Friday, July 11, 2003 |
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We left Williamsburg at two thirty in the morning in order to catch our flight to Minneapolis. As you can imagine, we were the -first- people there checking bags.
Upon arriving in Minneapolis, the first thing we did was to find out where our next plane was boarding. The NorthWest airline representative smiled as she said "That plane departs from gate F12...F as in `far'" and "far" it was. We walked most of the length of the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport and -still- didn't see Garrison Keillor. All we can say about that experience is "Thank God for people movers".
We boarded the plane for Honolulu only to have to wait for two of the toilets to be fixed. Once that was taken care of, it was off to Hawaii. The flight was long...eight hours. Stephanie was amused when the flight attendant making announcements introduced an "airplane aerobics" film. She was further amused when the "airplane aerobics" instructor suggested a leg stretch that would have involved jamming our feet into the back of the person sitting in front of us.
When we landed in Hawaii, we discovered just how many green roll along bags there were. At the baggage claim, every other suitcase coming along' the line looked like ours. However, the brown prehistoric Samsonite that had belonged to Ken's mom was very easy to spot.
We took a shuttle to the Hawaii Prince Hotel (Waikiki). Gary, our driver, was very informative. He told us that 80% of Hawaii's population lived on Oahu which explained the expression "Hawaii time". Apparently, it takes fifteen minutes to get from the airport to the hotel, but Honolulu traffic can be so bad that the drive can take up to an hour.
Traffic or no, we found Oahu beautiful. Our room faces west and overlooks a yacht harbor. From our window, we can see the reflection of the sun rippling on the ocean waves, people fishing off the end of the pier and men working on their boats. This reminds Ken of the opening credits of -Gilligan's Island- because it looks like a great place to begin a "three hour tour".
All in all, we believe that this will be a wonderful adventure,