(this is a rough draft to remember things as they come along. will embelish later and rewrite to give it more of a story feel)
May 20, 2006:
The flight to hawaii was interesting. We each got a personal handheld dvd player, which was odd for any airline. luckily, more then one headphone jack could plug into it so my mom and i ended up sharing one and watching a few movies together. i think we watched nanny mcphee, stuart little 2 (or 3, forget how many there are) and something else. My dad enjoyed that when he wasnt passed out with his arms across his chest, head back and mouth open (i now know where i've developed this habit from).
May 20, 2006: When we finally landed, we were so ancy, we couldnt wait to get off. Could have been the excitement of FINALLY being in hawaii, or could be the fact that my mom and i had to pee unbelievably bad. Needless to say, we made a mad dash off the plane and to the nearest restroom, leaving my dad behind and to wait with all the carryons.
We slowly made our way through the terminals, weaving through asian tourists and employees. All the signs were in either english, japanese, or hawaiin. It was very different to see signs that did not have only spanish/english translations. The walkways between terminals had been kept windowless, allowing cool breezes to float through. the smell of wet branches and flowers was overpowering in a relaxing way.
We eventually gatherd all our luggage and found a taxi, slowly making our way to the port where we would embark on our cruise. Our driver was a friendly man, answering questions my mom threw at him. The drive was absolutely amazing. although you could see the shambles, the "poor" houses scattered along the mountainsides.
We finally made it to port, but were informed we would not have enough time to go visit pearl harbor like we were hoping (which we later discovered we would have had enough time). We went and threw all our luggage into our suite. a huge room with a king size bed and a couch that folded out into a queen size bed. the balcony was amazing all its own, easily able to fit 2 king beds and a queen. that, when on the ship, was where we spent most of our time. especially at night while we sailed to our next port. sitting out on the balcony, in the dark, in the middle of the ocean was like sitting in a dark room, imagining you are the only one left, the only one alive.
more to come on:
- our lunch at the buffet and my dads and mines discovery of the ice cream
- more detail on room, ship, lobby, stores
- going back and taking a nap, getting introduced to our butler
- our life vest meeting in the auditorium
- our departure
- mom and i looking for a place to eat that night
- the choppiness of the waters
- the feeling of being drunk without the fun of being drunk
- walking and as you walk, the boat shifting and your foot being lifted instead of lowerd.
