Those Pesky Vacation Days

Ahhh… traveling to Hawai’i. It may seem like a dismal task, but it’s really not as bad as people think. The 3,792 miles between Dallas and Honolulu (7, 230 miles from London to Honolulu – Sorry Nuji!) are quickly traveled by plane, about a 9-hour direct flight. The key to traveling to Hawai’i is to make sure you realize what DAY and what time you’re going to arrive in each place. Granted, the time difference between Hawai'i and Dallas is only 4 hours (not during DST), but it can still get tricky.

SO… here’s my breakdown for you:

Leaving Dallas (or anywhere on the “mainland”): Your flight will almost always be in the morning. If you do take off in the morning, you will arrive that SAME DAY in the afternoon (remember you are GAINING 4 hours in your day)… leaving you lots of time to get your rental car (I will talk about this more later), check in to your hotel, and even get in some quick beach time before dinner.

Leaving Hawai'i: Your flight back will most likely be LATE at night, usually after 9pm. If you do take off at night, you will arrive the NEXT DAY in the morning/afternoon (remember you are LOSING 4 hours in your day). Since hotel checkouts are usually at 12 pm please make sure to schedule your plans (and rental drop-off) so that you don’t end up waiting at the airport for 8 hours. :)

**FYI: If you have a job that requires you to take vacation days, you will need to take off an extra day. For example: if you book your flight to depart Thu, 12/17 and return Mon, 12/21… you will need to take off Thu, Fri, Mon AND Tue… because you will not get back on time on Tuesday to make it into work!**

Now that I’ve said my piece, start checking out those dates! :)

Call Me Pake

So, ever since we decided (or should i say "found") a date for our wedding -- Sunday, December 20, 2009 -- I have been having unproductive days and restless nights because, of course, I am now the stress-always, worry-constantly, agonize-incessantly "bride-zilla" every girl dreams of becoming. Ok, so maybe I haven't reached bride-zilla status just yet, but I definitely think about the wedding much more than Tee... :) and more than a person with 9 months left to plan should -- especially since I actually have a lot already planned out with the help of my AMAZING friend, Tara (Visit http://www.pacificweddingguide.com/ - she will convince you that having a wedding in the pacific is not only beautiful, but doable)! Then again, I guess I'm not really that worried about the wedding itself. The real pressing matter on my mind is the travel & lodging arrangements for our out-of-town guests... and of course, being able to properly communicate those arrangements. I know the latest trend for engaged couples is to buy a cute domain name and develop a proper web site that gives all the information any wedding guest would ever need to know. But I'll be honest... I'm cheap. Call me PAKE (pronounced "pah-kay")... my parents would be proud. :) So instead of being "with it" and following the trends, I figured I could do the same thing here at blogspot, while keeping the $10 it would have taken to buy a domain name, to splurge on something more useful in the future... like those $5 foot long subway sandwiches! With any luck, I will be updating this Tam-Ham blogspot with USEFUL information to help our non-island-living friends and family find their way to Hawai'i... at a decent price... and hopefully have fun along the way. Cross your fingers, ya'all. :)