Hawaii

So after flying for many hours- I ended up paying for an upgrade to first class which was SO worth it- I arrived in Hawaii. Best part of landing was seeing the Mercy from the air- I freaked out and my poor seat mate on the plane had to put up me for a few minutes. Stepped off the plane and my dry Canadian skin started soaking up the humidity- my hair is also loving it. I arrived on the same flight as a fellow LDSC member and we were greeted by a few more who are going on the trip. We ended up going into Waikiki (apologize for my misspelling of all Hawaii names). We walked the beach and ate supper on a patio- I'm pretty much in love with all of the tame pigeons that fly into the restaurants. After which we went to Walmart to stock up on a few remaining essentials and then headed to the boat (I mean SHIP!!!) I'm getting myself into lots of trouble with calling the ship a boat.

All I have to say about Mercy is that she's gorgeous! Bigger then I thought but at the same time the stairs aren't as bad as I thought they'd be although ask me that again in a week. I have a tiny bunk which is actually long enough for me to sleep on- yay! I ended up hitting that point of being so tired I couldn't sleep so was able to get unpacked and showered last night and then tried to go to bed. Didn't work so well- I was plenty comfortable but had "new house syndrome" all the different sounds and light levels and then wait is my bed moving? Why yes it is- swaying to the motion of the ocean- so I was awake for much of the night. Which was fine until I was in church today and had a massive headache so took some drugs and napped in the van and am now feeling much better.

I have to say that so far all the people I have met have been amazing!! I have already made a few new friends and can't wait to get to know people better and meet some of the navy personnel. So far they have all been very friendly- always saying hi in hallway and helping out with hauling our massive amounts of luggage when we first arrived on board. Anyways I'm currently sitting in the home of a lovely couple who invited us to church and then to their home for lunch afterward and the food is AMAZING and they have internet. So I'm going to sign off and go finish my lunch but just wanted to give a quick update and let everyone know that I arrived safely and am loving everything already.

Amy :)