From Paradise to Vacationland

You don't get a much better sounding vaction than that!... Until you factor in the 5100 miles that separate the two locales. Add in a two year old, an 8 month pregnant wife, and a 12 hour flight, plus a four hour drive from Boston back up to Bangor, Maine, and a husband who can't function off less than 10 hours of sleep....well you do the math.

Luckily our flights were pretty much cut in half. We flew from Honolulu to Los Angeles, and then from LA to Boston. Ashlyn slept on both flights, and while she wasn't perfect, she certainly did very well given the circumstances. We left Hawaii on Friday afternoon but didn't land in Boston till Saturday morning. My old college roommate, Nate Knoebel, picked us up and we spent the morning at his house with his beautiful wife Mandy and adorable daughters Edith and Allison. Ashlyn and Edie quickly became best friends.

Mom and Dad Tang picked us up that afternoon, and with the Knoebel's following, we went back up to Maine. Our first stop was in Portland where we checked out the Portland Head Light. Excuse our travel clothes, but it was still a very nice Atlantic day. Cool, crisp air and kind of gloomy. A nice break from the sunny skies of Hawaii to be honest.

hen we got back to home base, we ate dinner and pretty much hit the hay. We were pretty tired as you can imagine.

Sunday morning came quickly and of course we went to Church. After we ate dinner, went on a walk around the neighborhood, and then played games that night. It was mostly a relaxing day even though we were still a little jet lagged.

On Monday we left Ashlyn and Edie with Mom Tang and the younger Tang's and Knoebel's went east to Bar Harbor. There was only one mission we wanted to accomplish, and that was to consume some lobster. Nate and I ordered the "Lobstah" Experience. A 1.5 lb lobster, clams, clam chowder, corn, potatoes and Maine blueberry pie. The wifey's ordered just the lobsters, but don't worry we shared our other sides with them. The food was delicious, and if you know Heather you'd be amazed to know she ate her whole lobster and liked it too!

We also walked around the shops, bought some Christmas ornaments, the Knoebel's treated us to ice cream and we checked out Cadillac Mountain.

Before we knew it, it was time to go home, and we were happy to hear that the little girls had a blast with Mom. They went to the playground and the library, but there favorite thing was riding in the car shaped shopping carts, they made such a ruckus with their giggling, my mom had to leave the grocery store. The Knoebel's left that night after a delicious chinese dinner (which we were treated to almost every day we were there), and we quickly hit the sack afterwards.

On Tuesday we slept in as long as we could, but we didn't want to waste our day away, even though it was rainy. Dad came home early from work and we spent a couple hours shopping at TJ Maxx, a store we don't have in Hawaii. They were having great sales already, but making things better, they were clearing all their summer clothes, and since we live in Hawaii.... well you put the two together. That night we rented a movie, The Forbidden Kingdom, and then went to bed.

Wednesday was a nicer day so we went to Treworgy Family farms, Dad unfortunately had to teach his classes. We saw goats and llamas, played a bean bag toss game, and Ashlyn picked a pumpkin and a lot of apples. Mom would later use those apples to make a delicious pie. After the activities, Heather desperately wanted to shop at Target since we don't have one in Hawaii either, and of course we picked up more clearance summer clothes! Woo hoo! That night we left Ashlyn with the grandparents and we went over to Bridgette and Gary Saunders to play some games and catch up.

Thursday we took a little road trip with the parental unit. We traveled about 70 miles north to Millinocket where we stayed the night so we could go on a Katahdin lake cruise the next morning. In our hotel we took advantage of the cable TV and busted out scrabble. For the record, I won the first game, and Heather won the 2nd. Not bad Tangsta's! We all finally went to bed at 1am... yeah, including Ashlyn.

Friday morning we did our private lake cruise, it wasn't a cruise-cruise, but it was beatiful and though we didn't see our coveted moose we did see some beautiful scenery and a bald eagle. Upon returning to Bangor, we shopped some more at Kohl's and Old Navy (yes more summer clearance deals) and had to make a pit stop at one of our favorite restaurants. The Texas Roadhouse. Two words: Sexy ribs.

Saturday it was time to go. We were sad to leave, the trip went by so quickly, but like we said before, better something than nothing. We spent the night at Nate and Mandy's again, got an hour and a half sleep since we stayed up too late and then got ready for our marathon travel day home.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it went according to plan. We left in the early morning, landed in LA just before noon and spent a good two and half hours with the Horspool's who drove over to spend time with us during our layover. Father Horspool treated us all to lunch at Carl's Jr, and we had a fun time visiting with Amber and the kids, Mom and Dad H, and Taylor and Aubree. It was my first time meeting Aubree too!

Soon we had to go back to the airport to catch our flight, but what originally was a 20 minute delay turned into a 7 hour delay. Yikes! Poor Ashlyn was so loopy and wired in the terminal! I guess the plane kept failing it's mechanical inspection, hey better on the ground in LAX then in the Pacific Ocean right?! When we finally arrived home it had literally been 24 hours since we left Boston. Yuck. But we had a great trip, and hope to have more in the future. Now we will gear up for our next set of visitors! Mike and Amber at the end of the month, Aeson and Erin Reed from Grand Junciton in October, and Mom H in November when baby boy Tang comes to planet earth!