Arrival and Chickens
The next few entries will be updates from the notes I have from our honeymoon.
Packing takes much longer than I would suspect. I was actually up until 3:00 am rolling and stuffing things into my suitcase and myburningviolin didn't sleep a bit. 5:00 crawled around and anatketani pulled in to ferry us to the airport (thanks again!). We had left ourselves more than an hour since it would be my first time flying since Homeland Security had taken effect.
We are dropped off at the United counter and lug our bags ("Why did we bring both computers?" is only the start of the questions that we will eventually have for ourselves). We go through the mercifully short line, check in get our passes and are told that both our suitcases are overweight and will cost an additional $75 a piece to get on the plan. Um, hell no! We opened our bags there and started transferring things between bags and to a backpack we had packed in a rush. If you ever have to do this, try not to rush, for reasons that will become clear shortly. We'd move some stuff around, then try the scale, the move some more stuff around, not really paying attention to what we were moving.
Finally after we were sure everyone else was pointing and laughing, we hit the 50 pound mark. Immediately after we loaded our bags, we noticed two more groups had to go through the same routine, so I was feeling a bit better.
Then we head on up to the Homeland Security Squeeze. Nowhere is it more obvious that security is pasted on as an afterthought and exercise in emotional pandering than here. Hundreds of people are trying to squeeze through at once, the checking is scattershot at best, and everyone is grumpy. I felt the worst for the people trying to run the checkpoint: Trying to deal with a bunch of stressed out people, who may or may not understand what they have to do, who are having things confiscated and thrown away, who are having to divest themselves of all their keys, their carry on bags, unpack their carry-ons (computers (again, why did I bring both?), video recorders, as well as all liquids, and other things), go through the metal detectors, then try to gather all their stuff up and get the hell out of the way? No fun, their job. And really, they didn't x-ray me, so I could have had anything in my coat or pockets that wasn't metal (wood knife, liquid in plastic bag,rock) on my person.
So myburningviolin and I got up the the checkpoint. Remember when I said "don't rush?" One of the things that we transferred from the checked luggage to the carry-on was Tess' toiletries. All in big bottles, all liquid. That caused some issues, and we lost about half of them. But only half, because everyone was rushing and the line was building up behind us and they needed to get us through.
And then we were on the other side, stamping back into our shoes and reloading the computers. We wandered through the concourse up to our gate. We were looking for some food, but probably because you couldn't bring anything to drink through security, water was insanely expensive, as was the rest of the food. We bought some anyway, starving as we were, and made a note to plan better on the way back. And then we were on the plan. We were sitting by an emergency exit, so was had some blessed extra leg room, though I didn't appreciate it at the time. Tess was almost immediately asleep, and I would have been except I had to lean to the right for the 2 hour journey because the person on the aisle was not really sized correctly for where he was sitting.
Smooth flight and landing at O'Hare, where we stayed for about an hour before our long flight. We grabbed some food to take on the plane because we figured, rightly, that the in-flight food would be pretty expensive. O'Hare is incredibly well organized to my inexperienced eyes. It only shined more after seeing the airports in Maui and Honolulu. We loaded onto the plane, forcing the overstuffed carry-ons into the overhead compartment, and slid into our seats. I was able to get window seat for us, and that made a huge difference, since on the 777, the window aisles only have 2 seats in them. Then, 8 hours in the air. I think that if I had to do this more often, it would have been miserable, but because it was novel, it wasn't as bad. The headphones didn't work, but other than that and the dry dry air I was mostly comfortable. About halfway through the flight I got up to walk around, and then, we landed in Honolulu.
You can immdiately feel that you are not in New England, and it isn't just that it's warmer, since it's not much different than Spring and Summer up here. But their air doesn't have any of the same pollen, and it doesn't feel like the air has been there since the Cretaceous. The trade winds keep the air scoured clean and everything smelled salty. Not like the ocean in here, because there wasn't any of the rotten fish smell.
