2016-2017 Vacation Begins... Monday Dec. 26th

After a busy day of packing and cleaning, D's brother picked us up and drove us to the airport late yesterday afternoon.  It was nice to have a full day after Christmas to clean the house, gather our things, and get the trees undecorated and outside.  It was also very helpful for my anxiety to have D's brother drive us to the airport instead of having some stranger stand there staring at me while I race around the house triple checking all the doors and windows.  

The flight was good, we boarded on time, left on time, and landed about a half an hour early.  I do wish the airlines could figure out how to get ingredient information on their dinners though... it seems like I could have eaten the offered meal if I'd just known about the sauce on the fish, but instead I had the regular vegan tapas snack box instead.  Apparently the salmon wasn't great anyway, and the tapas plate is actually quite good.  After a couple of movies and a few drinks, we landed in the warm Kauai night around 10:10 local time.

Since the car rental place closes at 10:30, and they have been known to run out of cars by the end of the day, D took his bags and raced across the street to grab the shuttle while G and I waited for the big gear bag.  D was worried about me lifting the bag off the belt, but I braced myself and heaved (lift with your legs!) just as a man was stepping forward to try to help me.  I almost took out his knees, but I got it without injury.  

We got into the condo at roughly 11, and after dropping our bags and G in the room, D and I headed across the street to Safeway to pick up some cream and a few breakfast snack items for the morning.  Our property manager had already provided us with a couple of bags of coffee :)  We encountered a giant snail and one of the big bull frogs on the path.  After a quick snack and a lot of water, we settled in to sleep.