The Wesley's Honeymoon trip to Hawaii: DAY ONE!!

(Jenny)

Man, I am completely exhausted. It is 7:45 local time (1:45 am Ohio time) and it definitely feels like 2 am.

Today was SO exciting. Started off a little rough, but we're in Hawaii and it is amazing so far.

Like I mentioned in the last post. We were going to try to stay up all night so we would sleep on the plane. Well, it was a good thought, but about 2:30 I couldn't keep my eyes open. So, we set 3 alarms. Just in case. I woke up after hearing the alarm and it was 5:50 (50 mins AFTER we wanted to leave). I jumped outta bed and definitely heard the Home Alone music playing. Haha. We got out of the house by 6:10 and made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare!

I was so excited walking through the airport... I had the "tourist" arrow pointing at me all morning.

At the Dayton Airport - stopped for a coffee and a breakfast snack... the coffee was SO gross we didn't even finish it. Yeah, 3 hours of sleep and we're served shitty coffee. wooo hooo.

On our way to our plane to Chicago. We got to the Gate and we almost missed our flight. Our tickets said boarding at 8:00 am. We got to gate at 8:10 and they already 'unsat' us. Gah, so yeah, woke up late, shitty coffee and we almost missed our plane. Is 8:15 am too early to drink, because I needed one..... or 4. :)

Finally on the plane, and we're ready for take off to Chicago.

Pretty clouds.

Aerial view of Chicago. We were on a really small plane. 2 seats on one side and single seat on other. We got off the plane and headed about 15 mins (walking) to our gate to board for Honolulu. (below).

We made it to this gate on time, but the plane was late getting there. So, we had a few extra minutes to eat a sandwich and relax a little. ... Boarded the Boeing 777 plane - sob was HUGE. 2 seats-5 seats - 2 seats. We took off and Matt and I were napping in no time! We got to plat a little game while on the plane.... Guess the time it'll be in Hawaii when flight is at it's half way point...

We guess 9:52:33 am (hawaii time) we were off by 10 mins. 10:02:57 am. The flight was long. We didn't get to sleep much, it was uncomfortable. We were able to purchase lunch, we got an asian chicken noodle salad of some sorts, it was actually really good. They played a couple movies and I got bored reeeeal quick. The picture below is of the border before we flew over water. I'm not really sure what state we were over...

The first sight of Hawaii. This is Maui. We arrived in Honolulu at 2:02 pm (8:02 pm Ohio time)

More of Maui.
We got off the plane and stepped into paradise.

The air smelled so fresh and the palm trees never looked better!! The air was warm about 85 degrees, but a nice cool breeze (winds about 20 mph) it didn't even feel like 85! We got a cab to our hotel, we decided not to rent a car in Honolulu because we are only going to be here until Wednesday.

We arrived at our hotel. Ohana Wakiki West, the kind lady at the desk upgraded us to a kitchenette suite - heck yes. So, we have a small fridge, microwave, and 2-burner stove. Hello, newlywed perks!

Picture above is from our balcony. We are on the 4th floor. For extra security at the hotel you have to swipe your room key card in the elevator and it'll take you to the appropriate floor. We have never stayed in the hotel that did that, so that was cool!!

We decided to take it easy the first night, after almost 12 hours of travel we weren't sure how much longer we were going to be able to stay awake. We walked down the street from our hotel, found this hole-in-the-wall Ameri-Mex restaurant, called Surf n Turf Tacos, we got chicken nachos and their special spicy salmon tacos. O.M.G. they were so good (or we were starving).

We walked to Wakiki Beach. Surprisingly there weren't that many people on the beach. Of course, we just HAD to get our toes into the sand!!

Wakiki Beach.

We walked to a small farmers market within a small outdoor shopping mall. It's the cutest place ever! We got a small container of fresh mango. I have never eaten a fresh mango before and love of everything holy it was the best fruit I've never tasted. It was so juicy and just melted in our mouths. I will definitely be eating more Hawaii mangos!!