June 2, 2011 – Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
The interior of the giant passenger jet was dark except for a few overhead reading lights. Wyatt stared out the window at the vast blackness of the Pacific Ocean below. Then he turned toward Dawn, who was asleep against his shoulder. She looked prettier than ever. Her hair still held the curls she had worn for their wedding. The reception ended thirty hours ago and so far, it seemed like most of their lives as newlyweds had been spent waiting in airports.
The early morning flight from Rapid City to Denver had been right on time, but the connecting flight to Honolulu was hit with one mechanical delay after another. Their originally scheduled landing at 5pm was pushed to 10:30. Before she fell asleep, Dawn encouraged Wyatt not to stress about things they could not control.
Wyatt had happily stepped aside and let Dawn plan the wedding and the honeymoon. She had two requirements, which she had decided on as a little girl. She wanted to be married in June and she wanted to go to Hawaii.
“When we get to Hawaii, it will be our first time seeing the ocean,” Dawn told the members of her and Wyatt’s families.
Finding an adult in Rapid City, South Dakota who had never seen the ocean was not all that unusual. It was close to the spot in the continental United States farthest from the Atlantic or the Pacific.
“If you want to see the ocean, you don’t have to go all the way to Hawaii,” said Dawn’s uncle. “Why don’t you go to California or Florida? That would be a lot cheaper.”
“Yeah, Hawaii’s overrated,” agreed Wyatt’s uncle. “The whole ocean’s overrated. I’d go to Las Vegas if it was up to me.”
“Las Vegas? No, you’ve got to go somewhere special on your honeymoon,” said Dawn’s aunt. “Have you thought about Mexico or Costa Rica? I know someone who has a timeshare, and they can get you a deal on a beautiful place.”
“We’re going to Hawaii,” Dawn insisted. “That’s the best place for honeymoons, just like June is the best month for weddings. I don’t want to hear your other ideas.”
As Wyatt watched her sleeping next to him on the plane, he guessed her smile meant that she was dreaming of the Hawaiian paradise in front of them. He felt the angle of the plane tilt slightly. Then the captain’s voice came over the speakers announcing they were making their descent toward Honolulu. A flight attendant appeared a few minutes later to push Dawn’s seat forward.
“Are we there?” Dawn asked Wyatt in a sleepy but excited voice.
“I don’t see anything yet,” said Wyatt, looking out the window. “Oh wait, now we’re out of the clouds. I see some lights. And it’s raining.”
Dawn stretched over Wyatt to get her own look. She squeezed his hand in anticipation and held onto it until the jet touched down. She and Wyatt followed the other passengers out to the skybridge.
“I can smell the Hawaiian air,” said Dawn. “It’s sweet like a flower. Kind of a wet flower right now.”
As she reached the gate inside the airport, Dawn stopped so that other passengers had to walk around her.
“What’s wrong?” asked Wyatt.
“Where are the leis? Isn’t someone supposed to put a lei around our necks? That’s what they do in the movies. Did we arrive too late at night?”
“Maybe you get them in some other part of the airport,” said Wyatt. “Let’s get our bags. Maybe that’s where they hand out the leis.”
Wyatt and Dawn were not handed leis when they picked up their luggage nor when they reached the car rental counter. Dawn greeted the woman behind the counter with, “Aloha.”
“Aloha,” the woman said in return. “What’s the name on the reservation?”
Wyatt gave the woman his full name and then asked, “How long has it been raining?”
“It rains like this a lot, usually at night.”
“So the skies should be clear in the morning?”
“Should be. You want the convertible, right?”
“Right,” said Dawn. “We want to drive along the beach with the top down.”
Despite Dawn’s driving plans, the top stayed up and the windshield wipers on as the couple drove away from the airport. Dawn read off directions as they navigated their way toward downtown Honolulu and Waikiki Beach.
“Does this seem right to you?” asked Dawn.
“What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t expecting a freeway and these tall buildings. It’s like we’re in Denver, not on an island.”
“A lot of people live here,” replied Wyatt. “I guess they all can’t live in grass huts.”
