Paradise day one

Well, we are back from Paradise (and I must admit, I was a little vain yesterday, wanting to wear a shirt to show off my tan!!)!! It was a great time.................

I want to fill you in on the highlights of our trip, so grab a cup of coffee and settle in your chair..this might be a long one!

Last Thursday (17th), Chad and I boarded the plane for an 8am departure. About the time we were supposed to be taxiing out on the runway, the captain came on the intercom to tell us half of the lavaratories were not working, so to sit tight while they work on fixing the issue. Well, 8 came and went and at 9 the captain was back on the speakers asking us to get off the plane because it was a bigger task than previously expected, and ended the speech with the word "Mahalo". By then, we'd heard that work at least 5 times. In Hawaiian it means "thank you". We were walking down the aisle when I heard a man comment, "They say mahalo means thank you, but I think it really means "You've been screwed!" I thought it was so funny!

At 10am we were told that someone clogged a toilet on the plane--and it was someone on the flight because 10 min. before boarding, all the toilets were working. Now, let me tell you , whoever it was literally dropped the mother load, and I mean mother, because they had to take all the luggage off the belly of the plane and climb up there just to get it fixed! I looked all over for A)the guy who was avoiding eye contact OR B) the loud obnoxious guy saying "who the heck would do that?!" and trying to put the attention on some unsuspecting soul. I never did see him.

Finally, at noon, we boarded the plane and this time, took off without any problems....well, with the plane anyways.. There were 2 college age guys behind us who were stoked for this trip, and during the flight drank a total of 14 gin and tonics--which would have been fine if they passed out. Unfortunately for me, they were loud 2/3 of the time and used very choice words for all to hear. When we were going in for landing, I heard one of them all the sudden saying " Hey, man. We're coming in for landing right now. Will you be picking us up at the airport?"--I mean this was right before we hit the landing strip! I thought to myself "he's going to get it if we crash!" He was off the phone by the time we touched down. Sneaky little bugger...

All that was forgotten when I came in contact with 84 degree weather and palm trees everywhere I looked! It actually reminded me alot of Florida.

Our hotel was great, and we were on the top floor with a view of downtown Honolulu and an ocean view of Waikiki. We went out to the beach for a few, ate dinner, and I was in bed by 7:45pm! I was exhausted from being up at 4:45 Seattle time!

Well, I'll wrap this up for tonight...I'll write day 2 soon :)