Hawaiian Vacation - Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

We got up Tuesday morning, got ready and headed to the lobby of the hotel. We were there in time to catch the 9am shuttle to the airport. It is a good thing we got that shuttle and not the 9:30am shuttle. When we got to our terminal we went to the kiosk and checked ourselves and our baggage in and paid the baggage fees. Then we looked for the line to get the bags to the counter. It looped back and forth through every rope they could place in the space and the line went out the door after that. We found the end of the line and waited patiently through it to get to a counter. More than one traveler had their bags open trying to figure out how to lighten their suitcase so as not to pay an additional $90 for weight. We got our bags checked and headed to the NEXT line. (They tell you that checking in at the kiosk makes this process faster but don't you believe that!!) With all the new security screening equipment the airports have had to rearrange things to get you through all the scanners. At the Delta part of LAX after checking your bags you go to the 2nd line to wait for a turn to go upstairs to the security check. All they do at this line is compare your photo ID to your boarding pass information and initial it. Again the line was through every possible bit of rope they could place in that spot and out the door. Again we waited patiently. Finally we made it up the stairs to the actual screening places. AGAIN we found a line looped through every bit of rope they could squeeze into that location. We looped back and forth until we got to the fun part where you take off your shoes and load your personal belongings in the plastic tubs and walk through a door hoping it will not send off alarms for steel supports in your shoes or a belt buckle or that metal plate you forgot they put in your head or...and the list goes on. We finally made it through all the security. As we sat on the bench tying our sneakers again, we realized we spent 1 1/2 hours just getting checked in and through security. We had only 20 minutes to get to our gate before boarding. What we thought would be leisurely was leisurely but in a standing position. Not to complain...we would sit a long time between Los Angeles and Cincinnati. We lucked out on the flight from LA to Honolulu and the return from Honolulu to LA. We were booked in an aisle and a window seat in a 3 seat row. Both of these flights no one was booked to sit between us so we had plenty of room. The return flight from LA to Cincinnati the window seat had a nice young lady sitting in it. Now my ears never popped when we landed in LA. I was having a hard time hearing and it was really uncomfortable. I was hoping the take off in LA would help my ears to pop but that was not to be. It would be another week before my ears would pop and I would hear normally. The young lady next to me wanted to ask questions and tell me whatever was running through her head. She was a simple thing (I do not say this maliciously just as an actual fact) who did manage to tell me she was pregnant with baby number 4. Her speech was slurred which would have been hard to understand anyway but with limited clear hearing it was next to impossible. I sat in the middle and Claude was on the aisle. So when she had a thought or question she would ask me. She had a habit of pressing the call button for the flight attendant. It would be an interesting flight. The planes between Cincinnati and Los Angeles have monitors in the back of the seat in front of you. You can play a trivia game for free. Claude has a head full of what might seem like very useless facts. But when one plays trivia these facts are very helpful. Claude entertained himself quite nicely on the way out with trivia. They run a score showing the seat number of who else is playing on the plane. A game is 20 trivia questions. You get more points the quicker you guess you answer if your answer is correct. At the end of each question they post the points for each player in that round in order from highest scorer to lowest. Then at the end of the game (20 questions) they post the champion for that game. For a competitive person (I'm not saying Claude is competitive...but...) this just ups the ante and keeps the adrenalin running. Claude was happy to be back on a plane with the trivia game and he played all the way home. I showed our little neighbor how to play in hopes it would keep her busy. For a bit it did. But she would get restless and fidget and then eventually log back on and play a bit more. At one point she did sleep for a while. Blessed relief. Then...they brought the snacks and meal menus for those who wanted to purchase a meal. She got a meal menu. Determined she didn't have enough money for that. She waited until they gave water and peanuts for Claude and water and a Biscoff cookie for me. Then our little neighbor said she had a sandwich in her bag that she wanted to eat. Oh my goodness!!! I explained to Claude what she wanted. He gathered his water and snack and stood up. I gathered my water and snack and stood up. She looked at me and asked if she could stand on the chair. I assured her it would be okay. Up on the chair went one pregnant lady. Now my hubby has a dear hat he wears to keep the sun off his face and ears. He purchased it at Cabelo's and carried it all this trip. He carefully waited until everyone's luggage was in the overhead bin and put his hat on top of their luggage so it wouldn't get crushed. You guessed it...our little neighbor began pulling and tugging and squashing his hat to get her suitcase out which was under his hat. Oh my goodness!!! I can feel the flames coming out of Claude's head. I quickly juggled my food around and took over carefully removing Claude's hat from the overhead bin. Our neighbor got her sandwich and moved back to her seat. We got Claude's hat back in the bin. Then he and I sat down, put down our trays again, and enjoyed our water and snack. Toward the part of the flight over Missouri we ran into major turbulence. The plane was going up and down BIG time. This was not a little bit of turbulence it was major. The captain came on the sound system and speaking very loudly told everyone to get back to their seats and buckle up and for the flight attendants to take their seats as well. Well, that was the signal for my neighbor to decide she needed the bathroom. She asked me if she could get out to go to the bathroom. I assured her this was not the time, especially with this bad turbulence. She fidgeted for a bit and then pressed the flight attendant call button. I could not believe it. The sweet flight attendant came to our row and my neighbor asked if she could go to the bathroom. The flight attendant assured her it was not a time that she could do that. My neighbor tried to explain that she was pregnant and really needed to go. Bless that flight attendants heart she kindly and with a smile explained that no one was allowed out of their seats. Then the flight attendant bounced down the aisle and back to her seat in the turbulence. Every time we would hit a big pocket of turbulence our neighbor would squeel. By the time the pilot got us out of it we were close to descending to land. Now the girl asked me if we were flying over some street. She said the name but I don't know the streets in Cincinnati. I assured her I didn't know. Guess what she did. She pressed the call button. The flight attendant came again. The girl asked her if we were going to fly over whatever street. The flight attendant told her the tower would tell the captain which runway to land on and this meant they had no control over which streets they would fly over. The smiling the flight attendant told her she knew the street and it did have lots of lights that you could see from the air. Turns out our neighbor lives on that street. We finally landed and made it off the plane. As we were waiting to leave the plane our neighbor said her mom was picking her up. I noticed she didn't have a wedding ring. Then she said she couldn't wait to get home to see if her daughter was asleep so she could say goodnight to her. No mention of the other two kids she said she had. I bet there is a story there. Bless her heart she made for an interesting ride home. Our luggage made it to Cincinnati. We got the first shuttle we could to long term parking. It was now 7pm EST. We found our car and Claude drove straight to a restaurant for dinner. Then we headed home to Sadieville. This trip was wonderful. Hawaii was great even with the changes in the itinerary caused by the weather. The tourist things we did in Los Angeles were also fun and things we had never done before. We came home with some fun treasures, lots of pictures, and memories to carry with us forever. Would we go to Hawaii again. Definitely. Next time though we would plot what we wanted to see and go to an island and stay a few days seeing what we wanted to there, then fly to another island and stay there for a few days to see the things we wanted to see there and continue that process until we finished our visit. We both agree that the cruise around the islands was a wonderful way to visit Hawaii the first time. You get the flavor of several islands and an understanding how things work when traveling in Hawaii. Mahalo (thank you) to Sue Ochoa and John who helped us book this cruise and tour, to the all the different tour drivers and guides, to the friends we met and to Mary Ellen Edmunds for 3 wonderful talks on board the ship. Aloha!!