Aloha and Mahalo

Things we should talk about when reminiscing about our Hawaii retreat:

* Gorgeous view from the balcony of our hotel room every morning gazing at the picture perfect beach

* All you can eat sushi restuarant

* Signing closing documents for our house in Texas in the lobby of our hotel with a lady named Nani.

* Very productive dental conference

* Eating dinner right on the beach while watching the sunset followed by a fireworks show.

* Authentic luau complete with the best-pina coladas-on-earth on a secluded beach.

What we will talk about when reminiscing about our Hawaii retreat:

* Al's patience while doing circles in LAX Terminal 4 for 45 minutes looking for a place to eat lunch because nothing sounded good to me.

* The elevator ride and shuffle down the hall in our hotel at midnight in our pajamas with all of our luggage in tow. They couldn't get the air conditioning to work in our room so they switched our room.

* Kayaking on the Ocean. It sounded like the perfect way to celebrate our 9th anniversary. We spent the hour at sea clanking oars (we couldn't catch on to the synchronized part), doing lots of circles because we were confused about which way we wanted to head, and unable to have a conversation because of the ocean waves + me in front shouting + Al in back not being able to hear a thing. To top it off, we both had some sunscreen issues. Al's neck looked like he had had a tracheotomy with a big white circle in the middle. My shins were so burnt to a crisp (who burns their shins?) that I could have marked my ethnicity as mixed (caucasian and red).

* The bus rides to Pearl Harbor. The first included a death march from of 1 1/2 miles from the flea market to the Memorial with bags of souvenirs and 90 degree heat only to find out it had closed 15 minutes earlier. The second included a very crowded 45 minute return bus ride with my charred legs (see above kayaking on the ocean). I fought for the only available seat on the bus, between these two guys:

One guy was drooling as he was sleeping and the other spent the ride making phone calls to his job lying about why is was late. I am pretty confident neither had showered that day.

* The morning ritual of seeing who could wake up first and get dibs to work on the computer while the other person had to use a paper & pen to work on all of our business "To Do" lists. I only won one morning (at 3:30 am).

* Getting busted by the US Department of Agriculture for attempting to illegally transport fruit, they found an orange in the bottom of my bag from breakfast that I had forgotten about.