The dreaded day has arrived. I had set my alarm for 6:30 but was wide awake at 5:30 – I showered and snacked on the rest of the pineapple for breakfast. Greg got up when he heard the garbage truck go by because he remembered he hadn’t put the garbage out last night! We stuffed the last of our things in the suitcases – loaded up the convertible and headed out to the airport. We returned the car and took the shuttle over to the airport. Funny thing about security in Honolulu International airport – it is very relaxed! They are more concerned that you don’t take anything agricultural back to the states than anything else! The first thing you have to do is have your luggage screened for things you can’t take back to the states. Once through there you head to the ticket counter – where a very relaxed and pleasant person helped to check our bags – one was overweight by 3 pounds and she said it was okay and let it through!!! She printed our tickets and then explained in great detail how to use them all the way through to DC (like we had never flown before!) That is the Hawaiian way – everything is so layed back and unhurried here. Well the time has come to board our flight to LA. We leave Hawaii at 12:30 p.m. and arrive in LA at 9:30 p.m. but only fly for 5 hours!
Needless to say I cried silent tears as the flight took off – watching from my window as the beautiful mountains and the palm trees and the blues and greens of the ocean disappear from view was so hard. I don’t remember the last time I felt as relaxed and at peace as I was while we were in Hawaii – I didn’t want that feeling to end. The flight was uneventful and LONG! We got into LA and had just enough time to grab a quick bite to eat and then find our next gate. Another 5 hour flight would get us into DC at 6:30 a.m. This take off was a little more interesting than any we had experienced on this trip! The flight was completely full and after all the standby people were on they closed the doors and left the terminal – we started to notice some “activity” amongst the flight attendants and they were quickly walking up and down the aisle with papers in hand and having quiet discussions – it seemed like something was not quite right. Eventually we learned what all the fuss was about – someone had overbooked and given a seat to one too many standby passengers and there was no seat for them – yet we had already left the gate and were headed to the run-way. We had to go back to the gate and open the doors and let off the one extra passenger! After doing that we were now blocked in by a larger plane that according to our rather comical pilot had more engines than we did and took longer to start up. We had to wait for that plane to take off and then were on our way -1 ½ hours late. Greg and I were a little nervous because we had less than one hour in DC to catch our connecting flight to Binghamton. Well they have ways of making up time in the air because we got to DC only 20 minutes late. We found our gate and got a snack and boarded the flight for home. Just outside of Binghamton the pilot gave the weather report for Binghamton which was “cloudy and overcast” . . . yep we were home – made me miss Hawaii soooo much more. Mom and Dad met us at the airport with our car and we all stopped at Our Country Hearts for breakfast then headed home and back to reality! Our trip was now a beautiful memory!
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