Bad news is it was a nightmare trip. We arrived in LA fine and had a long layover there which was a bit boring for the kids, but I'm a people watcher so it was fine with me. I texted a friend on the off chance he'd like to meet my family, but I guess schedules didn't permit that. The layover was 3 hours and we grabbed some fast food and then sat and waited near our gate. I kept an eye on the monitor to make sure everything was on schedule and all was well until near boarding time. I noticed a change from destination to San Francisco to Orlando which was delayed. I wasn't concerned because we still had time, but the next flight out was to Washington DC and I am actually hoping I have a better chance at catching our President spending spring break in his birth state rather than DC. So I sent the kidbits to check the flight and they came back to say all was still well. I watched and the time was getting closer to boarding and still no info on the SF flight. I sent them again to look if the gate had changed. It had. So we hauled ourselves down 5 gates and prayed that it would be on time because our layover there was under an hour. We boarded and the pilot took us to one end of the runway only to announce that the wind direction had changed so we had to go to the OTHER end of the runway. We'd been taxiing around for around forty minutes and I was realizing that this was going to be close. I had asked the guy at the gate at LAX if he could tell me the gate I'd arrive at and the one we'd depart from and they were next to each other. BUT since we'd been delayed our arrival gate changed and we had to book it to make it to the flight departing to Oahu and we barely made it. My concerns were on how lucky WE were to make the change and was our luggage just as lucky...
The flight out of SF to Hawaii was nice, actually. I made a friend who liked to visit and liked to talk about the philosophies of faith and America. Her opinions were very in line with my own and believe it or not I didn't mention that I was a democrat, but that I AM LDS. We watched a movie with Will Smith called 7 pounds which made me cry like a girl, but I knew it was going to. I highly recommend it.
The night before we left we'd watched Braveheart. My oldest daughter is as filled with pride as I am at our very VERY close ancestry of the Scottish clan Lamont (my paternal grandmother was a Lamont born in PA but her father, my great grandfather, actually came from Scotland.)We have a tartan skirt and scarf in the Lamont plaid and keep up with the happenings of our current chief. We'd LOVE to visit Scotland someday and walk upon the land where the Campbell clan nearly annihilated the Lamont clan, men, women, and children under the white flag of surrender. They were punished for their crimes later, but so much was lost out of greed and not standing as a proud country to fight together instead of a divisive war and hopeless battle. I know this all sounds unrelated, but I had joked last night that we should NOT use Campbell's soup. So we hear the announcement from our pilot that all is well and we are taking off. He introduced himself as Captain Campbell.. The foreboding grew.
As it should have because they only got two of our three checked bags....
Okay I'm awake again and it's almost 6 a.m. here but I've been awake since 4. Still no word on our missing bag. I am calmer today too.
When we went to file a report at the missing baggage counter, they were waiting for us. They discovered our bag and was sending it on a flight that would be arriving at 7:30 p.m. It was 3 p.m. when we arrived and they told us we needed to be BACK to the airport between 7:30 and 9 p.m. They would give us a $100 travel voucher but they don't deliver to the North shore because it's too remote... IT'S A FREAKING ISLAND!!!!!!!!!! NOTHING IS REMOTE! We made our way to the car rental place and I started calling United to try to get it straightened out. They were saying they would bring it by noon the next day, but couldn't guarantee a time. We have things scheduled and paid for this day so that just isn't going to work so I told them to cash in the voucher we won't ever be using since we won't be flying United again and put our luggage on a cab and send it to our Hotel. The guy said, "I'll see what I can do." But I said "No, just do it. Make it happen. This has happened to us before with United and they tend to leave us high and dry." I had to step away because by then I was yelling. He said he'd call back, but never did. It was raining when we got to our hotel after stopping at a fruit stand for the best pineapple in the world. We were drenched and tired and no way going back to Honolulu. My husband and youngest grabbed some necessities a store in the Hotel. Name of the store?? Lamonts. Yeah Lamonts saved the day for now.
It's a new day and I'm calm. We may have to reschedule a few things to the other side of the island. It's rainy here this morning and I'm thinking whale watching will be out. There are high surf warnings. But it's beautiful, it smells like the pineapple we bought and my coconut lime lotion. The sun is rising, the ocean is beautiful and my luggage is in Honolulu. I was polite when they said it would get here shortly after 8 am. It's heaven here. Also we bought our fruit from a very kind old woman who made us sad. The economy hits everyone and I'm not certain they could afford to be hit. We'll go back to her and help her as long as we are here.
Aloha everyone. I'll keep in touch since my internal clock is working against me.
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