Aloha! part 1

ALOOOOOOOHA!!

i know this is a month late. buuut... better late than never right? right. I guess part of the reason i have postponed posting about my trip was because i didn't want to make certain members of my family even more homesick for paradise than they already are. but alas... earwax. (Dumbledore reference. sorry)

Okay. so my trip! well.. OUR trip!! was a very fun adventure. Gill and i planned this whole trip in about a month. i found fairly good priced tickets for us... out of Chicago. but then mom found a travel agency that had a way good deal for us. it left from wausau and it included 2 nights hotel for even less than i had found for us. SO we took it!

Wednesday April 20: 

We flew out at 7am... so we had to be at the airport at 6. and since we were leaving during this beautiful snow storm.... in April... we left at 5 for the airport.... 

Snow storm we left in WI

Gill and I sat at the airport for an hour. bored. and tired.... and also giddy excited. except for the tired part of course haha. 

our ipod craziness

I thought it was hilarious that we both had our music ipods, and our entertainment ipods. (add on our  point and shoot cameras and cell phones and we were a gold mine of electronics just waiting to be stolen! haha) and we each had a pillow. we were set for these flights!!

6 am at CWA

This day of flying was rather entertaining because 1. gill had never flown with out her parents. and 2. gill had never flown farther than like 4 hours. 

So finally we got to board our flight. we sat behind to Hmong women who talked (loudly) in a different language... for the ENTIRE flight. we were VERY lucky the flight was only 45 minutes! haha eventually we got to Minneapolis!!

waiting at MSP

Unfortunately we had a 3 hour layover at MSP. so we got breakfast. and sat. a lot. i tried to sleep. i tried to read. she called aaron. and her mum. i bought sugary snacks. and dramamine. haha. we just chilled. people watched. and watched a lot of repetitive news. as we were boarding we met ppl from Marshfield (the lady was wearing a St. Joseph's jacket). that was super exciting. 

So finally we board our flight to LA.

too many hours in a plane

The tickets were confusing because they said MSP to HNL. yet, we had a layover in LAX. so here we go to LAX. 4 hour flight. luckily there was a movie! but it was How Do You Know. Definitely NOT the greatest movie i've ever seen. i tried to sleep through parts of it. and as Gilly said... it has the worst ending ever! and this flight felt like it was never going to end! terrible movie... terribly long flight... (check the picture showing our excitement level by the time we reached LAX)

But we made it to LAX. this was basically just a fuel stop i believe. so we stopped. we all got off. we ran to McDonalds (the only restaurant near the gate) scarfed down our food. and ran back. and boarded the plane again.... trying not to think about how long we still had left. 

and now we're off to Hawaii!!!  Here we GO!! we left so SO excited!! but half way through the movie Little Fockers... we were not so excited. we weren't sleeping as much as we wanted to. i had to pee extremely bad. but the little old lady separating me from the aisle was sleeping so soundly and cute. plus she didn't speak english! and gills knee was not so keen on the idea of sitting that much. but alas.. we survived!! and eventually... we made it to Hawaii!!!!

Happy to be in Hawaii!!

we almost didn't find the tour company that was our lei greeting and our shuttle to the hotel. but we made it!! we got our bags. we waited for the bus. we were there! it was humid as heck, but i LOVED it! can you see the real smiles in that pic? cuz i sure can!! 

Once we got check in at the hotel we got to our room and it smelled TERRIBLE!!! it was the grossest thing i've smelled in a long time... and that says a lot considering what i do for a living. I figured out almost immediately that the A/C was producing the moldy scent. so i flipped off the a/c and opened the window the 8 inches it would open (since we were on the 20th floor) and it got better. we changed from our thick layered wind pants to capris and we were ready to explore Waikiki. except all we wanted to do was lay around and do nothing. haha. 

by the time we got to our hotel and all settled it was almost 8:30 pm. We were too excited to sleep but too tired to do much of anything. so we walked around near the hotel. and fear not, by then.. our tour guide Ken was already with us... so he kept us safe from anything dangerous as we walked around town. 

We walked past stores such as Tiffany and Co., Coach, Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and other such ridiculously expensive stores. (ironically, half a block away there was an ABC store! hahaha) We walked to Hard Rock Cafe (but the store was too busy and i was too impatient). we found food... nothing too exciting for any of us because we were all too indecisive, people pleasing, and tired. then we walked back to the Hotel and went to bed.

Okay dear friends and family. I know this has only been one day of our trip. but considering how much i love to type... i can't imagine how long this post would be if i did the whole week in one post! so i'm going to call this a night. leave you wondering what we did for the next 6 days. i will post soon. (probably later today)

love you all. and aloha!!