"Never thought I'd be saying this to you folks... but ALOHA!"

.... Surprise! I'm in Hawaii!!! Did I tell you I was going to Australia? Silly me... I meant, Haw...haha Just kidding! Just made an unexpected pit stop! So we got on the plane in LA, scheduled to head straight to Sydney (geeez it was a huge plane! And to my dismay...it was full! At least the row I selected to be in was..ugh.) They said they were having some mechanical problems so there'd be about an hour delay and that we could walk around. I was trapped in the window seat next to some elders..so I didn't have the guts to ask them to move. Another hour later they say that the weight balance was off, so they had to take a few passengers off to make it more balanced. (Really?! Have they never flown a large plane before?!) Then they had to do some paperwork, so we'd be in the air in about 30 mins. Well, the next announcement was that we weren't leaving just yet, that we had to taxi because they overfilled the fuel tanks. COME ON GUYS... WHERE do you come up with this stuff??! So I thought for sure we'd be staying in LA for the night... It was already 1 o clock california time. Well, they finally decided to pursue and after about 4 hours total, we were up in the air!!! 

The next surprise was that about 10 minutes after we got into the air, they brought us out our meals. Mine was first. I was befuddled because according to my body clock, it was 4 in the morning... Why in the heck would I want to eat dinner right now??? And.. evidently I accidently ordered the Vegan option on my reservations, so I stared at my 'specially prepared' meal of amber colored mush, a cous-cous and corn hybrid and sugar free pecan wafers-while homeboy next to me chowed down on lasagna, a buttered roll, and a brownie. Needless to say, I didn't touch mine. I'm sorry for being wasteful... but I don't think it would have been safe to eat!! ;)

So 4 hrs into the flight, pilot comes on and says, "when it rains it pours, it seems the mechanical problem is persisting on and we're going to have to land in Honolulu..." I'm thinking, sweet I've never been to Hawaii before! Surfs up dude!!! And then I realized that surfing it up in Hawaii means that I'm going to miss our surf camp in Sydney that we were scheduled to go on when we got there. Bummer mannnnnn....

So we got off the plane, gathered our bags from baggage claim- Thank gosh! and headed to the bus that was scheduled to come to take us to our next destination... a hotel called Ala Moana. It was 5 in the morning and our new flight isn't scheduled to take off until 11:45 pm tonight. Hence, the reason I'm able to write this right now. So after a lot of hurrying up and waiting, we're in Hawaii, in a sweet free hotel room (I got my own!!!) and a complimentary breakfast buffet under our belts. It was raining buckets for hours but finally stopped around 1 so my friend Kelli and I headed to the beach after having a casual drink at Mai Tai in the mall next door to our hotel. Buuuuuut.... I'm leaving out the most exciting part of this adventure thus far!!

As I was walking onto the flight from Denver to LA, I heard some old 'blokes' talking, and I immediately tuned in because they sounded Australian. They looked at me, said a few lines, and one stepped out of the line to talk to me after I asked if they were from Oz. Apparently his name is Merv and he runs a Country club/golf course about an hr north of Sydney. I'll never call him, but it was nice to catch his business card and it proved my theory that Aussies are so friendly. And in this case, potentially overserved. But who's counting? But then, I got on the plane, went to my seat, and someone was sitting in it. They asked me to sit across the row in the aisle, and I complied. No big. I asked the couple where they were from and guess what.... they're from Australia!!! For the entire 2 and a half hour flight, we talked about my trip and I showed them the Australia books I had, knowing they'd get a good laugh...and they did. They went through the dictionary and pointed out the words that I should NEVER say and the other words that they said will seem really cool and natural if I throw into about every sentence...such as 'mate'. They were great. So cordial and just interesting. We talked about Americans too, I asked them how they felt about us, and they said that we are so quick to jump to judgment. Like they said the difference in us versus them is that we make them earn the 'right to talk to us or for us to give them the time of day'. They said on their vacation, almost everyone they met was quick to ask, "so where do you work, how much do you make, etc." They said that they generally give everyone the benefit of the doubt and if then, they act like an idiot, then they cross them off of their friends list.  So I now have friends. They're from melbourne... they weren't affected by the fires there though. They were in Denver 'on holiday' to ski and snowboard. So we got to LA, parted ways, and we've since met again because they are 'stranded' in Hawaii too. Sooo, thus far... I have a pretty positive view on Aussies. And I like Hawaii too. I'd come back and visit for longer if I had the chance. Especially if it were on United's tab ;). But, after this trip, I'm going to try to avoid flying them... I always say that, but this time--I'm going to try really hard! They are so sketchy!! (in my opinion) Oh and I also forgot to mention another encounter with an Aussie I had. On the way to Sydney, I somehow lost my neck pillow and eye mask, and this woman was in the row in front of me.. said she heard me complaining about it, and gave me a brand new eye mask because "she had a spare." What a life saver!!! I got to get some shut eye while the oldie next to me read his bold print novel under the bright reading light. haha. Alright kiddos...that's about all I've got for now. Gonna start packing up and get ready to begin my scheduled adventure. Wish me luck!