Vacations, part 6

OK, by now you know that vacations are oddly weird for me. From backpacking, hotel cleaning, wall washing, driving in San Francisco to visiting stepchildren. Oddly weird.
Now, our 25th Wedding Anniversary is coming up next May and we want to do something special and we thought maybe a trip to Hawaii would be nice. We’ve always heard raves from those returning from their tropical paradise and decided to cave in and to the tourist thing in Hawaii. How bad could it be? But then, we thought, we have the money now, and we may not have it next year, so why not go now. So we called a wonderful travel agent and a great friend and booked the trip for April. We booked it in November, so we had lots of time to anticipate and wonder what it would be like. A real, live vacation; just the two of us! As the months rolled by and the weeks came around, we grew more and more excited! We shopped for just the right clothes. Not too ‘touristy’, not too boring, just right! We packed our swim suits (yes, even me), sunscreen, hats and flops and off we went! The flight was long, but the anticipation kept us from dozing off. We landed in Honolulu and were met by our Pleasant Holidays monitor and whisked off to our hotel and our Ocean View room. The first room they tried to give us had a Double bed and the view only came if you leaned over the railing and stretched your neck and squinted. Not what we were promised and not what we were going to accept! The next room had a King bed and an ocean view! Thank you very much! We spent the afternoon at the pool bar drinking drinks with little umbrellas and it promises to be a grand day! We booked our trip to Pearl Harbor for the 3rd day and shopped and ate that second day! I sat by the pool and Steve swam and swam. I forget how much he loves the water as he tells of wonderful memories of summers in the pool! Personally, I don’t like the water so much. I almost drown in the ocean as a kid, so, water...not so much.
We went to Pearl Harbor and the Missouri and it was amazing!! Our tour guide on the Missouri was a perfect combination of Mary Martin and Carol Onofrio! (Carol is my wonderful friend who designs and draws the pictures of the costumes I make for NOP) She had us all in tears recalling the signing of the surrender on the deck of the Battleship we had just toured. After the tour, we were driven to a cemetery overlooking Diamond Head. This cemetery is the resting place for many Hawaiian military as well as their sons. Quite touching. Again, our tour bus driver was fascinating. It was a great day in Honolulu!
That night we decided to walk on the beach as we had promised the kids we would at least put our toes in the ocean. So just across the street from our hotel is the Mauna Hotel. It is the oldest hotel in Honolulu built in 1903 and is beautiful. So we decided to walk through the hotel lobby and out the back to get to the beach. As we walked through, we saw that people were eating on the wraparound porch. Could this be open to mere mortals like us? We asked, and by gosh, it was. It was a Victorian delight! The porch wraps around the side of this grand old hotel with such grace and elegance, I couldn’t believe it was real! It overlooked the ocean and was just a dream! We are lobster and drank wine and shared dessert! It was the perfect prelude to our moonlight walk on the beach!
After 3 days in Waikiki, we were off to Maui. I couldn’t imagine it being any more wonderful than the first 3 days of our very first real vacation!
We landed in Maui and rented a convertible and drove to our Hotel. It was magical! Just like we had heard, but really didn’t quite believe. Of course we were greeted and given a lei. The grounds were gorgeous! The pools and waterfalls, the lush greens and reds and pinks of the flowers, the flamingos! Flamingos! So far, fabulous! We checked in and our room was on the 5 floor of 10, with the now infamous Double bed. She graciously changed it and we wound up on the 8 floor and a King bed. Our room had a view that took our breath away! Not just the 5 pools and gardens but the ocean was just stunning! We dropped our bags and went to eat by the pool. Fabulous! The next four days were spent sunbathing, walking, shopping, laughing, picture taking, and lots of romantic dinners watching the waves splash onto the beach. Truly, truly paradise!
Hawaii had actually lived up to and surpassed anything we could have dreamed of! It was a sad drive back to the airport and give back our convertible. We are such homebodies and really love to get back home no matter where we’ve been, but we could have stayed on in Hawaii forever, or at least another few days! It is a trip we will always remember and hope to go back someday. It was magical, just magical.....sigh......Gosh, don’t you just love vacations?!!!