How we came to love the Hawaiian Islands

Single paycheck preachers with kids do not really take vacations. They go home to visit parents, which is what we did until 1988. I had a widow friend who needed help with her yard work so I became her lawn boy for a year, visit, then mow once or twice a month.

One day she told me of an inheritance from her sisters estate, and would we escort her on one last vacation to Hawaii. She was 83 at the time. So dear Mrs. Carter, Laura and I enjoyed four days on Maui and three days on Oahu. I still remember waking up jet lagged early after our after dark arrival and seeing and smelling and hearing the coming alive of the birds and the ocean on the ridge overlooking Black Rock at the Sheraton Maui Resort. We really gave Mrs. Carter the trip she dreamed for, and we had a special time as well, and we were hooked by the beauty.

It took a long time to get back, our 25th Anniversary and a two income family, but we loved Kauai in 2000, and our ill advised time share purchase brought us back in 2001 with part of our family, then 2004, friends shared their condo with us in 2006 on Oahu, and we had two glorious weeks split between Maui and Kauai in 2010.

Lord willing, Big Island of Hawaii will be our next trip.