Hi friends!

I'm excitedly writing to you from an iPad. Dont worry, I haven't sold out. This iPad belongs to Roberta. Her dad gave it her because in Seattle society it reflects poorly on you if your only daughter is the only one at the coffee shop without an Apple product.

We arrived at our plane just as it finished boarding. We trundled to the rear of the plane past row after row of infants (fact: people who sit near the back of the plane, and in an emergency exit row seat, are far more likely to survive a crash. Sitting next to an infant doesn't improve your chances, and in fact increase the chance you will die whether or not the plane crashes).

I'm going to take a moment to skip ahead in our adventures. We will get back to stories about finding our quaint lodge by the sea, underground mole-people, and vampire oil paintings.

But for now, I would like you to know there is some friction between the members of team Gobi or Home. In particular between me, Shane, and our team captain Hans who isn't even in Hawaii with me.

In order to practice for the Mongol rally we decided to rent a tiny car for the duration of our stay in Hawaii. Unfortunately for our plans and unbeknownst to Roberta I found a coupon online that allowed me to rent a mid size SUV for half the price of any other vehicle on the island.

Arriving at hertz car rentals we were asked if we wanted to upgrade. "I didn't know you rented Hummers."

With the King Kamehameha (Hawaii's Greatest King and the new name of our SUV) loaded with our two small carry on bags, we set off for our hotel on the sea.

Roberta was looking at the reservations I had printed out, "We're staying at the Hilton?