Putting my feet in a new place...

People are always surprised when I say we've never been to Hawaii. It's just a 6 hour flight for us, much shorter than just about everyone I met during our 11 days on the Big Island. Some people came all the way from central Canada and the Great Lakes states, escaping their brutal winter.

But it's not the distance that kept us away. It was actually a promise I made to myself when I was twenty:  to not go to Hawaii until I'd been to the Caribbean. But we never went, and when friends invited us to go along with them on their vacation, we decided it was time.

We're no strangers to a beach vacation in March, but it's always been the cool Washington coast that attracted us. We spent our honeymoon in a cabin on the bluff above the beach, and usually manage to make it back there each year. But this year, we'll celebrate our anniversary on a much warmer beach!

I'm already loving the sunshine, the lush green foliage, and the beautiful flowers.

And the gekkos.

And that I already feel relaxed.