I Won A Trip to Hawaii on The Dating Game!

Fun fact: I love to travel and my lack of travel funds led me to some very interesting places. First stop? The Dating Game in 1988 where I won a trip to Hawaii! I was living in Hollywood and I saw an ad for The Dating Game. I went to the address and two days later, I was on the set filming! It was a bit of a whirlwind.

I got to choose one out of three bachelors behind a wall. I wore a black wrap Betsey Johnson dress I found on sale for $20, and I hated the way they styled my hair with the bangs swept back. I don’t remember a word of their answers because I was too nervous with the lights, cameras, and studio audience. I do remember asking the following question: “My favorite meal is chocolate chip pancakes with toasted marshmallows for dessert. What’s your dream meal?”

I tasted chocolate chip pancakes for the first time when I was 16, while traveling, and I never looked back. I still don’t remember my bachelor’s answers, but I vividly remember opening the envelope with our “prize” and it said, “Waikiki Beach Hawaii!!!” I jumped up and down and screamed!

I traveled with a perm, one suitcase, golden mummy earrings and a teddy bear named Binky. No, I didn’t love my date. He was nice, but wanted to eat at McDonalds and stay by the pool while I wanted to be out exploring all day every day. I was transfixed by my first luau even though I may have spent more time looking at the empty bottom of my pina colada pineapple than watching the show. Snorkeling around Hanauma Bay was dreamy, and I may have gone out on a sunset catamaran sail and ended up hanging over the side vomiting and wishing I could swim back to shore. Then I flipped over on my back and as the pink light of the warm sky wrapped and fluttered around me like a grass skirt I thought, “I love it here, right here, this moment.”

Picture of Marci Darling

Marci Darling

I lie here on my pink puffy bed in my pink silky pajamas, or pink flannel depending on my mood (the only thing you can bank on is that there will be chocolate smeared somewhere on my attire), with my pink feathered pen, writing my most delicious daydreams. Funny? Sometimes. Scandalous? Hopefully. Inspiring? Perhaps. Full of love? Always. Welcome to my World.

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