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.”