An Aloha Thanksgiving

Greetings from Waikiki!

As I sit here in my bed, Ian is watching 'Curious George' and practicing breathing through his snorkel. Without the luxury of my mother and grandmother's cooking today, we decided not to even attempt to cook a traditional Thanksgiving for ourselves....but rather, we'll be spending the day firmly rooted at the beach--giving thanks just the same.

We arrived here in Honolulu on Tuesday afternoon, after 2 very long flights, 1 night in a very mediocre hotel in Los Angeles, and many, many visits to the airplane lav. (Bridget, you'd be so proud of me. I hadn't used an in-flight toilet since the beginning of this decade--no exaggeration). But being nearly 6 months pregnant, and not wanting to die of deep-vein thrombosis, I was able to overcome my distaste (understatement) of airplane lavs. And you know what? It wasn't that bad. By the end of it all, my ankles still looked liked knees and my shoes didn't fit, but whocarescauseIjustlandedinhawaii!!

It took me less than 5 minutes on the roads to realize that my goal for this trip was to simply relax. That's the Hawaiian way, you know. No one's in a hurry. No one breaks the speed limit. Heck, no one goes the speed limit. =) And even though there's a significant bit of aloha that courses through my veins, I apparently did not get the relax gene. At least, not to this degree. BUT...being Hawaiian can also be a learned behavior, I think. At least I hope so.

On the docket today: snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and relaxing at Kailua Beach. And lots of swimming. And eating. And playing in the sand. You know, intuitive Thanksgiving stuff.

And while we realize that no amount of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts or Hawaiian sweet bread can make up for missing out on my mother's rolls and pies, we're happy to be here...