Since I was a little girl going to Hawaii has been a long time dream of mine. I used to joke around with my parents about how my dream would never come true, and their answer would always be “you never know”. Days after I came home from camp, things were rough. This summer was the best summer of my life, but my parents informed me that my grandfather’s cancer had spread and had gotten much worse. About two or three days later my grandpa passed away. This broke my heart because I did not have the chance to say goodbye to one of my favorite people in the world. The topic of vacation constantly came up, because we all knew that we would need to go away during February break, because visiting my grandpa’s house was no longer an option. My mom, dad, sister, and I all started spitting out different places. Once I said Hawaii, we all looked at each other, nodded our heads in agreement and knew that this was the place we were going to go.

As the months turned to weeks the build-up got more and more exhilarating.  The best feeling for me was when people would ask if I was going away February break and I got to say that I was going to Hawaii. Their reactions were always so stunned and the look of jealousy kind of made me smile.  The one really agitating thing that my parents informed me about was the fact that I would be in an airport on New Years Eve. My sister and I were saddened because we wanted to be home and with our friends, or better yet exploring Hawaii more, but we got eventually got over it. When it was finally time for us to embark on our journey, sleeping was not an option. I had so many things to do the night before, and I was so paranoid that I was going to forget something really important. The next morning on the drive to the airport my heart was beating like a drum. When I was told that the flight was a little over 10 hours plus a lay over in California my jaw dropped. Airplanes are definitely not my favorite mean of transportation, but I wasn’t going to back down now.

After what felt like 50 episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, we finally arrived in Maui. When I first stepped off of the cold, stuffy plane, the fresh island breeze danced around my nostrils and filled my body. I looked around and I was in a state of disbelief. I could not believe that I was in Hawaii! When we arrived it was 1:48 in the morning, and the time difference immediately affected my sister and I. We tried to admire as much as we could, but with each blink I took, my eyes grew heavier and heavier. After a good 15-20 minutes we arrived at the hotel, which was so incredibly beautiful. There was this gorgeous entryway that had little ponds on both side and since it was about 1 in the morning it was lit up so beautifully. After admiring the hotel for half an hour we were guided to our room and immediately all 4 of us had passed out.

I woke up the next morning to the beautiful sound of bright blue waves crashing and the chirping of exotic birds. The sun was shining directly in my face, but instead of being irritated, I was overjoyed. After laying in bed for about an hour my sister and I went down to breakfast. We were served the juiciest, freshest fruit I have ever tasted in my life. After my parents joined us we all went down to the pool area. Normally we could lie there all day, but since the time difference was so extreme, we all got impatient and decided that we would drive around town. The drive was around 45 minutes, and as we drove on this cliff, that was said to be made from lava years ago, we were treated with a gorgeous view of the ocean. The water was a mix of an aquamarine color, with tints of dark blue and purple. As the waves crashed against the sides of the cliff, mist was created that gave the illusion of a rainbow. The sunlight hit the water in a way that I have never seen before. The whole scenery was breathtaking.
We arrived in the cute town of Lahaina, and the people were so friendly. There were so many vintage boutiques that sold hand crafted jewelry as well as other goods.  I thought that it was so cool to get to see the version of Hawaii that I had always dreamed of.

When we finally decided to leave Lahaina, the sun was just starting to set. The sky was a beautiful pink, purple, orange color. My hair was blowing in the wind because my dad took the top off of the jeep that we rented. All of a sudden a song came on, and my sister and I started to belt out all of the words. The happiness that I felt in that instant was nothing like I have ever felt. I closed my eyes and put my hands up and let the wind take me. Every feeling of stress that I felt disappeared and I felt like there was not a single thing in the world that could bring me down. I looked around at my parents and my sister and the beautiful scenery and the smile that was goofily slapped on my face would not go away. After this, I knew that I would never forget this moment, or this place for it has made me experience the best feeling I have ever felt.