Still Hangin' in Hawaii

Well, my last post was pretty depressing, so I'll try to be more positive now!

Sunday we went back to the commissary for weekly groceries, then to the farmer's market where I bought a ton of fruit that I thought I could space out over the remaining days I have here, but it has all stubbornly refused to ripen so between now and Thursday I have to eat a 2.5 pound mango, a bunch of ladyfinger bananas, a large papaya, an asian pear, an apple, and 3 rambutans (which are like lychees but covered in soft red spines). I am thinking a Thursday afternoon desperation smoothie may be in order. Anyway, later on Sunday Caitlin and I hiked up a mountain out by Dillingham airfield, and it was really pretty and good exercise. There were great views along the way, lots of friendly pot-smoking mountain bikers along the trail, and it was a good workout. Afterward we got shave ice and a coconut, and I couldn't help myself, I bought two guavas. I am going to end up in a fruit coma.

Yesterday Caitlin and I spent all day at the Ko 'Olina spa. It was very nice...we first jogged along the beach, then used the weight room, then hung out at the spa for awhile. I personally am not a fan of saunas or steamrooms, I find it difficult to breathe in them, but the other facilities were nice and I enjoyed my super-facial (I'd never had a facial before that included a back massage and arm/hand foot/leg treatments, but I wasn't complaining) although I got a couple of zits that evening...hmmmm.

Today was my first day all on my own, as Caitlin is starting her job at Maui Divers. I had my helicopter ride today which was one of THE coolest things ever. A plane is such a utilitarian way to fly. Always in a straight line, getting to your destination as quickly as possible. Flying in a helicopter is like you fly in your dreams (if you've ever had a dream that you could fly). You can hover, pause to look at things, skim the ground, it was just so neat. When we flew over the area where they filmed the helicopter scene (and others) in Jurrasic park, they played the music from the movie over the headsets we had to wear and it was very surreal. After my flight I made a stop at Lush to pick up my sister's order (whenever I go somewhere she scurries to the computer to figure out if I'll be near a Lush store) and then went home. I was lucky I did, because I narrowly escaped being caught in one of the worst traffic jams in Oahu history, if not THE worst. Some army guy was towing a crane behind him on H1 and it was too tall to fit under the overpass so he smashed into it. It compromised the structural integrity of the bridge, so they had to shut down H1 for the rest of the day. If you've never been here before, H1 is the freeway, the biggest road on the island, and one of the only ways to get from Honolulu to the west. Poor Caitlin on her first day of work had to drive all the way up and over the top of the island on a 1-lane highway to get home, along with everyone else who was in Honolulu at the time, and she didn't get home until 9:30! I saw the crane and was in the slow traffic going by but thank goodness they hadn't closed the road yet.

I think I'll avoid Honolulu tomorrow....

So lonely...

So lonely...
Current mood: depressed

I said goodbye to Will today until next Friday...what was I thinking planning our trip this way? I figured Will is going to be away for his management retreat thing for work next week anyway so I might as well stay in Hawaii, but because of logistics it ended up that I will be spending 6 nights away from him instead of the 3 that it would have been. Argh! I miss him so much already. This is the second longest amount of time we've ever been apart, and I know people in long distance relationships are probably rolling their eyes right now (especially since I'm in Hawaii) but I dont' care, I'm feeling depressed without my husband so :-P

This morning we tried to go to Hanauma Bay in the morning, but by the time we got there, waited through the admission line, and found out we still had to watch an 8-minute video on how not to touch coral while snorkelling we would only have had about 20 minutes at the beach. We told the people we were Maeve and Court and that we had already seen the video, but they didn't buy it so we just got a refund and went to hike Diamondhead, the big extinct volcano that dominates Waikiki beach. It was hot and dry as promised, and it is getting irritating to have to pay a fortune for parking everywhere we go, THEN have to pay admission, fees, taxes, etc. I was warned that Oahu was expensive, and boy is it true! I still think we're doing pretty well though considering we are staying with friends and I returned our fun yellow jeep today. Maeve is letting me use her car for the rest of the trip.

