Baby's First Unofficial Vacation

Let me tell you first off, the Internet is almost non-existent in our hotel room (by my standards). It it free with a cable we can check out from the front desk, but it is by far slower than any dial up connection I have tried. It also doesn't always display web sites correctly, including this blog. I figured out how to create a new post through the trial and error of clicking spots where icons are supposed to be. I am by far more patient with it now than I normally would be (slow computers and Internet are my greatest pet peeves), so maybe those are some of my motherly instincts already kicking in. Thankfully, we do have a computer lab of sorts we can go to in the hotel with a better connection, but then I couldn't post any of our pictures!

Now to summarize the last week's busy series of events. Thursday evening was our big prep night. We gathered and packed almost everything, straightened up the house, did last minute shopping, and I made homemade granola bars so I would have some healthy snacks available on the plane ride and trip.

If you follow the tickers at the bottom of the blog, you would have noticed the humor one for week 14 said "Plump or pregnant? People are starting to notice and are wondering whether or not to ask Mommy this risky question." At the beginning of week 14, there was no way anyone would notice at all. However, but Friday the receptionists at work noticed (they asked me what the buzz about my good news was about the day before) and some of our Chinese friends at International Friendships noticed. I'm not at the point where people who don't know me would be able to tell I'm pregnant for sure, and even people who know wouldn't notice if I wear certain outfits. A lot of girls already have a natural little belly like mine is now, and I have seen several men who look a lot more pregnant than me!

Though this is a side note, since this is something not everyone gets to do I'm throwing it in: on Friday at work, baby and I also got to tour a large printing press which was quite fascinating (if the baby is picking up noises or vibrations yet, that place was full of stimulation). However, it was a nasty, loud, and stinky and I kept hoping it wasn't too toxic! Still, it is neat as a designer to see first hand what happens after I sent my files out and how they bind books together and do every single step. I had no idea how large barrels of ink could be, never seen a roll of paper as large as a bail of hay, or seen how fast or large the huge presses are!

Michael and I stayed up fairly late on Friday because we wanted to be able to nap on the plane because Hawaiian time is 6 hours behind Eastern Standard while we have Daylight Savings Time in effect. I calculated our entire journey was 12 hours long and our entire plane ride would be 9.5 hours long (the longest we've taken so far). We needed to go to bed around 9:30-10pm Hawaiian time (4am on our time) to get ourselves on their schedule and to avoid jet lag. To do this, I slept for 6 hours in bed, then napped for an hour or two on the plane. We had one lay over in Salt Lake city, and had lunch at this time since we weren't sure what food would be on the plane. I am glad I did this, as they just had cold turkey sandwiches and I'm generally making a point to avoid cold lunch meat (particularly when I'm unsure where it's from). I gave my extra meat to Michael and just ate the sides and my snacks.

On the plane ride, I'm thinking I MIGHT have felt some early movements. A couple times I felt like something was poking me on the inside lower down. It was very odd. I couldn't tell if it was something else or not, and any movement it is not regular or strong yet. Still very exciting!

Success! We arrived in Hawaii and really felt it was the middle of the afternoon (even though it was 8:30 pm at home). After a bit of confusion on where to go and almost feeling like we were in a foreign country for a minute (Asian languages were under English everywhere), we had to take a taxi from the airport to our hotel because they wouldn't take our luggage on the bus! The taxi driver that picked us up looked part Asian-part Polynesian, and drove this limo (not a full stretch and fairly junky....but still what a way to arrive)! We spent the rest of the day exploring.
My first impressions of Hawaii.....it is completely unlike anywhere I have ever been. Sometimes it reminds me a little of San Diego, but it is so different. Unlike California, instead of seeing a lot of Hispanics, you see lots of Asians. Most are Japanese, but there are actually a of other Asian groups here and people are part-Asian and part some other ethnic group. Some are tourists, and some are Americans whose families have been here for years. There are also lots of other kinds of people here, so we truly felt like one of the most diverse places we have been to in our country and we really enjoy it. There is a lot of diverse food, and most of it is a fusion. For example, our first night we ate at a food court (actually, at tasty one full of ethnic foods at an International Market) and went to this place that was part Mediterranean and part local (had this wonderful blacked Maui Maui with veggies, rice, and a little side salad for only $10 (that is cheaper around here). Last night we went to a restaurant that served Mexican-Caribbean food that was very good, but so different.

Here are a couple pictures from our first night. I'll update more later as Michael is now back to the conference (he has to go back at 3pm) and we definitely want to maximize our time while we are together!