LEAVING THE BABY BEHIND AT BYU-HAWAII

With mixed emotions I tell the tale of a trip to Hawaii. Most people would be so happy to go to Hawaii, but for me it was a trip of conflicting emotions. We arrived New Years Day to rain. According to my family, I am a rain curse for Hawaii because every time I've been there it rains most of the time (this trip was no exception). We stayed at the Wyland Waikiki in downtown Waikiki. Advantage - the hotel is covered in Wyland art, which I love (http://www.wylandgalleries.com/). Disadvantage - it was noisy and 3 blocks from the beach. But since we were there to get Andrew settled and not to just vacation, it worked out fine. Here is a picture from our balcony:

The next day we headed out to BYU-Hawaii to check Andrew into his dorm room and figure out what we needed to buy to have him be ready to settle in. Oahu may be an island, but it still took us 1-1/2 hours to get there. Going over the Likelike Hwy. it was pouring rain. Luckily by the time we got to the University it had settled down to a sprinkle. Here are pictures as you drive into campus:

In trying to find where to sign him in we went in the back way past a sign that says "No Women Beyond This Point". Of course I didn't notice this until after we had gone in!! Finally, we found our way and Andrew got his room key. Okay, now I lived in the dorms in college, I traveled with many swim teams and stayed in dorms around the country, settled Stephanie in at Univ. of Florida her freshman year, and yet I was still shocked when I saw this room. This is the smallest dorm room I have ever seen!!! I had Andrew send me a picture from his front door so you all could see what I mean. Check it out:

That honestly is the whole room!! Plus no air conditioning!! I guess the plus side is they won't long to make it messy, so it will get clean faster.

We then headed to WalMart to buy him a fan, laundry baskets, hangers, extension cords, and all that essential dorm stuff. WalMart was another hour away. All of a sudden we realized we were close to the Dole Plantation and we were all starving and we remembered how much we loved the Pineapple ice cream, so of course we had to stop!! It was yummy!!

By the time we got back to the dorm it was evening, so we checked him out until Monday and headed back to Waikiki.

Saturday we headed out for the only tourist thing that we all wanted to do. We headed over to the USS Arizona Memorial. Dennis and I did this on our honeymoon almost 30 years ago, but haven't been back since. It was great to be there with Andrew. I highly recommend it to anyone who gets a chance to go. Here our a few pictures:

Oil from the ship still bubbles up to the surface even after 60 years. It was eerie.

As you can see from the pics this was another rainy/overcast day.
Sunday was a quiet day at the hotel. Monday we headed back to BYU-H early. Dennis and I got to go meet Pres. Wheelwright and talk with him about the school. Andrew headed to the Health to get a mandatory TB test shot :( ,get his school I.D., and all that other school stuff. When we were done we went back to Waikiki until that evening when we headed back to school for a luau for the new students and families. Finally it was time to say goodbye. I was very proud of myself, I didn't cry.

Exhausted physically and mentally we headed back to our hotel again (4th trip, 6hrs of driving).

On Tuesday we finally got some morning sunshine and headed to the beach. Look at this picture, it looks like a postcard, but I really just took it with my phone camera lying on the beach!

When we both felt the burn coming on we walked back to our hotel room. Dennis calls up Andrew and says "How about we come take you to dinner?" Okay, everyone thought I was going to be the one that couldn't say goodbye, but Dennis broke down first!! So I suggested we find a restaurant at the Turtle Bay Resort that is much closer to the University than Waikiki. I really just wanted to see it and show Dennis that we needed to stay there next time we visit! It is a beautiful resort. I'm sure that I want to save my pennies (dollars) to stay there next time!! We enjoyed a nice dinner and walk around the resort. We left just in time for some nice sunset pictures:

Back to the dorms and another farewell on a beautiful balmy night!!

Wednesday we headed back to the beach in the morning. Dennis worked in the afternoon while I read and Thursday we headed back. We stayed away the rest of the trip and only called a half dozen time or so. I will miss him so much. Sending the the baby off is the worst (now the tears).

We got home at 10:30pm and I immediately watched the Championship Football game before I could hear any reports on who won!!