This Glorious Adventure

What a crazy weekend !! I’m not sure we could be any more spontaneous! Last minute flights, spur of the moment snorkeling trips, cancelled flights, switched destinations, lost bags, and way below freezing weather with no jackets makes for an anniversary to remember!

Thursday night my hubby and I sat down to discuss what we wanted to do for our 12th anniversary that coming Sunday. He told me to plan something, he was so busy with work he just left it up to me. So after looking at a couple different ideas, I found a good deal on flights to Oahu, HI, and thought why not?! I told my hubby we were leaving for Hawaii the next morning, and we scrambled to find childcare (ever grateful to his mom and mine for agreeing to watch our littles for us at such short notice!), pack our bags (after realizing most of our summer clothing is thousands of miles away in our trailer in San Diego!), and head to bed, dreaming of warm weather and sandy toes!

We arrived in Honolulu at 10:00pm after a relatively uneventful flight, got checked into our gorgeous hotel, the Moana Surfrider (where they upgraded us to an ocean view balcony room once they heard it was our anniversary!), and headed out for a bite to eat.

The next morning we woke up to a gorgeous view of the bright turquoise ocean contrasted by the deep green Diamond-head Volcano right down the sandy palm tree lined beach.

First things first, we headed down for an amazing breakfast at the hotel, complete with our fill of Hawaiian coffee and tropical fruit, under the gorgeous banyan tree in the courtyard. Having never been to Hawaii before, we decided to explore on foot a little. We walked all the way to the other end of the world famous Waikiki beach, and then turned around and walked along the street on the way back. We stopped by the statue of a famous surfer where my hubby volunteered to take a photo of me, and then a sweet old man offered to take a photo of the two of us together !! He was so hilarious, telling us how and where to pose, asking if we were on our honeymoon, that I was only mildly nervous that he was going to run off with my phone !!

Upon arrrival back at our hotel, we stopped at the concierge desk to see about attending a Luau, and we promptly booked one for that night ! We took another stroll around town, stopped in to buy my husband some swim shorts (remember how I said most of our summer clothes were still in San Diego, well that included ALL of his swim shorts !) and sandals, and then went back to the hotel room to change and head to the shuttle bus for the luau!

We had a great time at the luau, where we did some spear throwing, took a short ride in an outrigger canoe, watched them climb a coconut tree (and shower us with flowers from up in the tree !), had a delicious Hawaiian BBQ dinner, and then saw the fire dancers, which was an incredible experience!

Sunday morning arrived (which was the day of our anniversary !), and with it beautiful clear skies and a soft ocean breeze. The breakfast brunch under the banyan tree was a perfect way to start off our anniversary, and while eating we looked out at the catamarans along the beach and I wondered out loud what they were for, and if we could possibly get a ride on one (a dream of mine!). “Look it up on your phone!” My hubby suggested, and I quickly did just that, and discovered that not only could you ride them, but they also do a tour where you can snorkel with sea turtles !! The tour started at 10:00am, and I looked at my watch only to realize it was 9:50am, and I was a little disappointed that we’d basically just missed it. Next thing I knew my amazing husband jumped up and disappeared, only to come back 2 minutes later declaring that I’d better run and get my swimsuit on real quick as we were leaving in 5 minutes! I dropped my fork, left my breakfast half eaten, ran to my room and got changed, and headed down to the boat in a daze. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening !

As we got on the boat I remembered that I’m actually terrified of swimming in the ocean, and the thought of swimming where I could actually see fish around me was enough to make me start mildly panicking, but I so badly wanted to swim with sea turtles that I made up my mind that I was going to conquer that fear.

That was all well and good, until the time came to jump in the ocean. My hubby went first, and as I stood there, toes hanging over that deep dark ocean where anything could be lurking below, I nearly lost my nerve. Before I could finish my panicked thought, I jumped, knowing if I stood there any longer I wouldn’t do it and would forever regret it.

