“Grande hot chocolate!”
I’d been waiting to say those words for months.
Today (yesterday?) I flew out of Kwajalein for the first time. I’m beginning a week-long vacation with my family, who I will be meeting up with at the Honolulu airport here in another 30 minutes or so (they’re flying here to meet me). We’ll then take a flight together to the Big Island, where we’ll spend our week.
I’m so excited!
I arrived at 3:30 am local time (1:30 am the next day, Kwaj time)…so in effect I’m living the same day twice (April 30th). I suppose it makes up for missing a day of my life when I flew to Kwaj over 9 months ago.
As I had a long layover while waiting for my family, I went to Pearl Harbor and toured the USS Missouri. It’s a battleship that played a key role in the Pacific part of WWII, and on which the Japanese signed their surrender to General MacArthur. The USS Missouri was also part of Desert Storm. It was a fascinating tour, and also provided great views of the coast. Thanks to Paul for taking me there, someone I met through this blog and who was leaving after a two-week TDY work assignment on Kwaj.
Photos will be posted probably later this week. I’m actually hoping to catch up on posting a number of photos this week, while taking advantage of faster Internet speeds. 
Also look for new photos from Hawaii later this week or early next week, including the volcanoes, sea turtles, and manta rays on a pair of dives I’m going on from Kona in a couple of days.