Hawaii with Bob in 1984

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Hawaii with Rob


The sunscreen. The wave. The insane drive. Other stories?


Dad: This is a trip that started coming to fruition four years earlier when I asked the question around the dinner table, “What would you like to  do for a summer holiday this year?”

Greg said, Let’s go to England and we’ll hang out in castles.

Bob said, I want to play with Kevin MacMurray up the street.

Anne Marie said, Why don’t you and Greg go to England.

I said to Anne Marie, What about you.

Anne Marie said, Don’t worry about me this will be good for the two of you.

I said, It’s done. And I said directly to Bob, When you’re thirteen we are going wherever you want. Start thinking about it. [I really wanted the four of us to have an enjoyable time someplace but I must admit I jumped at the opportunity Anne Marie offered.]


Four years later after four or five choices Bob had destined to go, his latest was Hawaii. The deal was done and off we went. Bob was about to be thirteen years old. Anne Marie had him in Sun Tan capsules to toughen his fair skin. He was also armed with Sunscreen ammo and assorted armour to protect him from the rays.


We stayed at a hotel in Maui that was reasonably close to the beach and quite comfortable. We had plenty of water time for swimming and snorkelling and on one of those special times Bob was just out of the water when he turned and faced me while I was in water up to my waste. I could see Bob clearly but didn’t notice a little smirk crossing his grin. In a matter of seconds I was turned upside down and under water all caused by a huge wave that came out of nowhere. When I surfaced Bob was laughing his ass off and in a second or two so was I. We never did find the face mask and snorkel set ripped from my startled head that beautiful afternoon never to be forgotten.


We had a rental car to get around in and found a Luau that we had to do. The food was wonderful and our first glimpse of their honour and traditions was a thing to behold.


Our little car which I think was a Datsun (forerunner to Nissan) afforded us the chance to see all sorts of interesting places. One of these was to take a road around the mountain clearly marked as one that rental cars are not allowed to use. At the time I was 46 years old and should have been wiser. However, I decided that we could take that road and Bob may, or may not have said okay dad, and off we went. At first it was all routine and then the road narrowed and could pass one car at a time only. Another car would approach and one of us had to back up for sure. This happened a few times and I was getting concerned. The sign I decided to ignore at the outset of this trip around the mountain was staring me in the face every few minutes for about an hour or so until we arrived on the other side. I was lucky, dumb and fortunate at the same time. That has happened to me before, and I’m sure will again before it’s all said and done

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