Mike and I first decided to take a trip to Hawaii in November of '08. Both of us at jobs that we didn't enjoy, a used car with a laundry list of problems to fix, and working long hours just to make ends meet; we decided we needed to do something.

Mike's idea with some help from Dameion, was to move to Hawaii for a few months. We looked for places that we could rent, the cost of living, and roughly the amount we would need to save before we could take our trip. After some more planning and reasoning we decided to change it up. Our trip changed to staying in Palau with family and we decided to wait until the end of September.

We are now leaving for Palau in just 4 days. It took a lot of hard work, saving, sacrifices, and planning to make this work. I thank everyone that helped us put all the pieces together! A HUGE THANKS to my mom and dad for letting us stay with them rent free for 9 months, while we paid off our car, and saved! Without them this would have been a lot harder.

We are both very excited to leave, but it still seems unreal.