Aloha.

Day 1
Poulsbo, WA to Lihue, HI

Traveling with family is always an interesting adventure. There is just something about the dynamics between family members that makes doing something stressful like traveling that much more ridiculous. I'm going to be real honest for a moment. When I'm traveling... I like to do it by myself. Not the sightseeing fun things, but the actual traveling. Getting your boarding pass, checking a bag, going through security, and finding your gate are all soooooo much easier when its just you zipping through the lines. Traveling with a few friends is slightly more stressful but traveling with family takes the cake as far as stress level goes.

Today I experienced the most stressful airport traveling situation of my life. To be brief....

My Mom and oldest brother weren't able to come with us at the last minute. Which I thought would make the trek more difficult because she wouldn't be there to help with Callen.... but we actually needed her to be there to keep my Dad in line!

We left home at 6 am to head to Seatac for a 10 am flight. Plenty of time, right? For the average lone traveler sure... and even for us it could have been... After checking all of us in (including all the bags for Callen) and going through the security line I couldn't find my Dad for a minute. Then I realize he's having his bags searched over in the corner. I notice that the TSA official pulls out something shiny. My Dad, who apparently had originally planned to check through his bag, had brought along not only a giant bottle of shaving cream but also a leatherman pocket knife and the pocketknife he's had since he was a kid. So now instead of throwing them away (my Dad has never willingly thrown anything useful away in his entire life) he wants to go back to check his bag in. Luckily I remembered that they have a mailbox for such instances but he still had to go back through security to send them. We still had about an hour before the flight was supposed to leave so while I waited at the end of the security line with my Dad's now contraband free carry-on and Joe, Carly and Callen headed to the gate, my Dad walked back to the Airport post office.

About 15 minutes later and I don't see my Dad. I'm starting to get nervous. Then I get a call from Carly. The flight is leaving 20 minutes early! We needed to hurry! Well finally about 10 minutes later I see that my Dad is in the midst of the security line. I get him on his cellphone and he tells me that I should just go to the gate and he'll meet me there because it's better if I make it with Joe and Carly then if both of us don't. As I'm going through the airport I'm checking every single one of those digital clocks they have and thinking to myself.... If I'm running through the airport right now (still rolling my Dad's carry-on), there is no way that my Dad is making this flight. I finally make it to the gate and as I'm about to plead to the lady at the desk she tells me that I need to run to the door if I wanna make the flight! With three carry-ons I make it through the airplane doors. Joe and Carly are stalling by taking their sweet time hooking Callen's car seat in. Finally about two seconds before they are about to close the airplane doors my Dad makes it on the plane.

As we begin to taxi away from the gate I only had two things to say to him
1. What are ya new?! First time flying?!
2. I just want you to imagine if Mom were here right now.

That will be the only time I will ever say I'm glad my Mom wasn't with us, because she would have murdered my Dad.

So, we learned a couple very valuable lessons already on this trip.... Dad isn't allowed to pack his own bag, airplanes leave whenever the hell they want and it doesn't matter how awful the traveling part is when you land in Hawaii and it's 80 degrees :)

They are ready for Hawaii!

For some reason my Dad wouldn't switch me rooms.
He wanted this one with the king size bed and amazing view!

I'm already in love with Kauai. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it but I think it will my favorite island on Hawaii.
We've only been here a few hours but it seems so laid back.
It reminds me of Mexico... only instead of seeing wild dogs everywhere there are wild chickens everywhere!

Now that all the traveling craziness is done, I need a Mai Tai and my book :)
Vacation starts now!