We woke up bright and early in chilly Seattle. Mom and Russ ran down to the office to get coffee. And explore.
Then we headed off to the airport, dropped off the car, checked in the luggage....then found out that our 8:50am flight to Oahu had been delayed until noon! But we did each get $14 food voucher. That made Russell happy.
Then we waited...
...and waited...
But eventually they called our flight. Russ took our vouchers and loaded up on "real" food to eat aboard the plane. Then we boarded and took off! More sleeping was done. Game playing on various machines. Movie watching. Then...the island came into view!
Well, at least we made it. We rushed to the rental car agency to get our van....
...only experience a Hertz Rent-A-Car FAIL! 40 people in line, 6 computer terminals, two agents working the line. And you know the move a "post office" speed. So we spent another hour standing in line. But we finally got our van, loaded up, drove into Honolulu, did a quick stop at a florist for frest flower leis, then carried on.
We did a brief stop at Ala Moana park, walked to the beach, and introduced Garry's folks to our traditional, official, Hawaiian kick-off. Present the lei, say, "Aloha! Welcome to Hawaii!" followed by a big kiss...
I think they liked this tradition!
Mom Edna got her lei.
Russ and Garry got theirs.
Garry gave Damian his flowers.
Then we checked into our resort. While Russ was checking in, Damian rushed to an ABC store and bought a couple of bottles of wine and some plastic cups. Then we all hustled out to the beach for sunset! And we made it!
And yes...the sunset was glorious.
Including an interesting red glow between the distant land-mass and an even more distant cloud bank.
Finally, back in the room, Russ served up our left-over voucher-food, wine, drinks. It looks sparse, but everyone ate until they were stuffed.
Then we all said goodnight and collapsed into bed.
ALOHA!
