Last post on Hawaii

So, we've been back since Sunday.  Jamie more or less got home, realized she was sick and went to bed.  I feel terrible for her.  She seems to pick things up in airports very easily.

I took Monday off and retrieved the dogs, who had been at the Puppy Ranch for the duration.  It was a long stay, and they've been super tired since, so everyone is on the same page here.  As much as they like the kennel, where they get to play with other dogs and go outside a lot, they also are always very happy to get back to the routine and their couch-dwelling existence.

no doubt that noise she heard was a bear, and I must be protected

I was back at work on Tuesday, which was a hard adjustment.  We have a lot going on right now, but we always have a lot going on, and I'm having to learn that I have to be able to not lose my mind when things don't go exactly as I'd have done them when I wander back in from 6 days off.

As Jamie isn't well, we haven't gone to see the new nephew who joined us just prior to our departure.  I'm excited to see how much the wee nipper has grown.  I bet he's already doing long division.

I was trying to think of some reflections about Hawaii or travel or something.  I dunno.

I will say the following:

• the Hawaiians certainly have a different context for the word "plantation" than what we have in the Southern states here on the mainland, and the era is remembered more fondly
• it's fascinating to see a culture that feels so genuinely different that's still so much a part of the United States.  Different languages, accents, history, beliefs, attitudes.  It doesn't fit with 8 lanes of freeway traffic, cube farms and flourescent lighting. 
• Like all of you I grew up with Hawaii as a destination for TV families and with lots of tropical/ Polynesian iconography foisted upon me in the name of mandatory fake fun.  And you can kind of grow to think of it like aluminum Christmas trees or some other retro thing that has kitsch value, but I think I got a better feel for why that ever happened once I was there.  It's because it's actually really nice when you're there, and if you're headed back to your windowless office for the next year, it's nice to have the memory.  Unfortunately, that's a damn hard thing to communicate to people who have no context.  
• The only thing saving Hawaii is the fact that it is so expensive to live there.  As bad as that is for the locals, if any jerk like me could seriously consider packing up and spending 2x the amount on groceries and way more on a home, pretty soon the islands would just look like suburbs sticking out of the sea. 
• You can never do all the things people will tell you that you MUST do.  It's impossible.  It's vacation, not a scavenger hunt.  And while it's ok for people to relive their trips by talking to you about yours, everyone does vacation differently.  One does not need to feel like they will win a prize for hitting every site and dining destination thrown their way.

I don't know quite how we'll swing it, but I know we'd like to go back in a few years.  Not too long from now.  I personally also really enjoyed DC and Chicago, and I'd like to do Boston, NYC and others in the coming years.  It will be a challenge to work it all out, but I know we can.  We're finally getting okay at this travelling thing.  

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming.