I got in last night around 2:30 (8:30EST) and everything went smoothly. Unfortunately I got sick the day before so I'm not feeling great. It has helped me sleep though. I was able to get to sleep around 9 on Monday so waking up at 4am ended up not being too difficult!
My bags weighed 49.5 and 50 lbs so all my struggling to make sure I wouldn't pay the airlines extra worked out perfectly! Also, when I got to the gate they said that if we had bags that were a little big or we just didn't want to deal with them they'd check them at the gate all the way through to my final destination for FREE. So I did that. It was nice to not have to deal with my third bag. They all got through to HI right on time and nothing is missing. What a great great thing, haha. It was a relief to see my "carry on" in the baggage claim. That's the one I was most worried about since it was put in separately and had more of the important things, but I got that one first! Woo-hoo!
Not too long after I loaded myself up. Laptop and 30+ lb carry on on my back, huge rolly duffle right the right arm and my hard shelled black guy on the left. I trudged from Baggage claim F-2 to H-3 and actually had a hard time breathing. There were baggage carts, and in fact I was right next to them, but $3 to use one for 5 minutes seemed ridiculous. I'm stubborn when it comes to things like that. Well I made it over to baggage claim H since that's where John's stuff was and then he calls. He had gone over to F! I informed him I wasn't moving again so I waited, haha. I needed to catch my breath. Ah- prior to all this I had picked up two fresh flower leis for us since I knew they didn't great people anymore. Well John came over to H with a guy in Khakis named Michelangelo. He was the first guy of John's command to show up to greet us AND he's from DALLAS, PA! It was very exciting. We obviously bonded. After greetings and some chatting, two more guys showed up named Dan, and Tom. Tom brought us leis as well, thinking ahead. So John and I ended up each having two, and happily they were all different. As they greeted and asked similar questions, the last and final guy (another Tom) came in to greet John. This Tom is the Navigator. That's all I know about that, and his name tag said so. It was cool to meet the guys and I'm sure it helped John a bunch as well. It'll give him a few familiar faces once he gets to the boat and that's always helpful.
Wow I still can't believe it's 6:30 am and I'm awake. Though I guess on my body clock it's 12:30 and I did go to sleep at 7. I'm looking fwd to showering soon, but I figured I jot down some things. John went off with Bryan (the guy with whom we're staying with) to go to base and pick up a rental car. They're cheaper there. So I figured I'd write now while I was free.
Side note: The flights went well. I ended up having a while row to myself during the first flight so that was very nice. I slept part of that time and read most of it. I brought a new Juliet Marillier book (her Sevenwaters Trilogy is my favorite and this is a random new 4th book) and that was perfection. I never got tired of reading and in fact, finished the book by the last hour of the last flight. It was good. But yeah, there was a little girl in the aisle seat, no one in the middle, and I in the window. The girl ended up sitting with her brothers and mother in the row next to us so the majority of the time the row was all mine. It was nice. It wasn't the same for the second flight, but that flight wasn't too bad either. I think it's a lot nicer than driving a long way. You can change position and move around slightly more, as long as you don't hit the person next to you, and that improves the situation. All in all, the flights weren't so bad. I've had worse.
Well today brings apartment hunting. We're looking at one at Colonnade on the Greens at 11 (5EST) and then two at Park at Pearlridge at 2:30 and 5. These are the three nicest we've seen online so fingers crossed! They all allow pets. Of course. I won't look at one that doesn't and John's accepted that haha.
YAY HAWAII!!!!! Love Jillian
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