How did you know just where I would be?

Hello from Hawaii! We got here yesterday, about 12 hours later than we were supposed to thanks to Alaska Airlines and some arcane policy about the ramp staff not working during a thunderstorm. We missed our connection and spent the night in a fairly crappy hotel near the LA airport. Thanks to my hissy fit about missing a night in a resort in Hawaii we were upgraded to first class for part of our return trip, and by a stroke of luck, got an amazing pair of seats on the plane from LAX to Honolulu. It was a Boeing 767, and we got seats 17A and 17B next to the galley. These seats were in coach, but had legrests, and were in their own "cubbyhole" with a wall behind and in front of them. Awesome - tons of room and I slept most of the way.

Our hotel is really nice too, on the West (leeward) side of Oahu. The room we got is more of a 1br apartment, with a full kitchen, laundry and separate sitting room and bedroom. If I had known how nice it was, I would have tried to extend it for the rest of the week, but since it was a gamble, I booked us in another hotel on the North Shore. I guess it'll be fun to see another part of the island anyway.

Last night we ate at Alan Wong's restaurant - unbelievable. We even sat at the "Chef's Counter" where we could watch the chefs prepare the meals - fascinating. The food was sort of Pacific Rim/Asian fusion, but just really good. Even picky TJ liked it! Today we stocked up at the grocery store with stuff for breakfast and lunch, trying to limit some of the meals we eat out. Both of us are a little rounder than we were when we got married - so sad.

Today we met Mike, a friend from Caltech, for dim sum with some other Caltech alums. It was really fun. Tomorrow we're going to try to see the USS Arizona. Other than that, our plan is to have no plan.

Well, back to the vacation laziness. Aloha!