Hawaii 2003

I've scrapbooked in one form or another for much of my life.  I have special occasion albums from when I was a teenager in the '80s, dance albums and work albums from the '90s, and everyday life albums starting around 1998.  I scrapped most of the important things that happened to me from 1998 to 2002... and then I stopped scrapbooking for about two years.  I'm annoyed at myself, since I met Steve in 2002 and we got engaged in 2003, yet I didn't scrap any of that.  I was too busy dating and falling in love to stop and record any of it.  Of course, I still took pictures.  I just didn't do anything with them.

Recently, I came across a pile of pictures from a 2003 family cruise to Hawaii.  I'd cropped the pictures in late 2004 (when I resumed scrapbooking in order to do our wedding album), but never actually put them in an album.  I set aside 15 minutes, glued the already-cropped pictures to black cardstock, then added floral patterned paper and a title.

 

I didn't leave room for journaling.  It's hard to know what to say (other than date and place, which are in the title, or ship name and traveling companions, both of which are in the photos). When I think back on the trip, my first memory is of horrible seasickness during the first few days as we crossed the Pacific to get to Hawaii.  I remember some great shore excursions, especially our visit to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden in Hilo.  I remember my 2-year old nephew spilling his milk down the front of my formal gown and into my shoes (sadly, no picture of me standing in squishy shoes, totally drenched).  I remember going to karaoke with my brother-in-law for the first time (something that is impossible to forget).  I remember struggling to eat and to keep food down during the last two days of the trip and on the airplane ride home, doubled in pain, suffering horribly from yet-undiagnosed Irritable Bowel Syndrome.  My favorite memory from the trip was seeing Steve at the airport when we landed in San Francisco.  I was in such pain, I'd missed him so much, and knew the second I saw him that I had never loved anyone more and that we would be together forever.