The island was beautiful, the weather was great, and the people were friendly. The problem was that the kids were scared of the ocean, and in Hawaii that is the main form of entertainment.

While we were there we swam with a dolphin, went to a coral reef with fish swimming at our feet, hung out at the beach, and went to a luau. It seems great except Widget was balling anytime we got near the water.

The luau was the most fun for all. The kids got up on stage and they were so cute. Widget is not shy at all and he loved it. Midget is more reserved, but to KJ and my surprise she ran up on stage to follow her brother. It was priceless.

Everything else felt like a failure. The kids have never really been to the ocean so I expected a little resistance. What we got was way more than I barganed for though. You would think the dolphin would have been the most scary since they are so big, but that was handled better than fish as small as a hand on the reef. After getting in the water with the dolphin everything calmed down and we all had fun. At the reef it only got worse with each new fish that swam by. I tried to explain that it was a once in a lifetime experience, but it is hard to reason with sheer terror.

After all that they still say they loved it. Kids, sometimes I don’t understand. Something about a screaming 5 year old just didn’t make it that fun for me and KJ.

We couldn’t budget for the volcano which was too bad. Maybe next time. I love Hawaii and would love to go back sooner than later. Maybe next time everybody will handle the water better. Although it had it’s trying moments I would do it again. I would have planned more luaus though.

We ended up leaving the beach after that thinking that Widget would want to go back later and try swimming. He didn’t. The next day CM was sunburned and decided he was going to stay in the cabin. The kids and I built sand castles for hours when I finally decided it was time to get in the water. Widget screamed his head off again. This time it was me who was upset and we headed back in.

Widget’s refusal to get in the water made things a little tense because we had a ton of water activities planned for the trip. It wasn’t all bad though. We made a few food runs and we really got to see how beautiful the island is. Our cabins were on the other side of the island, far away from Waikiki, so there weren’t a lot of chain restaurants and stores.

We stayed in a cabin that was about 30 feet from the beach. It was awesome being able to watch the sunrise over the ocean in the morning. The only bad thing: ants. I remembered when I registered for the cabin there was a clause in the paperwork that said ants weren’t a justification for a refund because all beaches have ants. I didn’t think anything of it. Then we went to the cabin. They were tiny little buggers, but there were so many of them. Now that I think about it, I can’t for the life of me figure out why I didn’t take any video of them.

And that was how our first few days in Hawaii went.

Yesterday we went to Sea Life Park and swam with dolphins. We all had a wonderful time. Today we plan to go kayaking.

Here’s the short version: We took out a $10,000 personal line of credit to buy a vending business last year. Since then we had paid it down to $7,000. (We could have paid it off sooner, but instead of making principle payments as we had originally planned, we went out to eat … a lot.) It showed up as a credit card on my credit reports and every month Bank of America (BofA) would send me checks that I could write to deposit more funds into my checking account from this line of credit.

Well, before we left Brooklyn CM was running ragged trying to find a buyer for the business. I think the ever-increasing gas prices made people wary of what was otherwise a very good deal. We didn’t blog about it because it didn’t seem central to the point of the blog.

So on the last day before we left, we got a buyer and we sold the vending route for exactly $7000. Well we had decided to pay back $5000, keep $2000 for backup, and transfer another $2000 when we got to Hawaii because everything is so expensive. $4000 in debt didn’t seem too horrible considering this was going to be the trip of a lifetime.

Fast forward to yesterday — I called BofA to make a transfer into my checking account and my request was DENIED. They said my debt/income ratio was too high. I was flabbergasted because not only had I not gotten any new credit since last year, but I had paid all of my credit cards off! Besides, since when is your credit reviewed every time you try to charge something? What would have happened had I tried to deposit one of those checks they keep sending me?

I asked how long was it going to be before I could access the money and they sales associate told me 4-6 months!!! What good is a line of credit that you can’t use for 4-6 months?!? CM & I made a quick decision to just close the account. That way I can get the full $10k off of my credit report.

By the way, we also thought that making such a huge payment on the principle would lower our monthly payments — WRONG!! I found out yesterday that our high payments are staying the same, my giant payment only shortened the amount of payments I have to make.

(If this is my short version, I’d hate to see the long version…) So, now CM and I are in Hawaii with only $1200 left in cash. If we were hanging out at the beach, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but before we left Brooklyn CM let me know how excited he was to see the volcano. (He doesn’t get excited about a lot of things.) The trip to see the volcano is going to cost $900. I, the CFO (Chief Financial Officer), came up with a budget to still go see the volcano and only charge $500 or so on a regular credit card.

CM is dead set against it. This other card has twice of the interest rate of BofA’s. We didn’t speak much last night, just a series of glares back and forth.

Culture Sidebar: In Hawaii a mean look is called “stink eye”. An example sentence: CM gave me stink eye all night because I wanted to use a credit card to pay for our trip.

Arguments/disagreements about money can really spoil a vacation. It’s 6:30 am here, and I’m watching the sun rise over the ocean and trying to get back into the spirit, but I’m torn. We might not make it back to Hawaii again, so why not stretch to see the volcano? Even if it does mean 1 or 2 unwise financial decisions?

Daily Wisdom: Don’t go on a trip until you have all of the money for it in the bank. Otherwise, you’re asking for it.

What would you do? Give up and just hang out at the beach for 4 more days or would you throw caution to the wind and go see an active volcano??

I’m not a NY native, but I just feel like there’s more opportunity there. The beach and laid-back atmosphere of Hawaii is great and all, but it just doesn’t seem like greatness can be achieved here.

What do you think? Which location would you choose and why?

Sally, one of the characters said something like, “People used to drive these roads to have a good time, not to make good time.” Honestly, that stuck with me. I want to take a slow ride across the country. I want the whole family to see the sights. Furthermore, I want us to stop at little restaurants that aren’t part of national chains.

Recently, I’ve been thinking that if we see a field of flowers like the ones I’ve seen in the movies, we’re going to pullover and lay in it. I’ve never done that before.

When we reach California, we’re going to fly to Hawaii to see a volcano. It seems like a great symbol of our journey. These feelings of dissatisfaction with the status quo have finally bubbled up to the service and now we are creating a new life. Just like the lava bubbles up creates new islands in the Pacific.

CM and I had the bright idea to paint every wall in our apartment, so we have to give ourselves about a week and a half to repaint the walls. It’s really important to us that we get our deposit back so we have to repaint.

Our lease is up on June 30th, so everything must be out by then. That week we are driving down to Georgia to park our Honda Odyssey in my dad’s garage. We plan to spend July camping at various New York state parks and getting used to RV living.

THEN….(drumroll)….we’re taking Route 66 all the way to California!!! Then we’re going to fly from California to Hawaii. While we’re in Hawaii we are going to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park where we will see an active volcano!

After all of that excitement we’ll probably take the highway back to New York and start planning our next expedition.

Have any of you ever been on Route 66? I haven’t, and I would love to know which places I should avoid, and which places are “must-see”. So if you have the time, please fill me in!