Getting lei'd

I just got back from a lei making lesson. It was a nice, relaxing way to start the day.

Step one:
Break all the stems off the orchids.

Step two:
Put the stems in a pile for someone else to clean up.

Step three:
Take the gigantor needle and thread and poke the string through the orchid.

Step four:
Repeat all the above steps until you get this:

Now, I think I'm going to try to figure out the public bus system here. It's called "The Bus," so finding the right bus shouldn't be a problem.

Suprise of the day--Tim and I were up by 5:30 today (we're getting better; I'm sure we'll fully adjust by the time we leave), so we took a sunrise stroll on Waikiki beach.
The water is incredibly warm and calm in the morning. But the sand is very course. Not as rocky as a Michigan beach, but yowzer! My feet felt raw by the time we were done.

Time zones are evil

One of the most difficult things for me this trip is getting used to the time zone changes. Hawaii is six hours behind Michigan.

With that in mind, Tim and I were wide awake, lights on, reading after going to bed and waking up at 3 a.m. Luckily we fell back asleep, but we were still up in time to go out to breakfast together and get Tim to the conference before 7:30.

We both noticed the fantastic grass around Hawaii. It's golf course grass, but it's not as soft as I was hoping. Minor disappointment, but I'm over it.

Today I took a look at the shopping options in Waikiki. After solid consideration, I decided we don't have enough money, and probably never will, to shop here. About the only thing we can afford is jewelry made of shells.

I walked the entire length of Waikiki Beach today. Twice. I finally saw surfers, people wearing bathing suits they really should reconsider, and, believe it or not, penguins.


And I got sunburned. I really am truly on vacation now.

Aloha!

Good Morning! We made it to Hawaii and have begun to explore. We didn't make it to the hotel last night until about 9 p.m. and it was dark bythe time we got here, so not too much to report.

I will say on our flight to Seattle, we were stuck in the Bermuda Triangle of bad airline passengers. The guy next to me (not Tim) whistled softly to himself for nearly the entire five-hour flight. The guy in front of us got completely wasted and lost all volume control--his favorite topic of conversation was "Maui Wowie." But let's not forget the guys next to Tim and behind us. One snored like a lumberjack. The other had a crack problem. It was really unbelieveable.

However, once we landed, things got considerably better. Probably my favorite thing that happened was that I realized I was dressed too warmly. At night. WOO-HOO! The next best thing that happened (Tim would probably disagree about the order here) was as we were standing in line for a taxi, we noticed a nerd conversation taking place behind us. So, I suggested that we all share a cab. Turns out the guys were going to the same conference as Tim and one of them was the technical co-chair of the conference. Nice contact to make in the first 30 minutes. Then the guy paid for the whole cab ride, so double bonus.

I have to say that the entire cab ride, with Tim and two other engineers talking shop was pretty, um, interesting. They got to the point where I was pretty sure they were speaking in Greek symbols and a language greatly resembling a Calculus textbook and it was everything I could do to not laugh.

Well, that's all I have to report. Here's so photos of where we're staying. This is the walkway to our tower of the hotel.


I saw these guys on my way back from breakfast.