"In every journey or adventure, there will be the unexpected, the low points, the funky stuff that happens. This is true for travel or for life. And there are always lessons to be learned." 

In 2015, my husband and I visited our son and his family in the tiny South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. We were stoked to be so close to an active volcano. The events that happened were, shall we say, a little scary.

It all started a little bit wonky, and it was the beginning of our trip to see the live volcano on Tanna in the South Pacific island of Vanuatu.

That tropical morning, we got off the plane from Efate, the main island of Vanuatu, and arrived by plane an hour later on the island of Tanna. I pulled out my reservation sheet and, for the life of me, could not find the name of the hotel we were booked in. People were everywhere, pushing, shoving, and loading up people and baskets in trucks.

A Ni Vanuatu man ran up to us and grabbed the papers out of my hands. I’m...