February 18, 2020

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Up at six and out the door almost when we intended to be!

We were the first ones to check in for our flight to San Francisco and had plenty of time, so Mike grabbed some breakfast. I had eaten leftovers at home in an ultimately doomed attempt to stick to my carnivore way of eating. I looked for a book and found the newest (and, it turns out, the last*) Jack Reacher book, but it was hardcover and $40, so no.

We left a half hour late (due to de-icing) on a small Bombardier jet (two tiny seats on each side) and winged our way south past snowy Mt Shasta (very impressive) to the land of green lawns and open air swimming pools. I dozed a bit — it was dark-ish because people had their blinds closed so they could watch movies and the engine noise was substantial.

We had about an hour to make our connection so we bought plane food (no beef to be seen anywhere) and tried to find a Wells Fargo ATM so we could get American cash, but failed. Then we had to hustle to get to gate F22 from gate zero, all the way around a very big airport.

We boarded a massive plushy Boeing 777 and were in a little row of two seats by ourselves. Much more leg room and bigger, better seats than the first leg. Boy, you can fit a lot of people on that plane! They have phased out seat-back screens. Now, you download the United app and they’ll stream movies and tv shows for you on your own device.

The five hour flight to Hawaii went by quickly. I watched a documentary about General Magic, a company that played a big role in the early days of Silicon Valley, Mike read and watched for great white sharks. Then we looked at all our phone photos for a while. We have selfies and sunsets from many different places!

It was a cloudy day over the Pacific. Maybe it always is?

How do they even find Hawaii? The captain announced that it was windy in Honolulu and we got bounced around a bit on the approach.

Our first view was of cloud shrouded green mountains, taller than I expected. And then we were down, into a blustery twilight with scattered rain. My heart was thrilled at the sight of palm trees waving in the wind with bougainvillea at their feet.

Then followed a slog of recovering our luggage and schlepping it way too far to pick up the rental car. Mike’s Fitbit was reading 11,000 plus steps by then and how we managed that when we spent the day on planes, I don’t know.

The guy offered us a Mustang convertible but we ended up with a cheaper Kia Soul. Our pre-programmed Nuvi GPS got us out of the airport and on the road to our Airbnb. It was actually raining now and after a long day it was disorienting to drive through the construction on the big busy highway through the dark and seamy port and dock area. Saw one fire engine, one police car flashing lights, one ambulance, and something happening in a marina. I guess Honolulu is a big city after all.

Our place to stay seems pleasant enough, although there was a cockroach in the cutlery drawer. We journeyed out in search of more food and found a market where I got a burger on rice (which I didn’t eat) and Mike got a small flatbread pizza. $37 US! Tomorrow we will go in search of Whole Foods and stock up.

Still raining off and on, but there are throngs of people about. It smells like sandalwood and ??? Quite different from Virginia (honey and wet canvas) and whatever the Caribbean smelled like. I don’t remember! But I’ve never smelled anything like this before.

Looking forward to adventures tomorrow!

*Lee Child is retiring, so no more Reacher books from him. But apparently his brother, who is also a novelist, is going to take over.

Ps: Happy birthday, Sarah!