Our Week in Hawaii (part 1)

August 10, Kailua, Hawaii

We left after midnight to drive to Minneapolis and catch our plane to Hawaii. The night was very dark, despite a half-moon, and there was very little traffic on the road at first. I kept imagining deer racing across the road and wrecking us, and I asked Rita to tighten her seat belt. Moments later we rounded a curve in the highway and illuminated a female deer standing broadside to us, just inches from the road. We were past in the blink of an eye, and nothing happened.

But the speed at which these things occur, and the precious split-second one gets to respond, made me especially alert. Then we passed a deer carcass on the side of the road within another minute. I spent the rest of the 4-hour trip vigilant for deer, but we never saw another one all night.

We stopped to eat at Perkins in Alexandria at about 3AM. This was easily the worst Perkins dining experience ever. The food took over 40 minutes to arrive, and then was over-cooked. The manager discounted our meal, but we were irked to be detained for so long. I don't think it soured us on Perkins, though.

We got to the airport and parked the car. A shuttle bus took us to the Humphrey terminal, where the charter flights depart. Even with the Perkins delay we were in plenty of time and even had a chance to rest in the waiting area before the flight.

The first leg of the flight was to Las Vegas. Our plane left a little late but that was okay. There was a light snack, and that was okay. But there was a person on board with a microphone, apparently an employee of the charter service, whose job was apparently to tell us in great detail about the special offers their company provided for people visiting Las Vegas. This narrative was difficult to ignore (I was trying to sleep), and was somewhat repetitious.

At Las Vegas we had to get off the plane for a short while so the new crew could get on board. There was enough time to buy a snack and walk around the Las Vegas airport a bit (it's the same as most other airports except there are large arrays of slot machines in the center of every open area).

The other interesting thing was to see two young boys gliding around the hallways on those new "heel-wheel" shoes written up in Sports Illustrated. They are like regular athletic shoes, except they have a small rollerblade-type wheel embedded in each heel. Walking in them appears more-or-less normal, but the boys could also tilt there toes upward and "skate" with them too.

The second leg of the trip was to Honolulu. Again the plane left a little late, again a snack. And again, someone with a microphone extolling the bargains available in Hawaii. For some reason this was more annoying than the first. Perhaps because he droned on so long we didn't get to see both in-flight movies (billed as Vertical Limits with Chris O'Donnell and Meet the Parents with Robert DeNiro -- we only saw the first one).

It is a LONG way from Nevada to Hawaii, most of it over blue ocean, and the flight takes nearly five hours. But we finally arrived. Then came a LONG walk across the airport to fetch our luggage and arrange for the rental car and a REALLY LONG wait (over an hour) before our luggage finally came down the chute. Nobody could explain why the bags were delayed so long.

Then we navigated our way from the south side of Oahu to the east side where we're staying. This was a stunning drive through a bit of city traffic into a sequence of green mountain valleys. The hills to each side were a mixture of steep craggy rock and jungle vegetation with palm trees and flowering trees, most of which we could not identify. Above there was a hazy sky and the tops of most peaks were shrouded in mist, looking as much like Central Africa as anything: think "Gorrillas in the Mist".

After only 15 minutes of this we passed through a long mountain tunnel and came out to see a boating lagoon and the ocean beyond in bright sunshine.

From there it was a short ride to our "cottage" which you may have seen on the internet from a previous message. Your mother thinks it's a cute little house, and I agree.

At this point we had been up for a day, a night, and most of a day, so we we're getting pretty tired. We went to the town of Kailua, which is near here, to eat a burger and buy some groceries. And then, after some disorienting confusion, probably due to fatigue, we found our way back.

Rita is sleeping now (I got some fitful sleep on the plane, but she was unable to), and I will be sleeping soon, too.

Thus ends our first day in Hawaii.