Ahhhh, 2K. This was a year that humans anticipated with dread, delight, rapture, greed, and – particularly when it finally arrived – great relief, and perhaps a slight sense of foolishness. Imagine those poor fellows who spent thousands of dollars on water purifiers, cavelands in Arkansas and big vats of peanut butter. How do you suppose they felt on January 1, 2000 when they awoke to find that the Apocalypse had failed to materialize?

When I sat down to write this column, I reflected both on the defining moments of my own 2K, and particularly on the moments that were happiest for me. I shouldn't have been surprised to learn that two of the best moments of my year were infused, like an otherwise bland cake with a ribbon of fine dark chocolate, with some of the sweetest elements of Hawai`i.

Happy Moment #1: I Got Married

I was married in an illicit wedding picnic at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, on April 22, 2000. Illicit, because technically weddings aren't allowed at this extraordinary old Southern plantation. With an enormous collection of American sculpture and fabulous live oaks draped with Spanish moss, it might be the most beautiful place in a 500-mile radius. We gathered on the banks of a pond filled with herons, frogs, turtles and alligators, and dined on Virginia ham, biscuits, cold fried chicken, watermelon filled with fresh fruit, and other Dixie delicacies. My guests included family, friends and two very special women I'd met in Hawai`i – both swell dames who now live on the Mainland, though I will always think of them in context in their homes on O`ahu. After we were done with our feast, we simply assembled under a tree and got married. All present agreed that it had been a perfect wedding.

Perhaps I should have worn a hoop skirt or a dress fashioned from drapes, but it would not have gone well with my bare feet and maile and haku leis. My groom, who also wore leis, was fashionably dressed in an aloha shirt with complementary lava lava. I am certain that he was the first man in the long, rich history of Brookgreen Gardens to wear a skirt there. He looked completely comfortable, and why not? He wears one constantly at home.

Happy Moment #2: I Decided To Return To Hawai`i

I remember exactly where I was: at Dylan & Tammy's house fifteen miles away from my home in coastal South Carolina. Dylan and my husband, Matt, were in the kitchen of the tiny condo, looking at Dylan's new bike. I sat in the living room with Tammy, a Southern woman of a maddening breed impossible to quantify to anyone unfamiliar with her kind. (I'm not even going to try. Go read Tennessee Williams or even Pat Conroy; maybe you'll understand.)

I stared at the ceiling in Tammy's living room and tried to find something interesting to talk about. She was the closest friend I had made here in Dixie in almost three years, and I couldn't find anything to say. Her short list of interests included one-dish casserole recipes, Sony Playstation, and prescription tranquilizers. Her bad poetry was even worse than her bad watercolors, and men hung on to every inanity that came from her full, luscious lips. To amuse myself, I made mental lists of all the things Matt and I could do with his tax refund.

"Hey," a voice interrupted my reverie, "why not move back to Hawai`i?"

Over the course of my life, that little voice has been the catalyst for many adventures. It convinced me of the sublime pleasures and relative safety of that glider ride over Leeward Oahu. It persuaded me to enroll in art school in France – so WHAT if I didn't speak any French? It tempted me with a shiny red Jeep, when I probably should have looked for a sensible sedan. And it certainly propelled my first move to Hawai`i, in 1991, as a single mother with no job.

Now, nine years later, I had a huge household in rural South Carolina. And here was the voice of my Id, whispering of yet another adventure, a return to the place I love more than any other, with my husband and family. How could I resist? The cost to transport bodies and baggage will be phenomenal, as will the price of the roof over our heads and a set of wheels under our okoles. We may have to take up dumpster diving as a family hobby when we get there, but I think we can handle it. Why not? We've already mastered knitting, friendship bracelets and Sculpey clay.

But by God, we're gonna do it. We're still trying to figure out timing and money and other tedious logistics, but this I know for sure: I will return to Hawai`i.

Certainly, it never left me.

Caroline Wright, freelance writer and owner of WRIGHT FOR YOU Word Services, is a former and future O`ahu resident who for the moment lives in rural South Carolina. Visit her virtual portfolio at www.wrightforyou.com.