Sunday June
17, 2007 Day 15: Photos
Homeward
Bound
Today is
our last day in paradise- and I’m ready to go home. Okay- so most of me really wants to go back
to Kona, but after spending two days in Honolulu, I’m ready to head back. Today we lazed around all morning. We went to the Daily Buzz café for breakfast-
it’s good prices, good food and it’s right in the hotel lobby. Then we packed up and spent about an hour
looking for Darren’s cards- credit card, bank card, drivers license etc. Apparently Lochlan was playing with them last
night and we took our eyes off them and he hid them. Turkey! We eventually found them tucked in the stroller canopy- sigh. We were beginning to panic. So we packed up, sent the bellman with the
bags so they could hold them for us all day and then we headed out for the zoo.
It was a
nice walk and there was the big green space/park area outside the zoo. So we took a few moments to let Lochlan run
around. He loved chasing the birds and
these ones were great. They were so
accustomed to people that they didn’t really fly away all that well. I mean they didn’t let him catch them- but he
got a lot closer than you would have expected.
Then we
went into the zoo- and what a surprise! We were expecting it to be small and not very good. You know, like a non-progressive zoo. We found that it was excellently designed,
lots of animals to see and lots of park spaces. We wandered around and saw monkeys and turtles and lizards and all kinds
of stuff. Then we got hungry so we hit
the snack shop for some burgers for lunch. Lochlan fell asleep shortly after lunch and Darren and I just parked on
the a bench in the shade and chatted until he woke up- about an hour
later. So we wandered for a bit and
ended up leaving just before 4pm. We
were pretty tired.
We headed
back to the hotel, picked up our bags and hopped into a cab and headed out to
the airport. We changed clothes, re-packed
the bags and checked in. Then went
through security- it was a little less stressful but I had forgotten to take
the sunscreen out so we had to toss it. Oh, and apparently the Vaseline for Lochlan’s bum was also a
problem. Sigh. These rules are SO.INCREDIBLY.STUPID. I can’t even begin to explain it…
Anyway,
Lochlan started to pitch a fit when we were in line to get checked in- poor kid
was hungry- but I didn’t have easy access to food for him and he was sick of
sitting around. Oh- and the mean security
guard made us take his shoes off. I
mean, COME ON…. Really. Let’s take this
tantruming todder and make it WORSE by taking his favourite shoes. Sigh. The rules are stupid- I wouldn’t mind security if the measures they
actually took were going to do some good. How on earth does restricting liquids prevent anything? It doesn’t.
Oh- and
since you can’t bring in drinks from outside the secure area… the merchants
inside charge and arm and a leg for stuff. Yah. Darren paid $3 for ONE small
bottle of coke. We’d pay less for a 2L
bottle at home. Sigh. It’s stupid.
Any way- so
we found a food court, got some dinner and headed out to our gate. Where more idiocy followed. We were all settled in the boarding lounge
when someone comes on the PA and announces that we have to clear the area- I
have no idea why. It seemed like maybe
they were clearing the way for arriving passengers- but in all honesty the
arriving passengers got out a different way and all of us hanging around in the
lobbyish area just got in their way more. It ended up that they wanted to check ID and boarding passes on the way
to the lounge instead of at the gate. Which is stupid- we have to stand in line regardless, but if they
checked it at the gate at least we’d be comfortable for the duration. Sigh.
Anyway-
we’re on the plane now and it’s about 1:10 Hawaii time and we have about an
hour and a half left of this flight. Then it’s the customs race- can we get our bags, get through customs and
find our connecting flight in 1.5 hours? God, I hope so… I’m not in any mood to
reschedule connections. We’ll have to
wait and see. Assuming we make the
connection we should be back in Calgary by about 9:30am Calgary time. I hope. I’m not getting much sleep on this flight- Lochlan slept for about 2
hours, but then woke up and was just unhappy. He’s watching his movie now and is more or less peaceful. I just hope we can keep it up for another
couple of hours.
We made our
connection in Vancouver with about 10 minutes to spare- and our bags made it
too! Lovely! But with very little sleep in the last 24
hours- we were just exhausted. Lochlan
slept the whole way back on the Vancouver-Calgary flight, he didn’t really wake
up when I carried him off the plane, put him in the stroller, he slept through
the cab ride home and woke up a little bit when I changed his diaper. But with a few snuggles, he was back to sleep
and we headed off for a nap…
So this is
it… then end of our wonderful vacation. Now I just have to figure out the best way to post this and all the
pictures so it’s not overwhelming and not boring. Sigh… the life of an international traveler
is never dull!
