Growing up Hawaii was always just a dream I hoped to reach at least once and some time in my life. The first “experience” I had with Hawaii was when I was very young, and it didn’t involve me stepping a foot on a plane to get there. Someone very near and dear to me visited the islands for a little while, and ultimately left me with a very bad taste in my mouth towards the state. A hop, skip, and a jump towards many moons later I met a man, both of us going through dark times in our lives, who would later help me realize how indescribable every aspect of the islands are. Hawaii isn’t just a beautiful place to us, not in the least bit. It’s beyond anything we could ever comprehend.
As John has shared so far with you the beginnings of his love for what some of you just see as “just a beautiful place” I look back at my life before John and I can honestly say I’ve never met a person with a passion as deep and as genuine. It fascinated me to the point I was thinking and telling him, “Tell me everything, I want to learn.” To sit here and try to compare our stories is basically pointless, which I’m sure you all will agree. So I’ll tell you what Hawaii has done to me, the experiences I’ve had since meeting John, and a few other fun Hawaii related things along the way.
I remember coming to visit him for the first time at his house, and thinking man, he wasn’t kidding about having a love for Hawaii. His house was decked out from top to bottom, I’ll admit, it was a tad over whelming at first. Now for someone who went through life up to that point just “living life” with a few things I really enjoyed doing but never amounted to my dream job or anything I woke up completely consumed with, walking into his life and home was the start of something completely different then what I had experienced. I learned so very much in such a small amount of time those first few months that when he invited me to come along and share this place with him in Sept. ‘09, I was completely honored, to experience something so very close to him. How could anyone pass that up, right?
Our first trip was to Kauai of course. The Garden Isle, just the nick name in itself excited me to no end, plus everything John had told me. Man, this gal was thrilled and so excited at the very least. To say we hiked was an understatement. I believe we had two, maybe three days tops to do “other things”, but hiking is what we did majority of the time. Hiking anywhere is an accomplishment, but hiking on Kauai, on the lush mountain ridges along the Na Pali coast where at any moment you could fall, pure bliss!!! If you have seen any of our trail pics you’d know we are a couple of dare devils. The helicopter ride was so enjoyable, Waialeale, thank you! Almost every night where we had stayed it rained. Listening to rain is one of my favorite things, it’s so calming. Unable to explain it at the time, Kauai made me feel at peace, from the moment I stepped off the plane and took one deep breathe of its air. Have you every experienced a feeling of all consuming peace or tranquility? Tell me about it.
Til next time...
Mahalo nui loa (thank you so much) for reading - VCD