Roxanne and I had always wanted to go and explore Hawaii for our whole lives and our dreams finally came true when we went to the island of Oahu for our summer vacation in 2009. It was also my gift to her for completing and graduating college and getting her special needs teacher's license. That meant when the summer break was over and the schools went back to work, she would start work at Unique Flowers School again, but this time she would no longer be an assistant teacher and, now that she would be a fully licensed special needs teacher, she would have her own classroom and she would get to be in charge of the classes she would teach in it. But first we had two weeks to go to Oahu and have fun there.


Roxanne and I always knew we were going to have a great vacation in Oahu, but even when we actually got there, the incredible island still blew our minds more than we could ever imagine it would.

After we flew from Spoonerville Airport and landed at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, we caught a taxi, which drove us to the city of Honolulu and to the small hotel we stayed at. The hotel was small, but it was lovely. We liked our room, our bed, our bathroom, our TV, our balcony and we liked the hotel's restaurant and enjoyed all the delicious Hawaiian food it provided and all the hotel staff were very friendly and professional.

Roxanne and I had a great time exploring the island of Oahu. We went to plenty of its beautiful beaches, including the great Waikiki Beach among them, and we would either relax on them or going swimming in the sea or snorkelling in it and seeing many of its beautiful, colorful reefs with many of its unique, beautiful marine life. And while at the beaches, I would seize every opportunity I could to go surfing on the waves, whether it was ordinary surfing or wind surfing or kite surfing – I did all three of them on the waves and I still can't decide which one I liked doing the best because they were all amazing experiences in their own unique ways. I would go and do other water sports like water-skiing, jet-skiing, banana-boating and parasailing among them. As usual, Roxanne didn't do those water sports with me, except if it was body boarding or snorkelling in the sea, but she would relax on the beach and she enjoyed watching me have fun on the water.

We also went to visit the stunningly gorgeous Honolulu Botanical Gardens and enjoyed the gorgeous, unique trees and plants and wildlife there.

We also enjoyed doing a lot of fun hiking on this island as well. One day, we did the incredible Diamond Head Trial and on another day we went to the beautiful Manoa Falls and on another day we went to the amazing Koko Crater Trail. We enjoyed doing all those wonderful hikes.

I'll always remember the day when Roxanne and I went on a tour boat to go whale and dolphin watching. We saw plenty of them and it was an incredible experience.

I'll never forget the day when Roxanne and I went to visit Kualoa Ranch. We had a great exploring it and I had a great recognizing all the locations used for the Jurassic Park movie franchise. Roxanne hadn't seen any of those movies, but she still enjoyed seeing the ranch and all its glorious naturalistic beauty and wildlife and everything on it.

I still remember the day when Roxanne and I went to the Iolani Palace and we walked around it and learned about its history, which we both found very interesting. On the same day, we also went to look at the Aloha Tower, which we enjoyed seeing too.

I remember the day when Roxanne and I went to Pearl Harbor National Memorial and we enjoyed seeing the USS Arizona, the USS Oklahoma and the USS Utah Memorials and learning about them and their very brave crews and all their heroic deeds during the Second World War.

I'll never forget the day when Roxanne and I went to the Wet 'n' Wild Hawaii water park. We went on the right day as it was baking hot and the water slides, the Hawaiian Waters Wave Pool and the Kapolei Kooker lazy river among the other activities we did there were exactly what we needed to help us remain cool. And I'm still very proud that we went very early when we did before the water park got busier as the day went on.

I still remember the day when I went to the Coral Crater Adventure Park, where I had a fun time with the ziplines, off-road ATVs and the Adventure Tower. I invited Roxanne to come with me, even though I knew she didn't fancy going as these types of activities aren't her cup of tea. But she didn't mind me going to do them for a few hours, so while I went to the park to do them, she spent some of those hours doing some shopping at the Ala Moana Center and the rest of them resting at the hotel. Then when I got back, we spent the rest of the day together and I told her all about the fun I had at the park and then she told me about her adventures in the Ala Moana Center.

And when Roxanne and I weren't out exploring the island of Oahu, we would relax in our hotel. Sometimes we would relax in our room or by the massive swimming pool and sometimes I would hit the gym.

And we loved all the delicious, unique foods we ate. We enjoyed all our delicious breakfasts that the hotel served us in its restaurant every morning and we enjoyed eating and drinking at plenty of the island's amazing cafes and restaurants. I'll never forget the days when we both tried poke, shaved ice, loco moco, Laua Stew and chocolate haupia cream pies among them for the first time.


So, yes, Roxanne and I had a great vacation and I still think it was one of the very best vacations both of us had ever been on, if not the very best one. And everything about it – the amazing places we went to and explored, the delicious foods and drinks, the friendly people and the other incredible experiences we went through – was completely awesome and mind-blowing and, of course, the very best part of it was sharing it with Roxanne – and she said the same about me – but what made this vacation even more special to both of us was a very special night during it, which I will explain about it in more details in the next chapter.