Vacationing with the Energizer Bunny

Joe and I vacationing in Punta Cana.  My favorite
picture ever... from the best vacation ever. 2005.

Joe and I have a long history of vacationing together. 

In our teens, my parents invited Joe on working vacations to Galveston, North Carolina, Canada, and Chicago.  Then there were the fun trips to Mackinaw Island, the Keys, and a couple trips to Disney.  My brother loved having Joe with us.  I recall how their farting contests made Staci and I squeal. 

I went places with his family too.  We made a few trips to Iowa and somewhere his aunt and uncle lived.  Then there was the house boat trip when I thought we were going to die in a tornado.

Thanks to dad's offer of his time share, we honeymooned in Florida, spending the first part of the week at Ormond Beach and the second part at the Disney Inn, now leased to the military for ninety-nine years.  Nice for the military, not so nice for a nostalgic return-to-where-it-all-began trip for us.

Our boys benefitted from our love affair with Disney.  They've both been there several times. 

As the years passed, I longed for something different than the action-packed kiddie vacations we'd been taking.  My ideal vacation involves lots of history or lots of sun, sand, and water.  Joe's involves lots of activity - and by lots I mean action-packed times ninety-nine.

In 2004, Dad offered us a week in his time-share at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  Hilton Head offers something for both of us - I practically drooled over the thought of the historical mansions, Civil War sites, the Atlantic Ocean... Brochures showed all kinds of Energizer Bunny-friendly activity.  Without doing my now customary average temperature research, I packed for the warm southern clime and spent the week freezing and miserable.

"Never again!" I shouted to myself.  I might have screamed in my pillow a couple times.  I may have blasted Joe a few times with The Look.  As if it's his fault the weather was crap.

My beloved, always one to do what it takes to make me happy, finally agreed to leave the blessed United States, and the next year I got my heart's desire:  a trip to the Caribbean.  Punta Cana, Dominican Island, to be exact.  Even better, we traveled with two other families.  It was a week-long party. We all fell in love with the white beaches and blue, blue water.  I couldn't stand to miss a sun rise, so I don't think I slept later than 4:45 any morning. I felt like I was on the edge of the world as I watched the light spread across the horizon.

We've since tried other vacations.  We've been to Mazatlan four of the subsequent years and tried a cruise once (ick).  I didn't think we'd be able to vacation this year.  Adam and I are in college, so money's tight.  Jakob's playing basketball, so the schedule's tight.  Everyone has a different Spring Break, so someone wouldn't be able to go...

Guess what?  I was wrong! 

Joe surprised me with an anniversary present I wasn't expecting:  two tickets to Hawaii the first week of January!  For the first time in nearly twenty years, we are going to spend a week alone together - no kids, no friends - in what I hear is one of the most beautiful places on earth with an average daily temperature over 80 degrees.  I'm not even nervous about finding things for him to do (yet!) with all the waterfalls, beaches, volcanoes, and hula girls.  Even better, we depart in less than a month!

Boy am I glad I stayed married.