The Misfortunes of Dingy Dan

Did I lock the back door? was one of the first thoughts that flitted through my mind as my family and I ran through the airport. My family was notorious for never being on time, but we were not going to miss this flight. We all woke up late and were out the door in less then twenty minutes, which led me to believe I forgot a few key things such as the lack of security on the back door.

As soon as that worry entered my mind, it was forgotten because we were on our way to the dream vacation spot. We were going to the one place kids and adults alike dream to go on Spring Break to escape dreary Michigan — we were going to Hawaii.

The moment I flopped down in the seat on the airplane out of breath and slightly sweating from our recording-breaking run, I drifted off into dreams of palm trees and hula dancers. Sixteen hours, two connecting flights, and one million pieces of gum later, we finally arrived at our long-awaited destination. It was green. It was luscious. It was hot and humid.

We packed up our things into the taxi and went on our way to our hotel. I never saw anything like this before. The hotel was open. Not open as if they were welcoming business — of course, they were open like that. Oh no, the hotel’s lobby was missing some walls, letting the outside flood in. Oh boy, I was not in Michigan anymore.

My mind boggled at this as my parents checked into our room and as we went uptairs. My boggling mind was soon put to a complete and utter halt when I looked out the window of our hotel room. There it was, Hawaii in its entire splendor — the ocean, the beaches, the unspoiled outdoors.

The next few days were a blur of swimming, snorkeling and sand. Then came the night we were all looking forward too, the dinner boat cruise. Oh man, was I excited for this one. We were going to be put on a lovely boat and eat a lovely dinner and have a lovely time. My family and our friends got ready to go and everyone was dressing up for the big occasion. We met down in the lobby and all piled into a van.

As we arrived in the harbor we were expectantly looking at all the boats trying to guess which one was ours. Of course, we guessed the most beautiful one to be ours, the Honolulu Pearl — it was big, white, and even had a little dingy on the back. We just knew it! That was going to be our boat.

Our van stopped and we got out and started walking toward the harbor, the guide a few feet in front of us. We were all ready to stop and board the Honolulu Pearl when we noticed that our guide kept walking, never once slowling his gait as we neared the magnificent boat. We followed him blindly, wondering why we passed it.

Suddenly, our guide stopped and gestured grandly at the boat before him as we watched in horror. Our dinner boat was on the dingy of the Honolulu Pearl?! But no, the guide explained to us, it isn’t the dingy, it’s our magnificent dinner cruise conveniently placed behind the Honolulu Pearl.

We boarded and started our little dinner cruise. The boat was choppy, the food was horrible and it smelled of gasoline and fish guts, but I had the best time of my life on that boat. We couldn’t stop laughing at our misfortunes of being stuck on ‘Dingy Dan’ as we began to call it. And when the disco music came on over the cheap speakers we couldn’t help up get up and dance the night away amongst the half-eaten quail and smells of gasoline.

I had such a wonderful time in Hawaii, a time that I will be reminiscing about with my family for years to come. Yes, things went wrong, such as ‘Dingy Dan,’ but everything turned out fine. I never had such a fun time in a tropical place and I wish I could visit Hawaii every Spring Break and board that dirty little dinner boat. Every time I sit down with my family at dinner and when we laugh about our trip to the most wonderful place in the world, Hawaii.