First Impressions

I got up early this morning (6am Hawaii time) and walked out on the deck.  And was speechless.  The view is Gorgeous!  Huge mountains covered in lush green trees surrounding us, and a beautiful blue sky streaked with orange sun rays greeting me.  I immediately thanked God for helping me get here!  I sat on the deck eating my cheerios, thinking how fabulous this trip is going to be.  I walked around outside a bit, enjoying the small breeze and quiet morning.  I unpacked everything, but apparently that was to exhausting, so I settled in for a quick nap.  Gotta catch up to the time change ya know.  So far today, Dorothy, Arden (her little girl) and I took a quick tour of neighboring towns, got to see the beautiful beaches, and stopped in at a macadamia nut farm.  with lots of free samples.  Yum.  Later today we're heading to the beach!  Can't wait for my first swim in Hawaii!

7 Hours in Phoenix

Well you guessed it.  I'm here at the Phoenix airport where I've been for the last 4 hours, with only 3 more hours to go.  This is by far the longest layover I've ever had.  You might be wondering, "what does one do while stuck in an airport for such an extremely long time?"  Same question I asked myself when I arrived here.  

So far, I've gone through security again, attempted to take a nap, poked around in Borders, wandered aimlessly, had dinner at Chili's, talked with mom (twice), flipped through some magazines at the newsstand, and tried to connect to the internet.  But the biggest challenge so far has been to not spend any money.  (besides dinner.)  

Do you know how hard that is when you're trapped in an airport with a Starbucks every 10 feet.?!  It's hard, man.  I'm sitting outside of one now, smelling the delicious caffeine-ness of it all and trying hard to resist spending $4.00 on a cup of goodness.  Maybe I need to move to another area.  Hopefully I'll be flying out of here soon, with my wallet and sanity intact.  What do you guys do when you're stuck in an airport?

I just looked up and the store I'm sitting in front of (across from the Starbucks) is called Desert Breeze.  Were they trying for sarcasm?  I've been in Arizona before my friends, and let me tell ya, there is No breeze.   

On another note, if you want to see the worst dressed people in America, visit any airport.  No wait.  Wal-mart and themeparks might take the top two spots, but airports follow really close behind.  I know people want to look comfortable, but how hard is it to look decent?  

Well, that's all my airport musings for now.  I think I might try to take a nap again.  I'll try my best to find a spot far away from the tempting aromas of Starbucks.  

Aloha!

The butterflies are fluttering, and that old feeling of "what the heck am I doing?" is creeping around.  Yes, I've caused complete upheaval in my life, again.  I packed up my belongings (and managed to cram them all in my parents house yet again - thanks mom and dad!), said my goodbyes to friends and coworkers in Charlotte, and packed my trusty carry on for my next destination-  Hawaii!  I'm so excited about going, but feel like I've been talking about it for eternity.  But now that my flight leaves in just five days, I feel like time is flying by.  I had three weeks in between leaving Charlotte and flying to Hawaii to crash at my parents and get things sorted and I've done a whole lot of...nothing.  Well, I have caught up on all the SpongeBob Squarepants cartoons I missed.  (there was a marathon on, ok?!)  

Back to Hawaii.  For those who don't know, I'm headed to Oahu to stay with my friend Dorothy for a while.  She's lived there for about 7 months now.  Her husband is in the navy, so they are based out there for three years.  They have an extra bedroom and invited me out.  How could I possibly turn that down?  I hope to be there for a while, splitting my time between Dorothy's place and exploring other parts of Hawaii.  

I plan on doing every possible tourist thing there is to do while in Hawaii.  So expect lots of pictures of me doing the Hula dance, and wearing those crazy Hawaiian print shirts while wearing a camera around my neck.  Well, you get the idea.  As excited as I am about Hawaii, I'm just the teensiet bit anxious about what I'll do or where I'll live when I get back.  (if I come back that is!)  But, never one to worry about the details, I'll think about all that later.  For now, I'm ready to hit the beach and check out some surfers.