Hawaii, childhood, and the threads that connect us

So many photos I know, but it’s been almost a month already since our trip and we’re fully entrenched back in Brooklyn life. Looking at these photos now make our time in Hawaii seem like a dream. Isn’t that a funny thing?

In many ways this Hawaii trip brought us full circle. We brought the girls to the hotel where we got married in Kahala and had afternoon tea service much like we did the day before the wedding. That hotel lobby is as grand as ever and this might have been the best tea service I’ve had any where yet.

It’s pretty surreal bringing the kids back to where you got married. Much like showing them where you grew up, which is what Mark’s mom did on her birthday – we all drove to her childhood home. On one of our visits to Hawaii one year, the owners of the house were kind enough to let us inside. We try to imagine what her childhood was like, in that house, growing up in Hawaii, and we love hearing stories about the past when we visit with her childhood and college friends who still live on the island. Like many places these days, Oahu is more populated, the traffic is heavier and the weather seems to be shifting ever so slightly, but noticeably. We can even see the difference from the last time we were here 13 years ago. But despite the uncomfortable heat and humidity this time around, it took nothing away from the wonderful time that we had. The girls had the best time, and they are lucky kids indeed.

I went back and read some of the early entries when I first started writing on this blog. We had just started the business, Miss C was a baby and money was very, very tight. We didn’t travel much back then. Most of our travel still revolves around family visits, but we make most of the travel time that we have. I remember making a commitment after we had some financial breathing room to travel more. Buy experiences, not things.

One of my favorite memories from our trip is the evening an old family friend took us to a secret spot at sundown to see Wedge Tailed Sheerwaters fly back to their nesting place to take care of their babies. It was too cloudy that evening for a picturesque sunset, but the clouds added to the atmosphere at Black Rock. As the light grew faint, the birds started flying back, their wings spread out in impressive fashion, and they started swirling all around us. That was an experience that only a local could show you; that is an experience that is worth more than anything you can buy.