Kevin was scheduled to take a TDY to Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii, and since we hadn't ever been to Hawaii, we decided to make this an anniversary trip. I found amazing friends to take the kids, we got Power of Attorney's, we had our car rental booked, Lodging booked and paid for and my plane ticket all ready! The day before we were to leave, there was problems in our United States Government! A government shut down occurred within 24 hours of Kevin's TDY. A notice went out and all TDY's were cancelled until further notice.
At first I was seriously mad! Since this was a TDY, Kevin's plane ticket, lodging and per diem for food was all taken care of. Now with the shut down, we had to decide: Just pay for the entire trip out of pocket and take leave? Or loose the money from the lodging and my non-refundable plane ticket?
We decided to jump on the computer and buy Kevin a plane ticket and go anyways! Kevin filled out the appropriate forms and got all the appropriate signatures. We already had the kids taken care of, so we didn't have to worry about them. We finished packing our bags then caught a bus to the airport.
Since we had to buy the cheapest ticket possible, Kevin and I were on different flights to Hawaii. Kevin would leave before me, but have a long layover in Japan. I would leave much later and have a direct flight. Kevin still got to the airport before me, but that worked out perfect for me because he was able to get the car rental and pick me up right away!
Living overseas in the Asian countries has really spoiled us when it comes to WIFI! At every airport and pretty much every where you go, there is free, fast and easily accessible WIFI. We were assuming this would be the case for Hawaii. Yikes! No way!! The airport only has super spotty WIFI in one tiny section of the airport. Since I hadn't activated my phone yet, I had no way of letting Kevin know I landed or to find out where he was parked or how we would meet up. Luckily, I ran into one of those small pockets in the airport and stood there to text Kevin.
As we drove through the mountains to get to Paradise cove, we were awestruck by the beauty of the mountains. There was low cloud cover, so we weren't able to see the hight of the mountains, but the green and majesty was beautiful.
We arrived at Paradise Cove and were told that our room wasn't ready and to come back in a few hours.
We spent the next few hours driving along the North Shore. We stopped and got lunch at North Shore Tacos. We also kept driving along the road to get a Coconut Pie! We opted for a whole pie, since they were 50% off. We grabbed two forks and ate it straight out of the pit tin. I'll tell you what, that was the best pie I have ever had!!
Around dinner time, we decided to try out Haleiwa Joe's. We were both told by a few people that it is an amazing place to eat. We got there and there would be over an hour wait. Since we were tired and not really in the mood to try to find another place to eat, we decided to grab a card game, order some fruit drinks and wait.
We had a really hard time sleeping! First and foremost- jet lag sucks! It's no fun to wake up every few hours because your body thinks it's day time. And Second- there was no way we could have slept because there was a rooster directly across the street that must have also been on Korea time! The dang thing crowed ALL NIGHT LONG! And it was loud! Seriously! It was right outside our window.
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