Valentines Day - 14th February

We wake up after a huge wind storm. I had been up for hours during the night wondering if our cabin would still be standing.  We awoke and packed as we had a 2pm flight. So we knew it was a 50 minutes drive to the airport so a 9am departure for a 2pm flight we would have heaps of time to spare.  Right?

First stop to our favourite coffee shop. The only coffee shop in the North Shore with real coffee in Haleiwa. The line up is about to the door. We are not used to the weekend rush. We wanted coffee so we decided to line up.

Next stage – getting to the airport. Great we are in traffic. Going very slow. I still have to the drop the camera charger off which is about a 15 minute detour. Finally after going very slow we came to the source of the problem. A four car pile up.  As usual most of the stop and start slow moving traffic was a result of all the rubbernecks stopping on the way past for a gawk!

We drop the camera charger back. We have about an hour and a half. I tell Jas to go to the wrong spot to drop the car rental back. Ok, we are cutting in fine. Shortly after Jas finds the right spot. We get back to the Honolulu airport on the rental car shuttle bus. I can not tell you what a disaster this place is. We check our luggage in with an hour to our flight takes off. Self check in. We find out where we have to go to fly to Maui. We dropped our bags off to a man who was just stacking bags up. “I’ll be surprised if we see them again” I said to Jas. He put Jas’ bag right up the front and left mine there next to him. So then we jump in a line to show a girl our plane ticket to get through to the carry on bag check-in. Well there were people everywhere. Lined up outside the airport door. We jumped in the smallest line. After standing there for 10 minutes a airport employee tells me that we have to move as we are standing in the first class line. “We are going to miss our plane. I am not changing line”. So she comes back and tries to make us move again. The battle of the wills has started (part 1). Well for the people that know me would know that I am always polite but she and several others would have had to physically drag me out of the line. I was making this flight!

So we got through made it to our gate with 15 minutes left. Then our flight was delayed for 30 minutes. I was starving.  We got onto the plane. Only a 40 minute flight right, well 2 hours later we were still in the air. They had made two attempts to land but the weather was so bad they had to abort the landing twice. I thought this is it. I was in brace position due to the turbulence and the fact that I thought I was doomed.  We landed safely. Jas thanked the pilot on the way off the plane.

We collected our bags and got on the shuttle bus to pick up our hire car. So we get to the hire car place and the line is banked up a mile long with about a 40 minute wait.  We finally get our car and off we go to Kaanapali. Except the traffic was banked up again. Plus the guy in front of us was driving with his hand out the window the whole way to Kaanapali (40 minutes). I was experiencing road rage! I wanted Jason to ram his car. Luckily Jas didn’t listen to me.

We arrived at the hotel stressed out. Then the lady behind the counter tells us we can’t receive the AAA discount rate. But I have emailed and asked if NRMA is part of AAA and you guys said yes. The AAA logo is on the back of the NRMA membership card. Battle of the wills started again – Part 2.

Check in – “ yes but reservations are separate to us, we are check in, did reservations physically see the card when you made the booking?”

Me – “No but I have an email trace” How could they physically see it, I live in Australia.

Check in – “but your NRMA card numbers don’t fit into the place I need to put the AAA number in, we can’t do it”

Me – “ I emailed and asked and I was told it was ok”

Check in – “I will have to see my manager…. Ok as a once off we will give you the AAA discount”

Ok, but don’t act like you’re doing me a favour. This day was the worst.

Jason:- Babe I could see you were getting really annoyed with that lady, I’ve never seen you like that before!

On a high note the day got better. We had an amazing dinner, the best so far. I had slow cooked beef with homemade tagitelle, Jas had a steak that was cooked to perfection. Our entrees were calamari with fresh jalapeno and ricotta and corn ravioli in pesto sauce. We got sat at the front of the restaurant as it was Valentines Day. I just have to go back to this restaurant it was called, “Maui Fish and Pasta”.  Better still It’s located in a shopping Mall called the ‘Whalers Village’ about a two minute walk from our Hotel. It was too good.

We walked out of the restaurant and into a jewellery shop and found Jas’ wedding ring, which we both love. The ring itself is made up of titanium, Australian black opal and Hawaiian Hardwood. This ring is meant to represent the Earth and Sea. We are just going to think about it for a couple of days to see if this is the right ring as he is going to be wearing it for a long time!!!!!!!!.  After this we had a short stroll back to our Hotel and hit the fart-sack!  The end of a long day.

Also happy birthday to my favourite teenage nephew Will. Jas and I love you!