Not Quite Hawaii Birthday Weekend

As we all know, Karma can be a b*%&h. Well, but I have to admit, she most often is right. I had been bragging about going to Hawaii for my birthday. I would rub it in the face of absolutely everyone who would listen (or not). So, it seems that I have to eat my words, as the ticket was way too expensive just to go for the 5 days we had time for.

So instead we went to the much closer Catalina Island. It also helped that they had a special offer going on that allowed me to go there for free on my birthday. I also got to wear a spiffy ribbon:

Early Morning Pictures Are The Worst!

Everywhere you went on the island you saw people wearing ribbons like that and everybody greeted you with a “Happy Birthday!”. After I got over the initial embarrassment and “Fremdscham” I had a lot of fun greeting others like that as well.

Approaching The Island

Apart from yelling “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” every 10 minutes, we went for an extremely relaxing whole body massage. Then we gorged on all the food that was available (which, this being the US, was a LOT!). Also some shopping, with a not as reluctant as usual PB. All of which thankfully there aren’t any pictures.

The next day we spent doing absolutely nothing at the beach. And a short ride in and on a semi-submersible:

We All Live… – Though we didn’t take this one, obviously

We saw a lot of fish. A LOT:

A Lot!

The Californian State Fish – The grumpy orange one

However, I got motion sick and had to go up for air. After a while everybody inside came up too and I didn’t feel so bad anymore.

Going Up For Air – With everybody else

Well, that’s pretty much all there was to my birthday weekend.

The Colourful Couple

But, also: I got tagged by keassanlin in a blog tag! My first, yay! It’s the 5 random things tag, and what better occasion than my birthday blog post to tell you random facts about me?! So here goes:

1. I’m the eldest of 3 siblings and therefore rather bossy and know-it-all sometimes. On the other hand I can be very protective and nourishing (literally).

2. While I love traveling, I’m not very easy to travel with, as I get cranky on trips. I only ever enjoy trips after they’re over. But then I really like remembering them. I guess I just need time to absorb everything I see.

3. I’m a librarian. However, I don’t particularly enjoy reading. Not more than any regular person anyway. I LOVED it as a child, and I even studied English literature at University, but right now I prefer to spend my time creating through handicrafts, rather than consuming.

4. I’m both a cat and a dog person. Heck, I’m a tarantula person! If we stayed put for long enough, I guess we’d get a zoo of animals.

5. My favourite ice cream flavour is coconut with lemongrass. There was a Mövenpick special edition some years ago that I just can’t get out of my head. *sigh*

I will have to think about whom to nominate for the tag, so will post it some time later.

EDIT: Just as I was finishing with this post, PB gave me an envelope that contained this:

I guess I Will Go To Hawaii – *does the happy dance*

And there you have one of the reasons why I call him PB. On top of spoiling me rotten (as evidenced above) he is the kindest and most patient person I know. So THANK YOU PB!