Nothing But Words

Maria took the picture on the left on 2/28, the day before we left. I had just come back from work and was about to start shoveling the 7" of snow that was on our sidewalk. She also took the picture on the right, this morning at the Duke Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki. Many locals were horrified by my pasty whiteness. Kai’s happiness was verging on hysteria, as he splashed around in the warm, clear water.

Waikiki is the tourist trap section of Honolulu – we’re planning to make side trips to other parts of Oahu (the conference runs all week, so we won’t have time to make trips to other islands). Today we’re taking it easy because of our jet lag – we’ve all been up since 2:30 AM local time (7:30 EST).

Note to John S: I’ve heard there’s a restaurant here that serves spam sushi (John has an peculiar fascination with spam). If I come across it, I’ll take a picture for you.

Wow, the good vibes I requested in my last post have come through in spades: Maria’s feeling pretty good, Kai’s cough has mostly gone away, the snow has stopped and the roads are clear, and just now I managed to switch onto Maria and Kai’s flight (mine was delayed two hours, and I would have missed my connection, so the airline was willing to switch me). We’re on our way to Honolulu in a couple hours!

We’re planning to leave tomorrow morning for Honolulu! Maria has a week-long conference to attend, and poor Kai and I are being dragged along. But nature is conspiring against us:

• Last night Kai started up with this unearthly, horrible sounding cough. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into something nasty.
• Maria’s 24×7 morning sickness, which was supposed to stop in her third month, is still going strong in her 4th month. She was out of commission most of the weekend. But she’s been having “good days” on a more frequent basis recently, so let’s hope that trend continues.
• We’re supposed to get from 3″ – 10″ of snow (mixed with sleet) over the next 24 hours, and our flights are scheduled to leave within that time frame (very early tomorrow morning). Let’s hope the flights don’t get canceled. I say “flights” because I’m flying separately from Maria and Kai. Her flight was bought and paid for by the conference organizers, and she got a free companion ticket for Kai with her frequent flyer miles. When I bought my ticket, I couldn’t get on the same flight (I leave a couple hours earlier). With both of them in questionable health, I’m worried about how they’ll do on such a long flight.

As you can see, the odds are not in our favor right now…

Latest Honolulu forecast: Low: 67, High: 81, Mostly Sunny. Our hotel is a block and a half from the beach.

Please cross your fingers, break out your rabbit’s foot, pray, or anything else you think might help send us some luck over the next 24 hours.