Day 15
The alarm went off in the middle of the night. The sad day of leaving had arrived and we had an early morning flight out of Honolulu. We got up and got dressed, put the last odds and ends in our luggage and did a final check around the room. Then there was no more holding up the inevitable. Our time at Aulani had come to an end and it was time to leave. I am always in a bit of a mood when a holiday comes to an end, but this must have been the hardest out of all the trips we have done. If I had not had something absolutely amazing to look forward to the next day and in the company of people that I care deeply about, this would have been unbearable.
We put the last odds and ends in the car and headed off. Just as we were pulling out of the parking space, there was a rather sickening crunching noise. The car park was not very well lit and at that time of the night, there was no natural light. There was a concrete pillar right next to our parking space and we ended up scraping the passenger side of the car against this. This is why taking out the extra insurance turned out to be a real blessing. The rest of the trip to the airport went very smoothly. There was virtually no traffic around that early in the morning and contrary to my worries, we had no trouble finding the car hire depot. We made it in record time. When we arrived, we mentioned about the mishap and were told that we needed to fill out some paperwork. We were directed to a desk and after they checked about 20 times if we were OK, Graham filled out the paperwork. They confirmed that the extra insurance we had paid for had us 100% covered. By the time we filled out the paperwork, the car had already been taken to their workshop. Fortunately the damage looked very superficial and probably just needed some polish to deal with it, we were both pretty sure that the car would be back in circulation before the day was out.
Just as we were finishing up, the shuttle pulled in. This could not have been timed better. The driver helped us to load our luggage and we were on our way. When we got to the airport, we were directed to a long line in front of the terminal. This was the agricultural screening point. Our entire luggage was x-rayed. This took me somewhat by surprise. I absolutely understood that we had to fill out the agricultural declaration on the way in as any pests brought in can be absolutely devastating on an island, but I was surprised that they were worried about what we are taking out. Still, the queue moved quite quickly and when we arrived in the check in hall, there was nobody in front of us. Our luggage and hand luggage was weighed and tagged. I obviously did a great bit of packing. I had put all the heavy stuff like shoes in my hand luggage, as that allowance was pretty generous. When the suitcase was weighed, it was actually slightly under what it could have been. I had planned to carry my winter coat separately, but this was not needed. I put this in my suitcase before I handed it over.
Security was pretty painless and this was the only flight where Graham did not have the TSA pre-check on his boarding pass. So we cleared security together. We were soon in the main terminal building. Everything was still closed. We pushed on. Honolulu is a very strange airport. Between the main terminal and the area where the gates are, you walk over an open bridge that faces the area where the planes are. I was really surprised that this is allowed in such a security conscious country. It is rather lovely though. On the other side of the bridge is a Japanese garden. It was still dark at the time. Graham stayed there and I went into the part of the terminal where the gates are. I spotted a Starbucks, which was already open and looked promising for some breakfast. I also had a look at what shops there were. Most of them were still closed. I spotted a Hawaiian dress I really liked in one of the closed shops. I was hoping that the shop would open before we had to get on the plane so that I could get a proper look at it.
I headed back to where Graham was and I had timed that pretty perfectly. Shortly after I came out, we were treated to a rather nice sunrise. We hang around until the sun was up properly. While we were waiting for this to happen, I had a good look at that piece of art that I had caught my eye earlier on, which was hanging just outside the door to the building that houses the gates. This is showing the shape of the island of Oahu, but made up of smaller pieces of art that were put together as a mosaic. The overall effect was pretty stunning.
Once the sun was up properly, we took some photos of the Japanese garden and then we headed inside in search of some breakfast. We went to Starbucks. Graham found a table and stayed there with our hand luggage while I went inside to get our breakfast. I was not hungry and just had a Chestnut Praline Latte, which was absolutely delicious. This was one of the Christmas coffees and I really wish that we had that in the UK, too. I got an Americano and a cinnamon scone for Graham .
When I had gone inside Starbucks, I could see some movement inside the shop where the dress was and by the time I got back with our breakfast, the shop was open. I figured that the coffee could do with cooling down a little anyway so I headed over there. I had made up my mind that if the dress was up to $100, I would buy it. Well, I was in luck. It was actually only $30. So I got the dress. Now I am eagerly awaiting summer so that I can wear it. I also found a nice big bottle of Plumeria lotion so I got this as well. I was happy.
I went back to Graham and finished my coffee. Once we were both done, we headed towards the gate. It did not take long until they started boarding. One thing that I noticed is that there did not seem the same problem with the hand luggage that there usually is on domestic flights within the USA. I suppose that probably has something to do with the fact that they charge for hand luggage.
