Returning Home

"The sound of the ocean 
Soothes my restless soul

The sound of the ocean

Rocks me all night long."

- Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

I was born on a beach on an island. Technically in a hospital, but on Galveston Island. I grew up in a small town on the Gulf Coast of Texas called Freeport and later, Lake Jackson Texas. Surfside beach was pretty much my backyard. Sand in my little swimsuit bottoms that came out in clumps in the bathtub later that evening. Screaming bloody murder when seaweed touched my legs. Salty, windblown hair that my mom would try to untangle when we got home. Riding on the shoulders of my daddy when I was too scared to go deeper, but had this magnetic draw to go deeper anyway. Meat tenderizer in the back of the truck in case we got stung by jellies, which happened more than once. Seashell hunting and being elated when I found a perfectly shaped shell with a hole in the center so I could make a necklace. Treasures. The beach was my treasure.

Surfside, where I first fell in love with the ocean

Erik was also born on a beach in San Clemente, California. I didn't know this when I met him, but fate brought us together. Two beach bums living 200 miles from the nearest beach and feeling homesick for that expansive blue (or brown) ocean. When we got married, we had no money for a honeymoon so we didn't take one. Having kiddos kinda makes your honeymoon seem like a non-priority. Still, we missed the beach. But as luck would have it, several years later, I would find a company called Earth Explore that would send me to Hawaii with a whole bunch of middle school kids--a far cry from a vacation, and yet...

I. Was. Enraptured.

From the time I set foot off the plane, there was something intensely spiritual about the land. The way the air smelled sweetly of flowers no matter where you turned. The visceral energy of the volcano, Pele, and her lava. The biodiversity of flora and fauna; eye candy--or rather--soul salve. Hawaii, with its endless beaches, had me in her magical spell. I vowed to return. And return I did with Erik and Alexis a few years later. This being an educational trip, we still had other students in tow, so we couldn't really call it our honeymoon. But it was on that trip that Erik and I decided that Hawaii was our home and that we would live there one day. 

My fourth trip to Hawaii, and our first together as a family - 2013

Now we are carrying life! We were scheduled to go to the Dominican Republic in April as part of a rewards trip that Erik earned with his fantastic company, The Blue Book. Erik earned President's Club three years ago and we have been itching to go back as it fills our beach fix. Because the DR is on the CDC's website for Zika warnings, pregnant women and their partners are advised not to travel there. The risk is minuscule but it was something that worried me. So one morning Erik woke me up and said 

"Let's go to Hawaii for our 12 year anniversary!"

We haven't been in almost five years and he knew that I kept having dreams of being in my spiritual homeland with a baby in my belly. Immersing myself in majestic waterfalls, swimming with laid-back sea turtles, playing the ukulele on a white sand beach...I can't tell you how strong the draw is or why it's there. So of course I said let's do it!

So instead of the Dominican Republic next week, we are going to Hawaii the first week of May for our 12 year anniversary and for one last pre-baby getaway, also known as a Babymoon. Two beach bums, exposing our unborn baby in utero to the most magical place on the planet--our second home, The Big Island of Hawaii. Where we will show Baby Harvey everything we love about that lava rock in the middle of the bright blue Pacific. Where we will fall asleep to the sound of her ocean waves crashing rhythmically on the rocky coast. Finally, a trip just the two of us.

And by then, we'll know baby's sex so we can know whether to shop for tiny hula skirts or tiny board shorts. :)

Aloha, my friends. I'll send you some love from the white sandy beaches of Hawaii.