Aloha, y'all

So, we made it to Hawaii. All of us had a GREAT flight. Alex slept a bunch, but even when he was awake, he was THANKFULLY really good. He didn't even seem to be bothered much by the pressure changes or the strange plane noises, etc. He was, however the center of attention everywhere we went :-)

We were met at the airport by Aunt Cate, who wrapped us in leis. Cute picture of Alex in his leis to follow! Our hotel is nice, although their definition of "kitchenette" and mine differ a little bit. There is a dorm-room fridge, a microwave, and a coffee machine. No dishes or anything useful like that! But, we're doing fine. I brought -some plastic containers to be plates-bowls-storage things since we'll be in our new place at least 2 weeks before our stuff actually gets here. So, we're not completely out of luck, but I was a little surprised.

On the topic of surprises, the biggest sticker shock of our time here occured a few days ago, at the grocery store. Dan and I eat about a box of Special K a week. The big box. It costs $7.50 here. That's about twice as much as we used to pay. Seriously! It's not made of anything different here...no little gold Hawaiian chunks in it or anything. And the milk, all over $6.00 a gallon. Alex is going to have to get a job just so we can buy groceries! We will be looking into a Sam's or Costco membership ASAP.

The best news so far is that we found a place to live. We'll be in a neighborhood called Nuuanu (maybe there's an apostrophe in there...not sure). It's about 6 blocks from where Dan is going to work, very close to the intersection of two major highways, has a yard for Sydney and a nice porch, and it looks like a nice neighborhood for walking, with a big park area not too far away. The downstairs neighbors are a teacher and a lawyer with two little girls, so it's a family place, too.

All right, I have to get some food together for a picnic with some of Aunt Cate's friends, but we'll be in touch.

Aloha!