In our never ending quest to avoid winter – we are Maui bound this morning, after being home (and enjoying home) for about 2 weeks. It is a long, long day of travel, beginning with our first flight at 6am. We stayed overnight at the airport Clarion (and had a fantastic meal at the Mexican restaurant on the property!) so we could avoid any Uber/Lyft issues at 4am when we’d have to leave from our house. We probably could have just parked at the airport, even if we didn’t get into the long-term lot, but this way we didn’t have to worry about any of that – nor about how much snow we would find on the car when we returned!
So, off we fly to Chicago, where we had a long layover and our last paper United club tickets had expired 2 days previous. We were hoping the club attendant would take pity on us. NOT. So, we landed at Chili’s for an exorbitantly expensive breakfast (and no Chilis rewards – which was a bummer) as we whiled away the 3 hour layover until our flight to Honolulu. Our original itinerary had us going direct to Maui, but United changes all the flights and evidently eliminated the daily Chicago-Maui flight (it only goes on Saturday now, which had we known….). So, we have another layover before we get to our final destination. Yuck.
Boarding time finally arrived, and we hustled on the plane to get our cool seats – the only 2’s in a cabin full of 3-4-3 configuration. We are right at the end of the first economy cabin, which will probably mean we’ll be served last, but at least we don’t have to deal with anyone else in our row. We make friends with the funny/adorable flight attendant as she is trying to educate a group of military kids (Marine youth group? With drill instructor chaperones?) that they can’t just sit anywhere they would like. It is quite the CF, but she handles it beautifully and we keep joking with her to make her laugh, so in the end she calls us her therapists which continues for the entire flight.
Although long, it’s not too terribly bad a flight. The movies are sub-optimum though – I end up watching Crazy Rich Asians and Christopher Robbin, and that’s about it. Ed doesn’t even remember what he watched. Very disappointing for United. Also disappointing is that they are the only airline that doesn’t have complimentary food on a 9 1/2 hour flight! We had brought snacks – apples and peanut butter, pomegranates – and had eaten breakfast, but you still get nibbly after so many hours. When the food cart came by, we asked for a cheeseburger (the only interesting option) but of course, being the last ones in that cabin, they thought they were out. In the end, they found us a burger, and as a bonus, somehow we didn’t get charged for it. So that worked out, even if the wine was only chardonnay and was not to my liking (because I hate chardonnay – but what to do?).
We finally made it to Honolulu, actually a bit early, and got to take our obligatory Diamond Head/Waikiki pix from the window.
Then it was the 20 minute hike over to the inter-island terminal – which was actually an excellent way to stretch our legs and get exercise after sitting for so long. The bonus here is that we had access to the Priority lounge right outside our gate – so we made full use of that – with snacks and beer and wine (GOOD wine), until it was time for the last leg of our journey to Maui.
After an easy 30 minute flight, we finally landed in Maui 17 hours after we began our journey. Geez – that’s so much longer than even flying to Europe! But, we are here, it is beautifully warm and breezy, we get our car, make our first run to Foodland for supplies and manage to find our little Ohana cottage that will be our home for the next 2 weeks. The cottage is totally private, with a lovely little garden patio area we will definitely live in/on. Beautiful plants, a fountain and mood lighting make the trek worth every minute….and we’ve only been here for a couple of hours!
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