Hawaii

My hard-working big sister sent me some photos of her time in Hawaii with family. It was great to see her relaxing with the kids. She has worked hard her whole life and just retired after 38 years on the job.

A few years ago my husband, Tom, and I were invited to go to Hawaii with his cousins from the East Coast. There were six of them coming from New York. We flew from San Diego arriving first. I had made arrangements for an accessible van that we picked up on our arrival at the airport. When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted at the curb by some hotel staff with a tray of Guava juice. They explained to us in an apologetic voice that our seventh floor rooms were unavailable, and they hoped we could make do with a bungalow suite, nearer the beach. We said shucks I guess it’ll have to do.

We followed along from the lobby on a winding path past two swimming pools toward the beach. We finally came to a gate that opened onto cottage number two, a two bedroom, two-bath cottage with a kitchen, living room and a private Jacuzzi pool. Just for us. The bellman showed us all the cottage features, including the outdoor barbecue, and told us if we called the kitchen they would send a cook out to BBQ whatever we wanted. After the bellman left, we just looked at each other- wondering when they would catch the mistake and give us the bum’s rush out. The cousins were located in the cottage next door, and everyone had a wonderful week. They even got me into the pool and pushed me around like a deflated beach ball. All week long we got the royal treatment, all we had to say is we're ‘staying in cottage number two’ and the staff fell over themselves to be helpful. The mystery of our good fortune was never completely clear to us. Apparently cousin Caroline combined some timeshare credits that other favors, maybe I don't even want to know. In any event, thanks cousin, it was the trip of a lifetime. The photo here is our view from the cottage.