Myrna and John:

I am Myrna, my husband is John. We met on Friday the 13th of April in 1962. We were married on September 1st of the same year. We were both 19......mere babies. Speaking of babies, we had 2 sons, and they are both now fully grown with their own lives. Fortunately, they both live close. We have a granddaughter who has grown from a tiny baby to a lovely young woman of almost 17 in just a few short years. She has a younger brother and sister so we claim them as our grandkids too.

I am a native Washingtonian. John was born in Kettering England and came to the US with his Mom and Dad and older brother when he was about 3 yrs old. He grew up in Florida but was stationed at Whidbey Island NAS when I met him. He actually came to Bellingham with a friend who was getting married to a friend of mine. Long story short, we met, got married and now are just about to celebrate #44. We are both retired. He worked at Georgia Pacific for 33 1/2 years, when he got pink-slipped during an employee cutback a few years ago. He got another job where he stayed for 6 years until they closed. I was a stay-at-home Mom with the kids and I recommend it if it is possible and something you want to do. I never missed a first tooth or first step or anything with the boys. In the summers I managed a concession stand at our local motorcycle club race track, did that for 17 years. Got the opportunity to work in a gift store in the mall and I loved it! Had all the chance I wanted to visit and chat with people! When they closed, I retired too.

Now we join the group of WM owners who wish for "doggy units" at our resorts. We are the proud parents of a 7 month old Yorkshire Terrier. Her registered name is Little Princess Tiki, but called Tiki. She weighs all of 5 1/2 pounds so she really wouldn't even be noticed - non-allergenic, non-shedding animal, cute, lovable. So our WM vacations will be fewer and farther between. We hate the thought of leaving her.

FEATURED OWNERS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

How long have you been a member of WorldMark? Where have you visited?
We became WM owners in August of 1994. We only bought 6,000 credits so they are used sparingly. We have been to, in order of visits: Lake Chelan Shores, BT- 1995; Coral Baja, 09/96; Long Beach, BT - 1997; Kapa'a Shores, Kauai - 09/97; Ocean Shores, BT - 1998; Discovery Bay, 07/2000; Kapa'a Shore, Kauai, 06/01; Kona, 08/01; Depoe Bay - 07/02; Gleneden - 07/02; Leavenworth - 07/04; Birch Bay, BT - 10/04; Seaside - 07/05.

What is your favorite WorldMark resort? What do you like about it?
We love Kapa'a Shores because it is small, unpretentious and location, location, location. It is incredible to sit on the lanai in the early morning, watch the sun rise over the ocean, enjoy the tropical fragrance, just BE THERE.

What things do you like to do when visiting this resort?
We pretty much like to hang out at the resort and swim in the pool. Other than that, there are always relatives on the north shore to visit, beautiful places to go see, great fruit and veggies to find, beautiful beaches to go to. You name it, it is there for us. Our granddaughter likes the fact that there is a Taco Bell right across the street!

Would you share some of your favorite vacation web links and/or photos from this resort and the surrounding area?
My vacation photos are under each resort area on the TW forum. I really always recommend the following 3 sites when people are traveling to Hawaii, no matter which island because there is information about each island on each site. There are also magazines at the airports by the same name as these sites.

www.thisweek.com (click on island of choice)
www.spotlighthawaii.com (click on island of choice)
www.hawaii.101thingstodo.com (click on island of choice)

Tell us about the people you travel with - are they family? friends? co-workers? If you have children, what are their travel preferences?
For the most part it is family I travel with to WM locations. We have taken our granddaughter on our vacations since she was 3 years old. The majority of my 12 trips to Hawaii have been with friends though, like the one last September, 7 women, 1 rental house, 3 hotel rooms, lots of laughter and fun!!! I have been to Hawaii with my Mom and sister once and another time with yet another sister, her daughter and husband. WM vacations though, it is always John, Ashley & I and she usually takes along a friend.

