ALOHA BOUND!

The dream. It came true again.

I visited the island of Aloha for the second time in seven months. If I close my eyes I can still see the turquoise ocean transforming into a brilliant cobalt blue farther out to sea, hear the constant clucking of the wild chickens under my beach chair and smell the kalua pig roasting in the barbeque pit. If I really try hard enough I can even feel an ice cold Fire Rock Ale slipping deliciously down my throat. Refreshing!

(how was that for an annoyingly descriptive beginning, bahaha!)

But to say it started on the island is wrong, so very wrong... it all started on Sunday, June 10th at TGI Fridays...

With no food in house and staying up for 26 hours (so we could sleep on the plane), we ventured out in search of a late dinner and some drinks to hold us over. Kick starting vacation by not cooking and having a freshly made margarita is the way to go. But oh man, staying up ALL NIGHT was difficult!! Movies, steam cleaning the carpets, dance parties and yawns ensued. Too bad there isn't a picture of the dance party or the steam cleaning!

The flight on Hawaiian Airlines left from JFK, was nonstop and I know you are jealous of my 10 hours and 20 minutes of pure, pressurized cabin bliss! Knowing I normally go stir-crazy around the 4th hour into any flight I made sure to have tons of things to do including renting movies on my iPad (thanks again to my family, woo). Kyle wouldn't let me watch the movie with nudity in it though... something about kids being around and not needing to see that. If a kid can cry for 5 hours of my flight a little nudity might just calm them down. You never know.

(...space the final frontier)

This was the view for most of the trip. It was never dark because we flew into the sunrise at each time zone. The darkness was chasing us from behind, trying to force us into a restless slumber... did it work? Not until 10PM Hawaiian time (4AM EST). I escaped the Sandman that long. Whew...

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?