Today was rough. I didn't get to sleep last night until 2 a.m. Woke at 4:15 to get ready. Said goodbye to Bella, Finnegan, and Henry and took off with Goa and Shanti to the airport. The place was packed, more so than I've ever seen it. Weekend traffic, I guess. The plane taking us to SFO was reliably rickety, but we got down with no problems.
After finding the correct gate for our next gate, we decided to grab some breakfast. It was 8:15, our flight was leaving at 8:58, so Goa and I figured we had plenty of time. We grabbed standard eggs and hash browns type food while Annie and Shanti went foraging for food they could eat. We only had a few minutes of eating all together when Goa looks at the time and realizes it's 8:45 or so. We start to wrap up. He goes to buy a battery pack and A & S book to the gate while I polish off a last slice of sourdough toast with strawberry jam (oh, so good).
I'm ambling along toward the gate when I see Annie and Shanti frantically gesturing for me to hurry. I run to them to find out that the plane had finished boarding and the doors to the ramp were closed. Shanti calls Goa to tell him to book over to us NOW! since he has all of our tix. We deal with what must be the nicest woman in the flight industry. Not only does she call to the plane to keep them from closing their doors and taxiing, but she trusts that we actually have tickets and lets Annie and I head to the plane while Shanti waits for Goa to arrive.
Embarrassed, we board a large and near-full plane of people glaring at us for holding things up. We all go into tunnel-vision mode, though, and walked to our seats. Which, of course, are at the very back of the plane.
To make matters worse, because they thought we weren't showing up, a flight attendant (I'm so P.C.) began shuffling people around and put two older women in Annie's and my seats. Though we showed the women our tix, they gave us blank stares and proceeded to ignore us, forcing the stewardess (but not that P.C.) to shuffle other people around and find us seats. Goa and Shanti got the seats they were assigned next to a window. Annie and I got stuck in a middle row. I got the middle of the three seats. It was a lovely ride.
It actually wasn't that bad. We arrived here on the big island at roughly noon Hawaiian Standard Time (or whatever it's really called). Baggage claim was positively Darwinian, with people six-deep pushing toward the carousel like teenagers at a 1970s concert with general admission seating. It took awhile but we eventually got our luggage and retreated without any serious damage, then had a smooth trip over to the rental car agency and an easy drive to our beautiful home for a week.
As I mentioned above, the place is great. Beautiful location, a modicum of privacy, and lots of amenities—including resident geckos and psychedelic-looking spiders.
I hope to have pics posted soon.
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