aloha

okay, bear with me. :)

we left last wednesday at 6:05 am. needless to say, neither one of us had a huge amount of sleep! the flight from atlanta to honolulu was LONG. i was about to go nuts. going to the bathroom in an airplane is terrifying! i could feel the turbulence in there so much more. that's all i'm saying about that!

we landed at 2 pm hawaii time (8 pm est). michael and i walked around the resort a little and i checked out the jewelry stores (a girl's gotta shop). our resort had these cute little penguins (also several koi ponds, ducks, flamingos, etc.).



i made it until 6 pm and then literally was about to fall over. we went to the room and i crashed. michael went to get a snack for us. he woke me up at 8 pm to watch the AI results and then i crashed again. i woke up EARLY and kept waking up every hour until i finally got up at 4: 30 am! we went down and got some breakfast (macadamia muffin for me--YUM). the coffee in the room was horrible! blech! we also went and sat on some lava rocks and watched the surfers.



this day was pretty much spent waiting for musc's booth set-up to be delivered to the convention center. we ate lunch at this sandwich shop (so good, but expensive--$16 for a sandwich and potato salad). we finally went over to the hawaii convention center to set up their stuff. this took several hours. then, we all had dinner at a little italian place. i have a major fondness for italian food. as an aside, the hawaii convention center is where the "sydney airport" scenes of LOST are filmed.

on friday, we planned the pearl harbour/circle island tour. we left our resort at 6:10 am. our first stop was pearl harbour. i took a ton of pictures here, but i'm only sharing a few. i don't know that words can really say the impression left on me. as an american, it was just such a heavy feeling. i cried. and feel like, if it doesn't get to you at all, then something is wrong with your "getter." i imagine i'd feel the same way if I ever get to visit where the world trade center towers stood. they ask you not to talk when you enter the arizona memorial area. so, there is this silence and reverence that takes place. and to think of the lives that were lost there. it's just...i don't have words to do it justice.





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