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Meeting Sarah


swilkinson

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I have just met up with my third overseas Strokenet member, Sarah Rademacher (in the past known as spacie1 and hostsarah now srademacher) and I met in Honolulu and spent time together in Waikiki as we had promised we would. Now I have met Barbara King (Babsz) and her husband Eddie who actually came and stayed with me many years ago and Ann Rogers and now Sarah. Not bad for a girl from the Antipodes. But it was a long way to travel in the case of England where I met Ann at her son's wedding and Hawaii for Sarah and I to meet. Australia is a long way from anywhere.

 

I am only just back from Honolulu, the journey home took 18 hours from the time I started out. I left my hotel in Waikiki earlier than planned as the transfer driver had an earlier pick up than mine so picked me up at 4.30am and I arrived at the airport almost four hours before my flight at 8.30am on Tuesday morning and of course I arrived home at 7pm on Wednesday evening because you lose a day crossing the International Date Line. I did gain most of a day on the Thursday last week on the way over so I guess I can't complain.

 

Sarah and I had a good time together, and there was a lot of laughter. Of course we discussed a lot of sad things to do with her son Dan's death, the way life has changed for her during her time as a caregiver to Gary as it did for me with Ray and a lot of stuff older women discuss. But that kind of sharing does you good as it gives a new perspective to your life. I am so glad we did the visit together as it fulfilled our promise to each other, that we would meet “one day in Hawaii” and in fact we had five days together.

 

Sarah hired a car and we did the visit to Pearl Harbour which is a must if you have service members in your family. I have a fourth cousin from Utah whose late husband was a Pearl Harbour survivor so I stood in the Memorial and thought of those who had died and those like Orville who lived on a little less innocent because of what happened. I really learned a lot from going there. We did some local driving too, those expressways are as fast and furious as the ones here and it is always very hard to find the right exit.

 

I enjoyed the whole Waikiki experience, eating out at a Red Lobster as Kristen who used to be a member here talked in chat in my early days as a chat host about her job as a manager at Red Lobster, as well as hanging out at the Mall, in our case the Ala Moana Centre which is huge and Sarah and I on our visit saw just a fraction of the entire range of shops. We would have something similar here in Australia in the large capital cities I guess but it is a wonderful place to lose yourself in, I could have spend the week there alone.

 

This was my first trip to anywhere in the States so I did have some difficulty identifying money and fond it easier to leave the small change as a tip in the tip jars in the ABC stores. I went to McDonald’s twice for a side salad, the diet I am on with no dairy does make eating out a challenge but I always seemed to find something delicious to eat when Sarah and I went out. I also found out I have to ask for “hot tea” if I want a cup of tea similar to what I drink at home which is mostly Lipton's Tea.

 

I found the people friendly and helpful, there were differences from here but on the whole the experience was positive. The many big hotels on the Waikiki shore with their tropical gardens amazed me and I found it a little like North Queensland where my daughter used to live as it is very lush there too. And it was great to see the surfers and wind surfers enjoying the blue sky days out on the water. We did have a nice pool area in the hotel grounds and I know the “beautiful people” laying around the pool enjoyed it but so did this not so beautiful person. Hey, the water is there for everyone as far as I am concerned.

 

Sarah hired a caregiver to look after Gary so had that to go home to today, I came home to an empty house, no responsibilities now. I always feel sad when I come home but that is the lot of all widows, no-one to share with. So it was lovely to have a few days sharing life with Sarah. Thank you so much Sarah for making that long trip to fulfill a promise.

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Sue :

 

I am so happy & excited you had great visit with Sarah in Hawaii one of the most beautiful & happy place on the earth. we had gone last year on cruise with my famly & had beautiful time up there. all island in hawaii has their own unique beauty & worth visiting. USA is so big & beautiful & every state has its own unique & charm. we in NJ have New York & philadelphia in one and half hour time.

 

Asha

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I am glad you and Sarah enjoyed yourselves. I have not visited Pearl Harbor, but my parents did years ago. My Mother's brother was MIA during the Korean War and his name is on the memorial.

 

Good to know you arrived home safely.

 

My sister and I went to Australia in 2005. Yes, it is a long ways. We visited a number of friends and had a good time. I lived in Brussels for 10 years and made that trip many times. It is more difficult going to Europe from US than to Australia. The time difference is SO different from Australia that jet lag was not as bad. Who knew?

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oh to be a fly on the wall. You could blog a book of your Hawaii Adventures.

 

What a beautiful friendship story. Sue you are beautiful inside and out.

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