There are not very many big things in my life that have changed the person I am now but I think that my first trip to Hawaii may be one of the very few events that have. I think that through this experience I have since loved exploring and traveling to new places which is a quality that I think is a big part of wholam. On the night of my birthday in December of 2014 as I finished opening my last present my mom went upstairs, when she came back down I noticed she had something in her hand. As she got closer I realized that it was just a card so I didn’t think much of it.
As she handed it to me I asked “For me? ” “No, for me. ” She said sarcastically. So I opened up the envelope and looked at the card. The room was pretty quiet so it made me feel like something was up which made me speed through reading the card. I spotted a piece of white paper at the bottom of the card that was glued in. Once I reached it I started to read more slowly. It was a schedule of flights to and from Kona hawaii! | started jumping up and down squealing.
Once I settled down I was able to ask more questions like “Who else is going? “, and “When do we leave? , and “How long will we stay there? ” And that’s when I found out that one of my very best friend Makenzie and her mom were also coming! And that we were leaving on January 4th and coming back on January 11th. I also found out that Makenzie had an uncle and aunt that would be staying with us at the resort so that they could be our transportation and show us around. I couldn’t wait. The next couple of weeks went very slowly in anticipation for the great trip. It was also hard for me to focus on tasks because my mind would often wander off and get lost in thought about the vacation.
But soon enough the night before we were going to leave came around the corner. The night before our plane was scheduled to depart we made sure all of our suitcases and carry-ons were in the car and ready to go. Before I went to bed I took a shower and laid out my clothes for the next day. I knew we had to get up early to get on the plane so I decided to go to bed earlier than usual so that I could get some more sleep to be a little bit more rested for the long flight. When it was time for bed I crawled in a and pulled my covers over me as I imagined how fun the trip was going to be.
All of the excitement rushed through my body preventing me from getting any sleep. After trying and trying I finally fell asleep around 11:00. When my alarm went off at 3:00am I was still really tired (since I didn’t fall asleep until late at night) but my excitement sprung me right out of bed. I got dressed quickly and went to see if my mom was up yet. Sure enough, she was up in the kitchen making sure all of the last minute things were ready to go which reminded me that I had a To Do List to finish so I went back into my room at glanced at it the first thing was to feed the fish.
After I did that I went back to my room and checked it off and realized that was the only thing I had to do. We left at 3:30 because we had to pick up my friend and her mom and go to the airport. When we got there my mom hopped out of the car and knocked on their door they answered quickly and walked out with their suitcases and carry-ons rolling shortly behind them. Makenzie’s sister, brother, and dad were also up and waved us goodbye as we left. At that point I was more excited for the flight because | had never flown on a plane before and I wondered what it would be like.
Once we finally reached the airport we went through security and got on our plane. It was a lot different than Texpected it to be. I thought it would be a bigger plane but it wasn’t because it was just going from Redmond to Portland. Makenzie and I made a deal that every other flight we would switch the person who got to sit at the window. She was the first up. My favorite part was taking off and landing because you could feel the rush once you got off of the ground or hit the ground.
Once we got to portland we had only a small layover and soon enough we were back in the air on the long last stretch to Hawaii. During that last flight, we got lots of mini packaged Hawaiian snacks which made me more and more excited in anticipation for arriving. For the longest time all i could see out of the window was clouds but finally out of seemingly nowhere We spotted an island. It was Hawaii! We finally made it. As I stepped off of the plane and took a deep breath I felt a rush of fresh humid air flow into my body. I could smell the salt from the ocean too.
I couldn’t believe we had made it! I had wanted to go there all of my life and here it was right before my eyes. Makenzie’s uncle and aunt were going to pick us up at the airport but they hadn’t told us that they were there yet so we decided to look around at some of the gift shops while we ventured our way to the parking lot. They I saw Makenzie’s mom waving us over. Her uncle and aunt had been standing there waiting for us the whole time! They were holding an old ruffed up sign that said all of our names on it. He also had tons of lays around his neck.
It looked like he just got done at hula lessons or something but it turns out that the lays were for us! I was so excited because they were made out of real flowers and they smelled delicious. We all piled in the car and had to go to costco first because we would need food to eat during our stay. The Costco there was pretty much the same as any other costco. After that we drove a little ways to reach our resort. As we pulled into the resort it was gorgeous! It was more beautiful than I ever thought it would be. It looked just like the pictures in magazines.
We checked in and at the front desk and it was even more beautiful it seemed like every direction I would turn it just looked better and better and better. They even had a dolphin enclosure where you could swim with them! Makenzie and I couldn’t wait any longer to go explore and have some fun. So we went to our condo as quickly as we could and put our swimsuits on so that we could go swimming. The rest of our stay there was amazing and we had so much fun I couldn’t wait to go back there sometime even if it was only an hour.
On our way back I knew that I would remember that trip forever and realized how special it was. Ever since that trip to Hawaii I have always remembered how much fun I had and how special I was to get to do that. Going to Hawaii has changed the person I am because It was the first time I had ever been on a really big vacation and the first time that I had ever been on a plane. I think that It has really inspired me to love traveling and exploring new places it also made me realize that trips like this are really special and don’t happen very often.