Leaving Hawaii

The wild chickens woke me up at 5AM so I surfed on the Internet for 3 hours until it was time for breakfast. We ate breakfast/brunch and finished cleaning and packing to go home. We went in two groups, my brother and mom was dropped off first at the airport with most of the bags. We had to fill up our gas tank since I did not pay for their convenience of $3.72 times 20 gallons regardless of how much fuel would be left. I ended up paying $50 to fill 13 gallons and saved about $25 by not going with the Hertz offer. Then I went back to grab my brother-in-law and sister for their journey to the airport. After dropping them off, I headed back to Hertz to drop off the rental. It was quick and painless since the gas tank was full and they did a quick once over around the exterior. I hopped on the shuttle to the airport.

We checked in at Hawaiian Airlines and had to pay $30 for 3 checked bags. My sister and her husband checked in at American for their flight. We waited around at the gate until it was time to leave for Honolulu for our flight to the mainland. We did grab a quick bite at the nasty airport restaurant with rude service. They have a monopoly at the small airport so there was no alternative for those who did not bring food and were sitting in coach.

We left Maui at 4:15PM and arrived at 4:45. My brother and I headed down to the interisland baggage claim to get our three bags. Then we dragged the luggage to the main terminal to check them in at the American Airlines counter. We had to have the luggage screened through USDA scan again even though one was done in Maui. We went through security again and met my mom on the other side with our carry on bags. We had big dinner at sit down cafeteria style restaurant and went through our trip photos while waiting to board the plane. I did manage to get a crew seat in aisle 17 that fully reclines, but I gave it to my mom since she needed the good sleep more than me. The flight was bumpy initially for the first third and I slept for 2 hours after that. We had 1 beverage service after departing and a package of OJ in the morning. They had water and sodas for self service in the galley overnight.

Overall, it was a good trip for spending time with family and doing fun stuff. We went to the beach, surfed, whale watched, sailed on a catamaran, enjoyed a luau, went to the Dole plantation, went on train tour rides, rode a horse, saw the sun rise on a (sleeping) active volcano, Oahu island tour, drove to Hana and back, went 3 islands, went in a submarine, went to the aquarium, went to nature center, visited Iao valley, attempted to ride a moped, went to pearl harbor, went to the outlet mall, got tan, and snorkeled twice. On to the next trip...