Happy Anniversary Baby...

I am lucky to be able to do a bit of traveling in my job & usually get the opportunity to attend one, maybe two conferences a year and in October I had the chance to go to Indianapolis, IN. On the second day of the conference, as a colleague and I were getting on the elevator to go to our next meeting, my cell phone rang. It was Eli and he had just one question for me, "Have you used up all your vacation time visiting Suzy?" I let him know that I still had about three weeks worth of vacation time because I was able to use sick leave when I visited Suzy and didn't think any more of the conversation. You see, Eli was trying to surprise me by booking a Hawaiian cruise for our 20th anniversary which was coming in May. When he hung up the phone after talking to me he explained to the boys what he was up too, and Tanner told him he would never be able to keep the secret.

Well...Tanner was right! After booking the cruise, Eli was having so much fun looking at the different excursions and things there were to do on the different islands that he had to share his excitement with me.

In November while we were down at Norm & Toni's for Thanksgiving, we made arrangements to have dad spend the two weeks during the cruise with them. Then we started booking our excursions and dreaming about fun it was going to be.

The cruise was booked with Princess Cruise Line and the ship that was home for two weeks was the Golden Princess. We boarded at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27th and headed for Hawaii at about 5:30. It takes the ship 4 1/2 days to get to Hawaii, but we had plenty to do during that time. There were workshops, movies, games and street entertainment during the day and wonderful meals and shows in the evenings.

For our dinner option we chose "Open Dining", which meant we could go to dinner any time after 5:30 and would be seated with other couples at the same table. What a wonderful opportunity to meet some great people! It was kind of fun to then run into them at other functions later. There were two of the couples we ended up running into pretty regularly...Dick & Lee from Gulf Shores, Alabama and Rusty & Cheryl from Mesa, Arizona. Not only was it fun getting to know them, but both couples were great examples to us as good Christians. They are all very active volunteering...it actually made Eli and I excited to put a few more years behind us and be able to devote more time in service to the Lord and others.

The first port we visited was in Hilo on the big island. While we were there it was cloudy and cool, but we didn't mind because the excursion we had planned was a hike through the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden near Onomea Bay. Some of the climbs were kinda steep and I don't think we would have enjoyed it as much if the weather had been hot and sunny. The gardens are a museum of living plants on 40-acres. It was wonderful to hike the nature trails meandering through a true tropical rainforest, crossing bubbling streams, passing several beautiful waterfalls and winding down to the beautiful ocean vistas along the rugged Pacific coast.

That evening while we dined and slept, the ship sailed for Honolulu on the island of Oahu. We knew we would be there the whole day, so Eli & I had gone online a reserved tickets & a shuttle to the Polynesian Cultural Center on the other side of the island in Laie. One of the shuttle stops we could choose was at Aloha Tower, which is right by the pier where we were to dock, so we chose it. We got off the ship at 8:30 and didn't need to be at our shuttle stop until 10:00, so we decided we would find the hotel where the shuttle was scheduled to stop then get some breakfast. As we were walking toward Aloha Tower we came upon some cabbies and stopped to ask how far the hotel was...turns out it is nowhere near Aloha Tower, but was 2 1/2 miles away. We figured we could walk it, but the cabbie then told us that it's a $12 ride to the hotel or a $100 ride to the PCC if we miss the shuttle. We opted for the cab ride over, then found breakfast near the hotel. The shuttle was about 10 minutes early and as we were waiting for other passengers we told the bus driver about how messed up the online directions had been, then asked if he thought we would be able to get back to Pier 2 by 10:30 that night. Right then he got on the phone & called dispatch to get permission to make a stop at the pier before going to his first stop. YAY! Now we could go and have fun and not worry about being late for the ship!

The PCC was so much fun. I had been there in 1979 the summer after I graduated, but Eli had never been before. Learning the traditions and beliefs of all the Polynesian cultures was fun...seeing the pride that the people in the shows had for their culture was heartwarming. The shows in the villages were all very entertaining. Then we attended a luau with lots of tasty food and entertainment.

We were invited up to the stage with everyone else that was celebrating an anniversary because they said they had a gift...the gift was an anniversary dance!

After dinner we got to have a backstage tour before the big show began. How interesting to see all that goes in to putting on their production "Ha: Breath of Life" It was like a roadshow on steroids!

The evening sky after the show was absolutely gorgeous!

We had a few late passengers on the bus going back & were a little worried when the bus that was chartered by Princess for cruise members (we saved $200 by booking separately) left 10 minutes before us, but our wonderful bus driver Moe was able to make up the time & we arrived at the pier at the same time...Good thing! Princess will leave you if you are late getting back from an excursion that was not booked through them.

After such a busy day we went right to bed and woke up in Nawiliwili on Kaua'i.

We did a little shopping in the morning and then went snorkeling at noon. WOW! It was all so BEAUTIFUL! The colors of the fish were so vibrant, and there were so many different kinds in the little cove where we were. We also saw some sea turtles that had come in to the rocks to feed.

Our tour guide also caught an octopus, which I opted not to hold!

We had so much fun snorkeling that we have decided to get our own gear and make it a new hobby.

That night while we slept the ship sailed for Lahaina on Maui.

We signed up to go on a submarine tour while in Lahaina. A boat took us out to where the submarine was submerged. When it surfaced we traded places with the people from the previous tour. The seating on the sub was arranged in a way that each person had their own port hole to look out. We went down to 194 ft. below sea level. It was fun to do, but the fish weren't nearly as beautiful as the ones we saw snorkeling. The fish are so far from sunlight that all their beautiful colors look grey. The only color we could see that deep was yellow. We did get to see a shark though...it was too fast to get a picture.

My picture of the yellow fish didn't turn out, so this is from the Atlantis website.

Four islands in four days! It was so much fun though. The islands are all so different from each other that visting each one brought new scenery, vegetation and weather.

The four days from Hawaii to Encinada were very relaxing! The ship docked in Encinada for 1/2 a day before returning to Las Angeles...it needed to dock in a foreign port in order to run the casino. After being so busy with all our excursions, it was nice to relax. One of the perks that Princess offers is having breakfast brought to your stateroom every morning, but on the way back we chose to sleep in instead. We spent lazy days visiting with the friends we made and there was still plenty of entertainment in the evenings.

There were a few more formal evenings on the ship. It was a lot of fun to get dressed up and have our pictures taken.

Rusty & Cheryl Foster

It just so happened that one of the formal nights was on our new friend Rusty's 65th birthday and another was on he and his wife Cheryl's 45th wedding anniversary and we were lucky enough to celebrate with them. The last night of the cruise was our 20th anniversary, so even though it wasn't a formal night they got dressed up with us to celebrate. What a fun evening enjoying the company of our new friends!

Michelle & Eli, Robert & Janet, Rusty & Cheryl

Lee & Dick

What a wonderful way to celebrate 20 years together!

It's funny...at our wedding reception someone told me, "Congratulations! We just hope it lasts!" I wasn't sure whether to say thanks or what. Anyway, it hasn't always been easy. We have started down several roads and found we needed to go back to the beginning and start again, but we are truly best friends and there is no one else I would rather be going through this life with as my eternal partner!