Then I had to drive my husband to the airport and say goodbye :*( After that I didn't really feel like doing much, and Caitlin wasn't feeling well either, so we've just kind of laid around the whole evening chatting. It is kind of nice though, since we've been going constantly for a week now.

I'm not looking forward to sleeping alone tonight :-(

-Sara

Happy Birthday will ( days ago)!

My sweetie is now officially 26! I am once again married to an older man :-) For Will's birthday I booked a sea kayak for the morning and we went out to a couple of islands off the coast of Kailua beach. It was hard work rowing, and it was honestly pretty miserable on the way out to the little island that was our goal. The wind was going against us which meant we were hitting waves straight on and it was a heck of a struggle, plus it was raining a bit and turtles kept surfacing right next to our little kayak and freaking me out. I was afraid I'd smack them accidentally with an oar! The island was cool though, with little tidepools to explore and impressive waves crashing all over the rocks. On the way back the wind was with us and the sun was out so it was nicer, but we were so tired! After that we went and checked into the Marriott on Waikiki beach, then went on a sunset cocktail cruise on a catamaran which was a blast. I was worried the waves would make Will or I seasick (the waves got kinda big once we went out past Diamondhead) but it was just fun, and we even "surfed" in the catamaran. Once we got back we staggered up the beach to the Marriott where we had an awesome sushi dinner. It was really good, but I had broken my flip flop on the way up from the catamaran so I had to shuffle into the restaurant in bare feet. The next morning we jogged on the beach and did a little bit of shopping, then headed back here to Maeve's. Everything turned out as I had planned, which was really nice, although a couple of times I thought we were late so I was rushing us along, but apparently there is island time here too (although admittedly people are only about 10 minutes late here instead of 30 min-1 hour in the Caribbean). We did a luau last night which was ok, but not great. Having alcoholic beverages available would have made it a bit more fun, but we found out the Polynesian Cultural Center is owned by the Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints, so that explains there not being any drinks. It was really cool to watch 20 gilrs line up and hula though...

Today we were back in Waikiki to go on a little 1-hour submarine tour. I was hoping we would see sharks and octopi and such but it seems like Hawaii only has black and white and yellow fish. There aren't nearly the different colors of fish you see in the caribbean, and the coral is nonexistant. There are lots of big sea turtles though, so that is cool.

I have to run now, we're going to the Ko 'Olina sushi buffet tonight, so I'm going to go get ready. I hear the east coast is getting battered with Ernesto right now, and that they have 12 foot waves at Ocean City. Funny, because that is bigger than they have here right now! I hope the storms don't delay Will's flight home or anything, although he should have a nice flight since he is flying first class, lucky boy :-)

-Sara

Aloha!

Well, we arrived unscathed! It was a pretty long flight, but we passed the time watching stuff on Will's Ipod and everything went off without a hitch (aside from some serious turbulence about an hour away from Hawaii which had us scrambling for Will's motion sickness pills). We landed, got leied, had some sushi, settled into Caitlin's sister Maeve's condo, had some awesome fish for dinner (mine was pink snapper, have you ever heard of such a thing?) then crashed. I was proud, we were awake for 24 hours all told. We managed to sleep until 6:30 AM this morning too, so we're all but acclimated to the time change already (we're 6 hours behind the east coast). Today we spent driving a huge loop around the island, stopping at fruit stands, shrimp farms, overlooks, beaches etc. Oahu has a very dry scrubby side, and then a very lush and jungle-y side. They definitely have the market cornered on foliage variety. Everything I've ever seen growing on any island in the Caribbean is here, plus some new things, and it's amazing how HUGE the mimosa trees get here. I think everything has a chance to get bigger since there are no hurricanes and not even that many big storms out here. It's also not humid at all. It is incredibly strange though to see a city with highrises and a 6 lane freeway and then also be seeing volcanic mountains and jungles and turquoise water. Usually you find the latter in more under-developed areas. That's America for you, I guess. We'll develop anywhere that it's profitable to do so.

