I want to start out by saying that I am not sure what happened to the background of my blog, but after dealing with technical difficulties, I have switched to a generic background until I get back from vacation and have time to work on it.
So here is the plane that we took from Portland to Honolulu yesterday.
After a bit of de-icing while waiting to taxi, we were on our way.
The beauty of flying these days is all the technology that surrounds us. Not only can you watch the movie that they are playing on the airplane tv, you can now rent a digital mini tv and watch several preloaded movies or tv shows. Our flight movie was Crazy, Stupid, Love. This is one of the only movies that Scott and I have actually seen in the theater this year. Not to worry. The people next to me on my left were watching Black Swan, the people in front of them were watching Fast Five, and the girl on the other side of Scott was watching Two and a Half Men and The Middle. This made the 5 hour and 40 minute flight go just a bit quicker.
After landing in Honolulu and taking the shuttle to the rental car place, we braved the crazy traffic and made it to our hotel, after passing it not once, but twice. We had time to unload our bags and take a quick walk to the beach. By quick, I mean we literally stepped off the back steps of our hotel and ta da, we had our feet in the Hawaiian sand.
We met Scott’s childhood friend Mary Rogers, her husband Stacey, and their daughter April for dinner. It was fun to listen to Mary and Scott tell stories of when they grew up. The boys really enjoyed talking with Stacey, as he is a big hunter and outdoorsman from New Mexico.
This morning’s sunrise was beautiful. Well, I am guessing it was since the sun actually comes up on the other side of the island.
It’s hard to believe that it’s Christmas time when we are surrounded by people in shorts and flip flops. But signs of Christmas are all around.
We had heard that there might be some excitement just down the beach from us this morning. We ventured down to check it out.
The hula girls started and the crowd gathered round. Unfortunately, we don’t speak Hawaiian, so we were not sure what they were saying. Then what to our wondering eyes should appear…..
It was Santa on an outrigger canoe!!!!!!
Santa made his way up the beach to join the hula girls. It was so fun to see the kid’s faces light up when they saw him.
Then the little hula girls got up to dance for the crowd. Oh my gosh, I really don’t think you can top the cuteness of these little girls!
The weather here has been off and on sprinkling. The winds are blowing, which can cool things down quite a bit. I was told not to pack any long-sleeves. First purchase of this trip, a long sleeve pullover.
On our way back to our hotel this morning, we were able to catch a glimpse of a beautiful rainbow.
One of our main goals for today was to pick up our packets for the marathon tomorrow.
This was crazy! I have been to races before, but nothing like this. This race is huge for Japanese people. By that, I mean that they fly them in by the plane loads for the race. Everything in the packet pick-up center was geared towards them. All the signs are in Japanese, and the whole time we were there, this Japanese lady was making announcements over the loud speaker.
Scott had received notice in the mail prior to our coming of what his race number would be. He had to take this notice to the line containing his number in order to pick up his packet. Us 10k’ers did not receive previous notice. I walked over to the section where the 10k people get their packets and there were five lines to choose from. Four of the five lines were clearly labeled “Japanese” and the fifth line was labeled “Japanese and non-Japanese”. Huh, I am not anticipating meeting a race buddy tomorrow. We are also staying in the same hotel as the Kenyon team. Boy they are a bit intimidating. My goal for tomorrow is to finish my 10k before the first runner finishes the marathon.
Our last official stop of the day was to visit Kiyoko. Her 98th birthday is this coming week and we will be spending more time with her as the week goes on. We just wanted to stop by and say hi.
After leaving Kiyoko’s house, the sky pretty much opened up and the rain started. We have not gone far this afternoon, and plan to make it an early night. The race starts tomorrow at 5:00am, and Scott wants to be there around 4:15am. I think he set the alarm for 3:00am. If I go to bed right now, I should get about seven hours of sleep.
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