Saturday, January 30 Leaving Hawaii

Mona & John lovingly gave me their bedroom to get a good night's sleep, which I did.  I woke up early and showered and repacked. 

When Mona got up, she made me coffee and then John joined us and shared the pie I had bought him for his birthday from Ted's Bakery.  I always say that I don't like coconut, but this haupia (creamy coconut pudding) layer of the chocolate/haupia cream pie was like heaven.  What a great breakfast! 

John hadn't gone to dinner with us the evening before so it was wonderful to visit with him also.  It's like being with people you've never been away from for a second even though you haven't been there for 9 years! They are so faithful to run their household fellowship and take care of God's people as well as their family.  John turned 75 on the 31st and still works full time; Mona works too cleaning houses on the island. They just give and give and give.  And Mona and I have such history and such love for each other, it's a BIG blessing to be with her.

After our pie, they came with me to the airport (John followed) to make sure I got the rental car back to the right place and then they dropped me off at the Delta terminal. So sad... At the airport, you have to run your baggage through a USDA inspection station before checking it in with Delta.

I passed.  No apples this time! (See London blog.)

The security line was long, but got through in plenty of time to buy some souvenirs at the nice shops near my gate.  The plane loaded on time and I sat next to a woman who was traveling with her family of 15 or so who had celebrated her sister's 40th wedding anniversary.  Turns out they had been at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Thursday also and had been at the Tonga show where Karl performed.  That was pretty funny!  I watched a couple of movies, but no sleep cometh.

My flight left at noon Hawaii time and arrived in LAX at 7:30 p.m. PST. So that was a 5-1/2 hour flight.  Los Angeles was kind of an interesting airport.  It has several terminals (kind of like Atlanta). But there is no train connecting them so you walk.  I didn't really mind since I'd been sitting for so long, but it did make me think about older folks or people with disabilities.  I guess you just flag down one of those people driving an electric cart.  My flight to Atlanta wasn't leaving until 10:40 p.m., so I found a United Club again to use up my second pass.  It was OK, but the hummus looked like it had been sitting out all day.  It wasn't all that inviting. But I was able to charge my phone and sit in a quiet place for a while.  The flight to Atlanta was a 737-800 two rows of 3 seats on either side of the aisle.  It was packed. I'd call it a cattle car.  I was having a little restless leg syndrome by the time I got off that flight at 5:30 a.m. EST.

I had recently gotten a Delta Gold credit card and with my info pack I had read that you could get a  Delta Sky Club pass for $29.  Since I was going to be in the airport until 9 a.m., I decided to try it.  I had read on Yelp that the club in Terminal F was really nice, and that was where I had landed, so I went there.  Oh, they weren't kidding.  It was beautiful.  And they had shower rooms, big beautiful clean shower rooms, with an attendant who gave you soap and body wash and toothpaste and toothbrush and a hair dryer and towels.  Ahhh!  So I took a lovely shower and felt 1000% better.  Then I went out to their lounge and had Starbucks coffee and fresh fruit and oatmeal and they had more.  I could have had a bloody Mary cuz they had a bar too, but since I needed to hit the ground running in Dayton, I just had coffee and water.  When I got to my terminal (B) for my flight, I used the Sky Club there also for a bit.  Turns out you can use their pass at any terminal in the airport unlike United who only gives you one terminal per pass. I'm liking Delta a lot.  Actually their customer service was very good.

The flight to Dayton was hardly full which felt so luxurious.  I dozed a bit, the first I had really slept the whole flight. And then I was at Dayton; my luggage arrived on time; the Westwind Valet guy was already at the airport for another call when I stepped outside. There was no snow on the ground. I had a lovely drive home and after a short nap, went to the Sunday Teaching Service and was back in the groove.

Friday, January 29, Last Trip to North Shore and Over to Auntie Mona's

On Friday morning, I got up and packed my bags.  Karl, Ramona, and I decided to take one more trip to the North Shore and see some surf action since the surf warning had been downgraded to an advisory.  We went to Banzai Beach and watched some of the Volcom Pipe Pro.See this link.

After enjoying that for an hour or so, we went down to Leonard's Bakery, a famous bakery on the North Shore, and had breakfast.

We then went back to the house and I bid farewell to Nani Kai Hale, our beautiful beach house.

I drove south and west over to Mona and John Lovstedt's house to catch up on 9 years worth of visiting.  Mona told me that I was going with her and the women in her family (daughters', granddaughers, etc. to get manicures and pedicures and then out to dinner where her oldest grandson works).  What a family adventure.

