HAWAII DAY #1

OAHU DAY #1

Usually the flight over to Hawaii isn't so bad.  The anticipation of laying on the beach listening to the waves and feeling the sun is enough to make the 7-8 hour flight seem more like a 3 hour flight.  However, that was not the case this time.  All was well until our plane took off from San Francisco en route to Oahu.  Like I always do, when the plane takes off I hit that little button on the side of my arm rest to recline my seat the 6" that it does recline.  As soon as I did this I felt knees in my back and a big huff and puff from the old farts behind me.  Upon hearing their animal like sounds that were obvious complaints I quickly put my seat back up into the "correct your posture and make your flight as uncomfortable as possible" position.  After about 5 minutes the guy in front of me reclined his seat giving me about 3 inches of space (slight exaggeration for sake of the story, but I didn't really didn't have a lot of space).  I sat there annoyed for about 10 more minutes until I couldn't take it anymore.  I pushed the button and reclined my seat halfway not all the way back, but HALFWAY.  Hardly enough to make a difference in the comfort of my flight.  For the next 45 minutes I patiently (read: annoyingly) put up with the constant knee jabs in my back.  Finally her husband (it was a lady behind me) said to me, "Your seat is jabbing into my wife's knees." To which I responded, "Yes, and her knees are jabbing into my back."  I then pointed out to him that the guy in front of me had reclined his seat all the way back leaving me not much room.  I left my seat the way it was refusing to put it back up, but I didn't lay it back anymore either.  A good Samaritan I am.  Anyway sometime around hour 3 1/2 and halfway through "Moneyball" the knee jabbing in my back stopped.  In my defense the lady behind me was a pretty skinny lady and seemed around my height so it wasn't like she had any less room than I did.  

Why do I tell you this story besides to demonstrate that old people with their pants pulled up to their chest suck?  Mostly because...old people with pants pulled up their the chest suck!

Anyway we made it!  After grabbing our car we headed straight to Lanikai with our packed bags still in the car.  In my opinion this is the perfect place to melt away the frustrations of a long flight.  Total rejuvenation.

 After a couple of hours our bellies got the best of us and we went over to Pepper's Place in Kailua.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Have you ever gone into a place kinda skeptical and left totally amazed?  That is how Pepper's Place was for me.  It doesn't look like much on the outside nor on the inside.  Even after reading their menu I wasn't totally stoked.  It wasn't until I sunk my teeth into my sandwich that I was won over.  Clayton got the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich and I got the Veggie Delight.  Oh and Clayton also ordered some "Happy Fries" (aka. round fries with a happy face in them).  The fries weren't anything to write home about, but the sandwiches...oh the sandwiches!

And then finally we headed over to the Pataray home.  Marc, Jodie and family are always so nice to let us crash at their place.  Jodie, knowing how much we love Christmas even left her beautiful Christmas tree up for us...which even had some presents with our names on them under it (such as Clayton's favorite...a SPAM cookbook).  Bryson was super stoked for his Lego buddy Clayton to play with him again.  Although by the end of the trip I think he was feeling a little neglected when 80% of Clayton's attention was on their new lab, Coco (Cocoa???) Puff.  Seriously if you know Clayton at all you know his love (read: obsession) with dogs.  We can never walk by one without him whistling to it.

Anyway thanks again Jodie (and rest of fam) for putting up with us.  We LOVE you guys!  Come to UTAH please!