Day 13

Getting There

Drove all night on deserted highways through Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah. Arrived to the Salt Lake City International Airport at 5:30 am. Boarded our flight at 7:15 am, changed planes in San Francisco, and were greeted by the warm winds of the islands at 11:30 am. Life is good….

Testing

I learned something very valuable today. Bathing suit shopping is not a good boy/girl activity. Neither of us packed a bathing suit for our cross country journey (since we were planning to traverse the snow covered mountains, it didn’t seem like we would need one. We forgot to factor in the Hawaii detour.). After we checked into our hotel (in which all other patrons were white haired and using walkers, but it was right on the beach, so I’m not complaining…) the first item of business was to procure swimwear.

Here’s the synopsis. In the first shop in which the boy looks, he flips through a rack of swim trunks, picks out a navy pair, and bargains with the proprietor, getting several dollars knocked off the price (bringing it almost to single digits). He never even tries it on. Total transaction time: approximately 10 minutes.

In that same shop, I flip through racks of swimsuits, pick out six, he makes faces at four, I try to try on two (in the 2 by 2 storage area converted to a dressing room), self consciously walk across the store to view my selections in a mostly hidden mirror, thereby forced to rely on his reaction/commentary to decide on my selection. This is bad already. This process is repeated at several stores. The reason why? Here are the boy’s comments: “That looks like something you would wear.” “Well, it’s a bathing suit.” “Umm. Nah.” “I’m not very good at this, just get whatever you want.”

The end result, out of desperation, and wanting to get to the beach, not be shopping, I pay a ridiculous amount for a blue and purple one piece bathing suit. Total transaction time: approximately 1 1/2 hours.

As we’re laying on the beach, I notice I’m just about the only person not wearing a bikini. I make a comment to this effect and the boy replies, “Yeah, you should have bought a bikini. A pink one. Blues don’t really look that good on you.” This just makes me want to scream.