maui day 6: travel

friday morning, with one last look from our balcony, we had breakfast and had our bags packed and ready to be picked up from our room at 12 noon.

we returned the car to avis and had their shuttle drop us off at the wailiea shops once again. we got just a few souvenirs for mom & dad, ken and kathy, ellie & grayson. because it was our last day, we chose to walk back to our hotel. there is a nice path along the ocean that passes several huge and beautiful resorts. i really did fine walking...for the first 45 minutes. the ocean view and overcast day made for a cool morning. michael was kind enough to carry our shopping bags and help me up steep hills. that is still the one thing i'm not used to. i am used to knowing how my body will react to certain situations. pregnancy has totally changed that.

we stopped a few times to rest and take pictures. after another 15-20 minutes we made it back to our hotel. we took two vouchers that we found in room after the picnic to have lunch at one of the restaurants there. $35 each seems like a lot but this place doesn't offer a cheap meal. we used most of what we could and spent the rest on a few snacks for the plane ride home.

the plane ride home was terrible. we sat in the middle row of three seats. michael on the end, me in the middle, mr. arms-taking-over-the-armrests on the other end.

listen up buddy, i know you're comfortable here with your arms on the rests, your earplugs in your ears and your little black eyepatch-thingy covering your eyes...but isn't it annoying that your arm is just barely grazing mine at all times?!?!?!?!!?!!?! i've got a belly, okay. i can't very well keep my arms in front of me and at my sides they even stick out pretty far, but i am still very well within the confines of my seat. you on the other hand, have your arm extending the boundary of yours and i'm tired of our arms touching ever so slightly!!

not to mention that men don't exactly sit with their legs together. i was miserable. so, apparently, was the boy growing in my belly. he kicked and squirmed and punched and flipped and flopped the entire 7 hour flight. i think we slept off and on for a total of about an hour. i almost cried with relief when our plane landed in dallas around 5am.

at dfw we had breakfast and waited at the gate until an american airlines lady came to the desk. i went over to get our boarding passes from her. she was a little confused at why we didn't already have them. as she began looking up our flights, she said that when the big mess up happened before we even left san antonio for hawaii, the lady exchanged the last leg of our flight. she said we would have to exit the airport, go back out to the AA check in desk and have someone out there fix it. michael was furious.

the first lady we met kindly took care of everything but then we had to go back through security and get checked. we made it back in just in time to board the plane. we slept the entire 40 min ride back to san antonio where ken picked us up at 9am sat morning.

we didn't even take our luggage out of the car before pulling the curtains and crashing for a few hours. we got up, had dinner and went back to bed.

now, it almost feels like hawaii was a dream. it was probably our last trip together as just husband and wife. next summer, next trip...we'll have more than just the two of us. our son will join us. and after that, maybe another kid or two. what a sweet thought of the future but what a wonderful memory of our past.

michael, thank you so much for our wonderful trip. all of your hard work paid off and because of you, we got to experience such a dream vacation before our family grows. you are a blessing to me and i am honored to be your wife. you make me so incredibly proud. i love you so much.