Flight Day

Friday, December 11, 7:15 am:

In the future, no matter my flight, I would like to always be at Pearson at 7am - there was NOBODY going through security, it was so fast and easy!

We declared the couple Gala apples and bananas we had in our carry-ons to snack on and were soon to find out that Gala apples are out of season and not allowed to be brought into the US in December.

Bananas are okay though.

We got to go into the special room where they ask to see what item you were declaring and the man told us we had to throw out our apples. Not one for waste, Jeff took a big bite out of his apple while I finished talking to the guard. The guard didn't like that. He told Jeff in a very 'security' type voice that if he wanted to eat the apple he would have to go back into the terminal and come through security when he was ready.

I laughed.

Jeff didn't think it was that funny.

Now we're sitting here at our gate - the only people at our gate - thinking about sleeping, or walking around. Of course, Jeff is planning on investigating the gate around the corner and down the stairs where nobody is right now, and I am expecting to see more of airport security when he starts wandering.

I'm really tired but desperately trying to get through my Christmas knitting, and willing the clock to speed to 9:30. I mean, we're supposed to be there already.

Friday, December 11, 1:30pm:

We are in Newark! Woohoo, so that's one fear down, the plane wasn't cancelled/crashed/etc etc. We were delayed slightly in Toronto due to ground delays in Newark and we took off an hour later than scheduled.

However, we're still on time here in Newark.

This is a pretty cool airport, lots of shops I'd love to check out, but we're just hungry - and paranoid about missing our connection. We've sat ourselves down right beside our gate with a great view of planes landing with the Manhattan skyline in the background.

The first thing we did once we landed was hunted out a bathroom and put on our flip-flops. That was an exciting experience, and made it more real that we were truly going south. I also changed out of my jeans and into my capris instead. And then we hit up Jamba Juice (which I was so excited to see, rising out of the fog of the airport terminal....yaaaay Jamba Juice!).

The flight down wasn't too bad - little 2 row plane, but Jeff and I lucked out with the emergency exit seat (ahhh leg room). Wouldn't it be great if we had the same to Honolulu? Equally, wouldn't it be great if the American news station stopped talking about Tiger Woods?

Friday, December 11, 10:00pm Honolulu Time:

We made it!

I had my doubts at times, like when we were hit with a 250km/h headwind and our 10 hour flight was extended by 2 hours. But it wasn't all bad - we got leg room a second time! We were the first seats in a row behind the mid-cabin washrooms and Jeff and I really enjoyed watching our plane on the flight tracker screen, not to mention there was a movie on that I had been wanting to see for a while.

Jeff kept his face glued to the window for most of the flight, until near the west coast when he got bored and switched seats to play with his camera. Jeff had to laugh when we basically flew over Guelph on our way out! Now we will both watch the big planes fly over at home and think of Hawaii.

They fed us a lot too, although I was thoroughly amused when they offered us an 'Aloha snack' 40 minutes before landing. Now, if you hear 'Aloha snack', what do you think it will be? Some tropical fruit? A pineapple? Macadamia nuts? It was a bag of airplane pretzels. Yup. For real.

All the same, it was neat flying to the islands at night - so much darkness for so long as you cover the ocean, and then suddenly you could see a few lights in the distance. I was hoping that from the air we would be able to see a few of the islands, but really we could only see Oahu. We picked out boats out in the water, guessed where Waikiki was, and got really excited.

When we landed, we were greeted by a local girl who hung live leis around our necks - just like in the movies. They smelled beautiful, but made Jeff sniffle - he said he couldn't smell them and actually thought they were fake until I mentioned the smell. She helped us claim our luggage (which all arrived safe and sound too, thank goodness) and then loaded us into a shuttle to our hotel.

A 20 minute drive later and we pulled into our hotel with an open concept lobby with a giant Christmas tree. It reminds me of Christmas when I lived in California, how warm it is and how strange you feel to be seeing the lights and Santas and trees with shorts on!

Due to the long flight, we missed any chances to meet the team tonight, but will finally get to see everyone tomorrow at the Pasta Dinner.

I'm trying desperately to work on local time since jet lag won't help on Race Day, but my brain is still pretty aware that it is still about 3am back home. Not to mention, Jeff and I have an early day tomorrow to try and fit in all of this island in 2 days as we can!