Friday, Getting There

We were at it again, flying out in the wee hours of night to catch a cruise ship. Headed for Hawaii! This was a little different, because we were flying in the day before the cruise started, in case we had a flight delay. I had booked us into a hotel in the Waikiki section of Honolulu. Their website said they had a shuttle from the airport, a complimentary breakfast and a pool. I should have kept looking.

We went to bed on Thursday, about 6 pm, and on Friday, 4/21, I got up at 1:15 AM to get ready. I woke John at 2:30. Everything was packed and in the car; all we needed to do was eat and take off. Easy Peasy. Except I forgot to water the houseplants and grab my refrigerated medicine, I was so eager to get going. Well, the best laid plans of mice, men and people going on cruises.

We got to the parking lot about 4:15, but there was nobody there to check us in. We waited with 3 other groups of people. Apparently, there was only 1 person working, doing both jobs, the clerical checking in and the shuttle driving.

We finally got to the airport about 4:45, and there were long lines at TSA, despite their signs claiming it would only take 18 minutes to get through them. It took us more than that to get to the first TSA agent, plus another 20 minutes or more to get through the machines. John and I got separated between that first agent and the machines, so I went ahead to the gate to wait for John. Well, I did pause at a little store and picked up a couple pops and candy bars, because who knew if we would be offered anything on the plane?

He got there on time, with his shoes. Things went fairly smoothly, then. We were on Southwest, and they don't have assigned seats, just your assigned boarding group. We were Group 8, the next to the last boarding group, but we managed to find 2 seats together. We discovered our seats wouldn't recline, which made it hard to doze. And there was no wifi on this plane, so there was no entertainment. Shortly after take-off, the crew passed out pretzels and drinks.

After 3 hours, we paused in Austin TX to let off some passengers. John and I changed seats to some that would recline. Then the plane filled up, and we were off to San Diego. The gate we needed in San Diego was pretty close to the gate we came in at. We ate burgers and fries and found some seats to wait in. John noticed our flight was delayed by about half an hour. I called our hotel to let them know we might get in late. They said don't worry about it; the desk was manned until midnight. (!) They also said not to worry about their shuttle from the airport, that a taxi would be cheaper, anyway. Then why advertise that they had a shuttle?

We finally got on the plane for Honolulu in mid-afternoon, and the flight was uneventful. John was antsy, but couldn't sleep. We landed in early evening, got our luggage and found a taxi to the hotel. It was not what I expected. It had a circular drive, but the drive was full of vehicles, and the taxi could barely pull in far enough to unload us. The lobby was hard to find, because of all the little businesses between it and the drive, most of them not open at 6 pm. There was no evening restaurant, just a small cafe that served breakfast and lunch, and it wasn't complimentary. We would have had to walk somewhere to find supper, but we were too tired. We went straight to our room and to bed about 7 pm.

There's a 6 hour difference between Hawaii and Orlando, so we had been up and going pretty much for 24 hours.

Taking Some Time Off

 This past weekend, Hubby and I took some time off.

On Friday, we got up at 3 AM to head for the airport. We parked at our chosen parking lot, caught the shuttle to the airport. We didn't have any bags to check in, and we already had our boarding passes printed out, so we headed straight for the security checkpoint. We were there 2 hours before our plane was scheduled to leave, so we thought we'd have time to catch some food for breakfast, once we were through security.

Unfortunately, the TSA line was full, and people were being sent all the way down the shopping mall branch hallway to line up. My back was aching by the time we reached the end of the line, and they claimed it would only take 1/2 hour to get through the security checkpoint.

Right.

We were careful not to lose any stuff at security, and hurried toward the shuttle to get to our gate. Hubby put his shoes back on while riding the shuttle. When we got to the gate, they were already boarding, so no chance to get any food. Hubby got his belt back on after he got our carry-on luggage in the overhead bins.

Once in the air, they announced they had drinks and snacks for sale, but they would not be serving any complimentary refreshments. Possibly because the flight was less than 3 hours, I don't know; they didn't give a reason.

Things like that don't usually bother me too much, but Hubby gets irritable when he doesn't get any breakfast. So once we landed in KC and our son picked us up, he took us to get some breakfast. We didn't expect him to BUY breakfast for us, but he did. Possibly he remembers how growly Dad gets when he's hungry.

Son had some errands to run, so he dropped us off at his apartment while he did them with his friend from Massachusetts. Did I mention son was getting married this weekend? Massachusetts was going to be his best man.

Anyway, one of son's cats decided Hubby was okay, and chose his lap to sit on a couple of times. Hubby has a long-present allergy to cats, but didn't react as badly as he usually does. Still, he wasn't quite sure what to do with a cat on his lap.

