Aloha

Well, the honeymoon's over. Jeff said he was ready to get back to work, but I'm struggling with my first day back. Could be that I didn't actually get to sleep until after 1 last night and was up at 5:30. There's a bit of anxiety getting back to work and facing people again. But I thought I'd take a minute to post and let eveyone know of the exciting details of our trip.

I thought our wedding was beautiful. Everything went really smoothly- and didn't I look pretty? That night, Dad set us up at the Little America hotel. We were supposed to be in a "garden room" but they upgraded us for free to the tower. I don't know what the difference is, besides height, but our room was beautiful- and huge! Everything was a soft pink color and we had almost a whole separate room with a couch/lounger, some chairs and a table. The bathroom was also more like two rooms with a great big tub. We were on the 14th floor and had a balcony. Normally this would completely freak me out but with Jeff I'm not nearly so scared. I actually stood on the balcony- by the edge!- and looked around.

We were up at four the next morning to get to the airport. All this talk about how rough it is to get through security and it was 30 minutes between the time we got on the hotel shuttle van and when we were sitting at our gate waiting for almost two more hours until we left. Oh well. We both agreed it's better to wait there than not. Our first flight was to Oakland and it was a teeny tiny plane. Jeff is very tall. He couldn't even stand up straight walking down the aisle. We talked to a couple couples in line and on the plane who helped us find our connecting flight. It was about two gates away and we had an hour or so. We got pizza from Round Table pizza and Jeff couldn't wait to get it again he thought it was so good. (Unfortunately we never found them again). Our next plane was bigger and more comfortable. They showed the movie Open Season, which we had seen before but both liked. I think I ended up sleeping through it. I thought all planes served at least some kind of snack. This one didn't. We got drinks, but anything else had to be purchased. Good thing we ate the pizza!

We arrived in Honolulu, because of the time change, shortly after 1 in the afternoon. Even the airport was pretty. They had open areas with trees and gardens. We were so excited. We found our way to baggage claim and waited. And waited. And waited. And then they shut the little door where the luggage comes out. There were lots of people from our flight still looking around so we thought they must have more to come. So we waited. Nothing came. About 20-30 people from our flight had to stand in line and fill out paper work for lost luggage. This seemed really unecessary to me. It seemed obvious that some mistake was made and they didn't need every single person writing it down. But, they did. When I have travelled in the past, I usually have packed an overnight bag that I carry on the plane, but with all the new stuff I hear about security, I didn't dare take anything. So, we had nothing for that night. The airline did give us a toothbrush that when you used it, the bristles came out and the toothpaste tasted funny, but it was better than nothing. I got the impression that all the luggage coming from SL didn't go through.

So, then we made our way to the rental car place. Of course it was not with all the rest at the airport, but it wasn't hard to get a shuttle and be taken where we needed to go. It was packed. We stood in line forever- tired and discouraged because of the luggage. We rented a convertible. It was dark blue and pretty. We also opted for a GPS (?) system which was very helpful for getting us around. There was a lot of traffic and the highest speed limit we saw for our whole trip, and this was on the freeway, was 35. People were aggressive and didn't like to let you over, but at least they were slow enough, it was alright.

It took a long time to get to our hotel- it was about four hours between landing and actually checking in at the hotel! We expected a nice resort, two blocks from the beach- that's what we had been sold. When we found it, it was a small run down looking place in the middle of two big run down looking places. We still had not seen the ocean. There was no place to park at our place so we had to park at the hotel across the street, which was actually around the block, for a bargain price of $18 a day. Our room was in the back corner and was small. Our view of the pool area was a back of a rock. I had worn not quite sweat pants but sort of and a t-shirt and was way too hot already. We had air conditioning- a small thing in the wall that hardly blew air. The water in the shower was barely warm- the whole trip. I woke up in the middle of the night so hot I couldn't stand it. I didn't want to turn a light on and wake Jeff up so I finally just started turning dials on the air conditioner until it felt colder and was blowing harder. Thank goodness!Jeff was so disappointed he almost cried and was seriously wanting to go home. We were starving, tired, and disappointed. We went to McDonald's up the street and spent $20 for two of us to eat. We went to bed early.

The next day, we had decided to spend the day in and hope our luggage would come and a parking spot at our place would become available (they were reserved/ first come first serve kinda thing- we never got one). We went out in the early afternoon to buy headache medicine- also packed in the lost suitcase and of course Jeff woke up fighting a migraine. We talked to the concierge/activities desk and started feeling better. Our luggage arrived shortly thereafter. With a change of clothes and fresh attitude, we discovered that the rock by our sliding doors was the back of a waterfall in the pool area. On the the other other side of the rock was the hot tub. The pool area had lots of trees and plants and looked much better than the day before. Things started to imrove right away.

Honolulu, Waikiki, Oahu... I get it all mixed up- I guess we were in all three places... was very crowded. Big buildings, lots of people and lots of stores. I had imagined our two blocks from the beach as scenic and open- fresh air and palm trees. I was wrong. One day we used our fancy car thing to find a particular store that was a ways away. It turned out to be one of the better things we did. The drive was nice and we ended up in an area that was more like what I imagined. We could see the water! and there were hills and clouds and a rainbow and the houses and buildings didn't look run down.

