So as yet another Christmas break winds to a close I decided I would sneak away to Hawaii to relax away the last week of my vacation and because I'm awfully sick of snow by this point!
I arrived at the airport Saturday morning and got off to a rocky start. While I do consider myself respectful of the many races and cultures represented in the United States, I do find it extremely frustrating when the person who is supposed to check your bag doesn't speak enough passable English to be able to help you should a problem occur. And of course for me a problem occured. Apparently because there was an equipment change with the aircraft on the portion of my trip from San Fransisco to Honolulu it made me unable to check in on the computer terminals at the baggage check. I had already checked in online but I needed to check in again to print baggage tags for the flight. I could not get the AirServ employee to understand what my problem was and so after about 10 very irritating minutes I gave up on him and went to the other side of the check in area where there was another bag check.
Fortunately here the AirServ employee spoke English and although my problem just confused her as well, she at least took me over to the First Class desk where actual United Agents were working. For them it was not a problem and my bag was finally checked and I could be on my way!
In the security lines I had to laugh at a woman talking on the phone about how she was waiting in the "longest security line ever", even though the queue was still within the turnstyles and I have traveled before when the security lines extended all the way into the baggage claim.
It was after I got to the gate my luck began to change! Because my mom is a flight attendant, I fly standby and I get whatever the best empty seat available is based on my Mom's seinority. I was lucky enough to get First Class to San Fran which was definitely nice. I was addressed as Mr. Mitchell by the flight attendants, and enjoyed an actual choice for lunch between Ty Chicken Salad and a Turkey Sandwich. Although I asked for the Chicken Salad, of course too many people ordered that and I suppose because I look like someone who wouldn't fall to pieces over not getting a salad, they asked me to take the bullet and have Turkey instead. I gladly obliged.
Fortunately the equipment change in San Francisco was a substitution of a 747 instead of a 767, one of those big planes with the upper deck bubble for Business class! As luck would have it I wound up with a seat in business class for the over the water flight to Honolulu! It was awesome! There were three buttons devoted just to the configuration of the chair, one for the seat back, one for the leg rest, and one for the footrest. This made it possible to manipulate your chair to stretch out enough for you to nearly entirely lay down and was the most comfortable flight I've ever taken. Add to that the fact that the seats had a back massager and a TV screen that folds out of the armrest with 10 channels! They also served Mahi Mahi in some kind of Alfredo like sauce which was amazing! I was in as close to heaven as you can get while flying in an aluminium tube!
Yesterday morning I got up and went to Bellows Marine Air Station which is my favorite beach but is only open to the public on weekends for an awesome day of Boogie Boarding. There was a high surf advisory for all eastern facing shores (of which Bellows is one) so the waves were cookin' and quite thrilling. I also made a pyramid of sand balls to establish my credibility as a beach guru to the amazment of the other tourists at the beach! It was a little weird to go by myself and wish I had someone to share the experience with but it was still fun! Unfortunately the next few days are supposed to be impacted by rare Hawaiian thunderstorms, so I may not get back out to the beach for a little while...
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