Hawaii 2011 -- Day 10/11

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Blog by Greta:

Day 10: The last day of the trip. Sad, but good to go home - it's been an awesome trip.

Sunday morning was windy - with spots of rain & sun. We hung out in the room, taking it easy, packing, reading, and deciding what to do for our last day. Our plane doesn't leave until 8:30 tonight, although check-out is at noon, we still have one day left. We know we won't do any swimming - who wants to deal with a wet swimsuit that has been packed away in luggage for 12 hours?

We checked out around 11 am and decided to drive to Mana, a town that no longer exists, but is as far west as the road allows. This took us past the Waimea Canyon turn-off - which was as far as we'd gone before. Further on, the guidebook described how the land was different here - all the run-off from Waimea river, further east, had been washed ashore here, and hillsides built up again. This build-up of dirt, silt, sand & sea made for excellent growing conditions for sugar cane. We found out that sugar cane is not grown any longer on any of the islands for commerical production - and out here is where the last of the fields were harvested in 2009.

We drove all the way out to where there was just a fork in a little dirt road. Both roads ended in a high fence noted "U S Naval Property - Magazine Area - Keep Out'. This is all Navy property from where they conduct Star Wars Missle Tests every two months. I guess submarine manuevers take place constantly off the coast as well. On the drive back, we stopped @ McArther Park - where the beach literally is at the side of the road, walked around a bit and watched a couple kite surfers fly around the high waves.

Back in Waimea, we stopped @ the Shrimp Station - which fitting as it was across the road from Island Taco - the first place we ate on on the island . It also was fitting as we ate our last meal at a little place like this on O'ahu. The food was good - Mike had Thai Shrimp & rice, I had Sweet Chili Garlic Shrimp w/fries. The food was made in a little building, and the only seating was outside at picnic tables. That's one thing I didn't get to do a lot of on our trip - the South Shore, where we were based, is resort area, and there are very few (if any) little roadside places to eat. Nearly everything is bigger, high-end restaurants - even the non-fancy "family" type places are aimed at tourists with a lot of money to spend. Those are fine, but it's fun (and cheaper) to sit at a picnic table in March in 80 degree weather, and eat a tasty meal with the locals.

Another check in the guidebook, and we drove past our resort to the far sourth-east corner of the island - ANOTHER spot where the road ends. First we stopped at a small turn-off with parking between Shipwreck Beach and Makewehi Lithified Cliffs. The last camera batteries had died at this point and that was too bad, because the views here were spectacular. We climbed up on the cliffs from the beach, and could look far out into the ocean and the massive waves, and watch the surfers down on Shipwreck. It was REALLY windy up here - you could really see how the wind & sand had scoured the cliffs along here, and shaped the small trees into oddly shaped scrub brush that clung to the rocks.

Then we went further back on the road, to where it turned into dirt and was HIGHLY rutted. It brings to mind a joke we heard a few days ago ... "What's the difference between 4-wheel drive & a rental car?" ........................"A rental can go ANYWHERE!". That almost seemed true. The roads are completely pot-holed - it was like driving an obstacle course, and you were constantly bouncing around in the car. We drove all the way to the end, and way back here it seemed to be a hang-out for the local teens and such. We didn't stay long - it was pretty back here, and the guidebook mentioned some interesting things to see along the cliffs, but we distinctly stood out as "white tourists who had all their belongings packed up in a rental vehicle" and thought it best to stay within a sightline of our car. So back along the road, bumping along between the 12-foot high grass and weeds blowing all around us.

From there, we headed north to see Wailua Falls. This was pretty amazing - at the end of THIS road (yup, that seemed to be the theme of the day) there was this waterfall that had a 173 foot drop. It's taller than Niagra, but less water. It still was pretty spectacular. You COULD hike down to the bottom, but as we didn't want to end up all muddy and stuff for the plane-ride, opted just to check it out from the top.

From there we drove up into Waimea again, to a little shopping area, and walked around, and looked into the shops. You could buy a "life size" feathered wire-frame rooster who would cluck or crow when you clapped your hands. Pretty funny! We didn't buy anything but sometimes it's fun just to walk and browse, and we were a few hours from needing to be back from the airport. We drove around a bit more, looking for a woodworking shop mentioned in the guidebook (hey - maybe ANOTHER carving?) but by the time we found it, it was closed. Nearly everything around here closes @ 5 pm other than some restaurants. Even those all seem to be closed-down by 9 pm. But I suppose when the sun goes down year-round before 7 pm, life is a bit different.

