Unexpected Vacation

“It looks like I may be sent out of the country for a job pretty soon,” he said. The grin on his face was unmistakable. I knew he was up to something.

“Out of the country? Oh you mean Canada? Haha. That’s a stretch.” Living less than two hours from the Canadian border doesn’t make his announcement seem like a very big deal. Somehow I just knew that wasn’t what he was talking about.

“No… I have a job to do… on Oahu.”

So there it was! Oahu. For the past two months we had been trying to figure out how our budget would allow us to take another vacation with the kids. Last year’s trip to Hawaii—Oahu and Maui—had been amazing and refreshing, and I was ready to go back as soon as we touched down at home last year. Heck, I’d move there in a heartbeat. A family vacation just wasn’t in the budget this year.

The sand and the sea were my first loves. Growing up as a Coast Guard kid, a “Brat” as it were, caused me to become very in tune with the ocean. I love it. I can bury my bare feet in the sand, close my eyes and hear the surf, and I’m home.

I watched my Dad come and go at all hours of the day or night, responding to his pager on “B-2”, meaning he had to be ready at any given time to be underway in no more than two hours. He always came home with stories of fishing boats in distress, dumb sail boarders and jet skiiers, and the occasional tragedy ending in him zipping a body into a black bag. The ocean has never been something I would mess with.

But it has always been home to me.

I don’t love swimming in the ocean, because everyone knows that Jaws will eat us and the ocean can swallow us, never to be seen again. I have always had a healthy fear and respect for the big blue. The Pacific ocean where I grew up wasn’t warm, clear and blue, it was dark and murky and cold. The waters off Hawaii are so unlike the ones off the coast of California. There I can cautiously snorkel and love every minute of it. Unless we see a shark. Then all bets are off.

Hawaii is a tourist destination.

It is noisy and crowded and full of tourists, right? Well, yes and no. Waikiki Beach and the strip there on Oahu IS crowded. It IS full of tourists, yet even there we still found beach after uncrowded, pristine beach. A lot of my preconceived notions about the paradise islands were rocked to the core last year. This year, we were blessed with a gift, this trip that my husband has to make, that his company is allowing me to tag along for.

Let’s face it. Any good boss knows you don’t send a married guy to Hawaii without his wife. You don’t let them take their kids along, either, because it would cost too much. And maybe they haven’t been alone for a  whole week in years.

Years, people.

So with only a week to plan it, we will head to Oahu. Yes, he’s got about three days’ worth of work to do and oh my goodness what will I do with myself, alone for three whole daytimes by myself in Waikiki?

I’m sure I will find plenty to do! Ha Ha!

Since this blog is brand new, and I haven’t really made it into anything yet, I think I’ll blog my way through our trip. We’re staying at a nice hotel, we’re taking some really great day trips, and I’ll share it all with you.

I will definitely be sharing food as I try to find foods to eat that fit into the Survivor Fitness Challenge food plan that I’m currently doing. (I’ll only miss one weigh in and I’ll have to get in my 3 workouts somehow.) And we have to find the Shave Ice stand where we got the above masterpiece last time. It was the best!

So join us. Aloha Oahu!