Hawaii Day 07

The first thing I did upon waking up was call Expedia. Our flight home is a totally sucky one, with one stop on another island first, and then going from that island to Chicago, IL. Then from Chicago we return to Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, United changed the last leg of the trip and we now have a 4 hour layover in Chicago, which is totally craptacular. This was due to “air traffic” or something. I called up Expedia and the lady called United for me. I got some BS about how United might possibly add an extra flight tomorrow at an earlier time, but obviously this did not happen.

Anyway, we toured the hotel area one last time after packing and took some pictures. I got a funny video of Bunky trying to get into the hammock, and we found a fallen white flower to stick in her hair for photos (she was against actively plucking flowers from the plants). It was kinda sad saying goodbye to Maui, but I was ready to get back to Pittsburgh and see the cats again. We stopped at a Quiznos and Jamba Juice (first time there) for lunch and I gorged myself so that I wouldn’t have to buy food on the plane again.

We got to the airport in plenty of time and with a full tank of gas. Still, Hertz charged us about $30 in random fees. There were island concession fees, and various return fees. I think this is a load of crap, considering all Hertz did was look at the odometer and fuel dial, and then print out a receipt. I figure this is probably par for the course with car rental companies, though. Anyway, the airport at Maui is rather small, and it seems like it has no A/C. When we finally got on the plane, it was mostly filled, but we still had to stop at Oahu before we could go to Chicago.

After we stopped in Oahu, it was obvious everyone was hoping the next flight would be mostly empty so we could all spread out into the empty rows. There were four people in our five seat row, and the rows ahead of and behind us were empty. Unfortunately, both ended up being filled. There was one very greedy guy who tried to take the entire row behind us, but when the family showed up to claim their rightful seats, greedy guy had to apologize sheepishly and return to his own seat.

I watched Kung Fu Panda again as well as Made of Honor. Both were entertaining, although all the screens had a line/flicker in the middle which was distracting. There were no TV shows aired this flight. The flight back was particularly painful, and by the end my butt was sore from sitting in the crappy economy seats. Unfortunately we then had to hurry up and wait for about 3-4 hours in Chicago before our next flight. Bunky fell into a deep sleep at our gate, and I grinded in Etrian Oddessey, so it wasn’t too bad of a layover. The final leg of the trip went smoothly, and we collected our luggage quickly and drove home.

Everything was very clean when we got home, as Bunky’s aunt had spruced up a little and left two huge vases of flowers for us. The cats were happy to see us of course. It was good to be back, but we were both extremely tired and jet-lagged. Thank goodness it was only Sunday afternoon and we still had all of Labor Day to recover!

Related posts:

1. Hawaii Day 01
2. Surprisingly Efficient
3. All packed up