"Aloha,
"I'd like to share my story of our Hawaiian honeymoon. Well, not so much a honeymoon as a babymoon...

"My wife Kim and I had been married about six months when we decided to go to Hawaii for a vacation in January 2004. Let's just say we were hoping to start a family there! Kim's cousin owns a condo on Molokai, and he offered to let us stay there for the week. He told us of the many things to see and do on Molokai — including visit Halawa Bay and Halawa Falls; spend a day on the three-mile Papohaku Beach at the west end of the island; visit the Big Wind Kite Factory; hike down to the Kalaupapa peninsula and take the Father Damien tour; and, finally, make sure to check out Phallic Rock, an ancient fertility monument near the top of the Father Damien hiking trail in Pala'au State Park.

"After completing the Father Damien tour and making the hike back up the mountain, we went to see Phallic Rock, of which we'd only heard stories from Kim's cousin. The rock was shaped just as its name would suggest, so we made certain to take plenty of pictures to show the folks at home. Next to the rock was a description of the ancient fertility monument and the legend that goes with it. Ancient Hawaiians believed that if you brought offerings to this rock and stayed the night there, you would return home pregnant.

"Kim and I didn't stay the night there, but we did leave a small offering — a penny. And what a lucky penny it was. A month after returning home from Hawaii, we found out we were pregnant. And then, just last week, we had our first ultrasound, where we found out we are carrying twins!! Oh, the power of that Phallic Rock! I guess it's a good thing we only left a penny and not a quarter!

Peter in California