so, the first real day

i'm already tired of our hawaii recaps and i haven't even really started yet. heh. i think i'll just get this one done and then whiz right through the rest of the week. truthfully, the days were mostly the same anyway - just different sides of the island, different beaches, slightly different outfits. you'll love it.

we unpacked and then checked out the sights around our resort:

then we got in the car to see what there was to see in the vicinity and ended up parking at the moana surfrider to visit the giant banyan tree and have lunch. i kind of wished we'd decided to stay there, but knowing the size of the rooms (matchbox-ish) and how squished we'd inevitably be, we passed. this time.

after lunch, we sat on the front porch of the hotel and rocked in the rocking chairs. of course, the bean fell asleep.

rocking back and forth in my chair, i was amused to see this across the street - it made me think of my dear friend ashley:

we hopped back in the car and drove around the island a bit, checking out some really cool houses and pretty beaches, and pretty soon the hub was on his own, with the rest of the car snoozing away. and then after a mishap with a moped that i won't bore you with, we headed back to the resort to grab a snack at lappert's ice cream and rent one of those ridiculously overpriced umbrellas and kick back at the beach.

we played happily in the warm water, the girls floating in their hot pink inner tubes, and just enjoyed the sunshine. dinner was at the resort's sushi joint, hatsuhana. it was overpriced and barely decent, but we were tired and lazy, so there you go.

huh. that statement, at least the latter part, pretty much applies for the entire trip. yup.

is it really wrong?

this is breakfast.

the milk makes it okay, right? right??

more hawaii recaps later, i promise. it's too damn hot in my house to hang out right now, and i have a shitload of errands to run.

and a warm aloha to us

so while i was packing for the big trip (mere hours before take-off, of course), i managed to kick one of the suitcases and ripped a chunk of toenail from my big toe. as i hopped around the house, howling and bleeding, i prayed fervently that this was not an omen.

holy mother of pearl, that hurt like a bitch. and i was pissed - my pretty pink toes, so freshly pedicured and ready for vacation, were now less than perfect. ugh. so i slapped on a hello kitty band-aid and tried to ignore the throbbing pain coming from under it.

by the time we were done, there were two large suitcases, the car seat bag (which we'd also stuffed the breast pump into, along with the high chair cover), and three carry-ons. oh, plus the boppy pillow and the camera bag. heh. and we still had yet to pick up BFF!

house all locked and secure, dog dropped off at the vet's, mail put on vacation hold, and BFF happily in the back seat with the teen and the bean, we were finally off to the airport. but after the fiasco of missing our plane to nyc this spring, we were VERY early. we got into the LAX area a solid three hours before our flight.

and when there's time to kill, what's the best way to do it? well, one of two: eating or shopping. duh.

so yeah, there's a pinkberry in el segundo, in the new shopping plaza there. two birds, one stone, yes? and because it was a random hour, we walked right in there, placed our order, and had mouthfuls of the tart creaminess within about five minutes. we strolled through a few of the shops there until it was time to head to the airport. there's actually an apple store just a few minutes away, in manhattan village, but i knew it'd be pushing it to "casually" suggest browsing the shops there. oh, well.

we parked the car at nearby johnnypark, took the shuttle to the terminal, and breezed right through check-in and security. whee! we had time for a starbucks stop and magazine shopping and then all of a sudden, the call was out for early boarding - we were giddy when it sank in that we totally qualified for it, since we had the bean. we were one of the "families with children under 5," woot!

okay, i never say "woot." i don't know what's wrong with me.

hawaiian airlines is fabulous, yo. they did beverage service, offered snacks (for purchase), mini digital players preloaded with movies, music, games, tv shows, headsets for the movie, and a complimentary MEAL! i couldn't remember the last time i'd been served an actual meal on a flight. i think it was five years ago, on ATA, on our way to...hawaii. heh. and it was actually pretty good - we had a choice between pasta and a turkey sandwich. and then they kept the "beverage bar" open in the back until just a few minutes before landing.

the bean played peek-a-boo with the baby behind us (who later yowled and screamed as we tried to nap).

it was a long but uneventful flight (always good), and then we finally landed. bags, check. shuttle to pick up our rental car, check. we were given a black chevy trailblazer, which was the perfect size for all of us plus bags (thank you, priceline!), flipped on the garmin, and about ten minutes later, we finally pulled up to hilton hawaiian village.

the girls took off to check things out while we went to handle things at check-in with the unsmiling heffa at the desk. so much for aloha. but we made our way to our room, where we happily flopped onto the beds and basked in the knowledge that we'd finally made it.

the bean was tired and hungry, as were we. we'd missed room service by about half an hour, so the hub took the girls to find some take-out grub while i stayed behind to nurse, and she fell asleep pretty quickly. i cracked open my copy of twilight and managed to sneak in a few chapters by the time they came back, bearing sandwiches and pizza from the round table on the property.

after devouring dinner, we set the sleep timer on the tv and crashed. unpacking could wait till the morning.

sucked in

...to the twilight series. ha, i made a funny. if you don't know what i mean, it's because this fabulous series of books is about vampires.

totally not my style at all. i usually prefer to stick to uber fluffy reading material, like the shopaholic series or danielle steel sagas. i've never been able to get past chapter one of the first harry potter book, either. but when my friend jess couldn't stop raving about it, and even after i voiced my doubts about the whole bloodsucking storyline, i gave in and picked up a copy of twilight at target.

