Come fly with me.....those words are suppose to evoke feelings of excitement, dreams of adventures to be had, and most of all....freedom! There have been many a song sung about flying and all that it brings, yet those words cause nothing but fear and trembling for me. I know, I know, I have a better chance of dying in a car accident than an airplane, but by golly at least I can pretend I'm in control as I'm slamming on the brakes and steering wildly. And you know, somehow those many seconds of freefalling from 10,000 feet just seem like they would take way longer than that same amount of seconds trying to avert disaster on a roadway somewhere. So why am I pondering such morbid thoughts anyway, because flying is just what we are going to do in 2 short days. The Brandt's are going to Hawaii! We've been planning this trip for a few years now and it's finally happening.
Our first attempt was 2 years ago. We were going to take the kids to Hawaii and show them where we were "Just Maui'd" on the island of Maui (I know very not punny), for our 20th anniversary. We scrimped and saved and came up with the bucks to buy the airfare, which was a ridiculous sum....one could say it was enough to buy a whole new furnace/AC system for a house. Too bad one said that, because that is just what we had to do.....buy a whole new furnace/AC. There went our plan, our trip to the tropics, and looking through the glass half-empty, we could've been a little disappointed. However, looking through the glass half-full, it was a miracle that we had the money to get a new AC during the height of summer. God is good and His timing is better. Can you tell which glass I'm lookin' at? As it turns out, we find ourselves in October 2012, having saved enough to make that trip. We won't be going to Maui, but we will be spending time on Oahu and the "Big Island". And rather than celebrating an anniversary, we will be celebrating Paul's 50th birthday. Also, having spent the last 2 months of our school year studying Marine Biology and Hawaiian History, we will get to put our new found knowledge to the test and live and breathe it for 15 days. There will be tours, tales of daring-do amongst the sea creatures, and another state capital to add to our "been there, saw that" list. But the highlight has to be the chance to be in Kona to watch and experience the excitement of the Ironman World Championships! I think in the end, this will be a greater experience than what we had hoped and planned back in 2010.
So come along and enjoy this diary of our trip. It's written to share our experiences and the wonders of God's creation, as well as keeping my memories for me, because well, my brain is getting as bad as my eyesight.
