8.8.23 - Crystal Anniversary - Aloha!

Byodo-In, Valley of the Temples Memorial Park - a smaller scale replica of the 950-year old Byodo-In Temple in Uji Japan.

We didn’t have anything in particular planned until my brother Norman offered us his pre-paid accommodations at the Surfjack hotel in Honolulu, which coincided exactly with our anniversary week. Thanks, Norm!

“Crystal is the traditional gift theme associated with the 15th wedding anniversary, its beautiful facets signifying the dazzling splendour of a lasting happy marriage. As crystal is fragile and easily broken, so it reminds the couple to nurture their relationship to prevent it from breaking down.”

It turns out that the crystal Waterford whiskey glasses I gave to Mike were accidentally a propos. I was just trying to find something I knew he would get a lot of use out of - LOL. When they arrived from Amazon, he joked “that’s it?” which is only slightly better than the “So is that what this is?” when asked if we wanted to celebrate 15 years of wedded bliss in Hawaii.

We had a lot of free champagne and good eats at the Pig and the Lady, Giovanni’s shrimp truck, Morimoto Asia and MW Restaurant (life changing!) and even rotisserie chicken on the side of the road. We rented a car and drove all around Oahu, including the West side of the island where no visitors go because it sucks. We enjoyed having so many days to take our time visiting Pearl Harbor’s Aviation museum and the USS Arizona Memorial. Part of what makes Mike such a great husband are everyday things he does, like offering to drop me off at the hotel so I wouldn’t have to trek back to the hotel in the blazing mid-day sun from the parking structure. If that’s not true love, then what is?

The day before we left to fly back to LA, a terrible fire erupted in Maui and decimated the town of Lahaina. The first flights of evacuees were arriving at the Honolulu airport just as we were departing. It will undoubtedly take a long time for residents to recover and rebuild, but the image of the resilient banyan tree stays in my mind.