The flight was smooth and uneventful. I spent most of it reading. At some stage we started to get a little hungry and bought a sandwich and some Maui Onion Chips. Towards the end of the flight, we were treated to some beautiful views of the Los Angeles Mountains. Even though we seemed to spend a fair while in a holding pattern, we arrived pretty much on time. As we were taxiing to our gate, I had a special treat. After I had seen our cargo plane when we left for Hawaii, I finally got to see our passenger plane at Los Angeles parked at the terminal as we were taxiing in. The fact that this was an Airbus A380 made this even sweeter.
When we got off the plane, we both needed to use the bathroom. With LAX being a major building site at the moment, it was not obvious where the closest bathrooms were to the gate we arrived at so be pushed on to the baggage hall. Obviously the world and its dog at the same idea and the line for the ladies’ bathroom was horrendous. Graham was luckier. We agreed that he would head for the baggage belt and I would check if there was another bathroom further along. In the end I ended up in a different terminal, but when I got back, Graham was still waiting for our luggage. That finally arrived shortly after I got back.
Once we got that, we headed out to the Super Shuttle stop. I had checked out where the closest stop on my little excursion to a different terminal. When we got there, we got checked in. It was then that we found out what had gone wrong when we arrived in Los Angeles on our first part of our
Disneyland trip. The main access road to the airport was closed over night to allow building of a new railway line. This time round it was plain sailing and the shuttle arrived about 15 minutes after we checked in. This time round we made a loop around the airport. There was some teenage beauty pageant at Disneyland and most of the other people on the shuttle were contestants for this and their families.
Despite taking the loop around the airport, it did not take too long until we were on the way. We were treated to a spectacular sunset. Unfortunately I did not have a camera to hand and by the time I had found one, we had turned off the road we had been on and were facing in a different direction. Shortly afterwards, we arrived at our Howard Johnson, which would be our hotel for the rest of the trip. Check in was smooth and we were shown on a map where our room was located. Our room was at the far end of the property by the quiet pool. The resort is relatively compact so it did not take us long to get to our room. We spent a little time relaxing and I got caught up with Facebook and my emails and then we headed out for dinner. We had no clear idea how long it would take us to get there so we allowed ourselves plenty of time.
We had a reservation at Naples at Downtown Disney that evening. We have eaten there on a number of occasions on previous trips and always had nice meals. It also always had the advantage that it was not overly busy. I had made a reservation this time round as I had a birthday gift certificate, which essentially my meal was free, but it came with a requirement that you had to have a reservation. We got to the check in podium around 15 minutes ahead of time and were asked for our mobile phone number. I did not have my mobile phone with me, as I don’t usually use it when I am on holiday. They did not really like this and asked us to take a seat inside and they would get us when they had a table ready for us. So we went inside and sat down on a bench near the inside podium. Our reservation time came and went and half an hour beyond this, we still had not been called. It was a noisy and chaotic in that area and Graham had just about enough. I decided to check how much longer it would be and they told me about another 10 minutes. We decided to wait it out. However, after 10 minutes, we were still no closer to being seated. Graham was done waiting and I went to the podium to cancel our reservation. They then offered us a table outside. Graham had walked away while I was headed to the podium so I went outside to tell him. He was not very happy at that point, but agreed. We went back inside and where shown to our table.
This actually worked out very well. We were right by a patio heater and it was lovely and warm. It was quiet outside and we were watching the world go by. Once we were seated, service was quite quick. Pretty much as soon as we sat down, our server came by with bread and offered us drinks. Graham had an Italian beer and I had an Italian raspberry soda. Once our server brought those out, she took our order. We decided to share Ragù di Salsiccia e Peperoni as an appetizer, which consisted of sausage & red bell pepper ragout, ciabatta bread crostini & Pecorino Romano cheese and was delicious. I was glad that we decided to share though. I then went with the Candele for my main course, which is baked tube pasta, sausage ragù, meatballs, béchamel sauce. I had this before, but they seemed to have changed the recipe for this. However, this was even better than I had remembered. Graham had a pepperoni pizza. Just as we were finishing our meal, the manager came to see us. She apologized for the delay and offered us a complimentary dessert. I would have loved to take her up on the offer, but we were both stuffed so we declined. We paid for our meal and headed out.
There was one last thing I wanted to take care of. I had pre-purchased Photopass+ for this part of the trip as well and I figured that it would make sense to redeem the voucher for this that evening so that I did not have enter the park before meeting with our friends the next morning. This is one of the beauties of having an annual pass. I could do this without losing anything. It turned out to be a good decision as well. I decided to try my luck at California Adventure and when I got to the photo shop, this was completely empty. The total detour to pick up my Photopass+ lanyard was less than 10 minutes. Graham had waited for me and we headed back to the hotel together. Once we got back, we had enough for the day and got ready for bed.
