April 6 - “Flying into the past”

Let’s redefine early. We slept fairly well at Hotel Huntley. How does 3:30 sound? Yes, that’s A.M.  the alarm was set for four anyway, so I just stayed up. And when four hit, I fulfilled an earlier promise I had made to fellow traveler Cary. I called him and proclaimed the current Honolulu time. He was most appreciative. 

Speaking of Cary and KayLynn, once we reached the airport and made our way through the checkpoint (the drive was great. Larry weaved his way through the early-morning travelers to get us a very close parking spot. But that checkpoint … not an easy task. Chris had to be frisked from head to toe because of her implant. I must have come across as a decrepit old man, because as I exited the scanner, the guy took my arm and asked if I was doing ok). Wait. Forgot where I was going with this. So … Cary and KayLynn did their best to recreate the famous scene from Lady and the Tramp where the two lead characters are eating spaghetti and end up smooching after a good long strand. Except for one thing. Cary and KayLynn were making the attempt … with a breakfast burrito. Yum. 

Oh, and while we stood in line, I received a rather ridiculous imprecation from KayLynn and Diane. They recommended (highly) that this be a blog-free vacation. I assured them that … not gonna happen. Secretly, in their heart of hearts, they were relieved, thrilled even, at the prospect that their name might appear on occasion over the next week or so. 

Nick and Jasmine joined us on the airplane, along with enough others to fill every seat. Not that we knew Nick and Jasmine, but he sat next to me, and she sat next to Cary. So we introduced ourselves. 

The first leg of the flight (to San Francisco) was uneventful. I finally figured out how to get the in flight entertainment. It was on my phone app all along. I stored the info away in my head for the second, longer flight on to Hawaii.  

San Francisco surprised us a little. The outside temperature was a balmy 43 degrees. Yikes. Take me to a tropical island, please. We grabbed some chicken strips and fries. They offered us some barbecue sauce. At least that’s what they said it was. It was … nasty. They need to send someone to Texas to learn how to do it right. 

The flight to Honolulu was, in a word, long. I had time to watch two feature length movies, with time to spare. In anticipation of that extended use of my phone (that’s how you watched - on the airline app), I heard from another passenger that there was a plug of sorts under the seat. Curiosity got the best of me, so I got down on one knee to investigate. About that time KayLynn, who was seated across the aisle from us, looked up. Ever the flower-lipped one, she instantly knew what to say. She announced to the entire airplane, “She said ‘yes’ again!”  Chris laughed and said, “well, yeah - 48 years ago.”  There was but a smattering of applause. I don’t think anyone could believe she would say yes. Or maybe they couldn’t believe that I would be able to stand back up …

Touchdown!  We officially time traveled. Every time we turned around it was lunchtime again. Not that I’m complaining, but we sure got tired of airport food. 

Met Brad and Christi from Chicago, who are also on this cruise with us. They rode to the hotel in the same bus with us. 

By the time we arrived at the hotel, my hearing aid batteries ran completely dry. They are more confused than my body is. We had to stay awake, though. Plus, we were really hungry. We walked over to Duke Kahonumoku’s hotel and had some dinner. Then we took a walk on the beach.  Yep. I had to stick my hand in the Pacific. They were advertising a big Easter sunrise service on the beach across the street from our hotel. We’ll be on the ship by then, though. Maybe we can put together one of our own. Next was dessert. We grabbed a malasada (same thing as a stuffed donut). I had chocolate. Chris chose strawberry. Pretty good bite. It also kept us awake for another hour or so. 

And just when we were about to crash, we heard a crash from outside. We raced to the nearest balcony, and what to our wondering eyes should appear, but an actual parade going by. Just to welcome us to Hawaii, I’m pretty sure. Well, either that, or the multitude of bands attending a youth music festival were on display. My favorite part was the ladder truck from the fire department. It was one of those that was so long, the back half had to have its own driver. 

John‬ ‭12‬‬:‭8‬ says, “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

Father, thank you for getting us across that ocean safely. Amen.