12/16-17–The long journey home

We are up really early this morning, as we want to be as tired as we can for our red-eye flight to Chicago.  We don’t even need the alarm, for some reason, and have to wait for the sun to rise before we can even take our morning walk.  Our circuit complete, we shower and prepare our grilled ham and cheese breakfast, enjoying the patio for the last time, then pack the car and head out to the airport.  We stop first at Costco for gas – which we figure will be a crazy zoo and have allocated 30 minutes to sit in line.  And, while it is definitely busy, it isn’t anywhere are crazy as we thought and we’re through the line in half our allotted time.

Turning in the rental car is a breeze, the shuttle arrives within moments and we are subsequently at the airport with tons of time to spare.  Checked in and through security, we scout out our gate, then come back to Sammy’s, the only bar/pub in the airport.  We score two seats at the corner of the bar and strike up a conversation with a sweet girl who is on her way to Honolulu to stay with her friend and surf for a few days.  Very fun people. 

Our beer and wine actually break our record for the most EVER spent on one drink ANYWHERE. It even eclipses the Bergen drink record, coming in at a whopping $30.20 before tip!  I mean, really, my wine was $19.50!  Holy cow.  Thank heavens for the club in Honolulu – at least there we can amortize this ridiculous expense with free food and drink.  LOL.

The flight to Honolulu is easy (it’s only 30 minutes) and we are in the lounge in a jiffy – we’ve got a long layover, so we charge all our electronics, have a light snack and fill up on beer and wine before boarding our long haul, overnight to Chicago.  That flight goes off without a hitch as well.  We sleep – as much as possible – and wake up to a rainy Chicago O’Hare at 5:00 in the morning.  Here we use one of our United Club passes to spend the 2 hours we have before our last flight.  It’s a waste of the passes – there is no hot breakfast, only carb-heavy continental, however at least there is good drip coffee – but if we don’t use the passes now, they will expire so….at least it is a relatively calm place to hang out.

Back into the melee that is O’Hare, we arrive at our gate with plenty of time to board, then the 1 1/2 hour flight to Asheville, and Voila! We are home.  Great trip, great place…we are definitely ready to go back again….soon!