Hello and welcome! We are Ben and Marian Hurley from Lansing, Michigan. On February 15, 1999, we were married thirty years, and for our anniversary we did something we had talked about since our honeymoon (which was two nights at a hotel in downtown Detroit): we went to Hawaii. We put a little away every payday for three years in a coffee can on top of the refrigerator, and this past winter the can finally said go.

It was the first time either one of us had ever been on an airplane. We are 52 and 54 years old. Better late than never!

Our camera prints the date on each picture, so you can follow along. The little pictures get bigger if you click on them. Our daughter Jeri scanned them and set up this page for us, and I have been learning how to add to it a little at a time.

Saturday, February 13 ~ Getting There
We left eight inches of snow in the driveway. Our neighbor drove us to Metro Airport in Detroit before sunup, and we flew to Los Angeles and then on to Kahului, on Maui. Ben held on to the armrest the whole way to California. By the second plane he was asking the stewardess for extra peanuts like an old pro. We landed at dusk, and it was like stepping into a warm bath. The airport is open to the outside! The lady from the condo company put leis around our necks. Mine was purple orchids and Ben's was white. That's Ben still carrying his winter coat over his arm. He carried it the whole week in the suitcase and never once needed it, until Wednesday.

Sunday, February 14 ~ Our Lanai
Our condo was in Kaanapali, on the fourth floor, looking right out at the ocean. In Hawaii a balcony is called a lanai, and the island you see across the water is also called Lanai, so we had a view of Lanai from our lanai. That's my coffee cup in the front, and Ben in the chair with his feet up reading the paper. He fell asleep at the pool that afternoon and got the worst sunburn of his life, on Valentine's Day. I spent the evening putting aloe on him. Very romantic.

Monday, February 15 ~ Thirty Years
Our anniversary! We drove down to Lahaina, which is an old whaling town full of shops and art galleries, and had dinner at a restaurant on Front Street right on the water. Ben bought that red flowered shirt the day before and I bought a new blue dress, and they gave me a flower for my hair. We both had the fresh fish. The sun went down while we were eating and the waiter took our picture. I was a bride with snow on the ground on February 15, 1969, and thirty years later I was in Hawaii with the same man, sunburn and all. I cried a little. Ben says he had something in his eye.

Tuesday, February 16 ~ Whales
The humpback whales come to Maui every winter to have their babies, and we went out on a whale-watching boat from the harbor in Lahaina. We saw dozens of them, I am not exaggerating: spouting, slapping their tails, and one jumped almost all the way out of the water. And every single time, by the time I got the camera up, it was gone. See the white splash out in the middle? That is a whale. You'll have to take my word for it. The navy blue in the corner is the man next to me.

Wednesday, February 17 ~ Sunrise on Haleakala
We got up at 3:00 in the morning and drove up Haleakala in the dark, around and around and around, to see the sunrise from the top. The summit is over 10,000 feet up, and it was 38 degrees! (See Ben, I told you the coat would come in handy.) The man at the condo desk told us everybody takes the bedspread, so I did, and I was not the only one. When the sun came up we were above the clouds, looking down on them, all pink and orange, and it was so quiet. Everybody just stood there. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and I am including my own wedding.

Thursday, February 18 ~ The Road to Hana
Everyone told us to drive the road to Hana, and everyone was right. It winds along the cliffs through the rain forest, with waterfalls around every other curve and one-lane bridges where you take turns with the cars coming the other way. Ben tried to count the bridges and lost count somewhere in the thirties. It took us all day to go there and back. That's him waving from a rock at the bottom of one of the waterfalls. It was cool and green and dripping, and the ferns were taller than he is.

Friday, February 19 ~ The Luau
Our last night we went to a luau in Lahaina, with torches and a big buffet and a show with hula dancing after. They put a whole pig in an underground oven in the morning and take it out at night, and it was so tender. Ben went back three times. That's him on the first trip, so proud of his plate. The purple on it is poi, which is made from taro root. Ben says it doesn't taste like much of anything, and he meant that as a compliment. As the head cook of an elementary school kitchen, I can tell you it would not go over with my kids.

Saturday, February 20 ~ Aloha, Maui
One last morning on the beach before the flight home. Ben was supposed to be packing. Instead he took his book down to the sand, read two pages and was out like a light. I let him sleep. After thirty years a man has earned a nap on a beach in Hawaii. We flew out that night and came home Sunday to Michigan in February, and Ben still had his sunburn.

If You Go
A few things we learned, for our friends at church who keep asking:

• Bring a real jacket for Haleakala. It is freezing at the top, even in Hawaii.
• Put on sunscreen the first day. Not the second day. Ask Ben.
• Get up early for the road to Hana, fill up the gas tank, and take snacks.
• Everyone says "aloha" for hello and goodbye and "mahalo" for thank you. It's nice to say it back.
• The pineapple there tastes nothing like the can.
• Take twice as much film as you think. The whales will still be faster.

Update  
School starts back up after Labor Day, so I'll be back to 400 lunches a day and Ben is back on second shift at the plant. The coffee can is back on top of the refrigerator, too. Ben says the next trip is the Grand Canyon. I say it's Maui again. We'll see who wins.

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Last updated August 29, 1999