ALOOOOOHAAAA

The time in Maui was great but felt WAY TOO SHORT!  I caught a connecting flight from Portland so I was on the same flight as Mom, Dad, and Cindy which was convenient and better than flying alone.  We arrived on Sunday, got the rental car and headed to the condo in Kihei.  Mom, Cindy and I ran across the street to see the “beach” which was, indeed, a beach but full of seaweed.  We got our feet sandy and wet at least.  Then we headed out to the grocery store to stock the fridge for meals.  I got to cook most of the time I was there which I enjoyed.

We did some shopping in Wailea so I could pick up a Tiffany charm for my collection but I ended up buying two since there is a limited edition one they only have in the Hawaii stores.  I couldn’t resist!  We spent some time on the beach there where the water was nicer.  We seemed to keep pretty busy most of the time.  I did get some reading and I managed to get some color.  We drove around the “up country” Kula area and visited the Surfing Goat Dairy for a tour, tasting, and lunch.  We visited Alii Kula Lavender farm  although the drizzle and cool didn’t have us too motivated to wander the fields.  We tried to hit up Tedeschi Vineyards in Ulupalakua, but it was labory day and they happened to be closed.  I found their pineapple wine at the local ABC Store later so I got to try it anyway.  It wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting.  I rather liked it honestly.

We did the road to Hana later in the week and were daring *gasp* and went the whole way round Haleakala.  The south side of the crater was really unlike anything I’ve ever seen in Hawaii.  The contrast was stunning.

My trip home was unfortunately far more eventful than I would have preferred.  I left on Saturday late morning intending to get back to Seattle Saturday evening so I could have Sunday to unpack, do laundry and get settled before starting back to work.  My flight out was the same as coming in with a connecting flight in Portland.  Everything was fine getting on my flight from Maui to Portland, but about 2.5 hours (about half way) in to the flight they turned the plane around.  They said there was a fuel warning light on and FAA regulations say they have to do an emergency landing because they were over the ocean. They were heading back to Honolulu, the nearest airport.  They were confident the issue was not actually a problem, but the rules are the rules.  We landed in Honolulu around the time we should have been landing in Portland.  With time changes and such this meant there would be no way for me to make my connecting Portland to Seattle flight, I was booked on the last one of the evening to begin with.  The flight was grounded for about an hour and a half and then it took off again.  While we were grounded I talked to a service agent about switching to a non-stop from Honolulu to Seattle so I could still get home.  The flights were quite full but they got me on one that was to leave at 9:30pm (it was around 4pm at the time).  I would get in to Seattle at 6:30am.  I killed 5 hours in the Honolulu airport and got ready to board the new flight, but when I went to board the agent pointed out that my ticket was for Sunday, not Saturday.  She sent me back to the counter to sort it out.  This is where things get really messy.  Neither she nor the other agent knew how to rebook my ticket once they had determined there were still seats on the flight.  They started to get frazzled because they didn’t want to hold up the flight so they went ahead and sent it off with out me because they couldn’t figure out how to do the paperwork.  I was quite upset at this point (and getting tired).  After the flight was off they called over a senior agent to assist me and he was disappointed that they hadn’t put me on the flight.  He found me a first class seat on a flight to Bellingham with a connection to Seattle.  It left in another hour and would have me in to Seattle at 11am.  I really had no more options so I boarded a flight around 10:30pm for Bellingham.  I got a few hours of restless sleep on the plane, caught the connecting flight and got in to Seattle as expected.  At this point I’ve been mostly awake for 24 hours.  I was tired, cranky, stiff and just wanted desperately to be home.  I was very thankful that my bag made it through to Seattle ahead of me so I was able to collect it at the airport before heading to pick up Jupiter and then home.