After travelling to Paris in April and the Butchart and Butterfly Gardens in May, I received a spontaneous and surprise invitation from my son, Will, in late July to visit him and his girlfriend, Amy, on the North Shore of Oahu for a week.
I love spontaneity, as you’ve probably surmised by now, and he didn’t have to twist my arm very hard at all to accept his wonderful invite.
Their studio bungalow served as a perfect launching pad for lots of adventures and the making of very special memories indeed.


They were the perfect hosts, providing lots of homemade island yummy treats and meals from their kitchen and my ‘bedroom’ was outside under the stars no less!
Lucky for me, Amy even works at a
great coffee shop! After arming ourselves with wonderful freshly brewed Hawaiian coffee, we headed to the local farmer’s market to gather some fresh veggies and Poke! Yum!

Later that first day, we made homemade lemon drops (double YUM!) and headed to Will and Amy’s favourite beach, what they have dubbed “Pools,” just down the road to watch the sunset.



A perfect ending to a perfect first day in paradise!
The following day, after a wonderful and filling island breakfast…
we visited their favourite roadside fruit stand and walked to Kewela Beach.



and finished the day at Turtle Bay resort watching yet another gorgeous sunset.
We enjoyed a lot of activities during the week, including the Haleiwa Arts Festival…


One day I helped Will propagate a few newly sprouted baby water lilies in a nursery bed from his lily pond…

while the precious Gheckos kept the porch clean…
and just had a nice, ‘hang loose’ kind of afternoon.
I thought it was a perfect day spent with my son, but little did I know he still had a few surprises up his sleeves for later that evening.
He prepared a wonderful meal for all of use, utilizing the fresh herbs he grows on his lanai…
and we savoured it outside under the rising full moon laughing, talking and just having one heck of a great time together.
We sat there altogether on the grass enjoying the beauty of the moon filled sky when Will decided this was the perfect moment he had been waiting for…
He reached in his pocket and pulled out my mother’s wedding rings which he had asked me to bring with me…
and he proposed to Amy and she said “YES!”
Is that just so darned romantic or what?!? I felt so honored and pleased to be able to share that special memory-making event with those two happy people who are in love!
Before that blessed week came to an end I managed to do a few more things like…snorkeling and collecting seashells for my friends in Scotland and Ireland (per request)…
went sightseeing around the island….and on the final morning of my visit (as usual) I headed down to the beach one last time….
Afterwards, I headed out to the small local airport where Will works.
I watched the skydivers flying above and coming in for landings on the airstrip…
I got to meet a lot of the great people he works with; fellow skydivers, parachute packers, and then…
We climbed aboard this airplane…
and I got to do a tandem jump with my son! Oh my goodness, it just doesn’t get much better than this! Talk about an adventure. It’s divine to fly like a bird soaring at 14,000 feet and I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather do it with. He’s the best of the best!
He even gave me control of the canopy and showed me how to turn… what a kick!

Well, that concludes this three-part blog of my travel adventures so far this year. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I’ve been wanting to catch up with myself for months and been trying to find the time to write these blog posts before I set off on yet another adventure.
In less than one weeks’ time, I’ll have my bags packed once again. I am headed back to Scotland and Ireland for 2 months. Many, many more travel adventures await! Stay tuned. See you in Scotland!
Like this:
Like Loading...