when in rome etc. etc...

Monday, 6th June, 2011

Colourful Tweeters

We set the alarm for 6am. We were woken in the middle of the night by a drunken mob under our window. I go to the window and yell at them to go home. They drive away wondering where the booming voice came from.

We shower and dress then finish off our packing, then catch a local bus to the airport which is not very far away. We are travelling Alaska Airlines and will be going to Seattle before catching another plane to Honolulu later in the day. We weigh our duffels and have to redistribute some weight between them. It costs $20 per bag to book in luggage and more if the bags are overweight.

We are starving so pick the best of a limited range of eateries, and have croissants with ham and cheese plus coffee and tea. I buy a Los Angeles newspaper to read on the plane.

Our plane takes off 10 minutes early which is unusual but welcome. Iain has an aisle seat and I have the middle seat next to an older lady who insists on yapping the whole 2.5 hour flight. She is nice enough but I would like to read the paper. She is a Salvation Army officer and tells me all about it. I am happy when the plane starts to descend.

We land in Seattle after 3 hours and settle in for a 4 hour wait for our next flight. There is more choice for food here than in San Diego so we buy our lunch which is unexciting but fills a hole. Iain has Fried Salmon & Chips but I fancied a ‘Strata’ which was a quiche/muffin type of food.

I have a lot of blog to catch up on and Iain helps recount some of the things that have happened over the past few days. The blog is like a voracious time sponge but I know that it will be a great journal of events and diary when we look back many years from now so worth the trouble.

The flight to Honolulu is 6 hours so we decide to buy a couple of sandwiches from Starbucks to take with us. They are around $7 each but we weren’t sure what type of food would be available on the plane so better safe than sorry.

We board on time and once again Alaska Airlines has us in the air 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. We have the middle and aisle seat of row 5. There’s a young guy in the window seat who is engrossed in a book – good!

We treat ourselves to a “Digiviewer” which has games, movies and all the other things you expect to find on these gadgets. We can’t resist watching “High Anxiety” which is an old film featuring Mel Brooks. Still funny even after all these years. We order some wine and nibbles from the hostie. We are surprised that the hosties on this trip are considerably large and have “years of experience”.

Next, we watch “National Lampoon Las Vegas Holiday” which is a corny Chevy Chase movie. Chevy and his family are “evolving” so Sparky and his wife are showing the years. There were a couple of laughs but I wouldn’t recommend rushing out to get the DVD. We follow this with a couple of episodes of the “Big Bang Theory”.

Time for food. There is some hot food available so Iain orders Teriyaki Chicken which he reckons is pretty good. I order a fruit and cheese platter which is OK.

The guy next to me orders some food and he asks if we are holidaying. He is a serious sort of dude – I guess that has something to do with him being in the US Navy working 3 month stints on a submarine as a navigator/observer for the last 10 years. We have a short chat and he tells me he has been to Perth – he loved it and would like to live in Australia. Amazing the people we have met that have told us a similar story.

We land in Honolulu earlier than expected – 8.30pm. There is a 3 hour time difference between Seattle and Hawaii.

When we pick up our bags from the carousel we heard our names called by the shuttle operator. That was easy – straight into the van but we have to wait for a few more people to be located. We are both pretty tired so it is a relief to only have a 20 minute trip to our hotel “Ilima”. The shuttle driver takes us on a short tour around Waikiki, dropping off other passengers on the way. We were last off, even though he had gone past our hotel a couple of times. He had asked everyone if it was there first time to Hawaii. We are used to this question as it is the first question any operator asks you in any Asian country. If you say “yes” they think that gives them carte blanch to rip you off. In this case though, it was out of a desire to be helpful. Nevertheless we tip him generously when we arrive at our hotel.

We check-in and put our bags away but need to get something to eat for breakfast in the morning…nothing worse than waking up without anything to eat in the fridge. Our room is large and has a balcony which is a bonus. It also has a kitchenette which gives us the option of self catering. We don’t think we will be doing any of that as we have 4 Groupons to use in 2 days, plus this is the relaxation part of the trip so don’t want to worry about provisioning for lunch and tea.

We walk around the corner to find the “Food Pantry” a small supermarket. On the way a girl hands us a flyer to a sports bar. I can’t remember what she said as she handed it to me but we walk a couple of steps and I realise that she has an Australian accent, so we go back and ask her where’s she from? Canberra. She is working in the US as a snowboard instructor but this of course is summer so she is in Honolulu with her American boyfriend who is a top waiter in one of the Iron Chef’s (Morimoto?) restaurants. She tells us he makes around $200 per night in tips. We yack on some more and have a few laughs about what we miss etc – the most sought after being decent bread (which is not sweet!)

We continue on to the Food Pantry and buy some bananas, eggs, muffins and butter. It is a lot more expensive here than US mainland. I suppose they have to ship everything in but that can’t account for a small loaf of bread being $5.85. I opt for the muffins and even they were nearly $4 for 6. We are in Waikiki where everything is tourist price but it is our last leg of the trip so we don’t really care.

Finally we are back at our hotel and ready for bed but Iain is hungry and I’m a bit peckish so we devour the sandwiches we purchased from Starbucks at the Seattle airport.

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Desert Explorers with Joshua Trees behind

Friday, 27th May, 2011

PICTORIAL

When we arrive in San Diego we ask a guy at the information desk if he would mind ringing A1 Car Rentals for us so they can send the shuttle. He kindly obliges and then hands the phone to me. It seems my luck has reverted back to dismal! It is nearly 7pm and the shuttle’s driver knocks off at 7pm. I think this is just a ruse so they don’t have to pick you up. We end up getting a taxi to the salubrious home of A1 Car Rentals. We think the taxi driver is not long for this world. He looks terrible and has a hacking cough plus the console of his car is full of prescription drugs. We give him a tip to help him pay for his medications. continue reading…