Hello Hawaii

Starting this adventure I knew there was a great possibility we would get stranded somewhere. We were pretty much hitch-hiking on cargo planes. Cargo space, or mission changes could have easily ruined our trip and left us stranded somewhere, anywhere.
So here is my fist bit of Space A advice, only fly though terminals where you would be happy with staying for a few days. That way if you do get 'stuck' you can make a minivacation out of it.
Our flight landed in Honolulu 24 hours before the grandprize flight to Mississippi departed. I suppose we could have checked into a hotel and gotten some rest, since it was bed time per our minds and bodies which were still on Tokyo time. But, thinking we may ever get another 24 hours in Hawaii I decided to see all I could in one day. I took our luggage to the hotel and we walked to the bus stop and caught a public transportation bus to Waikiki.
Being from a small town in the South, I have never used public transportation before. That was quite the experience in itself.
We got off the bus and walked a few miles to Waikiki Beach. The walk there was fun. Aside from carrying a 30lb baby in a sling and pushing Braden asleep in the stroller and trying to keep Keegan within arms reach, I did manage to look up and take in some of my surroundings. This was definately the touristy area with several small souviner shops and a larger department stores such as Neiman Marcus. We eventually made it Waikiki beach. There were so many people therewe couldn't have found an open spot of sand big enough for my bum. So we broke out the map and walked a few more miles to the Hale Koa which is a Military resort in Waikiki.
The beach was just as beautiful and not nearly as crowded. We got there around 3pm and stopped at the restaurant for lunch, dinner whatever you would call a meal that time of day. The quesadillas were delish..but warning, dont get the mango salad dressing, it tasted like nyquil..yuck. After eating it was time to hit the beach. We stayed and played until sunset and it was gorgeous. I can't think of a better way to spend Mothers Day, well of course, unless Thomas or my Mom had been with us.
We finally made it back to our room about 10pm, after ordering pizza we were all ready to call it a night, 4:30a.m. was coming all too soon.