We're making dinner for Caitlin and Maeve tonight as a sort of a thank you. We picked up local shark steaks at the commissary (where Maeve took us shopping since otherwise groceries tend to be outrageous) for amazingly cheap and we're also having corn that we picked up at a roadside stand that was alarming because it had brown silk instead of the blonde we're used to. For dessert I think we'll try to attack the pommelo we got that is larger than a bowling ball.

-Sara

It's crunch time

We're getting down to the wire, this time tomorrow I'll be driving Will and I to the airport! Well, the hotel near the airport, we don't actually fly out until retarded early Saturday morning. Guess I should start packing...

We moved my youngest sister Kathleen to college yesterday. She's going to Mary Washington along with our middle sister Krista who will be starting her junior year there this year. Kathleen didn't, as we say in our family, "Pull a Krista" and go completely hysterical when we dropped her off, and it seems like she's having fun meeting people and getting into the swing of things so far.

Once I got home we had Will's sister Margaret over and she, Brad, Will and I ate dinner and watched "Rize" and then spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out how to "get krump". If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it is a type of dancing that originated in South Central LA. It basically is accomplished by disengaging all of your joints and flailing like you're having a seizure. It may not SOUND cool (and it certainly didn't look cool when we were attempting it) but the total effect is really mind-blowing when you see someone who knows what they're doing. If you haven't seen the movie you should, but practice care when attempting to Krump or you may end up straining a muscle in your upper chest (who even knew we had muscles there?) like I did.

I spent most of today trying to teach my boss how to run the IC at work so she can do the nitrate analyses while I'm gone. I fear she is completely hopeless, but hey, it won't be my problem because I won't be there! Now I'm wrapping Will's presents, making food for the trip and packing up. With these new restrictions on liquid and gel-type substances in your carry-on it will be interesting. Will wants to try to get yogurt and cottage cheese through security for a snack later in the day, but unless we put it in a baby bottle and say it's really thick (and in the case of cottage cheese rancid) formula, I don't think we'll be successful. It would be really nice if everywhere carried fat-free options, but most places don't even have anything less than 2ilk, let alone fat free yogurt or cottage cheese.

Once we survive that, we'll only be a 14 hour flight away from Hawaii! In all fairness though, only 12 of those hours will be spent in the air. Ugh. At least we'll get leied at the end. Hah! I'm sure I'm the first person to ever say that. But we will get to see Caitlin which I am psyched about. I used to see her every day, but then she quit working at the lab, and now she's moved out of the continental US. So I have to haul my ass to Hawaii to see her, what a pain! I'm also psyched that Will convinced me to rent a Jeep while we're there, so we'll be spending the next 2 weeks (1 week in Will's case) trucking all over Oahu and seeing everything there is to see. Possibly lying on a beach for awhile too, but I'm not so good at doing that on vacation when there is so much else to see.

But before I can go to Hawaii I have to pack, so I need to get down to business!

My next update will hopefully be from Honolulu

-Sara

Almost time to go home...

Blah, another boring day at work. Mondays are always slow though. The problem is, if there's nothing to do, I'm bored. If there are a lot of things to get done, I get irritated that I don't have any down time. I guess that just means I don't like my job? I have a short workday, it's super-flexible hours, and it's 7 minutes from my house, so most people think I'm lucky and I suppose I am. All the same though, this job is bad for my mental well-being. For example, today to pass the time I was working on a "project" my boss has given me, which consists of making her a personal website so she can sell her ponies. Um, I happen to be a chemist, not a web designer. I haven't the slightest clue how to make a website. Not to mention the fact that it's pretty wrong to have the lab pay me to make her a personal website. But she bills the lab for the time our network administrator spends fixing her home computer, so I guess that's nothing new. And I guess that's the problem with being the only person at your workplace below the age of 40. They see you type fast and they watch you use shortcut keys and they decide you know everything there is to know about computers.

The bad thing is, there really is nothing else to do but I still have to be here, so I've just been screwing around with Microsoft Frontpage for hours.

-Sara