We took a bus around to the other side of the air port for the final leg in a tiny prop plane, and went through security again where myburningviolin lost more toiletries. I took my first pictures of "R and T in Hawaii" when myburningviolin came out of the restroom, changed into something more appropriate, so I snapped a few pictures of my new bride. Unfortunately, she was standing in front of the TSA station when I did that, so I received a stern talking to from one of the attendants.
Then, on the prop job and away! The Kaua'i airport was small and grassy. We grabbed our rental car, and called the Inn for directions. It was the first time that I felt that I was someplace with a very different culture because I couldn't understand any of the street names. At this point in the trip, all of the names for the towns, streets and everything else sounded exactly alike: long jumbles of 'i's and 'w's. We did make it eventually, but it was made more difficult because there are no streetlights on the island. I would come to really enjoy this because it meant that sunset and starlight wasn't ruined by sodium glare, but I didn't realize that yet.
We finally found the street the inn was on, but missed the turn. We ended up in a driveway, miles away from where we should have been, being tongue-mauled by friendly mastiffs, who really wanted to get in our car. There owner was really really nice, giving us directions back to the Inn and wishing us well. Apparently, he gets a lot of people looking for Marjorie's. As the week went on, we found out that everyone on the island is like this: really relaxed and willing to help. It took a little getting used to.
We met the innkeepers, Michael and Daniella, who are amazing. There was a little, tasty fruit plate awaiting us (if you ever have a chance to have fresh passion fruit, do not pass it up), they told us where all the things that we could borrow were (snorkels, fins, reef shoes, sunscreen and dozens of other things), and we started unpacking. By this time were were starving so we drove to a tiny village called Koloa and ate at a place called Tomkats. The seated was mostly outside, surrounding a little garden filled with feral cats. That was really the only thing to recommend this place. Here we found out something about food on Kaua'i: Fish is almost always good. Everything else is a little dicier since it has to shipped in. I had mahi-mahi and myburningviolin had a burger. Mine was better than average, hers worse. But hey, we were in Hawai'i so we weren't really worried about it. Then back to the Inn, and unconciousness.
Packing takes much longer than I would suspect. I was actually up until 3:00 am rolling and stuffing things into my suitcase and myburningviolin didn't sleep a bit. 5:00 crawled around and anatketani pulled in to ferry us to the airport (thanks again!). We had left ourselves more than an hour since it would be my first time flying since Homeland Security had taken effect.
We are dropped off at the United counter and lug our bags ("Why did we bring both computers?" is only the start of the questions that we will eventually have for ourselves). We go through the mercifully short line, check in get our passes and are told that both our suitcases are overweight and will cost an additional $75 a piece to get on the plan. Um, hell no! We opened our bags there and started transferring things between bags and to a backpack we had packed in a rush. If you ever have to do this, try not to rush, for reasons that will become clear shortly. We'd move some stuff around, then try the scale, the move some more stuff around, not really paying attention to what we were moving.
Finally after we were sure everyone else was pointing and laughing, we hit the 50 pound mark. Immediately after we loaded our bags, we noticed two more groups had to go through the same routine, so I was feeling a bit better.
Then we head on up to the Homeland Security Squeeze. Nowhere is it more obvious that security is pasted on as an afterthought and exercise in emotional pandering than here. Hundreds of people are trying to squeeze through at once, the checking is scattershot at best, and everyone is grumpy. I felt the worst for the people trying to run the checkpoint: Trying to deal with a bunch of stressed out people, who may or may not understand what they have to do, who are having things confiscated and thrown away, who are having to divest themselves of all their keys, their carry on bags, unpack their carry-ons (computers (again, why did I bring both?), video recorders, as well as all liquids, and other things), go through the metal detectors, then try to gather all their stuff up and get the hell out of the way? No fun, their job. And really, they didn't x-ray me, so I could have had anything in my coat or pockets that wasn't metal (wood knife, liquid in plastic bag,rock) on my person.