Near our hotel, on the way to the beach, was a little alley way filled with merchants- kind of like a swap meet set up. They had such pretty things and it was fun to walk down... at first. Jeff collects swords and knows a lot about them in a historic way. He stopped at a cart to look at some swords they had. He was immediately pounced upon by not one, but three women. When they told him how much it was, he said it was a bit much and they asked how much he would pay for it. When he told them, they said for 5 more dollars than that, he could have it. He said we didn't have a way to get it home and they insisted he could put it in his suit case and not have trouble with security- never mind that it wouldn't fit and we had to mail it! The one woman just kept telling him to give her his money. Yes, telling him! When he got his wallet out, she practically reached in and grabbed it for him! I'm not exaggerating. He barely had it out of his wallet before she grabbed. The other woman had the sword wrapped and boxed and in his hands. This was not an easy souvenir to carry to the beach. Jeff walked away dumbfounded. He was not sad that he had bought the sword, but kept saying that he was always able to say no to aggressive people so he didn't really know how that had happened.

On Tuesday, a guy came to our hotel and gave free scuba diving lessons in the pool. We decided to try it. He had the masks and the tanks and everything. I always thought it sounded scary. I had heard that if you breathe wrong, you'll implode your lungs or something. But it was not so bad in the pool. A little weird being under water and breathing, but it was kind of fun. The next day, you could pay and the guy would come pick you up and take you out on the ocean for a dive. We decided to do it.

They first had us watch a little video that talked a bit more about the breathing etc than we'd done in the pool. Then we went out on the boat. It was so pretty! There were three of us doing the "intro" dive and a bunch more that were getting certified and actually taking lessons. The trick to not having your lungs implode, is to keep breathing. It sounds simple, but when you have a big thing in your mouth, you can't breathe through your nose, and you get 20-40 feet under water, it's not! The other thing is, as you descend, you have to keep clearing your ears. It was easy enough to do, but for some reason, only my one ear would pop. The video said it's "your responsibility to be completely open and honest with your instructor" about any dicomfort. So, I kept telling the guy my ear hurt. We'd take a minute and it would feel alright, but as soon as we started going down again, it would hurt again. But, we made it to the bottom. I panicked a little. But it was very cool. We saw a big turtle that came right up to us and a little eel and lots of fish. I felt dumb because I either couldn't get off the ground or I kept floating away and getting up above everybody. But our guide was really good about helping me and of course Jeff kept an eye on me. How's that for romance- holding your husband's hand on the bottom of the ocean!?

When we got back to the boat, I was ready to be out of the water and get my barings. We sat down and had some water and we were both really excited. They were going to do another dive and gave us time to be ready again. Jeff's head hurt once we got on the boat and my ear was bothering me just enough I didn't know if I should go down again, but not enough to get over being too embarrassed to say anything. I also started getting a bit shakey and decided I'd sit the next dive out. Jeff went though and I got some good pictures of him going in the water. Sitting on the boat for the 20 minutes or so they were down there didn't help my shakiness. In fact, the shakiness turned to nausea. Luckily, I don't throw up easily, but I sure felt like it. I was glad to get back to land, but I still have to say that was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

We ate a lot of pizza on the trip. Jeff's not too adventurous when it comes to food. We had a kitchenette in our room so we could order a pizza and put half of it in the fridge for breakfast the next day. We did find a fun Mexican place that was kind of half in doors, half outdoors- birds flew in and walked around the tables. I had a good vegie, rice and bean burrito that also made a good breakfast the next day and when we went back, I had a really good chimichanga. We also went to an Italian restaurant that seemed really fancy once we went in but you couldn't tell from the outside. It was about $20 a person but we decided it was our honeymoon and worth it. It was darn good fettucine alfredo.

Other than that, oh and finding the biggest mall I've ever been to, we spent a lot of time at our hotel pool and not doing much of anything. It seems that everybody wants to know what you did in Hawaii, what activities you tried, but we purposely went with no itinerary so we could relax and just enjoy being there and being together. I feel a bit sad we didn't get to a few places- like Pearl Harbor for heaven's sake! how could we go to Hawaii and not see that?- but it was a nice trip. A few times we'd get out in the crowds and just WANT to go back to the hotel and order a pizza. We decided if we ever go back, we'll go to a different island. We were told they were less "touristy" but then the people telling us that just wanted to sell us a tour of some kind. To be honest, I was disappointed that it was so crowded and city like- not what I had imagined. But, once you adjust your expectations, it was good.

Sunday we again were up at 4:30. We got lost getting back to the car rental place. Security at the Honolulu airport was horrendous! The movie on this flight was Accepted, which we'd both seen before but is a surprisingly good movie I would recommend if you haven't yet seen it. We flew into Los Angeles and had no idea where our connecting flight was. There weren't even any of those big signs with the flights and gates listed- only a whole bunch of gates marked with Alaskan airlines. We finally just asked one of them to help us and she told us we had to walk ten minutes to terminal 5. This airport had who knows how many terminals! This meant "leaving" which meant re-entering which meant more security. We also had to wait in line to check in and the guy didn't really know what he was doing so we were waiting for like half an hour. We hardly had time to stop at California Pizza kitchen, Jeff sad that we couldn't find the good stuff like in Oakland, and both so hungry we were passing out. When we got to SL, they asked people that weren't trying to get to a connecting flight to let those who were off the plane first. We somehow landed, got our luggage, and were out on the curb waiting for his mom to pick us up in about fifteen minutes. It did feel good to be home.

We went home and opened our wedding presents. What fun that was! We had finally adjusted to Hawaii time so I didn't go to bed until 3 a.m. and Jeff, also trying to get back to his graveyard shift schedule, stayed up until 5. We slept until 1 in the afternoon. We went out yesterday evening- spent some of the gift cards we received, got my haircut, went to dinner, and then went home and watched movies. Jeff left for work about 11:30. I couldn't go to bed by myself and stayed up and watched Scrubs. He calls me about 12, once he gets settled at work, to let me know he's there. I got in bed when he called and felt exhausted and relaxed. Once we hung up, I couldn't sleep or get comfortable. It's back to real life.