Aloha

Apparently this writing every day thing is going to be more difficult than I thought.  My hope was that by making it public I would feel more accountability.  You know, the whole 'workout with a buddy' concept?  Guess not.

Hawaii was, to use a bland, overused adjective, wonderful.  

I can't recommend the JW Marriott in Ko Olina enough.  We were lucky enough to have a room on the side of the resort opposite from Disney's Aulani.  One whole wall of the room was a series of sliding doors (glass, screen or louvers) and we slept with the screens shut, falling asleep to the shushing, suck of waves on the tidepools and waking up to the sounds of parrots screeching in the palm trees.  Heaven.  

But back to that whole waking up part.  Yeah, we did that. At 4am. Every. Single. Day.  The little dude never got the memo that we were on island time.  

He was a gem on the plane.  I tried to nurse on takeoff because I read it would help his ears adjust to the changes in pressure, but he had zero interest.  He was too fascinated with the window, and the tiny TV screen in the seatback that flashed to different scenes.  It didn't matter, because he fell asleep as soon as we took off, and literally never woke up again.  Until we landed.  I didn't have to deal with a diaper change and the stuffed animals, Sophie Giraffe teether and favorite book never made it out of my bag.  When we landed and were standing up to exit the plan, the ladies in front of us said, "Oh my gosh, I didn't even know you had a baby back there."  Told you, he was an angel.

The only part of the flight that required any finagling was food and drink for me.  With the sleeping baby in my arms, there was no chance I was getting my tray down, so I just commandeered the hubs.  He was nice enough to spork-feed me the yummy curry vegetable pasta they served for dinner, and I sipped my usual ginger ale using one hand.   

Gate checking the borrowed snap n' go stroller (it was actually a Jeep cruiser) and the car seat in the protective bag was a snap.  

All in all, as miserable as plane travel can be these days, I'd give Hawaiian airlines top marks.  Even the TSA security line wasn't too bad.  They had zero questions about my breast pump or ice pack that I carried on.  

Maybe because, per my usual nature, I was prepared for the worst, we actually had a really great trip over.

More to come later...