Hawaii 2011

Finally here! Sunrise on 1/17 and view from our balcony.


Driving to Kahana on the west side of the island at sunset.


Flying into Maui - that little winding road down there is the one we'll be on shortly...


Maui at last! We love those white windmills going up the mountain.


Honolulu and Waikiki Beach. Diamondhead is to the right.


Pearl Harbor. The Arizona Memorial is in the center of the picture below the bridge.


An overhead view of Diamondhead.


Flying over the east coast of Oahu. Nothing like seeing land after you have been flying over the ocean for hours!



Craig & I enjoy delivery pizza at our hotel in Phoenix, and unexpected layover!


Flying over Arizona and the Rocky Mountains.

Greetings! For those who follow our travel blog when we do land-based vacations, I hope we can provide you with some enjoyment about our comings and goings over the next two weeks. Mainly, we use this blog as a way to communicate with my 93 year old mom back home, who loves the pictures especially.

To describe the past 48 hours it took to get here to Maui would take a book! When our originating flight in DC was delayed several hours due to mechanical issues (that never leaves one feeling too comfortable) we knew we were in trouble. Like a stack of dominoes toppling over, the delay had ramifications about the rest of our travel that day and the next. The delay arriving in Phoenix on Saturday meant we missed our connection to Honolulu, which means we missed our hotel reservation for that night, which means we missed out inter-island flight to Maui on Sunday morning. While there were also minor financial losses we would have to deal with as well (we assumed), the biggest loss to us was a day delayed getting to where we both so wanted to be.

US Airways, to their credit was very helpful throughout the process and an agent was able to rebook us and keep our first class seats which we had "paid" for with Craig's precious mileage miles. They also put us up for the night in Phoenix at a Courtyard (Marriott - our favorite) and supplied us with some meal vouchers. And, upon arriving in Honolulu, Hawaiian Air even waived the re-ticketing charge when we told then why we had missed our flight with them that morning. So, we literally were in Honolulu for an hour which is amazing when you think we de-planed, retrieved our luggage, commuted over to another terminal, checked in again, went through security and as stand-by status travelers, we actually made it onto the 4:08 pm plane to Maui. I would love to have a video of Craig running like a sprinter through the airport with two duffel bags of luggage. See, I went on ahead of him to negotiate with Hawaiian Air so I missed all the action. We landed in time to go to Costco to load up on provisions for the week and even had a traditional hot dog and soda for dinner.

By the time we got to our unit here at Kahana Beach Resort (which has the best location and view of any place we have ever stayed), we were exhausted. I slept wonderful; Craig was up at 2:45 am (our time) since his internal clock has not yet adjusted. He is connected with work this week so I have time to blog and such. We each have our work "stations" positioned where we have the balcony doors opened to hear the sound of the crashing waves, and where we can watch surfers and whales as we type. Not a bad set up at all.

Enjoy some pictures from our first two days of vacation. Now the real vacation begins!