Arrival Honolulu

I made it to Hawaii, but still waiting for the rest of the family to arrive.  I woke up in a bleary eyed realization this morning, that based on the reports of the United Air lines flight loads, I’d better get myself to the SFO airport to board a flight.  I had about 30 minutes to plan with the fam, shower, and without shaving was on the 0800 shuttle to the airport, bound for a possible Hawaiian Airlines flight.  It was some tight timing, but as I arrived at the operations podium, I was told that both jumpseats were taken, how would I like a coach seat?  Fine.  It was the Captain’s retirement flight from Hawaiian, so they gave him the honor of a fire truck arch as we taxied out.   I had not given myself ample time to get breakfast, or almost more importantly, coffee.  Luckily, the Hawaiian crew was awesome, and we got a small meal, and plenty of black Kona coffee for the flight, which was nearly 5 hours.

As I arrived in Honolulu, the climate, cloud formations, wind and geography reminded me so much of Panama.  Jed was waiting at the baggage claim curbside, and whisked me off to Nico’s at the harbor area to have a nice lunch of rice, salad, and ahi listening to a Hawaiian band with a hula dancer to round out the island flair.   During my arrival time, I had received the multiple texts from Rebecca, who was still in SFO stating that their flight was to be delayed over 4 hours.  Whoa, a long time in the airport for them, and a late night for me to pick them up.

Jed took me to his lovely “compound” that is a fenced in main house and guest house.  Simply wonderful, tropical, and inviting.  The guest house is a two story, with ample room for two families.  Way more space than we need.

I met all of Jed’s boys again, heard the story of the fire hydrant which flooded Tracy’s work place today, and we headed off the the local surf break, Kiko’s.  Pronounced Kigh-koe. 

We had a little bit of a jump out over the rocks, timing it with the incoming swell, and I managed to get my finger jammed between the board and a rock.  It did a compression thingy, drawing blood, a bruise, but nevertheless excited to be in the beloved, warm, briny Pacific surf.

The tradewinds were kicking up quite a chop, but not so much as to spoil the incoming left over ground swell, and as I got used to the short board Jed gave me, I started scoring some fun little waves.  All the while I was wondering about our egress route over swirling surf pushing us into the rocky bank. My apprehensions were not disappointed on the way out.  A full briefing should’ve probably been given on the way in, though. 

We surfed about 2 hours with some local neighbor dudes, and went back to Jed’s house prepare for a Vietnamese dinner out with his boys, to dine on some Pho!

After dinner, we talked for some time, but Jed and Tracy were dying on the vine, so I told him I could make it to the HNL airport for the 2330 pickup.  I bought some leis for Rachel and Rebecca to welcome them to the island, and appreciate the long day of travel which they endured at the hand of United airlines.  Makes Hawaiian and Southwest look like the customer service stallions of the industry.  Oh yeah, they are!!!!

I got the call at about 11 pm that United Flight 73 had landed. Actually, it was a text from Rebecca.   I met my weary travelers at the Honolulu Airport, with leis for the girls, and we made it back to the house, tucked in and went to sleep.