Hawaii--Day 1

Curt and I, several months ago, decided to celebrate our 25th Anniversary and his upcoming 50th Birthday by going to Hawaii. We booked flights and hotels, and Curt proceeded to plan out the details of the trip. Usually, I plan the details and he drives. This time Curt read two guide books and with only a little assistance from me in booking flights and hotels, figured out all of the details. He did a great job (even mapping it all out on a spreadsheet--very accountant-like). For me, this really was a vacation!

Our first full week away with only the two of us started bright and early with Krysta taking us to the airport for an 8:30 flight. We got to our gate and settled in for an hourish wait for our connecting flight to Phoenix. The electronic board said that our flight was on time. We sat down, looked at the gate, looked at our phones, looked at the gate again. After about 20 minutes it dawned on us that at the gate our flight had a canceled sign by it. Seriously, I think I looked at it 3-4 times before it dawned on me that was OUR flight that said CANCELED. Truly a case of believing only what you want to believe and ignoring the concrete evidence in front of your face. Still not quite believing it, I approached the gate agent for confirmation. Yes, it really was canceled. Apparently the airlines had tried to call us the night before, but being electronically challenged, they could not leave us any kind of message: no voicemail,  email, or text. So why did they get all that information from us anyway? In their wisdom, they booked us on an alternate flight the NEXT day. Curt got into his angry businessman persona and told the gate agent that was NOT acceptable.

So funny side note: Our girl's camp theme was "I'm a Mormon, I know it, I live it, I love it," from a talk by Sister Dibb.  She told a story about a Young Women she met who had a shirt that said, "I'm Mormon. Are You?" Since we had shirts with our girl's camp theme printed on the back top third of the shirt,  I told my Young Women that I was going to be like that girl in the story and wear my shirt on the plane to Hawaii. So I did. When Curt was getting upset at the gate agent all I could think of was, "Be nice! I have my Mormon shirt on!" I felt obligated to look and act like the happiest traveler ever because of the sign on my back. That happiness ended up being tested all day.

Luckily, we were able to be rerouted on another airline through LAX with a connecting flight to Honolulu that landed only 3 hours later than planned. Now we had a longer wait until our rescheduled flight left at 11:30, and all the stress had made me hungry! So at about 9:30 in the morning we headed to Cafe Rio. Wise move to put one of those in the airport. After a pork tostada and burrito the world again was a happy place. Nothing like Cafe Rio to make it all better. Good thing we ate, because the next meal was a long time coming.

Our flight to LAX left without a hitch and we landed in Los Angeles right on time. Knowing that our connection was really tight, we rushed though the schizophrenic maze that is LAX to arrive at our next gate. But why did the sign at the gate say New Jersey when the plane was going to Hawaii? We looked for any non busy airline person to quickly help us and finally found someone who informed us that our next flight was delayed by 4 HOURS. The plane was leaving New Jersey about the same time we were leaving Salt Lake. All of our plans to see Waikiki Beach were fading away since this flight would get in after dark and we had to be at Pearl Harbor early the next day. Diamond Head and the Punch Bowl had already been crossed off the list.

We were told to go to customer service and see if there might be an earlier flight. Mistakenly, we turned right when we should have gone left (Chose the right!) and ended up in a short line with the word Honolulu at the front. We soon gathered that this was not customer service but another Hawaii flight. This plane had been at the gate since 8:30 that morning because of a mechanical problem. The problem was fixed, but the crew had been on call for too long and they were waiting for another crew to show up. This flight had passengers who had been waiting at the airport for over 7 hours when they should have already been in Hawaii. One passenger was a very vocal mom (complaining loudly on the phone about the delay) with 3 young children and a husband.  More on them later.

We asked about the odds of getting on that flight which was scheduled to leave at 2:00 which was better than our now 5:30 departing time. We were told they weren't good (apparently there were two seats, no wait...one, then two again, now they're both gone...), but if we'd stick around until boarding she'd see what she could do. We tried waiting in the customer service line just to see if there was another option, but when that line didn't move after 20 minutes, we bailed out and went back to the other gate.  Passengers finally boarded. Curt went up to talk to the nice airline employee, and miraculously we were on! The plane was totally full, but three people decided to get off at the last minute. They were going on business and decided that since they weren't going to make their meetings then to just cancel. Yeah, we would see Waikiki in the daylight after all!

We were on the plane, we were about to go! But wait. Remember vocal mom? After their long wait they were some of the last to board the plane and figured out that they weren't sitting together with their kids. Seats were changed so she could be with her kids and all was well, right? Wrong! We boarded and had our seats changed around also because of the previous seat changes. No big deal. We were just happy to be there and sitting together. Another couple came on after us and in the confusion of seat changes the woman said something (politely) about one of vocal mom's kids being in her seat. We didn't hear the rest, but vocal mom's husband (an Indian man) got vocal himself and made some sort of racial slur against the white woman. The black steward heard him and firmly asked him to sit down. The man kept up his commotion and was told he could leave the plane on his own or have an air marshal escort him out. The steward then came back to our part of the plane to tell the woman that no type of racial remark was acceptable and they were calling the air marshal. The Indian couple got off the plane, but the kids stayed. After a few moments the white couple got off. I don't know what happened, but I'm guessing the man apologized and they sorted it all out. They all came back on, and after this additional half hour delay, we were finally leaving. All the passengers cheered loudly when the plane started to move especially the California high school water polo team that had been waiting around all day. Vocal couple was silent the rest of the flight.

I sat next to an off duty stewardess who was going home to Hawaii. I told her about our experiences and asked if it is usually this difficult to get to Hawaii.  She said it was a really strange travel day. 

Finally, after one cancelled flight, one really delayed flight, and one crazy couple, we landed in Honolulu. We only look slightly crazed in the picture below.

Look, proof, we really did make it.

We got our rental car, plugged in our hotel address and proceeded to our hotel. We were staying our first night just off Waikiki beach. On the drive to the hotel we got our first whiff that GPS and Hawaii don't necessarily mesh. It's not that big a place, so how hard can it be? But when we were directed onto the freeway off ramp only to be told to get right back on, we started to clue in. However, we made it to our hotel without much delay. We could smell the tropical breezes and feel the humidity from the nearby ocean...lovely. Upon check in we were told we had an ocean view. I have heard about "ocean views." If you can stick your head out and crane your neck and barely see a slice of ocean, then it can be called an "ocean view." I wasn't expecting much, so image my surprise at seeing this view!

We could see ocean and lots of it! Because the sun was setting, we quickly dropped our bags and made for the beach. Just in time for the sunset and a nice walk on the sand.

After the sunset, we found food. Our first since the morning's Cafe Rio deliciousness.  Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday! We were in Hawaii for an entire week!