoved into the bag with everything else!!

What I want to know is, how do I get RID of all the sand!!! ??? LOL!