Aloha Hawaii!

That was a long flippin' flight from Atlanta to Honolulu!

Big thanks to Mike's Dad for driving me to Manchester airport on Thursday morning. I was checked in and sitting at my gate (knitting) waiting for departure within 20 minutes of being dropped off at the curb.

Got stuck on the tarmac in Atlanta for almost an extra hour. Will NEVER get the seat by the bathroom again. Even if I wanted to try to sleep in the cramped seat, I kept getting hit by the people trying to get into the bathroom. And on a flight that is 9.5 hours or so long, the only excitement is getting up to go to the bathroom, so everyone was doing it.

Flying into Hawaii at night was impressive since it was all black and dark over the Pacific until suddenly there is a bright and large mass of lights and high rises that just pop up out of the blackness.

Almost didn't recognize Michael at the airport in Honolulu. He was so tan, or at least, in the places where his T-shirt and pants weren't, that he looked like a local. I was so happy to be off that plane, and Michael seemed genuinely happy to see me too.

My first Hawaii disappointment- there are not beautiful hula girls hanging out in the airport to throw flower leis around you as you depart the planes. But I know now that you can buy your own plastic leis for about a dollar most every where in Hawaii.

Arrival time for me was almost 9:00 pm Hawaii time, almost 3:00 am east coast time, so my body was/is a bit confused.

Our first Hawaii adventure together, after dropping my bags off at the hotel, was to find something to eat. We found a restaurant still serving right across from Waikiki Beach, The Tiki Grill & Bar. We had a meal that sampled the local flavors to include Pork Lau Lau (pork steamed inside taro leaves that tastes like pork wrapped in spinach), mashed sweet potato with coconut shavings in it, a calamari dish with a wonderful sauce (calamari is not the little circles and tentacles you get back home), taro bread with banana and lemon flavored butter, white rice, a salmon salsa called Lomi Lomi Salmon, the infamous Poi (taro based "dip" the Hawaiians originally used as their starch before potatoes and rice appeared), and of course two tropical drinks.