Travel day today and all-in-all things went very smoothly. I didn’t have to get up too early since my flight to Lihue didn’t leave LAX until 1 PM. When I finally did get up, I watched last night’s episode of “House”, which I had taped. Doug and Rachel drove me to LAX at about 10 AM and I was at the gate by about 11:45 AM. I had upgraded my flight so I had a first class seat, 3B for the 6 hour flight to Lihue.
The flight departed LA on time and was completely uneventful. I watched Back to the Future III on my laptop to pass some time. The food was okay. I had a caesar salad to start, then a filet with mashed potatoes and finally, an ice cream sundae. About 1-1/2 hours out of Lihue the flight got pretty bumpy but that didn’t bother me. I tried coordinating the music I was listening to on my iPod to the bumps. I started out with “Ripple” by the Grateful Dead and eventually worked my way up to “Whiplash” by Metallica.
There was a strong crosswind on the approach to Lihue and I forgot just how short the runways are. Still, the pilots managed to put the plane down safely even with the 17 knot crosswinds and a 6000 foot runway. I was off the plane in a flash and made my way to the baggage claim, where I met Dan and Megan, but not before getting “laid”. They had arranged that for me and a nice Hawaiian woman put the flowers around my neck so I clearly looked like a tourist.
In LA, my baggage, completely unlabeled, had been the first bags out of the baggage claim. In Lihue, with my bags marked “Priority”, they were nearly the last bags off the plane. Once we had our luggage, we picked up our rental, which turned out to be a red Ford Mustang convertable. With the top down, we headed around the island making our way from Lihue (on the eastern shore) to Princeville on the north shore. It took about 45 minutes, but we arrived at the Hanalei Bay resort, checked in and had our bags taken to our condo. I took a couple of quick photos of the living room and dining area. The condo also features a full kitchen, and bedroom and a large Lanai that overlooks the bay.
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| Condo in Hawaii, dining and living room |
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| Another view of the living room |
Once we were settled in, we walked down to the beach. The sun had set and it was dark and we could barely see the path in front of us but we got down there safely. We stuck our feet in the Pacific and the water was warm. The stars were crystal clear and you could see the Milky Way cutting a swath across the sky almost directly overhead. Dan saw a shooting star but I missed it. I was too busy looking for satellites. It was gorgeous.
We had dinner at the Bali Hai, an excellent restaurant right on the resort. I had tiger shrimp and scallops. I also tried out a local beer, which wasn’t too bad. For dessert, I had the Chocolate Mousse cake. By the time we were finished with dinner, we were exhausted. 9 PM Hawaii Standard time is 2 AM Eastern Standard time. This was the first time I’d ever been more than 3 times zones away from home.
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