Travelin' Fools...

So where do we start?  In the words of Julie Andrews..."Let's start at the very beginning..."

FRIDAY JANUARY 24TH - (written by Dustin)

After some very stressful nights leading right up to our departure...wondering if we might have to call the whole thing off, we took a Leap of Faith and trusted that if we were supposed to be doing this, that everything would work out.  We were so excited to take off, we didn't want to be late to the airport, so we decided to get there 2 1/2 hours early...cuz after all, it was an international flight, right?  Here we are all excited for our new adventure.  Dustin even bought a jungle safari hat to get into the spirit!  Unfortunately TSA does not include "How to take photos of tourists with an iPhone" in their field manual, thus the blur.

What we failed to remember was that we were flying out of little old Boise, Idaho.  After checking our bags and breezing through security inside of 20 minutes, we were 2 hours early for our flight...and then it got delayed 2 hours.  No problem, we had a long layover in LAX planned, so by the time we got to LAX, our flight was about ready to leave.  But as we were boarding, they asked for 4 volunteers to get bumped and offered $$ toward future flights for anyone willing to stay behind.  Realizing that we had all the time in the world, we volunteered, thinking "another day won't hurt".  Then the attendant told us we would ONLY be getting in 2 hours later than our original arrival...SCORE! They put us up in a hotel for the night, but since it was a Redeye flight, by the time we would get checked in, we would only have about 3 hours of sleep before we had to turn right back around and check back in to the airport.  Knowing we had 12 bags of luggage, Dustin opted to spend the night in LAX with all the luggage and let Stephanie get some sleep at the hotel.  Ellie went with her, and Ethan decided to stay behind with Dustin for moral support (Ethan said, "It will be like a campout").  This is what it looks like to sleep in LAX (worst night of sleep in my life!):

But never fear, we still had 2 more 3-hour flights to go, and those were a slumbered blur/bliss...thank heaven.  We touched down in Roatan, Honduras just after 3 pm on Saturday, and as the doors to the plane opened, the stress started to instantly melt away.  Even customs/immigration was a relaxing experience.  "Everybody here in a good mood mon".  Ethan later wrote in his journal how surprised he was at the lack of security.  Nothing changed here "post 9/11"...in fact it looked as if it hadn't changed in 40 years.

"Billy", our bus driver was there to meet us and took us to the grocery store before going to the house.  We stocked up on fruits and veggies, and all things local (beans & rice, corn flour for making tortillas).  We all agreed to try our best to stay away from processed and boxed foods whenever possible.  It was surprising how modern the grocery store was though, for being a 3rd world country.  Other than the absence of a Starbuck's inside the store, I would've thought I was in the states.

It was a 10 minute ride from the store until we arrived at what would be our home away from home for the next 6 months.   We were all smiles as we got out.  This rustic wood bungalow couldn't have been more perfect.  I don't think the luggage even made it inside the house before bathing suits were on and the kids were in the water.  You would have never known they just traveled almost 20 hours non-stop.

Ellie immediately found adventure in the sand when she found not 1, but 2 hermit crabs and scooped them up for collection.  She named one PeeWee and the other Herman, which I thought was absolutely hilarious.

As we opened up the kitchen, we found the "House Rules" for the property, and for "Island Life in Honduras", and this is what we learned today:

1.  The Golden Rule is always the best rule. (This would come in handy over the next couple of days)
2.  Island Life is not perfect...but neither is Real life, right? Here the power goes out, there may not be hot water, it rains, there are bugs (lots of bugs btw), but here there are also "No Worries and No Hurries", which is why people come here.  You will find whatever it is you seek if you look hard enough...good or bad.
3.  The third thing I learned today...I would travel anywhere with this band of adventurers.  I love my family.

And so, with luggage strewn all about, 1/2 unpacked and the sun gone down, we were all dead asleep by 7pm and slept until 9am the next morning.  What a great start.