So myburningviolin and I got up the the checkpoint. Remember when I said "don't rush?" One of the things that we transferred from the checked luggage to the carry-on was Tess' toiletries. All in big bottles, all liquid. That caused some issues, and we lost about half of them. But only half, because everyone was rushing and the line was building up behind us and they needed to get us through.
And then we were on the other side, stamping back into our shoes and reloading the computers. We wandered through the concourse up to our gate. We were looking for some food, but probably because you couldn't bring anything to drink through security, water was insanely expensive, as was the rest of the food. We bought some anyway, starving as we were, and made a note to plan better on the way back. And then we were on the plan. We were sitting by an emergency exit, so was had some blessed extra leg room, though I didn't appreciate it at the time. Tess was almost immediately asleep, and I would have been except I had to lean to the right for the 2 hour journey because the person on the aisle was not really sized correctly for where he was sitting.
Smooth flight and landing at O'Hare, where we stayed for about an hour before our long flight. We grabbed some food to take on the plane because we figured, rightly, that the in-flight food would be pretty expensive. O'Hare is incredibly well organized to my inexperienced eyes. It only shined more after seeing the airports in Maui and Honolulu. We loaded onto the plane, forcing the overstuffed carry-ons into the overhead compartment, and slid into our seats. I was able to get window seat for us, and that made a huge difference, since on the 777, the window aisles only have 2 seats in them. Then, 8 hours in the air. I think that if I had to do this more often, it would have been miserable, but because it was novel, it wasn't as bad. The headphones didn't work, but other than that and the dry dry air I was mostly comfortable. About halfway through the flight I got up to walk around, and then, we landed in Honolulu.
You can immdiately feel that you are not in New England, and it isn't just that it's warmer, since it's not much different than Spring and Summer up here. But their air doesn't have any of the same pollen, and it doesn't feel like the air has been there since the Cretaceous. The trade winds keep the air scoured clean and everything smelled salty. Not like the ocean in here, because there wasn't any of the rotten fish smell.
We took a bus around to the other side of the air port for the final leg in a tiny prop plane, and went through security again where myburningviolin lost more toiletries. I took my first pictures of "R and T in Hawaii" when myburningviolin came out of the restroom, changed into something more appropriate, so I snapped a few pictures of my new bride. Unfortunately, she was standing in front of the TSA station when I did that, so I received a stern talking to from one of the attendants.
Then, on the prop job and away! The Kaua'i airport was small and grassy. We grabbed our rental car, and called the Inn for directions. It was the first time that I felt that I was someplace with a very different culture because I couldn't understand any of the street names. At this point in the trip, all of the names for the towns, streets and everything else sounded exactly alike: long jumbles of 'i's and 'w's. We did make it eventually, but it was made more difficult because there are no streetlights on the island. I would come to really enjoy this because it meant that sunset and starlight wasn't ruined by sodium glare, but I didn't realize that yet.
We finally found the street the inn was on, but missed the turn. We ended up in a driveway, miles away from where we should have been, being tongue-mauled by friendly mastiffs, who really wanted to get in our car. There owner was really really nice, giving us directions back to the Inn and wishing us well. Apparently, he gets a lot of people looking for Marjorie's. As the week went on, we found out that everyone on the island is like this: really relaxed and willing to help. It took a little getting used to.
We met the innkeepers, Michael and Daniella, who are amazing. There was a little, tasty fruit plate awaiting us (if you ever have a chance to have fresh passion fruit, do not pass it up), they told us where all the things that we could borrow were (snorkels, fins, reef shoes, sunscreen and dozens of other things), and we started unpacking. By this time were were starving so we drove to a tiny village called Koloa and ate at a place called Tomkats. The seated was mostly outside, surrounding a little garden filled with feral cats. That was really the only thing to recommend this place. Here we found out something about food on Kaua'i: Fish is almost always good. Everything else is a little dicier since it has to shipped in. I had mahi-mahi and myburningviolin had a burger. Mine was better than average, hers worse. But hey, we were in Hawai'i so we weren't really worried about it. Then back to the Inn, and unconciousness.