Like a Happy Noodle

Aloha, all! I'm back from my fabulous Hawaiian escape and I'm more relaxed and happy than I have been in ages.

You might have heard about our part of the country getting blasted with snow last Sunday, and we were. But my husband and I managed to sneak out right before that whole mess started. We were on two different flights but it seems that they ended up being the only two flights that got out that day.

When I got to Atlanta for my transfer, it was a ghost town. The board showed canceled, after canceled, after canceled. But somehow I managed to be on the only on time flight out of there too.

My husband and I ended up getting to Hawaii within a half hour of each other. We were on the beach sipping Mai Ties when we got the call that none of his coworkers had made it out of Virginia. In fact, they weren't going to make it out the next morning either. We were going to have a whole day to ourselves on the island!

Woo hoo.

So the next morning, armed with e-mails from Pua, we set off for the North Shore. Pua's local's tour not only showed us some of the most beautiful spots on the island, but it was a culinary tour too. We had brownies, Dole whip, dinner from a shrimp truck, and then...we were too full to eat anything else.

We decided to continue down the Windward side of the island too and spent some time sitting on the beach watching some amazing surfers.

It was like I could feel the stress of the last few months...no...years melting away.

The next morning we went shopping before we had to meet my husband's coworkers for drinks on the beach. That's when I discovered Lava Flows and the rest of my week was a blur of relaxing happiness.

My husband and the guys had to work the next couple of days but I spent them relaxing. By the pool. On our balcony over the ocean. Walking the beach. I relaxed like I've never relaxed before. At night we'd meet the guy for dinner and drinks.

On Friday morning we went to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. It certainly wasn't fun, but it was an amazing thing to see. We also took our own little driving tour of the military bases in the area. Very interesting. And it is always reassuring to see another base that we could stand to live at.

We flew out that afternoon. That was torture. It was a ten-hour, overnight flight. I even took Tylenol PM to try to sleep. But every time I drifted off, I'd twitch myself awake. It reminded me of the hours before giving birth. Torture.

But I slept on and off since Saturday morning (in between pizza and a movie) and now I am right back to being happy and relaxed.

I need to go to the airport and pick up the kids and my mother in an hour. They had a blast. The kids learned how to ski, went to their cousins' birthday party, and saw the Jeff Corwin experience.

And they practiced violin every day.

It's back to real life tomorrow. I am nowhere near ready.