It's been several years since we have gone to an Air Force Ball, so this year, since we had friends going, we decided to venture to downtown Waikiki to celebrate the 63rd birthday of the air force.
I happened across a great dress the day before the event. I was glad to be going before this, as Dennis and I don't get a lot of date nights. But, now I was excited. Every girl loves a new dress, right? So, after getting dressed, and made up, and walking down the stairs to Hayden trumpeting a "horn" to announce my "arrival," I felt a little bit like a princess.
Remind me though...if we ever again have the opportunity to drive into Waikiki at dinnertime, to turn around and run the other way! It took us an hour and 15 min to drive about 10 miles. By that time, we were so frustrated and just glad to find the place. It was a beautiful room, but way too crowded with tables and people.
The program was nice, sat through some goofy tradition stuff, and not quite what I expected for something so landmark as 100 years of flight in the pacific, but nice. They had a really powerful POW/MIA ceremony where they set an empty table with several symbolic items, and representing all of the services of the military.
We sat next to friends of ours from Dennis's work. Unfortunately, our seat was next to the kitchen...literally...one of the entrances where they were coming in and out serving dinner to nearly 1200 people backed up against our friend.
Following the dinner and program, we got up and did some socializing. We had a friend playing in the air force band. They did a great era show. Funny to see guys with AF haircuts in those wigs. Dennis doesn't dance, except slow, and they didn't play anything like that. But, I had friends that got down and boogied...(is that a word?) Anyway, "come on and ride the train..."
But, all in all, there were about 12 of us LDS couples from the Halawa ward at church there. With that many people, it was hard to get around to everyone. But, we tried. This took awhile to gather up, and we still missed a few.
We just hung out in our finest, laughing with friends, and taking pictures of a night to remember. It was also fun to see pictures of friends at their balls in different parts of the world. With only a few years left in the military, maybe we'll try it again next year.
