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Published: October 11th 2014
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Well, we're on our way to Maui. I left home with my mum and dad (Anne and Tony Charles-Roberts), along with my brothers family (Andrew, Jeremy, and Lori Charles-Roberts) in my girlfriend Rachel's minivan yesterday. We stayed overnight in a sketchy looking but ok and reasonably comfortable Days Inn in Bellingham. We all had dinner in Red Robin and crashed out early to be ready for an early flight. Today (Friday October 10th) is when things when a little sideways. My parents are flying on an afternoon flight, which ended up leaving early, so they're on their way and staying overnight at an airport hotel in Honolulu. The other four of us, on the other hand, were meant to fly to Seatac, then connect to a flight to Honolulu. When we got to Bellingham airport at 7 this morning, it was foggy, so we wondered what we were up against. Apparently we weren't just paranoid, as the first flight ended up being an hour late waiting for the fog to clear. In the meantime, we were concerned that we only had 40 minutes to make the connection in Seattle as it was, and were worried about missing the connection. The woman at the gate desk offered to change us to an afternoon flight to reduce stress, but assured us that we had a decent chance of still making the connection. We (I) decided to go for it. That was a fateful decision, in hindsight. Although in all fairness, the Alaska staff at the gate might have seen that we in fact had little to no chance to make the connection. Anyway, off we went on the short half hour flight to Seattle. As soon as we landed, I checked my Alaska Air app to find that the Honolulu flight had already left, a minute early just to piss us off (I'm not that egotistical, but it felt personal, lol). We headed to the customer service desk to ask about a change of flight. I was apprehensive as I approached the desk, as there was only one person working, who looked frazzled already (wait till she gets a load of me, lol). She tells me that our options are 1) fly to honolulu Saturday evening, getting us in Maui Sunday morning (two days late on our vacation, I don't think so), or 2) take a bus back to Bellingham at our expense and take the flight our parents are on at 440 (they apparently don't offer any compensation for weather delays, and she had a real attitude at this point). I obviously didn't like either option, and got pretty mad at this point. I pointed out that the staff in Bellingham shouldn't have put us on the flight to Seatac if we didn't have any chance to make the connection, and we were going to end up going back to Bellingham anyway (in all fairness and in hindsight, we were offered that option, and gung ho James decided "ah nah let's go for it". On the other hand, if I'd known how small our chances of making it were, I wouldn't have made that decision). After I insisted and insisted and wanted them to sort it out, she miraculously found us four seats on a flight at 730pm the same day to Honolulu. I was satisfied with this result, even if it meant waiting around in Seattle for like seven and a half hours. I sat at a seat in the food court working on changing all of the bookings for like two hours while Andrew, Lori, and Jeremy got pizza and looked tired and somewhat fed up. I managed to change the connecting flight to Maui to Saturday morning at 615am (yes, wow, crap, oh well). I also, miracle of miracles (an overstatement to be sure, but I'm tired and it felt miraculous), Priceline refunded the value of the two rooms we had booked in Maui for Friday night. I should stop by the Maui Beach Hotel to thank Irene who apparently ok'd this, and I recommend you fellow travellers stay there and say hi. I booked a couple of reasonably priced (for Waikiki) rooms a block away from Waikiki Beach for Friday night, even though we'd only be there from after a 1045 landing until leaving for a 615 a.m. flight. To get to the hotel from Honolulu airport, a cab would cost $29 each way and a shuttle would be $15 each times four one way. I decided to book a rental car for $24 (www.discounthawaiicarrental.com, check it out). I know it sounds crazy to book a car for 6 hours when it'll be parked at the hotel for 95% of that time, but it's still cheaper than the shuttle or a cab, so I did it anyway.
Once I finally made all of the changes to our trip, we decided to take the link light rail train into Seattle to kill some of the long layover ahead of us. After a half hour train journey staring bleary eyed out the window at the passing neighbourhoods of Seattle and a long walk past Safeco Field and the Seahawks stadium (can't remember the name), we ended up in a somewhat overpriced hotel restaurant called Jimmy's on fifth. It was ok, and we mainly liked the fact that it featured "seats" and "beer". Also, it had a view across the street at the Mariners ballpark Safeco, which we peared in the window at, which I thought was cool (Jeremy seemed unimpressed, but he's not much of a sports fan, much like both of his parents). We headed back on the train after mostly staring tiredly at the plates and beer and out the window.
I now sit at the gate in Seatac, having been up since 4am this morning. It is now 630 p.m. as I type this, and the flight apparently boards in about twenty minutes (at this point I'll believe it when I see it. Anyway, all cynicism aside, in a few hours we'll be in Hawaii, I'm still excited about that, and it'll be an awesome trip. All blog posts after this will be picture filled with descriptions of adventures (unintended to rub it in, but to describe the best parents of Oahu and Maui, tell friends and family what we we're up to, and give me a chance to work on my blogging skills. I can't wait to walk Waikiki Beach tonight late, tired but thrilled, blessed, relieved, and at peace. Be well.
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