Travel Musings

Last week, an uncle, my Dad’s brother, unexpectedly passed away. On Monday I found out the services were going to be on Wednesday morning so I had to book a last minute trip to Southern California. I left on Tuesday evening and just got back this afternoon. I felt so many emotions over the past 2 days – sadness, grief, joy, happiness, confusion, shock, wonder, etc. It was an odd yet fascinating trip, but I’ll leave those thoughts for another post while I still process all of my feelings about it.

Instead, this post will be about my random thoughts while traveling:

Airline Seating
I always, ALWAYS sit an aisle seat. But since I booked my flight one day in advanced, the seats were slim pickings. I refuse to sit in the middle seat (I’m claustrophobic that way) so I coughed up $15 for an “Even More” seat. Best $15 I’ve spent in a while. Although the flight was just an hour, and I have pretty short legs, it was so nice to have space! I could fully stretch my legs and lean over to get something out of my bag without hitting my forehead on the seat in front of me. I also sat in the window seat. Not only did I have control over when to pull the shade up/down, I also got to look out and see the terrain for a change. And when I had to use the restroom, I didn’t have to climb over the other 2 passengers in my aisle. There was ROOM to walk by them without bothering them.

Long Beach Airport
I thought the Long Beach Airport was interesting. It’s really small and you walk on the tarmac to deplane/board the aircraft. The terminal has 4 gates and is situated in a building that looks like a portable classroom. You walk outside to get to security, baggage claim, etc. Roadbunner pointed out that it is ironic that I found it so interesting because on Molokai, the island I grew up on, the airport is essentially an airplane hangar. I suppose it’s because I never expected the “mainland” to have such a small airport. It was super convenient though and I loved how the outside of it looked. It reminded me of how Southern California must’ve been like in the 50′s and 60′s.

Food
While I was very well-fed on this trip, it’s always hard to be thrown off my routine. Not eating when I usually eat, or what I usually eat definitely affected me. Eating out for almost every meal did too. I tried to make healthy choices. My parents and I went to “Back Home in Lahaina”, one of my favorite Hawaiian restaurants. Where I could have ordered island favorites like kalua pork, loco moco’s (white rice + hamburger patty w/gravy covered in fried eggs and spam musubi, instead I stuck with…

…Ahi poke (not the chips):

…Seared ahi tuna:

(this was actually my Mom’s dish, but it was good too!)

…Wonton saimin:

However, I could not pass up my favorite ever dessert. This restaurant is the only place I know that makes haupia (coconut) cheesecake, so I had to have a slice:

I was enjoying every delectable bite of it until PunkRockRunner texted me and told me I’d have to run 9-miles to burn off the one slice. After that text I put the fork down and didn’t even have a bite of my Mom’s Hawaiian Bread Pudding. Ha!

Workouts
I knew I would be pressed for time, so I didn’t even bother to pack workout clothes. This was a first for me. But I felt that if I packed it and never worked out then I would feel guilty. Since I never took a rest day last week, I decided that I would take 2 rest days in a row this week.

While I know that it was good for me, I honestly don’t know how people don’t workout. After just 2 days off I feel like such a slug. I can’t wait to get back to the sweat tomorrow.

Jet Lag
My cousin Troy has a theory that jet lag isn’t only caused by crossing time zones. He believes that the altitude changes cause just as much jet lag. I always scoffed at that theory before, but now I’m starting to become a believer. After just an hour’s flight, I feel so drained and exhausted. Is it age, or does his theory have truth to it?

Zico Chocolate Coconut Water
About a month ago, I started drinking Zico’s chocolate coconut water. It was so good that I put it on Amazon Auto Subscribe, so I have a case of it sent to me every month. I recently introduced it to my cousin Jeff. He describes it as, “like drinking Cocoa Pebbles, but it’s good for you.” He searched everywhere for it and could only find it at Mollie Stones for $3.19 – so I ordered him a case too.

So how ironic is it, that of all places, I find a Zico chocolate coconut water at Long Beach airport. They may not have had any healthy food in the gated area, (all I found were chips, candy, cookies and trail mix), but they did manage to have this:

As much as I love to travel, I’m such a homebody and nothing makes me happier than to be home.

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