Rest? Recuperation?

Up until two weeks ago, I had never been to Hawaii. I was looking forward getting out of Asia for a while and spending some quality time back in the good ol' U.S. of A. If you've been to Honolulu, you can imagine my shock when I got off the plane to find myself still surrounded by Asians! If you've never been there: Honolulu is part of Asia -- or at least caught in some sort of dimensional rift between Asia and the West.

We fought our way through the crowds and managed to eat at Red Lobster and Chili's, two places we missed that can't be found in Beijing.

Thankfully, only that city seems to be trapped in the rift, as we escaped the black-haired throngs when we went to Maui. We met up with our moms there and spent a week driving around, snorkeling, shopping, eating, and seeing some cool stuff. Maui highlights: snorkeling with green sea turtles (they didn't even have masks on!), driving the crazy winding road to Hana.

After a week in Maui, we moved on to the big island, where my sister joined us for a few days. Our room wasn't quite like the pic D-What posted on her blog, but somewhat crazy nonetheless. (See pics on Flickr via the link to the right.) Big Island highlights: Volcanoes National Park, Donkey Balls (http://www.surfinass.com/donkey-balls.html).

While I strongly feel that even the worst day in Hawaii (unless it's an omgvolcanolavaonmyhead day) must be better than most days in Beijing, the trip didn't quite have the "rest" and "recuperation" that we wanted -- it was too short, with not enough time just for ourselves (though of course it's good to see family we haven't seen in 1-2 years).

At least I only have to work for a week, then our first U.S. visitors arrive! Woo hoo!