Danhauser Travel Blogs

  11/30/21-  Some crazy observations so far. We have zero cell phone service since we landed, which is not that big of a deal but when my credit card wants to send a text message to confirm it’s me who’s trying to log in then it becomes an issue. For the buffet meals we have to wear gloves and a mask every time we get our food. The gloves stick to our hands, due to the humidity, making it an interesting chore taking them off when we get back to our table with a plate of food. Also, they accept US money here, but I did exchange a few dollars to Maldivian to add to my collection. Actually had about seven hours sleep last night, which is more than the five hours the first few nights. Usually we force ourselves to flip over to the dramatic time change on day one, but we had the luxury of spreading it out a bit here. We take in a late breakfast and walk to the reception area to sign up for a shark excursion later this evening. With the sun fully out, we are baking by the time w...

  11/29/21-  Our anniversary is finally here. 25 years and counting and couldn’t have picked a more perfect place to celebrate. Of course, this is not the only thing we’ll be doing this trip as we have several more weeks planned of epic traveling, but it’s a tremendous start. Waking up next to this woman every day has been an absolute pleasure and there’s not one thing I would change. Why would I? We’ve been together through the lean times of having bare essentials to our slightly more lavish lifestyle now, and any little thing in between done differently would’ve been arbitrary. Nothing in the world matters more than being with her (except for our kids and soon to be there kids), and I would easily take that with or without all of the great experiences and adventures we’ve been blessed to have over the years. I’ve fought hard to build our life up as we go, and it’s nice to see that hard work and patience pay off. Back to our trip, we eat breakfast and retreat back to our ...

  11/28/21-  Woke up to a beautiful sun rise, feeling extremely fortunate and thankful that a place like this exists in the world. We eat breakfast, have a cappuccino by the water and enjoy the walk around the island. We check on the snorkeling excursion and find that they have it every day at 10am and 3pm, no reservations needed. We’ll definitely look to do that tomorrow. Back in our room, we do a little snorkeling of our own with our new full-face masks to try them out. The 80 degree water was chilly at first, but soon felt very comfortable as we saw several types of fish in the shallow coral. We also use this time to see how our GoPro camera works mounted to the mask. We shower again, as this seems like a daily routine due to the high humidity, take a video of our room (which we accidentally locked ourselves out and had to flag down the houseboy) and hit up the lunch buffet. The food here is amazing as they have many choices available, but we are careful not to overeat ...

11/26/21 and 11/27/21-  T wenty-five years ago, Sharece and I got married in a little old church in Southwest Missouri. We were just kids and had no idea what life was, but we made it work. Fast forward to now and it's time to celebrate. We get to JFK airport around 7:45am, a full 2 ½ hours before our flight, waiting in a long line to check in our bags and get ticketed with Qatar before being told at the desk that we need to fill out a declaration form. We step out of line for a bit, but didn't take long to finish. We then stand in several more long lines for security but are able to board the plane in time. Things looked smooth until we hear an announcement that the flight is delayed due to lack of workers in the luggage area. Um, what? The delay lasts for an hour and a half, and even though we're finally wheels-up, our thoughts are squarely on our layover. Not making that flight would mean we're stuck in Qatar and will miss our first night romanticizing the Maldiv...