8Jan10 - Alooooohaaaaaa

Lots of pics today, because I promised my kids I would send them lots of pics. Rain in Portland. What's new, it rains all the time in Coos County too...stayed up WAY TO LATE last night and had to be up and out the door by 5:30 because my flight started boarding at 8 and you're supposed to get there early to check bags and go through security and all that stuff. So we got there about 7:40 because Rob is a good, safe, law abiding driver. That means we also got there SAFELY (which is important if you have tickets to Hawaii).

Kortni tried to switch flights, and even though her flight was FULL and mine had empty seats (mine was leaving an hour and 30 minutes earlier), they still wanted to charge her an additional giant fee to make the change (and she'd already paid more than I did anyhow), so she kept her flight and hung out and read while she waited to board.

I always pick a window seat - usually over the wing, it's just where I like to sit, the engines AMAZE ME. I mean, look at that thing...if you cut it off and capped the ends, you could remodel and repurpose it into a livable house. HUGE.

I had a nice kid from Virginia (I think) sitting next to me, he's a freshman at University of Hawaii at Honolulu, this is his second term and last term he pulled over a 3.5 gpa - he hasn't been sucked out into the party vortex - HOORAY. I ended up swapping seats with him so he could sleep and not keep waking himself when he tipped over, if he had his head up against the window with the pillows...his head would no longer tip, right?

A first class passenger had a medical emergency before take off, so we were a bit delayed while paramedics removed the patient from the plane. Better to wait to take off than to have to land and take off again, eh?  Mostly uneventful flight, although I must mention that HAWAIIAN AIR has a complimentary meal, and last year our Northwest flight DID NOT - and the meal today was better than that nastiness Alaska Air served on our flight from Anchorage to Portland...although not gourmet it wasn't bad. Cloud cover most of the way. Started breaking up as we approached the islands actually...

Land Ho! The giant engine and giant wing made me think we were closer to landing than we actually were. It's neat to see the fishing boats and little towns, and military bases from the air (I think).
Remind me, cell phone camera not good at making the battleship out there in the water easily visible.

Airport authorities make it a pain to pick up people at the airport, if your ride happens to pull up and park 100 feet away from you, they get yelled at by the parking nazis in the short time it takes for you to run up to their car and get into it - for real, they threaten to ticket the drivers for parking in a no parking/pick up zone, and not picking anyone up!! Silly isn't it? It's sort of a mess in this area - okay, I will be honest, the Honolulu Airport SUCKS!! PDX is AWESOME and HNL is wretched, horrid. Rude attendants everywhere, tons of out of order tape all over (like 2 of ever 3 escalators at the inter island terminal), it's a nightmare. I mean, really...they could at least TRY to be kind, friendly, etc...it's a tropical paradise...and they are ACCLIMATED TO THE HUMIDITY and 82 degrees F - the rest of us are stepping off the plane and breaking into instasweats. It's okay, the beauty of it all keeps me calm and kind, even on no sleep :)

We killed some time at Pearl Ridge (or is it Pearlridge) or whatever it is, shopping mall. Kadi was looking for outfits, I was just looking. Grabbed some miso and a can of green tea (I love the fact that over here, you can get REAL tea just about anywhere you go, Ito-en is a Japanese product - bottled and canned - that STILL TASTES LIKE TEA, and happens to be my favorite). During this snack, Korts texted and said her flight was in, Kadi's phone was dead, and off we went back to HNL. We called Korts on the approach because I wasn't driving and could use my phone so her pick up was much smoother than mine.

After we grabbed Korts, we headed HOME to Kadi's - with a stop at Ninja Sushi. I got the Lion Roll - super yum. And another Ito-en green tea. Almost went for the creamy melon soda though. Kadi grabbed some group shots of the three of us, and I look like...well...yuck in most of them :D Mug shots. She scolded me for not smiling. I will try harder in the future.
And THEN...we came home. I am ready for bed. Oh, wait, I am sitting on the bed :D It's definitely naptime :D