As they pulled up to the entrance of the Tropical Breezes Resort, Dawn looked straight up at the glass and concrete tower. She checked that the name on the sign matched what was printed on her travel plan.
“This is a beach resort? I thought we’d be out over the water, like in the grass huts you were talking about. We’d walk out to them on a wooden dock and see fish underneath.”
“Are you wishing we went somewhere else?” asked Wyatt.
“I’m sure it will look better in the daylight. Once it stops raining,” replied Dawn hopefully.
Wyatt carried their bags into the lobby and they found the check-in desk. “Aloha,” said Wyatt to the young man behind the desk, dressed in a flowery Hawaiian shirt.
“Yeah, Aloha,” replied the hotel clerk.
“We’re here on our honeymoon. We’re supposed to have a special room reserved,” said Wyatt before reciting his full name.
“We had you scheduled to arrive a lot sooner.”
“Yeah, the plane got stuck in Denver.”
The clerk frowned as he tapped on his computer. “Someone thought you would be a no-show. Looks like they gave your original room away. No problem. I can get you something else.”
“It’ll still be a special honeymoon room?”
“Not to worry. All our rooms are special.”
Wyatt and Dawn took the elevator up to the twenty-fifth floor and found their special room. It had two queen beds, tile floors, and a TV. Watercolor paintings of surfers and barrel waves hung on the wall. Dawn went right to the window and pulled back the curtains. Straight ahead, the lights of downtown Honolulu were visible through the rain. To one side, was a flat patch of darkness.
“Do you think that could be the ocean?” asked Dawn.
Wyatt crowded behind her and looked where Dawn was pointing. “Yeah, that’s definitely the ocean.”
“Then I guess I can say I’ve seen the ocean. I can’t wait to see it in the sunshine tomorrow.”
The next day, it was late in the morning before Dawn finally pulled back the curtains, expecting to see blue water and golden beach sand. Instead, all the color was drained from the scene. The sky and ocean were gray. Palm branches, barely visible down at ground level, bent in the wind.
“Still raining,” said Dawn. “Didn’t the woman at the car desk say it would stop by now?”
“Must be a weird storm,” said Wyatt. “Can’t last much longer. We should figure out what we want to see. We’ve got the car and can go anywhere on the island.”
The couple took a long elevator ride down to the ground floor and found an employee sitting at an information desk. He wore a bright yellow flower shirt.
“Aloha. Can we ask you about what to do while we’re here?” asked Wyatt.
“Sure. That’s what I’m here for,” answered the man.
“I’ve got a whole list in my head of things to see,” added Dawn. “You could tell us what to do first.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Well, I really want to lay on a nice beach and watch the sunset. A place with lots of palm trees and maybe surfing lessons.”
“Right out in front of the hotel. Walk out the door and you’re right in the sand. But maybe you should wait for the skies to clear.”
“And I want to see a volcano.”
“You’re on the wrong island for volcanos.”
“We are? How do we get to the volcano island?”
The information man laughed. “Usually by airplane. You’d have to go to the airport and book something. And then once you fly to the Big Island, it’s a long drive to the volcanos.”
“What about the road to Hana? My cousin was reading about that.”
“Wrong island again.”
“What about waterfalls? Does this island have any waterfalls?”
“You could drive to Waimea. That’s on the North Shore. There’s a hike out to a big waterfall.”
“And how about a luau?”
“The resort puts on one right on the beach. You’ll need to pre-pay. I still have some spots open for tonight.”
The luau was very expensive, but Wyatt agreed they should splurge on the honeymoon. Since it did not start until dark, they would have time to drive out to the waterfall as soon as the sky cleared a bit. They returned to their room, opened up the window blinds, and waited. If anything, the clouds grew darker. Wyatt turned on the TV and they watched a movie. Then they watched another. It was still raining when the front desk called to say that the luau had been cancelled because of weather.
“We’ve got to do something. We didn’t come all the way to Hawaii to be locked in our hotel room,” said Dawn. “Let’s find a place to eat.”