I hit the water. Surfaced, and momentarily found myself unable to breathe, totally forgetting how to swim (and I have always been 100% comfortable in any depth of water, having nearly gotten my lifeguard ticket, swimming being one of my absolute favorite things ever). The thought of what might be under that surface was making me start to hyperventilate, and it was all I could do to stay outwardly calm and not look like I was drowning. “Just swim” I told myself, “don’t think about what’s below, just focus on swimming over to the group.” “You ok?” my hubby asked me, and I nodded, fighting back the panic that was overtaking me.

As I focused on my swimming, I found myself slowly starting to calm down, and amazingly even starting to get curious about what it looked like under the water! I reached the group, put my snorkel in my mouth, looked down, and …. suddenly I was suffocating. I couldn’t figure out how to breathe through the snorkel, there were little fish all around me, and the panic quickly started setting in again. I lifted my head and spat out the snorkel, trying to gasp for air. I pulled off my mask, took a deep breath through my nose, calmed down, and put my mask back on, deciding that next time I’d just hold my breath and not try and use the snorkel.

The next time I put my face in, I just held my breath, told myself little fish don’t hurt people, and looked for the turtles. It took my breath away, but this time in an amazing awe-inspiring way. What a sight to see, these massive creatures, with the most adorable faces, not at all scared of us, just hanging out over the reef letting the fish clean their shells.

After about 15-20 minutes I was able to calm down enough to start using the snorkel, and I could have stayed there for hours, just watching the turtles, the hundreds of adorable and colourful fish, the eels that kept poking their heads out of the rocks, and just taking it all in. It was such an incredible experience. Let me tell you, conquering your fears could be the best thing that you’ve ever done, it sure was for me that day !

Upon getting back to land, we decided to just hang out on the beach, swimming and enjoying the warmth and sunshine on our last day there. We swam for hours, pausing only to stop for a drink (in a pineapple, of course !!), until about 5:00. We finished up our souvenir shopping, then got dressed to go out for our anniversary dinner !!

We had made reservations at Azure, at the Royal Hawaiian, which was just a short walk down the beach from our hotel. It was perfect, good service, great atmosphere (right on the beach, so you had the waves crashing as your background music !), and delicious food. Our waitress surprised us with a delicious slice of flourless chocolate cake with a “happy anniversary” chocolate sign on top, which really made my night, it was such a sweet gesture.

After dinner we went back to the hotel, switched into our sandals, and went and sat on the beach, enjoying the quiet, enjoying just being together.

Monday morning came all too fast, we packed, got one last Hawaiian coffee, and headed to the airport. As we flew over Oahu, I said my last goodbyes, and settled in for the long flight to Seattle. About an hour away from landing, I got a notification on my phone saying our flight from Seattle to home (Kelowna) had been cancelled and rescheduled for the next day (Tuesday) at 1:30. Well that wouldn’t work. My hubby had a flight booked from kelowna to Vancouver Tuesday morning, he was going to be there all day for meetings. Once we landed we headed to the Alaska airlines help desk where a super helpful lady got us flights to Vancouver on Delta Airlines that night, instead of going to kelowna, so that my husband could still make our meetings. We arrived in Vancouver only to find out that our bags hadn’t made it on the plane, and in fact they had no idea where they were. All my warmer clothes were in my bag, and it was -6 in Vancouver. We decided to just to go to the hotel and deal with it in the morning, so we jumped on the skytrain and I froze my behind off the whole way to the hotel.

Next morning we got my hubby’s flight cancelled and refunded, got told by delta to go buy a winter jacket and they’d reimburse us, and I jumped on a flight home to see my kids while my hubby stayed and went to his meetings and flew home late that night.

We finally got word late Wednesday afternoon that our bags had made it to kelowna. Only two days after they were supposed to be there. Thankfully they were all ok, and our kids were over the moon excited to get all the little things we’d brought back for them!

All in all, it was worth every stressful crazy moment. Two days of blissful relaxation in Hawaii was the perfect way to spend our 12th anniversary.