We stopped at a little place called "Nawiliwili Tavern" across the road from where we started our Helicopter Ride & also ate our shave ice for a quick bite to eat & drink. We just shared an order of Steak Quesadillas, but they were REALLY tasty. I have eaten very little beef on the trip, and so maybe that was part of the reason why it tasted so good.

Then on to the airport. Technically, that is still today, but I'll include our final journey home (which would last until Monday) in the next blog entry.

Day 11: Sunday night - Monday - return home!

It's been a great trip, but it will be good to get home. Little did we realize just how LONG it would take to get there.

Mike dropped me off at the airport with our luggage. We had to send it through USDA inspection, and in case the line was long, we figured while he returned, I could take care of that. Actually, it went very fast (once I found the right line) and we were approved to go to the mainland as we were not carrying any hostage roosters or fruit.

Since Hawaiian Airlines is VERY picky about getting your boarding pass with larger carry-on luggage (as we discovered on the way to this island) I waited elsewhere while Mike got our boarding passes. Since we booked the airline tickets between this islands of Oahu & Kauai separately than our flight from/to MN, we didn't know whether we'd be able to check our luggage the entire way back, and didn't want to deal with getting to Honolulu, run OUT of security to get it, and then back through security, and to our next gate, all within a 90 minute layover. Well, no worries on that we soon discovered.

We got our boarding passes, and were heading to our gate when Mike got a message on his phone from Delta. It turns out our flight out of Oahu and to San Francisco had been delayed by 3 hours which would mean we'd miss our connecting flight in San Francisco. So Mike got on his phone while still in the Lihue airport and started working with Delta to re-route our trip back home. He stayed on the phone with a booking agent for over 20 minutes and we boarded the plane as one of hte last passengers - in case our re-booked flight would require us to fly from Lihue (on Kauai) instead of from Honolulu. That didn't seem to be the case, and the booking agent could only find one spot on a SFO to MSP flight that was two flights after the flight we'd miss. Mike was working with her on getting that seat when his phone died (of course).

We flew to Honolulu, and immediately found our gate. First Mike tried plugging his charger into the wall somewhere, but then we noticed a big bank of pay phones. Perfect - Delta's # is a 1-800 number, and this way we KNEW the phone wouldn't die. I had my phone with me as well, but have limited minutes on it, so we only wanted to use that as backup. To make matters more difficult, there were only a handful of planes leaving Honolulu that night still, so we were limited on how we'd leave the airport, and probably woudl stick with our delayed flight to San Francisco. Mike stayed on the phone for over 40 minutes with another booking agent. It's spring break and apparently all Delta flights coming out of San Fran were booked - ALL flights - not just those to MSP. At one point, the agent was looking to book us through JFK in NEW YORK of all places. Mike had to be to work on Tuesday, so we really wanted to get back home on Monday at some point in time.

Finally, success. We'd both stay in Honolulu and fly out 3 hours later than planned to San Francisco. I would have a 5-hour layover there, then fly back to MSP directly by myself. Mike would have a 90-minute lay-over in San Francisco, then fly down to Los Angeles on United, stay there for and hour or so, and then fly back to MSP on Delta. They couldn't give me my boarding pass for San Francisco because it was more than 6 hours from flight time. They coudln't give Mike his SFO to LAX boarding pass because there were no United desks in the airport terminal. So we stayed in Honolulu for 3 hours doing nothing. All the food places were closed down other than a Starbucks (who was selling a cold meat/cheese sandwich for NINE DOLLARS - forget that) so we got to a little book store that was just about to close and each got a can of pop and a little bag of snacks.

We sat at a different gate & read for a while - our gate was PACKED with people and they seem to think it was a good idea to keep the place at around 60 degrees. I headed back at one point, and grabbed a couple glasses of pop and little Delta snacks they were offering. Then we eventually made it on the plane with the expected take-off at 1:48.

