Dolphin Spirit of Hawaii - Day 1 and 2

We left our home at 5 am on the 2nd of December for a good trip to Halifax.  The weather was great, and the roads were clear.  We boarded the plane for Calgary, and we were off.  We arrived in Calgary at 3:30 pm and were greeted by the Harris'!  We were all so excited.  Our evening was an incredible night of Indian food with the company of the MacAuley's too.  Chelsie-Anne planned an evening with the home schooling bunch, and all the teens headed over to the bowling alley for some great fun.  Michellie was pumped.  Even with just a little bit of sleep, her stamina was astounding.  It was great to hear all the giggles and chatting from the teens.  Us adults had some fun of our own.  It was so good to catch up, and to talk about cancer as a thing of the past.  Melody has had her challenges after 10 years of recovery, and we talked about the new things she is working on to get her stamina and sleep on target.  Mireille was a force to contend with, and everyone was scooted home by 10 pm so we could get a little nap before our 4:30 am departure for the airport. 

Andy took us to the airport, beginning our morning with "Vacation" by the Gogo's on the radio.  I should comment here, that despite the icy conditions on landing, the road was relatively clear and the skies were vibrant in the morning.  We arrived to the airport in fine time.  Later that day the snow storm closed all the roads in and out of Cochrane, but we were already up and on our way.  Our flight took us to Phoenix, Arizona with a short stop over to do a little shopping and eating.  Finally, we were on a plane to the islands!!!!

We landed in the early afternoon (thank goodness for Touch for Health time travel skills to adjust time zones for us - 6 hours time difference from Cape Breton).  Trish and Doug, our incredible hosts, met us at the airport where we were lei'd for the first time.  It was warm, green, beautiful and our hosts so warm and welcoming!  Doug was guided by the dolphins to make our trip bigger than it was, and he obtained a sponsorship from the Maula Lani Resort to support us with accommodations for the entire trip.  We were on the top floor, overlooking the ocean, and we each had our own rooms, as well as a special room for our mediations and gatherings.  We were met at the resort with more lei's, as well as Larry (our incredible greeting person).  We were given cold wipes to refresh with, fresh guava juice, and the girls were given little turtle stuffies from the resort.  We settled into our rooms, walked the grounds a little and enjoyed the real turtles, as well as some entertainers in the lobby singing and dancing and playing guitar.  We had dinner, and then we crashed by 9.  It gets dark in Hawaii by 5:30, and they have a torch lighter that blows a conch shell and then runs from torch to torch lighting the grounds.  This was fun to watch.  We could not believe the trip was real.  It still seemed like such a dream.