to be honest, i wasn't hooked after reading it. it was easy to get into, well-written, and not quite what i'd expected, so i didn't really get the hype. of course, this happens so often with stuff that's overly hyped, right? but i had a plane ride coming up, so on my next trip to target (yes, i go to target quite often), i scooped up a copy of the second book, new moon.

once i got the bean settled and napping on the plane, i busted it out and started reading. i whipped right through a third of it before she woke up and needed my attention, and by that time i was HOOKED. i won't talk about any of the storyline for fear of spoiling it for anyone, but let's just say that i found it much more compelling than its predecessor, and was disappointed to have to put it down.

i managed to finish it that very night, as everyone else tuckered out from the long flight. i knew immediately that i had to pick up a copy of the third book, eclipse. sadly for me, the bookstore at the resort was all sold out of it. the one other bookstore i found during our excursions around the island was selling it at full price, and i knew there was a barnes & noble at ala moana center. we'd just bought a membership, so i decided to hold out so that i could get it for less. and then it took several days before we actually got to ala moana, but i was stoked when i finally got it and put it in my carry-on for the trip home.

even better, i managed to get both girls into reading it. neither of them are very big on reading for fun, but they'd heard girls chattering about twilight at the jonas brothers concerts. i broke it to them that there was nothing "jonas" about it, but that it was a really great story that they could get into. i'd given my copy of twilight to the teen for the plane ride, but it sat unopened until BFF picked it up in the car on the way to north shore. she totally got into it, and so the teen decided she was interested enough to at least peruse the first few pages. i ended up buying a copy for BFF so that they could read it at the same time, and i enjoyed listening to them talk about the storyline, asking each other questions about the characters, and watching them sit side-by-side, open books in hand.

and yeah, so i might have already stopped at borders and bought my copy of the just-released fourth book, breaking dawn. i'm kind of in mourning, because it's the final book in the series, and at the risk of sounding like a true dork, i'm not ready to let these characters go yet. so i'm putting off reading it, because i know that once i start, i won't stop, and i'm just not up to saying goodbye.

holy shit, that sounded moronic as hell.

and there's also a twilight movie currently in post-production. again, thanks to jess, i was perusing some of the message boards (one in particular called twilightmoms caught my attention, as it's run by grown ass women and moms like me who are openly addicted to these books) and stumbled across the movie's website.

while the casting seems pretty good, i'm stoked to see that peter facinelli has a part in it. he was in a short-lived show on the fox network called "fastlane" that the hub and i really enjoyed (although it was cancelled after one season, boo), and he's hot. hee! oh, and he's married to jennie garth. i heart jennie garth. kelly taylor was always my favorite 90210-er.

come 12.12.08, i'll be headed to the nearest movie theater, most likely with the teen and BFF in tow. i can't wait.

hawaii, by the numbers

0 - despite my best efforts, that's how many iPhones we came home with. boo.
643 - pictures taken on the good camera. of course, there's another:
247 - on the point-and-shoot. yee-haw! i'll post more pics later this week, after i plow through 'em all.

bean says: no more pictures!

16 - pounds one of our check-in bags was overweight by. argh.
3 -fabulous mullets we spotted within the first 10 minutes of our arrival.
6 - what time the bean woke up for the first 3 mornings of the trip.

3 - times the hub dragged his groggy ass up and took the bean for a walk in the stroller at that hour, letting the rest of us get some sleep.
4 - days it took for us to drive around the entire island, stopping at random beaches along the way.
2 - stops at matsumoto's for yummy shave ice. i took mine with ice cream at the bottom and sweet condensed milk poured on top. mmmmm.

93 - minutes it took the teen and BFF to get through the giant pineapple garden maze at the dole plantation.

6 - the current record for quickest time through said maze.
3 - times the chick at check-in had to disappear to talk to management about our room. she tried to tell us that the room type we'd reserved was all sold out, and she could upgrade us for one night until ours was available. um, no. we weren't all about unpacking twice - what a pain in the ass. then they were just going to upgrade us, but we had to take a room with one bed in it. finally, a room magically became available that was what we reserved. too bad it was in the shittiest tower on the property. bastards.
1 - i was the only one who wanted to sample the deliciousness of the shrimp trucks on the north shore (i went with romy's). the rest of my group was totally unadventurous in their dining selections. more for me!

3 - times i enjoyed spam, eggs and rice platters for breakfast from mcdonald's. i wanted to try their haupia pie, too, but i forgot all about it. boo.

4 - pieces of deliciously fresh, chewy peanut butter-filled mochi i bought at the kiosk at ala moana center's food court. so yummy.
102.77 - our total bill at longs drugs when we stopped to stock up on snacks, sunscreen, and water toys. heh.

4 - dinners during which the teen and BFF ordered chicken strips and fries for dinner. ugh.
10 - how many months the bean turned on the day we left for home. whee!

2 - times we rented an umbrella on waikiki beach to relax under in between dips in the ocean. um, to the tune of $30 apiece. yeah. they had chairs for rent too, for $15. yikes.

1 - pound of delicious cookies that we bought at chip & cookie - wally amos of
"famous amos" cookies was bought out years ago with a stipulation that he couldn't open a new cookie biz for X amount of time. well, that time's up, and now he lives on oahu and is getting ready to open a second store in waikiki. yummy.
20 - how many minutes it took for us to hear the news about the big 5-point-something earthquake back at home. i'm not gonna lie, i'm pretty glad we weren't home for that. lastly:
12 - number of times i've tried and failed to upload more pictures. and now i'm pissed and annoyed. so i'll bore you with more detailed recaps tomorrow, or whenever blogger decides to stop being such a bitch.