What is your most exciting vacation memory?
I guess "exciting" is all in what one believes is exciting, huh? Probably one trip to Hawaii when I stayed with my sister. We went to a beach party. There were mostly real Hawaiians. We all sat around a campfire, they sang songs and talked story. The kids did hula, we ate roast beef and fruit and veggies and they let me be a part of it all! It was so wonderful. I can't even explain it. I felt like family. One other trip there we went for my niece's wedding. Great memories. Then there are the boat trips to the NaPali Coast. Wonderful!

Have you ever had some kind of "vacation disaster" threaten to ruin your trip? Tell us your story!
Vacation disaster, huh? Again it was a trip to Hawaii (groan, I hear it). We were flying out of Vancouver BC. We got to the airport early to get a good seat (they didn't preassign them then). After filling out the paperwork and standing in line for about an hour, someone came out of the back and put up a different departure time (about 8 hours later), went in the back, didn't say a word. By now there was a good line and a lot of folks scratching their heads. Now my group of 6 people had a couple of suitcases full of frozen food so no information didn't sit too well with me. After about 15 minutes I went through the doorway, looked around the corner and seeing no one, called out. A gentleman came out and asked what I wanted. Information I told him. What's with the different departure time? They had to replace an engine and we all could go home for a few hours. Well, we had driven from Bellingham, already had our car into long term parking, had no desire to drive back to Bellingham and told him as such. Also told him about our frozen steaks, etc. And what did they plan to do to accommodate us. Well, they ticketed our luggage, took it to storage, took our frozen food to a freezer, gave us dinner vouchers, contacted the condos we had rented that we would not be in until the next morning, put us up in Honolulu overnight, changed our inter island flights, etc. We felt pretty good about it all actually. Our lei greetings were a bit wilted, however. We always refer to this as our vacation from He _ _.

What activities do you and your family enjoy besides vacationing? (i.e. camping, walking, painting, etc)
John likes gardening. I like reading, knitting and puzzle books. We have begun attending Ferndale High School football games - 14-0 last season and class 3A state champs!!! Our granddaughter goes there. Watch for their QB, Jake Locker, when he attends the University of Washington next year.

Do you have a hobby? What is it and what makes it special to you?
See above, I think, other than my collection of Barbie dolls (an inactive hobby - except for a few very special ones now and then) and John's huge collection of Hot Wheels. We do it because we like it!

Other than a WorldMark destination, what is your favorite place to visit for rest and relaxation?
See above, and we do LOVE Lincoln City Oregon and would love a WM resort there.

If you could choose to live anywhere in the world, where would that be and why?
I am totally in love with Hawaii. I would go there for the rest of my life if my family wasn't here. Washington is in second place though. You can't beat it for its own type of beauty.

How did you choose to become a WorldMark owner? Or, why did you choose WorldMark over other timeshare companies?
We went to a Trendwest presentation strictly for the trip to Las Vegas they offered. I wanted to take my sister. Well, we were so impressed that we thought we would like to be a part of it, but upon looking at some of the pictures and recognizing a number of them, we told them we wanted to talk to these people first. Of course we got the song and dance about tonight or not at all, so we walked out the door, said thanks but no thanks, that we would NEVER just commit to something like that without a good deal of thought and without the high pressure. So we left. We hadn't been home for 5 minutes when the phone rang and the salesman told us that technically we had 24 hours. So, John talked to those he knew, I talked to those I knew and we decided to go for it. BTW, we never used the trip to Vegas. Had never been to another TS presentation, other than a camping one once when we owned a trailer.

What do you enjoy most about being a WorldMark owner?
We love all of the resorts we have been to. Each has its own unique personality. We look forward to being able to do some exchanges and being more flexible in the future. Then there are the other owners!!! What can I say about that? We have met so many wonderful people at each and ever place we have been.

What do you like best about this WMO website community you have helped create?
I like the ability to be able to talk about what you want, without censorship (to a point). I like checking up on everyone and keeping up with what is going on. I do still check out the other forum too.

What suggestions do you have to enhance it?
I'm pretty happy with it. The only thing would be if when we click on a subject it would zip right to the spot where I stopped reading before.

Do you have ideas for contests and giveaways that we could possibly incorporate in the future?
Not really, no.

Myrna and John