In celebration of summer I thought I would share a story from one of my vacations a few years ago.

I love the ocean and I had wanted to go to Hawaii for as long as I can remember. My husband and I discussed the possibility for our 10th wedding anniversary, but instead we had our third child.
So, for my 40th birthday he surprised me with a trip to Hawaii without the kids. We were both so excited and couldn’t wait to go.
In August, after the kids were back in school, the parents arrived to watch the kids and we took off for our trip to paradise.

We had 7 days of equal parts adventure and relaxation planned. Three days into our trip we went snorkeling at a popular beach. Everyone had informed us that we needed to keep track of personal items at the beach so we kept our hotel key, car key, cash, a credit card and our ID’s in a waterproof pouch that could be taken into the ocean with us. We had used this for the last several days while boogie boarding and snorkeling and it worked perfectly.

 

On this particular day there were a lot of people on the beach and we were distracted by finding the perfect spot and getting into the ocean. We found our spot and put on our snorkeling gear so we could explore. About an hour later we came out to take a break.

 

I can still remember Andy looking at me and saying he didn’t have our waterproof bag. Neither of us could even remember if we had picked it up off the towel! As you can imagine our entire vacation began to flash before our eyes in that moment. Our car key, credit card and our ID’s!!! This was not looking good.

We asked around, scoured the beach, the water, everywhere. There was no sign of our bag.
As Andy walked one way on the beach wondering if our vacation was ruined, I walked the other way. I found a couple of policemen and explained our situation. They informed me that it was very possible that if we accidentally left our bag on the towel that someone picked it up. They said, they would likely take the cash and throw the bag out. Unfortunately, for us we needed to make a police report, call the rental car company, the credit card company and we would need a copy of the police report in order to get on the plane back home! This was not turning out to be the relaxing day or week that we had planned.

Andy felt like our perfect vacation had been ruined, but I kept thinking it was going to turn up somewhere.

We literally spent hours waiting, making the necessary phone calls, and waiting for the rental company to come give us a new rental car. I can remember sitting on the hood of the car waiting and this young, Hawaiian guy parked beside me. He had his surfboard and a lunch and asked me why I was sitting on my car rather than on the beach. I explained our situation and told him I was just waiting for a new car to arrive. He asked if there was anything he could do and then went to enjoy his lunch. A few minutes later he returned and offered us a ride back to our hotel and said he had $40 that he could give us. Wow! How nice was that? While I didn’t accept his offer, I thanked him for his generosity. In that moment, I remember thinking this is just a little hiccup. Sure, it’s inconvenient, but in the scheme of things we are still in paradise and these are the nicest people in the world.

A short while later, Andy was finished making calls and the car arrived. While we had to wait for the police report to be filed and pick it up later, we could move on with our vacation.

There were some complications associated with getting the police report, a visit to the police station, and quite a few faxes that took place over the rest of our trip, but it was still a beautiful vacation.

Flash forward about 6 weeks. I received a phone call from my credit card company that someone from Hawaii had contacted them about finding our credit card. The credit card company refused to give them our contact information, but said they would give us their phone number. I called them immediately. An older couple, who live on the island of Lanai had been out fishing and found our waterproof pouch! I immediately asked what was in it. Everything, including the cash!

So, we did have it with us in the ocean, but it must have fallen out of our Velcro pocket!

This wonderful family sent us our belongings back along with a beautiful, hand-written letter about how they tried to track us down via the hotel and credit card company.

We sent them back a book about Colorado, a card and a photo of our family. We now exchange Christmas cards and who knows, maybe we will visit them some day!

Mahalo!

Lowi