For years I have been bugging my hubby to take me to Hawaii. It is one of those dream vacations I have wanted to go on for as long as I can remember (I don’t know why we didn’t pick it for the honeymoon—we went to Cancun instead). Needless to say, I never got there. So as our 20th anniversary approached (it’s next month) I got tired of waiting and gave him an ultimatum. I’d like to say I’m not proud of throwing down the demand, but well… because of his job, *I* can’t plan trips. It all has to be (delicately) worked around his schedule—which is always crazy thanks to the wonderful world of sports….

Anyhoo, I nagged and nagged until he *finally* sat down and looked over his schedule and made plans to take off work. Last week (and the week before—we left on the 24th and got back on the 3rd) the hubby and I took a very long-overdue vacation to Oahu. It was nine, glorious kid-free days. Don’t get me wrong, I missed my kids, but that is the longest I have been away from them EVER. And the first time the hubby and I were both gone together for more than 2 nights—we’ve taken two trips sans kids in the last 20 years—and one was only night away. We were due. And thanks to the MIL who came and stayed with the kids, we got to get away.

For my first (and hopefully not last) trip to Hawaii, I have to say the experience was … strange. Starting from the airport itself. It’s an open air airport. Sure there are doors where the gates are but to get from one part to another, you walk all exposed. Even the lobbies at most of the hotels there are open air. As best as I could discern ours had no doors whatsoever (we stayed at the Aston Beach Waikiki hotel). It didn’t rain much while we were there, but I could only imagine what a bad storm would do. And we were lucky the section our room was in, the front door wasn’t inside like 90% of the rooms. We had a view front and back (and despite what my 13yo said, it was not a motel even though our door was out in the open). From our hotel balcony we could see beach and ocean in one direction and mountains in the other. And  Diamondhead—a large crater—out the front door. Having living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area since I was 9, I am not used to seeing elevation.

Weirder still was seeing all the people all over the place, it was pretty busy—and oh so many Japanese (they had three major Holidays in Japan that fell at the end of April so that was the busy Hawaiian time for them). There were a few restaurants on the end of the strip where we were but most days we walked about a mile to eat. It seems like a lot, but when you pass by 20+ ABC (touristy convenience) stores, not to mention every store you can think of (Coach, Ferrari, Apple mixed in with mom and pop shops as well as the touristy selection, too) the mile doesn’t seem that long.

I will say, we were pretty busy the entire time between booked tours, surf lessons and snorkeling to going to the zoo and then hiking up Diamondhead—I made it to the top, but there were several a couple of ify moments! For the most part we didn’t “relax” except on the day I got sick and we couldn’t do much (and that wasn’t so much relaxing). We were lucky to be there during the Spam Jam—if you’re curious, it’s a day they celebrate… Spam. They bring our food vender carts all with Spam dishes (and we’re talking medium to high end food folks—though the McDonalds up the street always has it on the menu). The hubby got a Spam sushi roll (I didn’t try any, sorry). He said it wasn’t horrible.

But like I said, it was nine days as a wonderful vacation. Such a beautiful island, and believe it or not I had zero allergies or sinus issues. And despite the 8.5 hour flight out and 7.5 hours flight home (I guess the winds were *really* with us)—and not sleeping either way—I would totally go back even though I have now completed a dream vacation and checked something off my bucket list! And watching Hawaii 5-0 when I got back, I recognized streets and places they were—pretty cool!

Do you have a dream vacation? Any plans to make it happen? Or have you checked one off you list already? I hate to tell the hubby, but I am now thinking up ideas for our 25th anniversary… bwaaahhhhhhh ….