Hawaii 2009

Six o'clock in the morning this coming Thursday will find most of the clan heading for SeaTac Airport to catch a plane to Honolulu, Hawaii in celebration of my father's retirement! As you may have heard from Cam a couple months ago, this trip was meant to be a surprise to my dad that we going to tell him about at his 62nd birthday party in early March. However, in February, after dinner at my sister's house, Cameron made casual mention of a suggestion to have a diet bet in preperation for our trip to Hawaii right in front of Dad! It turned out that my dad didn't really understand nor think much of what was said, but, as we figured that the jig was up, we let him in on the secret early. None of us were mad at Cam for his slip-up and Dad actually turned out to be happy that he had something to look forward to in his last weeks of work.


It's hard to believe that we're leaving for Hawaii in just two days! For some reason, trips like this always seem to creep up on me. Maybe it's part of being more grown up. The same kind of thing happens to me around Christmas and my birthday for the last couple years. I don't have the same mental countdown and anticipation for the event, telling everyone in my family, "3 more weeks until Hawaii!!!!" I'm way excited to be going, don't get me wrong. It just seems like at somewhere around the two week mark, time freezes for me and I can get up to the day before and still have it feel like I have two weeks to prepare. It happened the first time I went to Hawaii with my sister about four years ago. We even got on the plane and she turned to me and asked, "Does it feel like we're going to Hawaii yet? Because it doesn't for me." And I had to agree. It didn't feel like we were there until around the time we got checked into our hotel and went down to Waikiki that it felt like we'd really arrived.


As excited as I am to be going back (this will be Tawnya and my third trip, the second for Mom, Dad, and Cameron, and the first for Juliana) I do have my concerns. How will Julie be for the flight? Will she just be cranky and loud the whole time; an irritation to the other passengers? Will she sleep well in bed with us when we get to our friends' house in Honolulu? Will we be able to sleep well with an 18 month old between us? Will it be hard for us to get around with her? Will she be happy and excited or crabby and fussy? I love her dearly and her happiness is much more important to me and Cam than our own happiness, but part of me still worries that we won't have as much fun with her there. Wow, that sounds awful.


We don't have our agenda really set in stone yet. We did a lot of the popular touristy stuff last time we went, including Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, and the Polynesian Cultural Center, so we don't feel the need to repeat any of those. We would like to go back to Hanama Bay for snorkeling as we arrived late in the day last time and only got about a half an hour there before they closed. We also want to check out some beaches we didn't get to last time and my sister has her heart set on going parasailing (Cam may or may not join her, he hasn't decided yet). This time we have the great privilege of having our favorite former neighbors there to hang out with. Christy and Nelson were still living in San Angelo the last time we went, but they gave us a list of their favorite must-see things, including introducing us to the mother of all Hawaiian treats- the malasada. We can't wait to get back to Leonard's for some fresh, hot malasadas for breakfast. Excuse me, I need a napkin or something- just thinking about malasadas has me drooling all over! Molly, I'll try to bring you guys back some, but they won't be too fresh by the time they get to you, k?



So if anyone has been to Oahu and can think of something you think we should see or do, please let me know. And if anyone has taken a vacation with a toddler PLEASE give me some tips!

Thanks and Aloha for now!