I don’t have it in me to write up a long vacation summary so I’ll give you some of the highlights via bullets, because I like bullets. How many bullets, Chino? How many bullets? (West Side Story anyone?)

• United is a cruddy airline. Nothing free, make you use your own devices for viewing (it was an 8 hour flight) and the plane we took had power outlets but they weren’t working.
• The Courtyard King Kamehameha is an excellent hotel in the heart of Kona, if you were looking for options.
• Some of the food highlights: fish tacos, Kahlua pork, sushi.
• Zip lining 200 feet over a 250 foot waterfall could be the most adventurous thing I have ever done; if you don’t count parenting/childbirth. 😉
• The Big Island is not as touristy as Oahu.
• The Volcano National Park isn’t really that impressive. People told us we needed two days there but we finished in half. It was neat, don’t get me wrong.
• The state bird that they want to protect is called the nene. As in, watch me whip, watch me…
• Kayaking is pretty neat, especially when done in the Pacific.
• The Kona brewing company is where it’s at; their pizza is by far the tastiest I have ever eaten.
• Flying back across Texas when a huge storm was coming through after it hit Mexico was NOT fun. Bumpy ride and delays. Also, I hate flying anyway.
• Being home is weird. I am re-acclimating the life I led before: parenting, driving kids to school, buying groceries, grading papers, working. All that seems so… odd and foreign. I was only gone 10 days!

There you have it. It was nice to get away but you have to come back to reality at some point. I didn’t even feel very jet-lagged yesterday but today, I’m a little blah. I have a feeling I will be having more caffeine in not that long. Work will get very busy here in just a moment and I have to try to wrap my brain around the fact that I am back in Florida, to Tallahassee, in my office, and back to plain old me.

***************************

OF COURSE the theme is Halloween! Let’s see what I can conjure up.

The best Halloween movie with the best soundtrack:

And then there’s this classic song scene from Beetlejuice. It was both upbeat and scary as all get-out.