Note To Future Self

We’re freshly back from ten days in Hawaii soaking up the sun, seeing family and lying around the hotel room, sick as dogs. We spent three full days (and a couple of nice evening/mornings) on Maui, tromping grumpily through the tourist mainstream, but loving the beauty of the island. We both fought with some sort of stomach bug, which put a damper on our enthusiasm for living, let alone browsing expensive art galleries and overpriced “local” food.

We followed up with five-ish days on Oahu with Grandma Wong, my folks, and my aunt, cousin, and cousin’s son from San Diego. Mom had managed to plan family gatherings with both my grandmother’s and grandfather’s sides of the family. Here’s a picture of my great-aunts pigging out Hawaiian style:

And here’s Auntie Anna entertaining Quentin, my cousin’s son (cousin once removed?)

Overall, I really do love going to Hawaii, but in the end I enjoy the family time and the peaceful act of just being there with no commitments more than the tourist hustle. On the other hand I think were we to live there, I’d get too wrapped up in the day-to-day (what’s for dinner? what are we doing this weekend?) and lose sight of the surrounding beauty. Given the tension on the roads and the increasing frequency of road rage and pedestrian violence I wonder if forgetting the Aloha spirit in the grind of the modern world has become the norm.

While we were gone, the NZ Consulate processed our visas and returned our passports (our FBI records arrived a day before we left for Hawaii), so we’re (hellelujah!) legal on that front. In a quiet moment Anna also finished up her research and commited us to a mover. Come next Tuesday we’ll see how big of a mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.

Now we have about 9 days to wrap up all of our US business, clean, and pack all of our belongings and bags to live out of for the next two months. I keep thinking of the word “Herculean” for some reason.