Using borrowed umbrellas, she and Wyatt ran to a McDonald’s a block away from the hotel tower.
“Not as good as a luau, but a whole lot cheaper,” said Wyatt.
“I’m sure tomorrow will be better,” said Dawn. “We should get to the waterfall early so we have lots of time on the beach.”
When Dawn opened the curtains the next morning, the weather was dismally the same.
“We should go anyway,” she said to Wyatt. “We’ll wear our swimsuits. So what if we get wet? We were planning on running through a waterfall anyway.”
With swimsuits under their clothes, the pair drove their rented convertible out to the highway that led to Waimea. Rain poured down as they slowly followed a road filled with red taillights. Wyatt complained about the wipers not moving fast enough.
“I don’t think it’s raining as hard as it used to be,” said Dawn, holding tight to her door handle.
After an hour and a half, they reached a major intersection. A police car with flashing lights blocked any traffic headed toward Waimea. “Roads are flooded!” someone shouted as an explanation.
Wyatt turned around and drove even slower. The convertible’s roof was not designed to handle the downpour and rainwater dripped down the doors.
“Lucky we’re in our swimsuits,” said Dawn.
When they returned to their hotel, the employee at the information desk said they were lucky to make it back safely. The local news reported historic levels of rainfall for the island.
“Wow, who would have thought we would be a part of history in the making,” said Dawn.
She and Wyatt were so sure the storm would continue, they did not know how to react when blue sky peaked through the clouds the next afternoon. The patch of blue spread until it covered half the sky. The beach below glowed in a beam of sunlight.
“What are we waiting for?” said Dawn. “I starved myself to fit in a bikini. I’m putting it on.”
She and Wyatt packed up their beach supplies and took the elevator to the sand. They walked out in flipflops to discover a crowd already spread out along the shoreline.
“Where did all these people come from? And how did they get here so fast?” Dawn said out loud.
She tromped to an open spot and laid out towels. When Wyatt dropped to the sand, a football from a nearby game of catch hit him in the leg. He tossed it back to the teenager who had thrown it.
“Huh. I thought there would be more palm trees and girls dancing the hula. More sand and less people,” said Dawn. “And we were going to learn to surf.”
“We should get in the water,” replied Wyatt. “You’ll want to say you both saw and swam in the ocean.”
They waded out until they were in waist deep waves. Dawn laughed as the surf pushed and tugged, challenging her to stay upright. She licked the salty water on her hand.
“This isn’t the same as a lake, is it? I can see why people like the ocean.”
Rain returned that night and the next morning. When the sky finally cleared, the couple drove a few miles to the dormant Diamondhead volcano crater and the trailhead for the steep mile climb to the top. All the people who had been on the beach the day before seemed to be on the trail, huffing and puffing in the broiling heat. Wyatt and Dawn reached the summit as a rainbow appeared over Waikiki. Dawn gasped and took a thousand pictures. She admired them during much of the next day’s flight home.
The day after returning to Rapid City, the couple played host to all sorts of visitors who were curious about their trip.
“I heard Hawaii got lots of rain,” said Dawn’s mom.
“Yeah, it rained off and on,” replied Dawn. “You can’t expect things to stay green unless you have some rain.”
“You still glad you went there instead of someplace else?”
“Oh definitely. It was a dream come true. When you stand in the ocean, the waves rock you back and forth. And the air smells like flowers and coconuts. And I have to show you my rainbow pictures we got standing on top of a volcano crater.”
Dawn described the plane and their car and how she had never seen so many shades of green and blue. Wyatt heard the story of their Diamondhead hike at least six times. His dad pulled him aside and wanted to know if there had been any arguing on the trip.
“You know, the first weeks of your marriage kind of set the tone for the rest of it,” said his dad. “Women kind of have this idea about what their perfect life should be like. What a perfect husband should be like.”
Wyatt smiled at Dawn across the room as she forced their visitors to view more Waikiki rainbow pictures. “You don’t have to worry about us,” he said to his dad. “Dawn knows I’m not perfect. She’ll make the most out of me anyway.”
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