Ten Days in Hawaii - Travel Day

This morning started at 3:00 AM which is way too early.  We left the house at 4:00 and picked up Doug and Ev and were at the airport by 5:00.  We got the luggage unloaded, the car parked in long term parking, and got checked in in short order, but the line for security was long so that took a while.  The San Luis Obispo Airport is not very big, but there were a lot of flights leaving early this morning so it was crowded.  After getting through security, we waited until boarding started around 6:15 for our 6:35 flight to San Francisco where we would catch our flight to Hawaii.

Everything was going smoothly and our plane taxied out to take off and then we sat for a while.  The pilot said the tower had delayed us and we would take off in a few minutes.  More than a few minutes had gone by when the pilot came back on and said there was a minor maintenance issue that had to be taken care of and we would have to taxi back to the terminal.  We started to worry a bit about making our connection, but we had two hours so we thought it would probably be OK.  Minutes kept ticking by and we started facing the reality of missing our flight to Hawaii; now we were really worried.  We finally took off around 8:30, almost two hours late.

By the time we landed in San Francisco we only had about ten minutes to get to our flight to Hawaii.  We were lucky our flight to Hawaii was in the same terminal, but unfortunately the gate was at the other end of the terminal.  We made our way as fast as we could and arrived at the gate with a few minutes to spare – we made it, what a relief.  The flight was uneventful and even Val who hates to fly said it was fine.

After landing we stepped into the warm and humid sunshine; we were finally in Hawaii.  We collected our luggage and headed for the rental car shuttles to pick up the cars we rented.

Val waiting for the luggage to arrive.

Cathy and Heather

Doug and I collecting our luggage.

We rented two cars, but from different companies – Val and I from Alamo and Doug, Ev, Heather and Cathy from Budget.  Val and I quickly got our minivan (it would seat all six of us) and we were off to Costco to pick up some food supplies.  We waited at Costco for the rest of the group to meet us. They were delayed a bit so we started shopping until the rest of the group arrived and we were finally able to finish and finally get on the road to our house.

The house we rented was in the small town of Captain Cook,which was about a half hour south of Kona. Our house was on a five-acre coffee plantation called Maka Nui.  When we arrived and walked into the front door the first thing we saw was a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean in the distance below us.  The house and grounds were beautiful; after all the travel and hassle, we finally felt like we were in Hawaii.

After spending the afternoon unpacking and getting settled, we spent the rest of the day relaxing.  For dinner we bought some prepared meals at Costco so we wouldn’t have to cook on our first night, which worked out well.  After dinner we talked for a while, but we were all pretty tired so we all went to bed around 7:30.  That may seem pretty early, but it was 10:30 California time and we had all been up since the wee hours of the morning and we had pretty much run out of gas.  Tomorrow we plan to just stay around the house and relax.

Ten Days in Hawaii - A Trip is Planned

Last summer we invited our friends Doug, Ev, Cathy and Heather over for dinner and as usual when we are together, the talk turned to travel.  We talked about taking a trip together, but unlike previous times we actually followed through and did it and here we are ready to leave for Hawaii.

We discussed many possible destinations that night and Hawaii ended up being the choice.  We decided to rent a house on the Big Island and eventually found the one we wanted on the west coast near Kona and made our deposit last June.  In February our final payment was due and I hadn't heard anything so I decided to check.  Surprise, surprise - the rental agent told me "Oh, the owner decided to take it off the rental market"!!!  Thanks for telling us, what a shock.  Needless to say, with less than two months before we were schedule to leave we had to scramble to find another house.

We finally found another one that suited us all so the trip was saved.  The house is called the Maka Nui Estate and is a little south of Kona in the town of Captain Cook.  We will be there for 10 days so we will have the opportunity to explore the island in depth.  Val and I are really looking forward to this as our previous visits have been on a cruise ship and we only get a day in port.  The west coast of the Island of Hawaii has some of the best snorkeling in all the islands so we plan to take advantage of that.  We also plan on taking it easy and relaxing around the pool, which I think everyone is looking forward to.

The worst part of the trip is getting there;  our flight leaves very early in the morning so we will be getting up at 3:00 AM.  Anyone who knows me knows I hate to get up early so I'm not looking forward to this, but what can I do.

I have decided to not even try to post any blog entries on this trip so when you read this, we will be home and enjoying the wonderful memories of our trip.