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Happy Campers. |
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Just landed in Honolulu. |
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UCSD Girl's soccer team |
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Harris' niece. |
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| Wal-Mart Kicks! |
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| Finally on the way to a beach. |
 |
 |
 |
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| The first woman we met
on the trip. Her name is Sandy! :-) |
 |
|
Happy Campers. |
|
Just landed in Honolulu. |
|
UCSD Girl's soccer team |
|
Harris' niece. |
|
| Wal-Mart Kicks! |
|
| Finally on the way to a beach. |
|
|
|
| |
| The first woman we met
on the trip. Her name is Sandy! :-) |
|
Well, we're off ! (does that sound familiar?) At the moment, we're between San Diego and L.A. at a cruising altitude of 8000ft.
So far, things have been pretty smooth, but you'd never blame that on our preparation techniques. Last night I didn't even finish laundry and start packing until 10:30pm. Luckily, I was all finished by 12:30, so I managed to get about 4 hours of sleep.
Right now it's just Brake, Harris and I. Flash will be flying tomorrow. For some reason, he couldn't take that extra day off work.
This morning, I though the flight departed at 6:20AM, so I was stressing out about leaving the house at 5:30. Not to worry though because the others in our party informed me of my 20 minute mistake--it was actually departing at 6:40.
Right now, the view from the windows is pretty cool. The sun is rising over a sea of white puffy clouds. In a minute, we'll dip down into them and drop into the gloom of LA X.
BTW-Thanks Alice for dropping us off this morning!
The trip so far has been surprisingly nominal (a term usually reserved for rockets deploying satellites). We had to walk about 100 feet to the next gate, so somehow we've avoided mad dashes (that's a good thing, I think).
I imagine that we're cruising at around 37,000ft. It's a beautiful view, except for the behemoth wing below my window. So far the highlight has been chomping down an airline omelet which featured disturbingly orange cheese, on top of a slab of ham (with the occasional chunk of gristle)...mmmmmm....
The featured movie is "The Horse Whisperer." Yeah!!! Not. The scenery in the movie is great though--it looks kinda like Montana. Luckily I don't have to listen to it though.
It looks like the UCSD girl's soccer team is on board today. Too bad they're in the next section up.
The jet we're on is a huge DC-10. I just love the safety cards which tell you about the air craft design (seriously). The last plane had an entire section on the difference between turbo-prop and turbo-fan. Unfortunately, this one doesn't have a comparable information section; instead it uses the space to describe unimportant things like "safety."
The book that I'm working on right now is Carl Sagan's "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors." It's a very interesting and agnostic documentary of the evolution of life. The current chapter covers Darwin's life and reactions to his work in the nineteenth century.
After arriving some time around 11:30AM (we went back 3 hours), we got our bags and met Harris' father at the curbside. Miraculously, all of the luggage fit into his Acura. Next was a 15 minute drive back to their house in Pearl City.
Along the way we could see most of the city and the characteristic green mountains of Hawaii. We were dying in blue jeans because of the humidity, so upon arrival, we promptly switched into shorts.
His parents are very hospitable, making us feel quite welcome. Right now Harris' niece (about 12 months old) is staying with them, so I took a couple pictures of her after a quick crying session.
So where is the first place you'd think we would go? Wal-Mart of course! We needed to get some film & flip-flops( also called sandals or slippers). I guess that there is a rule in Hawaii that forces everyone to wear flip-flops. Violators will be shot on sight! :-)
We ended up at a beach next to a hotel and golf course--soft of in an unpopulated area. The lagoon was manmade, but it was still beautiful. The clear blue water and sandy beach was protected from the forceful tide that slammed into the rocks protecting the area. We swam around for a while, the I got the bright idea to make a sand-woman (this is an adult version of a sand-castle). She looked like a Steeler's line backer. So much for artistic ability.
We cruised back to Pearl City and started making plans for the evening. Of course, we had to call Flash and tell him to bring all of the stuff that we'd forgotten.
A few minutes later, we were heading down to Duke's, a really cool (although touristy) bar on Waikiki Beach. On the way, Harris kept getting pissed off at the way people were driving (this phenomenon occurred earlier too). It seems the whole world is against him, and they have a plan to pull out in front of our car and go slow.
Partly because of traffic and mostly because we took so long to get ready, we missed the sunset. The view from Duke's humungous beach-side patio was still breathtaking at 20 minutes after sunset. The western sky was lit enough to see ships our at sea and the silhouette of the tall hotel buildings and nearby mountains. The colors there seemed so deep.
One bad thing did happen on the way to Duke's. My digital camera started malfunctioning and it couldn't ready any disks! AHHHHHHHHHHH! I just sunk a bunch of money to buy this thing, specifically for this trip. Oh well, I gotta deal with it.
The plan today is to upload some pictures to my web site, then check out the web page for the place where I bought my camera. Maybe they have service agreements with some company here.
At around 11:00AM, we're gonna pick up Flash and catch a flight to Hilo on the Big Island. We'll be there for two nights, then come back here (to O'ahu)...