There was also a flight to Salt Lake City that got cancelled around the same time, I think due to an engine failure, and so the last we'd heard, they woudln't be able to get that entire flight out of Honolulu until Wednesday (it was still Monday at this point). Needless to say, there were a lot of crabby people wandering around the fully closed airpoirt that night.

Unfortunately, we sat on the tarmac for nearly an hour trying to get into take-off mode. The pilot even sounded amazed we were having a problem, and announced there was all this international traffic coming in, and they were having a problem fitting out late plane into the take-off schedule. REALLY? It's a teeny airport - there couldn't be THAT many planes coming in. We ended up taking off an HOUR late.

The flight back was LONG. Mike got about 3 hours of sleep - and I dozed once or twice, but really cannot sleep sitting up. Eventually we got to SFO. They then announced that people staying at San Fran should let those with connecting flights off first but it seemed EVERYONE got off the plane right away. At this point we had heard that somewhere bewteen 130 and 160 of the people on this flight were flying back to MSP and ALL would miss their connecting flight in SFO. Wow - that's a lot of people to displace. We were REALLY glad we'd booked something already.

They told us to go to Gate 46 if you needed to work with someone to re-book your connecting flight and to get food vouchers. IF you had a connecting flight already that was still viable, you could go to the kiosks @ Gate 45 to scan your boarding pass, get your new boarding pass, and the vouchers. Mike had to fly United and had about 35 minutes to get to his plane. We were in a Delta-only terminal, and no one could tell us what gate he needed. Finally, he found out he needed to go to the international terminal. That would require him to go OUT of security, find the basic United desk on the outside, get his boarding pass, and go back through security to his new terminal. So I stayed in the Delta Terminal and he RAN the whole way (this included a run through a parking garage, of all places). He's lucky he made it - they were already boarding the flight when he was outside of security, getting his boarding pass.

I walked back and saw a massive line at Gate 46 - easily over 100 people. I was super-glad at that point that I had gotten that last seat on the SFO to MSP flight later in the day. I eventually found the kiosks, scanned my boarding pass, and up popped my vouchers & a new boarding pass for MSP - that was really slick how easily that worked.

I headed to the only place that appeared to serve food - Perry's. I got a bacon cheese burger w/fries and a pop for $21 - holy cow! But since I had $18 of vouchers - who cares? Later I discovered there was only coffee/smoothie shop that had cold sandwiches as well, but I was in the mood for a burger, so that worked out OK. It was just annoything that I had to stay in this little terminal with 10 gates if I didn't want to go in/out of security. I wanted to wander, and had the time, but with all the chaos, decided it was better not to have to deal with scanners & such any longer than necessary.

Mike made it to LAX, and I told him about finding a Delta Kiosk. It worked, and he got a little pizza & a margarita. Apparently, the vouchers don't cover alcohol, so he still had $12 of vouchers by the time he got on his plane.

I was supposed to arrive 20 minutesw after him, so he kept the car keys and planned on getting the car while I was still getting there, and picking me up outside. It turns out his plane was delayed and mine was on time, maybe even a bit early. Our plane was so full, and I had to put my carry-on about 10 rows behind me (what a massive pain that is!) but I still got to Mike's gate about 30 minutes before he got there.

Fortunately, both our gates were close to the skyway that takes you to the escalators to the light rail. We made a quick stop at McD's to use up Mike's vouchers (hey - if Delta is going to pay for food, at this point, we want to make them pay) and ate/drank while waiting for the light rail.

A quick ride over the to the Humphrey Terminal and a wander through the parking ramp to find our car (we didn't remember exactly where it was) and we were on our way to pick up our puppy.

We got to Mike's brother's (the drive is about an hour) and were very happy to see our very happy dog Brock. But then we found out some really sad news. Their 2 1/2 year old lab Stormy had died unexpectedly yesterday. What an aweful thing to happen. We'll miss you a lot, little Storm! We visited with Kim & Koen a bit, and then headed home.

Ah, home - what a wonderful place to be. Most of the snow is now gone, and that was a nice thing to see. From the time Mike dropped me off at the Lihue airport to arrving at home, it had taken us just over 23 hours to get home. Wow!

Thank you to those who endured reading my blog. I get a bit wordy at times (I've been told this since grade-school report cards, and now hear it in job reviews) but I wanted, for ourselves, to remember all the things we did on this trip.

Aloha & Mahalo!

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