"Aloha Abroad" and our departure date, April 7th

I will always attribute my meeting Ian, to Siobhan Budge.  In some of our wildest young adult adventures, my sister and I spent a handful of summers cruising the one lane road from the lower 48 states to Alaska and back.  The Alcan produced some of our finest memories together and was the catalyst for our adventures abroad.  Years of gazing at Alaskan and Canadian road maps indefinitely averted my eyes downward, to where the road extends through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, through the Darrian Gap, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and all the way to the tip of the world where it ends, in Ushuaia, Argentina.  Sarah and I have always wanted to drive the Pan-American Highway and one afternoon, two years back, I was having a conversation with Siobhan who, ironically is from our favorite town in Alaska.  I was telling her about our dream of driving the Pan-American when she mentioned a friend of hers who had driven the Central American portion.  His name, Ian.  "You should meet him," she declared.  I'm not sure what the extent of my pursuing him actually was but, here we are today, about to embark on a crazy adventure together.  I love how the future played out.  I so feel, like this was meant to be.  That we were meant to be doing this together, and that I've waited my whole life to meet him.  I couldn't be in a better spot, personally, emotionally and spiritually.  I am inspired by Ian's courage,  his ability to break free from the norm, and his undying love and devotion to righteousness.  I am truly blessed.

We leave April 7th ... and we are, STOKED.  We're celebrating our going away at the Row Bar on Monday, April 5th and are promoting the creation of "Aloha Abroad," which came to be on a lazy Kailua afternoon.  Ian coined the organization which I am currently dubbing, a reality.  The message is simple - perpetuating the spirit of aloha, abroad.  The organization's first motion will occur at our going away party where we ask that everyone bring a new or gently used item of surf apparel for the groms of our new Central American neighborhood.  Help spread the aloha.  Stoke out the kids of Rivas!

And for some reason, I felt it necessary to post this quote that Ian muttered on our drive home from work last night.  

"A real man has nothing to do with how much money he makes.  It has to do with how high he can jump off a cliff into water.  That's a real man." - Ian Nelson

And my man, he is.