Hawaiian Honeymoon, Part 2: When Skies Are Grey
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[NOTE: To further commemorate our upcoming Anniversary (May 1), this week I'm sharing some of our honeymoon adventures.]
You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You’ll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don’t take my sunshine away.
- First verse (of a surprisingly large number of verses) of You Are My Sunshine, the official song of the State of Louisiana.
If you’re anything like me (and if you are then you have my sincere condolences), you’ve probably experienced plenty of life’s ups and downs. Come to think of it, even if you’re nothing like me (and let me be the first to say, congratulations!), you’ve no doubt experienced what some pundit once called the “yo-yo of life”. (Hmm… could it have been… Yo Yo Ma? Sound of rimshot. Er, sorry.)
The fact is, everybody has what you might call sunny days, and some… well, no so much. The $64,205,178 question of the day, then, is, how do you handle it when things just don’t seem to be working out the way you expected?
Welcome to “Sunny” Hawaii
26 years ago, Mrs. MZM and I spent 10 days on the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. Now, for those of you who didn’t know; besides being called the “the Garden Isle”, it is also known as, among other things, the “honeymoon island” because so many couples either get married or spend their honeymoons there. (We happened to be in that latter category.)
Without a doubt, Kauai is an amazingly beautiful island. And don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining - we had an absolutely wonderful time. But there was this one little, minor, niggling detail…
See, two years prior to our arrival, Mt. St. Helens (in Washington State) had spectacularly blown itself to smithereens, scattering billions of tons of ash into the atmosphere in a gradually dispersing cloud that eventually circled the planet. One of the long-term consequences of this event (yes, even two years later) was that it had caused (and was still causing) an unusual amount of rainfall in many places around the world, including the Hawaiian Islands.
Consequently, by the time we arrived, Kauai (which, ironically enough, is already home to the wettest spot on Earth) had already had a year’s worth of rainfall, and here it was only May! So, what would normally have been mostly-sunny skies with occasional rain tended to be, well, pretty gray with continual rain or drizzle most of the time. It was still incredibly beautiful, mind you; just… somewhat “solar-radiantly” challenged.
On the other hand… once or twice a day, the sun did manage to peek out from behind the clouds. Alas, the problem was it never seemed to coincide with our planned beach times, you know? Not to be deterred (hey, we’re in Hawaii, fer cryin’ out loud - we’re gettin’ some sun if it kills us!), we worked out a plan. (No, wait; let me put sneer marks around it: … we worked out a ‘plan’.)
See, we made sure we always had our swimsuits on, under our clothes, and never went anywhere without a fully-stocked cooler, a beach blanket, and towels. That way, whenever the sun popped out - well, we immediately made tracks for the nearest beach and flopped down to catch what few rays were available.
In this manner, we managed to get at least a couple of hours of tanning time in over our two-week stay.
What To Do When Skies Are Grey
And therein my friends, if you’ll pardon the expression, er, lie the keys to enjoying yourself (sorry), even when the skies aren’t sunny, and things don’t seem to be going as you’d like. Though trite and worn-out, the expression is nevertheless still so true: When life throws lemons at you, you can indeed make lemonade. Here’s how:
Plans - First off, nothing’s going to happen if you don’t make plans. I know it sounds elementary, but that’s how a lot of folks operate; they expect good things to happen to them, sortof “just because”. When we chose to go to Kauai for our honeymoon, there were lots of details to work out; things like where to stay, arranging for a car, what sights to see, etc. I mean, we didn’t just “show up”, you know. See, most good things take at least a little groundwork and planning. Besides (and trust me on this), you’ll enjoy and appreciate the good times more if you’ve worked for them, rather than just had them handed to you on a platter.
Flexibility - If there’s one thing those of us who’ve traveled extensively have proven, it’s that you have to allow some flexibility in your plans. It’s pretty much a guarantee that everything won’t go the way you think it will. And the amount of enjoyment you get out of life may very well be a measure of the amount of flexibility you’ve allowed in it, you know? One of the things we discovered upon our arrival in Kauai was that May is (or was, anyway) actually the off-season. Thus, some of the things we thought about doing simply weren’t available. Did it bother us? Well, not for more than a few moments; we simply chose to do something else - and had a great time.
Opportunity - It quickly became evident we’d have to be creative in order to get in some tanning time. So we prepared ourselves and simply waited for the opportunity to present itself. We made our plans (we always kept a map handy for the most direct route to the nearest beach); we kept ourselves flexible (we were willing to change our itinerary at the first glimmer of a sunbeam); and, when the opportunity presented itself, well, we hit the beach like the Allies at Normandy! Using this method eventually gained us enough beach time to get that famous Hawaiian tan.
OK; as we noted at the beginning, life certainly has its share of ups and down. Alas, there’s no shortage of disappointment when things don’t go our way. That is, as they say down on the funny farm (and here at the Zone, for that matter), life.
