Aloha from Hawaii

Aloha from North Beach in Oahu!
It is a gorgeous morning with birds chirping and the sun peeking out from the clouds. We woke up bright and early because our bodies are on Pacific Standard Time. Which is perfect because we want to pack in as much as we can before the wedding festivities start.

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Yesterday morning, my mom packed up and left the apartment around 7AM. I couldn’t help but take a few pictures of the place – I really haven’t seen the place THIS clean since I moved in. So I needed to document that it happened. Before work starts up again and my desk is piled high with papers and supplies.

I should have taken a before picture of that table.

We got to Jen’s house around 7:30 and my mom got to meet the famous Bill Merz, Jen’s dad. A pretty exciting day in history, to say the least.

We got to the airport, went through security, grabbed a few books for the plane, and shared a salad at Andales.

With the chicken on the side. One of the perks of being best friends with a vegetarian is that you get to eat ALL the chicken.

I took my Xanax about an hour before the flight and did a pretty good job during take-off. No tears or nothin’! I also got a good chunk of my pre-work done for work, which is surprising. Because normally I am non-functional on a plane.

When we landed, we took a shuttle to go grab our rental car and drove about an hour to North Beach. We are staying with Jen’s sister’s friends for the next three days. Typically, they rent out the first floor of their house but for the summer months, they are keeping it vacant because they expect to have a few visitors.

The house is absolutely gorgeous and they’ve been so welcoming! They even included a list of things that are available for our use, as well some of their favorite things to do locally.

One of their recommendations was to grab a bottle of wine and walk down to the beach (oh, a 3-minute walk from their home. No big deal) to watch the sunset. We rushed over to the grocery store to stock up on a few essentials (wine and champagne included) and made it back with plenty of time to eat a quick dinner.

Since the day consisted of way too much snacking on pita chips, we needed something of substance. We grabbed a French baguette from the store and made some turkey sandwiches. We also made a champagne-pineapple-mango drink to accompany us on our trip to the beach.