Good Bye Paradise! I'm having second thoughts about this....

The catching up continues.....

It is here - moving day. We loaded up almost all our worldly possessions into a big box, and then watched as some dude came and shook it like a Polaroid picture before putting it on his truck and driving it away to the docks, where he supposedly shook it again to make sure everything that could break would before he put it on the boat. You have to make sure of these things - some slacker on the mainland might drop the proverbial ball. Or container.


David is tired. You have to pack the container perfectly evenly, which is harder than it sounds, even when you have David's foresight.

Also, naturally, at one point I was mountain-goating it over all our stuff to move it around and slipped on who knows what and fell on an upside-down chair. I was out of commission for a few hours.

The best part is while this whole 'pack up our lives and put it in a box' weekend was happening, we kept getting interrupted by the police wanting to question us.

The long and short of it is this - annoying. No really, our bike/car reside in an underground, gated garage. Of course it was stolen out of this supposedly locked place the night before we sent all our stuff home in the PODS.

The best part is the video. Luckily, they actually had well-placed, running cameras. So you can clearly see the perp break in pick up a few choice things, hear a noise, duck behind a car, and then you can see US WALKING ACROSS THE PARKING LOT TO OUR CAR, noticing nothing. Considering that it is such a tiny garage (15 spots?) this is kind of a feat in being un-observant. I blame exhaustion. We were probably going out to get more bubble wrap or something.

Anyway, the real kicker is that after we pull out, our bikes come into view and you can see him stand up, crane his neck as he notices this new merchandise, and proceed to steal one of our bikes. Naturally, he took the Trek.

The only highlight as I watched this, under the eyes of several judging policepersons, was that when he got outside and tried to ride our bike, he fell over. Ha! Take that, jerk.

But we were still pissed.

For my last day at work, my wonderful coworkers went with me to lunch. I wanted to hit my favorite ramen place, as I knew I would probably not be able to find a good place in Dallas. Heck, before I moved out I thought ramen was only found in 10 cent packages at the grocery store. I was so wrong.

REAL RAMEN IS AMAZING. David, if you ever want to get me a fun bday present, a set of real ramen bowls with those circle wooden spoons would be good. I might even attempt the 5-hour long recipe. Make a note.

You know what else I'm going to miss?

STEAK SHACK. It too, is magically delicious.

MMMMMM

Finally, my great co-workers and boss. Here we are, in Davis' office, taking a break on the Playstation 3. Favorite games were Call of Duty and some quiz game that was actually pretty addictive. In the heat of battle, I may or may not have called my boss a bad word at some point. Luckily, he thinks that kind of thing is funny.

Hi Garren and Grant! I miss you guys.

View from the office

My office space! Darren (the DT to my TD!) Bought me a beautiful good-bye lei.

For my last beach outing, I wanted to hang out with the dogs, so we headed over to one of the prettiest spots- Lanikai.

One of the many flowers that just grows wild along the walk to the beach- it's kind of ridiculous.

Dude paddle-boarding with his dog. My dogs would never be that cool.

Final sand-sculpture. Of course it's a horse.

Tiff Was Here. And she will never be this tan again.

Hi and Goodbye to our engagement island.

I wanted sushi one last time, and I always have fun at those conveyor-belt places.

We went for a walk along Waikiki beach at night - not that you can tell. All the lit-up courtyards of the hotels reflecting off the water makes it truly lovely.

Best picture of approximately the 1,473 that we took, if you can believe it.

I really need to get a camera with a night setting. This is the great courtyard of the Sheraton on Waikiki. The lights strung from the trees were beautiful.

Hanging out with the bebes one last time.

Having a fun tropical who-knows what. I think I asked the waiter for the drink with the 'most things in it". It had a pineapple, cherry, orchid, and an umbrella in it. Ha.

Shortly after this David drove me to the airport and I flew back to the mainland. While I was glad to soon be able to see friends and family again, a few tears might have been shed as the plane turned away from the lit island and towards the darkened sea.