One year ago, right now, we were in paradise.
Also known as Hawaii.
I thought it would be fun to flashback!
Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Hawaii
After a good nights sleep we woke up (still had no car) and hung out in the condo.
We waited all day for the car. So we made the best of it.
We spent that first day, with a short walk to the beach, K and Daddy had a trip to the pool while I got M down for a much needed nap (for me too!). Once we finally had a car late that afternoon the only thing we could really do was head out to dinner.
We waited all day for the car. So we made the best of it.
We spent that first day, with a short walk to the beach, K and Daddy had a trip to the pool while I got M down for a much needed nap (for me too!). Once we finally had a car late that afternoon the only thing we could really do was head out to dinner.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Hawaii - Day 1
We had a great time in Hawaii...The slideshow photos are coming. I'm waiting for them to upload right now. But I thought I'd finally get started on our trip re-cap.
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Day 1 -
Day 1 -
We made it! The day had finally arrived! It was the day we were going to Hawaii. Never mind that my cough had kicked up into full gear again and I had to refill my antibiotic prescription before we left Cali! We were so thrilled to be headed there and we really had no idea what we were in for. But we knew that it was Hawaii and it just HAD to be great!
Our flight left LAX at 2:30pm - pacific, happily on time (unlike our flight from MN to CA), and it was roughly a 5.5ish hour flight. The girls watched movies on the DVD player we borrowed, they were generally restless, and I walked the aisle quite a bit with M trying to get her to fall asleep. Lucky for me, she did, about 20 minutes before we landed!
We landed in Honolulu on the island of Oahu and we got off the plane to head over to an inter-terminal shuttle to catch our next flight. Our next flight wasn’t scheduled for a couple of hours but it was now 6:30pm – Hawaii time – which is 2 hours later than CA time.
We board the bus and notice that it’s raining and lightening. A common occurrence for those of us that live in the Midwest. No biggie, right? Wrong. The bus driver, who is roughly 45 years old, can’t stop talking about the lightening and tells us that he’s lived on the island for his entire life and this was only the 4th time that he had seen lightening. Yes. The FOURTH! Still, we didn't see any reason why this should cause too big of a problem.
We made it to the other terminal and get in line for some dinner. Just as I handed over my $20 for my Chinese food, the lights go out. And I mean, like pitch black totally dark, out. OK. I’ve got M sleeping in my arms and I just handed over a 20. I’ll make the story short for you but it took about 10 minutes to get my change and in the mean time M woke up.
The lights flickered back on a couple of times and it seemed like we had hope. Not so much. The power on the ENTIRE ISLAND was out. Yes, the entire island. Its 555 square miles with about 900,000 residents. Back up generators failed at the airport and we were stuck there in the dark for several hours. And by several, I mean 5 and a half. FIVE AND A HALF!
So we did the only thing we could do…flipped open our cell phones for light. We walked around a bit, looked out the windows at the planes that were stuck out there and waited. Eventually we laid out a couple of blankets on the carpet and had the girls go to sleep right there.
Our flight left LAX at 2:30pm - pacific, happily on time (unlike our flight from MN to CA), and it was roughly a 5.5ish hour flight. The girls watched movies on the DVD player we borrowed, they were generally restless, and I walked the aisle quite a bit with M trying to get her to fall asleep. Lucky for me, she did, about 20 minutes before we landed!
We landed in Honolulu on the island of Oahu and we got off the plane to head over to an inter-terminal shuttle to catch our next flight. Our next flight wasn’t scheduled for a couple of hours but it was now 6:30pm – Hawaii time – which is 2 hours later than CA time.
We board the bus and notice that it’s raining and lightening. A common occurrence for those of us that live in the Midwest. No biggie, right? Wrong. The bus driver, who is roughly 45 years old, can’t stop talking about the lightening and tells us that he’s lived on the island for his entire life and this was only the 4th time that he had seen lightening. Yes. The FOURTH! Still, we didn't see any reason why this should cause too big of a problem.
We made it to the other terminal and get in line for some dinner. Just as I handed over my $20 for my Chinese food, the lights go out. And I mean, like pitch black totally dark, out. OK. I’ve got M sleeping in my arms and I just handed over a 20. I’ll make the story short for you but it took about 10 minutes to get my change and in the mean time M woke up.
The lights flickered back on a couple of times and it seemed like we had hope. Not so much. The power on the ENTIRE ISLAND was out. Yes, the entire island. Its 555 square miles with about 900,000 residents. Back up generators failed at the airport and we were stuck there in the dark for several hours. And by several, I mean 5 and a half. FIVE AND A HALF!
So we did the only thing we could do…flipped open our cell phones for light. We walked around a bit, looked out the windows at the planes that were stuck out there and waited. Eventually we laid out a couple of blankets on the carpet and had the girls go to sleep right there.
When the generators came on they could only get a couple of gates to work in the terminal so we had to wait while they figured it all out. Eventually we got called to a gate. Then more waiting. Turned out the crew they wanted was over their hours and couldn’t fly. So another hour of waiting in a line in the middle of the night while they assembled a crew. I mean really, I know the drill about the face mask and where the flotation device is. It was the middle of the night and I didn’t really need the juice. All I needed was people to fly the plane!
Finally it was 1am (Hawaii time) and we were in Kona on the Big Island. Wouldn’t you know it that there were NO rental cars on the island?! So instead of getting picked up at the airport, as planned, we had to get shuttled to the hotel by the rental car company! Ugh. By the time we got to the hotel it was 2:45am. Which was really 4:45 in CA from where we started that day. And if you are counting, it was then really 6:45 for us at home in Minnesota!
We were exhausted. We all plopped into the same king sized bed in the hotel, vowing to figure out the rest of the arrangements “tomorrow” and slept for the next 8 solid hours!
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to be continued....
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