I

Thursday January 28th visiting with Auntie Mona and the Polynesian Cultural Center

Mona Lovstedt drove over to the north shore to visit me. She arrived around 8:30 a.m. and we drove up to Haleiwa. We talked and laughed and took photos and eventually went to get shrimp from Giovanni's shrimp truck. We also went to the beach (Ehukai) where the Baywatch movie was filmed. The waves were still very high and the lifeguards were warning folks to come away from the edge of the shoreline. She got me back to our house by 11:30, and by 12:30 Ramona, Karl, Bill, Rose, and I left for the Polynesian Cultural Center. This is a facility that celebrates Polynesian culture specifically focusing on New Zealand, Hawaii, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, and Tahiti.  Our rental house is only about 10 miles away. 

This is a big facility with all kinds of shows and entertaining cultural presentations.  We opted for the Ambassador package for which you get a tour guide and also premiere seating for the luau and the evening show.  Our guide was Eeki, a girl from Samoa. We had about 8 other people in our "family."

After visiting New Zealand and Fiji, and watching a canoe pageant and learning the hula,

we went to Tonga. I had honestly never heard of Tonga, and now I'm in love with it.  In our audience was the first NFLer from Tonga, Vai Sikahema. He was being inducted into the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame.  He is now a sports director for an NBC affiliate in Philadelphia.

During the show, they asked for audience participation, and Karl got invited up.  Each participant was supposed to play the drums and repeat the same chants as the guy on stage. Karl was hilarious! One of the other guys that went up was a young man from Japan who was visiting with his parents. We had noticed them earlier because they had a private ambassador tour guide who was translating everything for them. He was pretty funny too. But a cool thing is that there were a ton of Japanese students there that day, so they were going crazy fo "Tokyo."  The emcee called them Tokyo, Texas, and Michigan.

Later in the day we were taking a canoe ride and a canoe packed wit Japanese students trod by and started chanting "Michigan! Michigan!"  And Karl stood up and acknowledged them in Japanese and they went crazy.

The employees are mainly students at BYU Hawaii, which is right down the street. The LDS church operates the PCC.  It was a delightful day.  At 5 pm we went to a luau filled with awesome Hawaiian food and a show.  They had audience participation there too and one of the guys , De Angelo Williams, in for the Pro Bowl go up to hula.

We later went to an evening theatrical presentation which was awesome.  We were tired but it was well worth our money and time.  It was so wholesome and tender. The students were so willing to share their lives. Their cultures are very friendly and warm and family oriented.

I got my 10000 steps in!  We went home and all slept well.

Wenesday,January 27, 2016 Mona and Me

Ramona and I made plans to go somewhere together today while Karl took his parents somewhere. Mona and I wanted our day to be a beach day, so she suggested that we go back to Turtle Bay. They have a beautiful beach and we could rent beach chairs and buy food and maybe even go on a Segway tour we heard about. So we dressed in our suits and got out the door about 10:30 a.m. When we got to Turtle Bay, we saw there were policeman at the entrance and lots of no parking signs on the road. Ramona had heard from a couple they met when traveling that they had had their reservations at Turtle Bay cancelled because of some big event. So Ramona Googled it and found out that the Pro Bowl guests were staying there. Ramona called TurtleBay to see if there was any chance we could still get in today and found out that the beach and the Segway Tours and everything were not available for the next 4 or 5 days.

We drove up to Sharks Cove where there were some food trucks we found the other day and we had lunch and looked at the big waves and tried to figure out where to go. In the end, we ended up at Kahana Bay, a beautiful beach very secluded and quiet. We actually saw two wedding couples come and have their wedding pictures taken there.

After being there for a couple of hours, we got  back in the car and drove to a beach very close to where we're staying.  From there we could see some huge waves breaking and after Googling that found out that they were at Laie Point.

We drove there and saw probably the most beautiful site since we've been here.  It was mesmerizing to watch these huge waves breaking against this rock formation.

We once again traveled north to Sunset Beach and saw the sun setting in the West. Remember I saw the sun rising from where we are staying and by driving only a few miles we are now facing west in to see the sun setting.

We we also made stops at Bonzai Beach

And at Sharks Cove once again where we bought some food from the food trucks and sat until dark watching some more huge waves. This is a big event here to have these waves so huge that the beaches are closed.

Back at the house we all met up and made our plans to go to Polynesian Cultural Center tomorrow. Mona Lovstedt is going to come by in the morning and we will get some to spend some time together.

