A Vacation Alone? Hardly!

I love twitter. There is something about having such access to celebrities that excites me.  I never tweet anything but I sure do love to follow people.

One day I see her post from a friend that she wanted to do a “mileage run” to Hawaii. Now, being a point snob as well, I was all for it. I sent her a note and said if she was serious, she should contact me.

Two weeks out we plan a trip to Hawaii. I love spontaneous vacations and I found a great rate for both the hotel and airline. It was definitely meant to be.

While we were planning, she said she only wanted to stay for 3 nights. Now, with it being a 9 hour flight, I definitely wanted to stay for 5. So, I would be solo for two days.

I have never taken a vacation by myself and since I was a bit uncomfortable with it, I knew I had to do it.

We packed so much into the 3 days, I was exhausted!  We saw green sandy beaches, black sandy beaches, snorkeled, hiked, and went to the top of a mountain to star gaze. A great mileage run. But, now it was time to chill.

My first day alone, I ended up booking an hour and a half massage to relax.  After the massage, I decided the best course of action would be to go to the bar as the jet lag was still lurking. I knew if I went to my room I would be out cold.

So, complete with my medusa looking hair, no makeup, T-shirt and shorts, I bring my happy self over to the pool bar and belly up.

I plop down and order a fruity drink. In my post massage haze, I see there is a guy sitting next to me. After a couple of minutes, he asked me if I would watch his computer while he goes to the bathroom, no problem.

When he gets back he begins to pound away on the computer. I can’t take it for a second longer and tell him I think I am going to have to move seats.  He asks why?  I said, 1). It is Saturday. 2) it is Hawaii. 3.) You are working.  I told him I could feel the stress inching back into my body just being that close to work. He says, why don’t I shut this down and have a drink with you then?  Um, have we met?  Yes, that would be perfect.

He asks what I am doing here and I told him my friend just left so I enjoyed a massage and just a relaxing day. I ask what he was doing?  He proceeds to tell me he just bought 5 acres of land to build his dream home on.  This was on the other side of the mountain. He was going to visit the land the next day to map out the construction.  He is an attorney in San Francisco and wants to spend 60% of his time in Hawaii and 40% in San Fran. Dreamy. He said he had been coming to this island for years and knows it would be where he retired.

I said, well then, you will be the perfect person to ask this question to, he said, ask away.

I said, I want to do a pub crawl/dinner situation tonight in Kona. Where should I go?  He said, you don’t have any plans?  I said, no, and he said, well now you do. I will plan a great night for us. I said, are you single?  He said, yup, are you?  Yup. Giddy up.

He says, why don’t you meet me back here at the hotel bar at 6pm.  We can do a crawl and dinner. Sounds awesome.

I go upstairs, shower and meet back down at 6 and there he is waiting for me!  He said, I want to take you to the best place to see the sunset and then we can grab a Mai tai and dinner. Perfect.

Since we were staying at the same hotel in downtown Kona, we just walked on over to town. We start at this great place to see the sunset complete with the hula dancer and guitarist. A perfect place.

Then we go next door where they are known for the best Mai tais.  We have one of those and we are getting to know each other better. Then, he says, we better go to dinner or it will be a drunk night. Agreed.

He then takes me to his favorite restaurant.  He tells the maitre’d we need the best seat in the house (of course we do)!  He says it will be a slight wait and we say no problem, we will be at the bar. When we are at the bar, he says, you know, who knows if we will ever see each other again?  I said, right. He said, why don’t we tell secrets all night?  I said, awesome, I have a lot of secrets!

We get called to our table and it is the best seat in the house.  A great two top overlooking the ocean with the moon shining on the water.  An incredible atmosphere. He begins to tell me his secrets.

His big one is:  he was engaged and a couple of months before he was to be married, his fiancé was planning all of the details when he asked her to not spend so much money. She said, we are good (assuming he is a lawyer and all) and he said not really. He then told her he had $100,000 in debt he never told her about. It was from law school. Oops. He thought her reaction was going to be “ok, let’s work on this together”.  Her reaction actually was “since you hid that from me, what else are you hiding?”  So, that was the demise of their relationship and he has been single ever since. Side note, seems like he dug himself out of that debt buying land in Hawaii!

Anyway, so, my secret is…ha. Nice try.  You have to ask me in person.

Anyway, our server took a liking to us since we were just laughing and having a great time.  He said, I would like to buy you two dessert because you are so fun.  He said I have to code it to something on the bill so you will see it say anniversary. I said, it is our anniversary. The waiter says it is?  I said yes, we have known each other for 8 hours. The server couldn’t believe and I said, you should sit down with us because we are telling secrets. Ha.

After dinner, we went to this little place where there was karaoke and had a great time. Now, it is about 11pm and this little sleepy town is getting ready to shut down for the night.

Since we are staying at the same hotel, he walks me home. There is no place to have a nightcap so we head to the elevator. We get on and I say, I am kind of a big deal, can you hit 3?  Lol. I start to thank him for a great night.

He said, I had so much fun with you Sue, I would love to take you out to breakfast in the morning. I said that sounds great. But, he said, I have no way to get in touch with you. So, I gave him my cell and we were on our way.

The next morning he called and we went out for breakfast.  He said I don’t come to Chicago that often but you are giving me a reason to.  I wasn’t sure how attracted I was to him, but thought we had such a great time, it would be fun to figure out.

Ready for the most anticlimactic ending?  He texted me a couple of times but we never saw each other again.

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Lesson learned?  If you go on vacation solo, it won’t be that way for long. Remember, take the trip and live in the moment. Fun things are bound to happen