My Trips to Paradise

I don’t know why I was the lucky one, but I got to be the Princess of Quite a Lot this year (sorry, Elizabeth). In less than three short months I got to take four great trips.

Thanksgiving week I got to go on my first cruise, and it was to the Mexican Riviera, and it was with all my children! I thought it was a blast. The boat was huge and interesting and fun. We had wonderful meals in the dining room, attended classes and shows, enjoyed the pools, walked the decks, used the workout room, climbed the rock wall, took dancing lessons, ate and ate and ate, had a family book club meeting, played games in the game room, dressed up for formal nights, had girls' day at the salon, and had the fun of seeing family around every corner.
Getting off the boat was a great adventure too that included snorkeling, parasailing, boogie boarding, sliding down natural waterfalls, hiking, jumping in the back of "taxis" with people who didn't speak English, and finding our way around a foreign country. It was very fun. I didn't want it to end.

I wasn't home a week before I got on a plane to go to Hawaii. My friends who own the business I work for had room in their time share so they invited me! I had a blast. I didn’t have to be a mother or a wife or count my pennies. I did things I’ve never done and may never get to do again.
We spent the first week in Kauai—the best kept secret in the world. It is everything you think Hawaii would be. Tropical beauty on every acre, lots of beaches, tons to do, perfect weather. Then I stayed a few more days with them on Maui. While in Hawaii I flew in a helicopter over the inaccessible NaPali coast and Waimea Canyon, the wettest spot on the earth where Jurassic Park and other films have been shot. I kayaked, did an amazing jungle hike, took a catamaran out to a forbidden island, drove 10,000 feet up to the top of a volcanic crater, went to a real luau, and enjoyed beautiful beaches, waterfalls, caves and rock formations. It was Paradise. I didn't want to come home.

These trips followed closely my trips to the breathtaking Northwest and to a diverse international quilt show in Houston, and a trip to Utah earlier this year.

My dictionary defines Paradise as any place of great beauty and perfection, any place or condition of great happiness, or heaven.
Being in the hills of Utah with children and grandchildren, being in the lush Northwest with family and friends, cruising the seas with my kids, and being in tropical Hawaii, I found myself in places of great beauty and happiness, places I didn't want to leave.

That certainly defines Heaven, doesn't it?: A place of great beauty and perfection, a place of great happiness, being with family and loved ones, and never wanting to leave.


I've been in Paradise at least 4 times this year.

It gave me a taste of Heaven.

With my passport (temple recommend),

I hope to go there someday.