Tuesday, January 27 Pearl Harbor

For some reason I woke up at 1:30 am. So it was a full day.  I saw the beautiful sunrise from our back porch, deck, lanai, whatever it's called. 

There are these balls hanging in the palm trees in our backyard. We couldn't figure out what they were. So I posted the photo on Facebook and asked my friends. Turns out they are fishermen's buoys, something to do with the nets.

When it got light, I took a walk to the local stores. Our rental house is on the Kamehameha Highway, which is a 2-lane highway up to the North Shore.  That's the highway we drove on Monday.  It's kind of busy , but there's room to walk.

Our carport is pretty small. It's kind of an adventure to back out onto the highway. Mona acts as the lookout for Karl.

We drove back to the southern side of the island for our visit to Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.  It seems they've done some upgrades since I was there last. You can now make reservations for your entry time so it wasn't too crowded. It's a beautiful location to have been visited with such tragedy. The guides do a great job of keeping the mood solemn and respectful.

We then went to get some shave ice 

And were off to Diamond Head.  

Karl and Ramona hiked the trail while Bill, Rose, and I enjoyed the sunshine and waited for them to return.

We were then off to a January shabu shabu restaurant. Mona and Karl had eaten in this style in Japan and wanted to try it in the States.  Shabu shabu is a Japanese dish. It is thinly sliced meat-- pork,beef, or chicken--cooked quickly with vegetables in a boiling sauce, in a pot on your table. You then dip the meat into a sauce and eat it with chopsticks. I just read that on Google. I wasn't quite as clear on it when we were cooking it. I think I thought it was going to be a big pot of soup. They bring you all the meat and vegetables and fish in raw form and then you cook it at your table.

After a leisurely meal, we were off to Leonard's bakery fo malasadas. Like Ramona says YOLO! ( you only live once).

We then drove back to the lovely Nani Kai Hale (beautiful beach house) where I ended the evening in the hot tub.  Day is done.

Monday, January 26, 2016 Circle Tour by Karl

Had a wonderful night's sleep and woke up around 7 am.  Spent some time on the patio listening to the waves and watching the sun come up. Ramona planned our day. We just turned right out of our driveway and drove along the North Shore, visiting several beaches, gift shops, and food trucks.  Several tour groups advertise a circle tour of the island to see all the spots so those called this Karl's circle tour.Today was a no surfing day because the tides were so high and considered dangerous. We saw some very large waves but no surfers. People just park on the side of the road and walk down to the beach to watch the waves. We saw some really fancy cameras being used to take photos of the waves. 

In Hawaii the resorts have to make public access avai wlable to the beaches. Not all the resorts make much parking available. We are about 10 minutes away from Turtle Bay Resort.  On our drive, we pulled in there; they have plenty of parking and a beautiful beach with bay to swim in. We weren't dressed for swimming so we just sat on the beach for a little while. One funny thing at Turtle Bay Resort is that the stop signs were blue.

We stopped at one food truck and had shrimp and later another food truck and had pulled pork. We also stopped at the Polynesian Cultural Center to look at it we plan to go there later in the week for the full tour. While we were there we had some Dole Whip.

I felt like I often feel when I go to a new place. There's so much to see and  so many new concepts to take in that I'm almost overwhelmed. It's very beautiful here. We're on the side of the island that is very much into surfing and it's kind of  "country."  And they like it way. There are signs we've seen that say " Keep the country country, "meaning no more development.

Tomorrow we're off to see Pearl Harbor. And that's all, folks.

January 24, 2016 Sunday. Really traveling to Hawaii

Woke up at 3. I had set three alarms. Showered. Repacked my suitcases. Ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and then drove 2 Westwind valet once again. At the airport there was a longer line at Delta this morning, but God blessed me to get in line with Jeremy once again who remembered me. I had TSA PreCheck once again and arrived at the gate where they were already loading the plane. It was a quick, one hour flight to Atlanta. I then had approximately 3 hours before the flight to Honolulu. I arrived in terminal T, which was where the United club was located. I had received a pass use the United club with a credit card I had gotten, so I took the opportunity to use it. It was very quiet in there, and I use the opportunity to curling iron my hair, have a latte, check the Internet, and relax for about 1 hour.

I was still a little nervous / anxious about actually getting on the plane because of yesterday's experience. I decided to walk to Terminal E where my connection was. There is a train that connects the terminals, but you can also walk. I don't know how far it actually is, but my fitness app started beeping when I had reached 10000 steps by 10 a.m. that was good because I had eating quite a bit in my day of limbo in the hotel.