The challenge, however, is to take what life throws at you and see what you can make of it. One thing I can tell you for sure, though. If you practice these three principles, even incorporating them into your daily living, well, I think you’ll find that life can actually be a lot more interesting, and (dare I say it) even more fun!
So, the question of the day is, how do you handle it when things aren’t going the way you thought they should?
________________________
For our other Hawaiian Honeymoon adventures, see:
Hawaiian Honeymoon, Part 1: Dignity; Always Dignity
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12 responses so far
Middle Zone Musings is a comfortable place to stop, have a cup of coffee, swap a few stories and share practical ideas for the real world. I don't ask for much, just a bit of your brain every now and then. Have a seat, take a load off, and relax...
Thank you for sharing our Hawaiian honeymoon with us. The Camerons from Scotland have in fact visited Hawaii on a couple of occasions though we have not done Kauai. I have a couple of memories which really stick in my mind
Like being there on 4 July - and finding that nothing was open! Yes - that one seems pretty obvious to you guys doesn’t it? But we were told that there would be spectacular fireworks later - so we took a nap in the afternoon to help with the jetlag - and, you guessed it - missed the fireworks!!
Oh and then when we went to the Big Island - and found that we were staying in some Disney type hotel that bore no resemblance to anywhere real and was so out of the way that we did not really get the feel for that island at all.
And on the dignity part - since our Hawaiian trip we did not think we would encounter waves like we had done there. But on our recent trip to Barbados we did - and then some. My husband just loves bobbing about in big waves - but he forgot to take into account their strength. As a result his prescription sunglasses are probably washed up on a shore in South America somewhere - the managed to save his $10 hat though! This was after he had coaxed me into the water and I was tipped over, lost the top half of my swimsuit and struggled to regain my composure to ensure that the families on the beach were not damaged for life from the experience.
Happy Anniversary to you both for 1st.
Jackie
Gee, Jackie; I would have thought stuff would be open, too. And yes, a Disney theme doesn’t quite give you that authentic island experience, does it?
So you’re telling me you suffered a “costume malfunction”? Wow, I thought those only occurred during Super Bowl events! Ah, well, I’m sure they’ve recovered by now…
I should be clear here - the things we had planned to visit were not open and we did not have a plan B. In fact we had taken a city tour ( Waikiki/Honolulu) in a bus on which the a/c unit was leaking all over the back seat too …arrrgghh. There was plenty of other things for us to do on the 4th of July though - pity we couldn’t stay awake.
We flew out of Boston on 4th July one time - right above the fireworks. Now that was something else!!!
Costume malfunction……only really any good if there is a decent sized crowd!
Living in Aruba taught us that there’s always ONE sure-fire fall back plan: head for the beach! ‘Course, it was somewhat dampened (literally) during our stay, but still, it was always beautiful. The biggest disappointment was there were no shells to collect; nothin’ but sand!
Wow, I bet those fireworks were interesting from above!
One last thought about “costume malfunctions”: they’re also only worth it if you get paid a huge amount of money as well!
I love your solution to your dilemma! Adaptability and flexibility are the keys to happiness in the face of adversity.
You got it in one, Heather! If there was any word worth learning, it’s that one!
How cool — and what a memory builder Bob!!! You always seem to find the fun ways to the center of all things important.
May roads rise up to greet you!!!
Why thank you, Ellen! I hope the roads always rise up to meet us, too - unless we’re cycling; then I’d rather it sloped the other way, don’cha know!
Robert, you’ll have to be careful because if the roads slope down steeply, your cycle may get away from you.
I had looked forward to sightseeing in Ireland a long time. Acutally the rains decided to deluge our tour week. Somehow, it made no difference because sunshine really comes from the inside of the heart. The scenery was just as beautiful and by purchasing a good umbrella, it made no difference. Robert, grey skies are what you make of them.
It warms my heart that you and Mrs. MZM will be celebrating your anniversary soon.
I just noticed that your header photo was done by Mrs. MZM. Is she an artist perchance? She certainly captured the essence of a warm hearth.
When I was a kid my friends and I used to ride our bikes down the side of a very steep dirt embankment just for the thrill of it. Once you start, there’s no stopping it! The very thought of it today gives me shudders.
I hear you about the rain, though. We really love the rain; it paints subtle tones over everything, and freshens it up at the same time. One of our favorite items from our travels is the umbrella we purchased at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Now there’s a story!
Yes, Mrs. MZM is indeed an artist! And the room and the fireplace is ours, but ironically, the warm fire in the photo was added by William Tully (ours didn’t show up well); he used to work for a fireplace company.
[...] already written (earlier this week) about the fact that our stay was somewhat, er, “solar-radiantly-challenged”. (This [...]
Mmm,
Interesting article!
My Gran always used to say (when things were going bad this is) that ‘The answer is in the Bible deary’…
Lol - I wouldn’t say this is the answer I wanted to hear EVER!
Anyway, she was sweet all the same…
Cya