With the errands run, we all got in the car (no, not the cats) and headed for the small town of Carollton MO, which was where the ceremony was going to be. There is a 4-story old mansion in Carollton that is used for weddings, big parties, and other events. The bride and members of her side would spend the night in that old mansion. There was a 3-bedroom house across the street where Son, Massachusetts, Hubby and I would get to sleep. Hubby and I spent an hour or so watching the news in that house across the street while son and Massachusetts helped get things ready at the mansion. They wanted the ceremony outside, but there was some concern it might rain, so back-up plans needed to be made.

We did wander over to socialize after a while, and got introduced to all sorts of parents, step-parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and what-not of the bride. We went outside and watched them discuss the ceremony, what would happen when, and how long it would take. It sounded terribly complicated.

We went back inside and socialized some more, talking mostly to grandpa of the bride. He was a little hard of hearing, but otherwise had his wits about him, and was willing to let everybody else deal with the details of What Needed To Be Done, so it was pleasant to engage with him.

After getting up so early, we retired to the house across the street shortly after the rehearsal dinner, which had been created by the bride's side of the family. I started out by taking a little bit of everything, but as I ran out of room on my plate, I had to limit my selection of salads. The food was all good, but I was favorably impressed by the Buffalo Chicken. I'm not a big fan of chicken, but this was good, nicely spiced so it had some flavor. The dates stuffed with walnuts were also very good.

But as I said, about 8:30, we went across the street and went to bed. It had been a long day.

Saturday morning, we got up and got dressed for the wedding, then sat around waiting for an appropriate time to go over. Son had gotten a text from his Brother that he couldn't come because his fiancée had had foot surgery and couldn't get around very well yet. Good thing Massachusetts was there to be best man. We asked Son if he shouldn't be helping to get things ready, and he said no, Bride was getting photos taken of her in her dress, so he had to stay away.

Eventually, we did go over, and somebody was pinning corsages to the bridal party's lapels, which included Hubby as Father-of-the-Groom. Somebody handed me small bouquet as Mother-of-the-Groom. Son introduced us to his boss, the only person from his job who had been able to make the ceremony. After a short while, people started moving outside to the chairs, since it wasn't raining. I was just stepping outside when I saw my Eldest Son, half-brother to Son. And right behind him... our Younger Son, who had felt so badly about missing his brother's wedding, that he had left his fiancée in her mother's care and driven the 4 hours to be there!

After the ceremony, we went back inside and had pastries and caffeine while more photos were taken. We counted the number of people on the Groom's side and there were 8 of us, counting the groom. Most of us found a table and had a nice conversation. We got along great. Even as shy as I am, I managed to contribute to the conversation. Brunch was served by the caterer, and while it was good, it wasn't as good as the rehearsal dinner. We kept talking until they cleaned our table of its centerpiece, as they had done with all the other tables. We knew they had a deadline for when they had to leave, so we helped carry a few items to the kitchen for them, and then we found the bride and groom and said our good-byes.

Younger Son drove Hubby and me to our motel in KC. It was nice to get that extra 1.5 hrs with him. But we knew he wanted to get home, so we didn't keep him waiting once we got there. We checked in and found our room. Hubby found himself a cup of coffee, and we watched The Bourne Legacy, then went to bed. Who knew having fun conversation could be so tiring?

Sunday. No need to get up early, as long as we got breakfast. They did serve a hot breakfast, but it was sausage, sausage, not-that-done scrambled eggs, pancakes and waffles. I settled for a cold biscuit (No butter or gravy available; I had it with honey), a banana and orange juice. Then I had a packet of instant oatmeal. Not the most inspired motel breakfast I've ever had. We checked out just before 11 AM and sat in the lobby for an hour. I printed out our boarding passes. At about noon, the shuttle took us to the airport. The way KC's security is set up, we were through it, at our gate and settled for a long wait by 1 PM. Our plane was supposed to take off at 6:10 PM.

About 3:15, we went to the only restaurant we could get to and had a sandwich and drink each. Came to almost $50 for the 2 of us. Talk about gouging.

Expecting, no refreshments during the ride, I went to the shop and got a bottle of pop, but they didn't have any chips, trail mix, nuts or gum, so I got a roll of live savers. I used the life savers during the flight to try to help my ears pop, but I never touched my bottle of pop. I fell asleep.

The shuttle to the parking lot would only pick us up in one particular spot, so we went there, and I spent 15 minutes trying to call them to let them know we were ready to be picked up. When they got there, they were packed to the gills for the ride back to the parking lot. Getting to the pick-up spot, waiting for them, and then getting to the parking lot took us about an hour.

And then another hour to drive home, so we got home just a few minutes before midnight. Needless to say, we went to bed. And then we found ourselves 'recuperating' on Monday.

Now to get back to work.