When I arrived at the gate almost an hour before takeoff they were starting to load the plane. I guess it does take quite a while to load such a big plane. I ended up in the middle section on an aisle. It was a very nice plane. We each had our own entertainment screen with free movies.

Even though you had to pay for meals, the drinks and snacks were free. The crew was very nice and worked their fannies off delivering meals, drinks, water, hot towels, and picking up trash. Most people on the plane were able to sleep, some for the entire 10 hours. But that wasn't me. I watched 3 movies. One was breakfast at Tiffany's, which I guess I have never seen. I paid for Internet so I could work on this blog, but it didn't consistently work.

My sister Teresa had exerted me to stand up sometimes so I did. At approximately 4 p.m. I landed in Honolulu, and picked up my luggage. Bill and Rose had arrived from Phoenix at almost the same time, so John and Mona Lovstedt and Karl were with them and Ramona came to meet me. It was about 80 degrees outside and immediately my anxiety/ nervousness begin to fade away.

I had read on a blog about car rentals in my pre-trip research that Hertz allows a second driver for free if both parties have triple A. So Ramona and I went to the Hertz counter and it was true! The Honolulu Airport is under construction and the parking is a little crazy so all of us went to find our cars and met up at Subway down the street. Then after buying sandwiches at Subway, we bade goodbye for the moment to John and Mona, whose good deeds would take another blog post, with Ramona driving my Nissan Sentra (an upgrade) and Karl driving his minivan rental, we took off on a beautiful drive to our rental house for the week. We arrived about 7 p.m. the house is right on the ocean. The parking is kind of tight, but we'll figure it out. We each have our own bedroom and bathroom. Maybe I'll post some photos later. At about 10 p.m. I went to bed. I think. Time means nothing right now. Before going to bed Ramona excitedly came to get me to tell me to come see the moon shining on the ocean through the palm trees.

Not a bad way to end a day!

January 23, 2016 Scheduled to Fly to Hawaii

So close....
Saturday morning started out great.  The sun was shining, the highway was clear. I got to my favorite park and fly spot, Westwind Limo, easily and then to the airport easily.  I had a bag to check but there was no line. The young man who waited on me was very helpful. His name is Jeremy.  I had TSA precheck so that was a breeze, no taking off shoes or jackets or removing liquids.

They have these nice fountains so you can fill up your water bottles at Dayton.  I took a picture.

Settled in at the gate to start writing the blog when the first announcement came that our plane had been delayed but should be here in time to make all our connections.  A few minutes later came the 2nd announcement that we were cancelled.Delta really went into action then putting extra agents out to help and I was first in line at the gate next to ours. After about 10 minutes I was rebooked for Sunday at 6 am.

They unchecked our bags, I called the limo place to come get me (no charge when your flight is canceled). The  limo driver called his friend at Fairfield Inn who got me a rduced room rate there.  (I was not going back home.) So I drove over there and spent the day in kind of a suspended state of animation  I never really knew what time it was.  I had lunch at O'Charleys, which was right next door. I ate at the bar and had a great margarita, well 2. I took a selfie.

Back at the hotel, I watched Jonas coverage on the Weather Channel.  It reminded me of me of when I went to visit Angie in Atlanta during some hurricsane and we watched Weather Channel all weekend.

I also talked to sister Patty (a rare treat) and to Angie (who gives great travel advice).  Angie and Matthew were being visited by Jonas in person but were taking the snow in stride.

 I was planning to go to fellowship in Hawaii on Sunday but that won't happen now. Oh well.....I'm safe and warm and fed! I went out to Steak and Shake for supper and then to Walmart and got so snacks for the plane.  Delta doesn't give any free meals on any domestic flights.

Didn't really sleep too well but got up at 3 ready to try again!

Nine Years Later We Return January 22, 2016

Tomorrow I depart from Dayton to Atlanta to LAX to Honolulu.  Can't believe it's been 9 years since Ramona and Angie and I made what I called the trip of a lifetime.

Now I'm going back to meet up with Ramona and her husband, Karl, and his parents Bill & Rose Lewis.  I'm almost packed.  I'm a little nervous.  There's a snow storm brewing that could affect a lot of flights, but so far none of the airports I'm traveling through are affected.

Looking forward to seeing John & Mona Lovstedt and other Hawaii believers.