Day #16 - United failed to re-UNITE us :(

Well, there wasn't supposed to be a day 16 to this vacation. But there is. Sigh...
Maybe I will even take a picture to prove it. And it will be of the El Rancho Best Western here in...San Francisco. Not a planned stop on our Hawaiian vacation for sure. At least not overnight.

Well, we knew we might be in trouble from the beginning. Our flight was due to depart Maui at 2:24 p.m. and by 2 p.m. they had not even started boarding the plane. Because it was still being cleaned. So they seated folks from front to back based on the rows that had been cleaned. Ummm - we were in row 40 and 41. Not good. So needless to say, the flight did not take off on time. Then more time passed as we were informed when they were doing their safety check it showed a malfunction in the fuel pump so they had to check it out. So there we sat at the gate... for about an hour and a half... which coincidentally enough was the amount of time between our flights between San Francisco and Dulles. No problem though right? They always pad the flight time...

Next chapter of the story...we find out about a half hour before we were to land that they had put all planes in a holding pattern due to heavy traffic. Ummm - so our new arrival time at 10 p.m. (which would have given us a 40 minute window to catch the next flight which was only 1 gate away) dissolved before our eyes. We landed at pulled up to the gate at 10:30 and by the time we got off we saw our plane had not taken off yet but the door was closed and they would not let anyone on. It turned there were MANY who missed their connecting flights. So it is now 2 hours later and after many lines at United customer service, the hotel shuttle and the Best Western reception area we are now in our rooms preparing for about 4 hours of sleep before we try this again. Kudos to Craig who being the savvy traveler he is, negotiated his way around and at least we got hotel vouchers and meal vouchers for the morning. And thank goodness for the few snacks we carried - we have not had a meal in over 12 hours. Sleep or food? Hard decision. And no Marriott. But we are grateful and all had good attitudes.

So our flight leaves at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and we get into Dulles at 4:00 p.m. - basically we lose a day somewhere. But it is better than spending the night on the floor of the airport.

So, that's the story. Good night! Oh - we just heard that we are next to railroad tracks and a train sped by. Why does this feel like an "I Love Lucy" episode all of a sudden??????