It’s a little surreal

I’m here. I’m in Japan. And its Monday…but its not. But it really is. I pretty much lost all of Sunday to flying. I started out at 8am Saturday and didn’t get to Japan until 2pm Sunday afternoon and in the end I stayed up for over 24 hours and was a walking zombie before I was able to crash at 9pm Sunday night.

Leading up to leaving, it got chaotic real quick. Friday morning, on my last day of work, and of course the day before leaving for Japan, my friend texted me saying her water broke. This is great news, exciting, thrilling..all those things, but it had me panic for a moment because I was supposed to photograph her birth!

She was due on June 23rd…the day I returned from Japan. It was her first..she was supposed to be at least a week late…she was not supposed to go into labor until after I got back! We agreed! ..ok, she might not have agreed to waiting that long.

I took my camera to work with me in case I had to leave early and waited for updates all while mapping out everything I needed to do at home before the trip. I made it through my last day until 5pm, doing lots of work. More work than I thought I’d do, to be totally honest. I got treated out to lunch and was able to head home, with no major updates from my friend or her husband.

By 6pm, she was at a 6, so I started to get things ready for my trip before I went to the hospital around 8. It ended up being perfect since she was ready to push just 15 minutes after I arrived. That girl can push! She was such a trooper and it was nothing short of amazing getting to be in the room to witness her daughter’s birth. I’ve never actually been in the room before. Outside, peaking through a window, seeing it on tv, but inside? while it’s happening? witnessing the nitty gritty of it all.. amazing.

a sneak

The nurses and doctor all thought it scared me off to having babies, but is it weird that it just spurred me on more for them? It looks hard. It looks beyond painful but it just made me want to do it all the more.

I’ll go on and on about her birth in another post, but I finally made it home at 11:30pm and I knew I had a long night ahead of me with packing. By 2:15am, I was finally able to fall into bed so I could wake up at 5 to get ready. It was rough! I was finally able to get coffee in my system before flying out of San Francisco, and it was like heaven.

You know I must be bored if I’m willing to bring my big camera out at an airport and not care what people think of me snapping photos of my coffee.
      

It was the first time I’d ever been in a double decker plane and I thought it was the neatest thing. Even though I wasn’t taking advantage of the double decker amenities, I had an exit row, and to me, that was all I needed. I have to give it to United. Their service was really great and they fed us 3 meals plus 2 separate snack times plus ample water throughout the whole flight. I was never hungry once. All of the flight attendants were above and beyond nice too.

One caught on that I drink a lot of water and the moment I finished one cup, he took it and immediately placed another full cup in my hand without saying a word. I had conversations with a few of them on the flight, and it was so nice and a far cry from domestic flight attendants.

I met up with G-man at the airport and we indulged in a strawberry shake together before we boarded the bus to take us on the base where we’re staying. I was dead at this point, but over an hour later, we arrived and were immediately invited out to dinner by his boss and co worker.

You can say no to the co worker, but you can’t say no to the boss, so looking haggard and worse for wear, we hopped in a cab and made our way through town for dinner. It was such a nice night. The boss treated us out for Korean BBQ and we all were able to talk and get to know each other. I’ve never accompanied G-man on any work dinners so this was new to me and I was a little uncertain with how to be. Its one of those where I want to act normal yet don’t want to embarrass G-man in any way, so I was on high alert as best as I could be with being awake for nearly 24 hours straight. However meeting his boss and not realizing it was his BOSS until the dinner was almost over had me wondering where my brain was. If G-man hadn’t said “Sir” at one point, I’m not sure it ever would have occurred to me.

By 9pm, we were finally able to get some much needed sleep and sleep never felt so good. I’ll have the days to myself while G-man has to take care of things, so I’m hoping I’ll get the chance to explore this town a little bit.

How was your weekend?

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Hi Hawaii, it’s me again!

I went to the Big Island over the weekend. That’s right! A very quick 3 day weekend trip to Hawaii. How can a girl say no when its offered to her!? She can’t! That’s all there is to it, she just can’t.

It was one of the most amazing trips of. my. life!

I was up at 3am to make my 5am flight. The 5am face I mentioned? ..make that 4:45, when I took it.

I open mouthed slept on the plane for the first hour. I’m sure it was pretty. Followed by watching Pitch Perfect on my iPad and I have to say, if you haven’t seen that, you must see it now. Absolute hilarious movie.. minus the “snow angel” but downright hilarious.

I arrived in Kona with my escort (aka G-man) ready with the rental car to pick me up so we could drive the 2 1/2 hours to the other side of the island, Hilo. Kona was the only place where a rental car was available, and it was through a hotel that we later found out had over booked by at least 100 cars, thanks to corporate not closing the website down.

Thankfully G-man flew in 3 hours before me to get the rental car, which is when the worker informed him he was lucky he came so early in the morning to be able to get a car. I shudder at the thought of that poor guy’s afternoon explaining to many many tourists they didn’t have a rental.

A huge rain storm had swept in the night before and had gale force winds and heavy heavy rain the entire windy drive to the Hilo side. It had every intention of planting it’s big fatty storm self over our side of the island the entire 3 day weekend. Seeing the rough seas during landing and knowing it was staying, had me a little nervous for the next day.. {more on that later}

The drive was beautiful. Waterfalls were everywhere, everything was so lush and green. We decided to stop at Akaka Falls and were so glad we did. It was breathtakingly beautiful as we took the scenic walk around to the falls seeing streams and bamboo trees along the way.

And then we came upon the falls gushing!

He’s learning my camera. Even though I’m not in focus, I love his shot of the waterfalls.

Every waterfall on the Big Island is supplied 100% by rain. Seeing these falls is amazing to contemplate that. Yet the big fatty storm that plopped it’s butt down on us over the weekend, had us understanding how that was possible.

We had {another} 3am wakeup call the next morning, so we jumped back in the car and made our way to the most sketchy hotel we’ve ever stayed in..that just so happened to be the last hotel on that side of the island with available rooms. Where the beds consisted of 2 mattresses stacked on top of each other on the floor with crunchy sheets, dirt caked windows and walls as thin as paper. And the elevator that read floor “12” no matter what floor you were on or going.

It was different for us, but we made sure to only be there to sleep and nothing more. We accomplished that mission.

Tomorrow, (as long as I can narrow down my top 38 photos), I’ll be sharing the most amazing adventure I’ve ever been on, with you!! Where one moment was so surreal, G-man and I talk about it and aren’t even sure it really happened though it very much did!

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Flyin’ the coop

I feel I should mention I’m not going to be around this week. Or I’m pretty sure I won’t be around this week.

Yesterday, I drove to my Grandma’s house down south. ..and by down south, I mean Southern California. I’m here all week long and well, Grandma doesn’t have internet, so this here blog along with all things internet will be on pause.


It’s going to be weird and I’m sure I’m going to have withdrawals but we plan on going places that may just have the internets to let me get some work done…since I do in fact have to have it in order to make my living. Or maybe I’ll *cough* steal *cough cough* some wi-fi near by. We’ll see.

But I won’t be able to visit you all, all week and that makes me sad.

And then next week…did I tell you where I’m going to be next week??

Oh, I’ll just wait for that one. I’m going to be all over the place. As if I haven’t been already!

Since I feel it’s my duty, I’m going to leave you with 3 random pictures from over the years.
Savannah, GA circa 2009

My niece and I circa 2007

New York from the Empire State Bldg. circa 2008

Enjoy, my lovies. I have no doubt I’ll be filled with stories when I return. Filled, I tell you…filled!

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