Honeymoon Day 1: May 26

Since we didn't get home from Long Island until Monday evening, we didn't end up packed and in bed until 2:30am.... which made the alarm at 4:30am all the more unpleasant, as I'm sure you can imagine. But alas, our hunger for Hawaii got us up and running and we were en route to Newark airport by 5:30 am.

Our first honeymoon hiccup occurred around 6:00 am when we were driving in circles in search of the darn entrance to the rental car return. We could see it just fine, we just couldn't get IN to the right area. Fearful of missing our flight, I pondered testing out the 4WD on the Rav-4 we had rented, but was too tired to follow through on that idea. Eventually, we returned the car and caught the monorail to our terminal.

Upon check-in at the United desk, we met the SLOWEST functioning attendant in all of Newark International Airport, I'm sure. I had to pay an overage charge for my 58-pound bag (no comments from the peanut gallery please!) which took her about half a leap year to process. A few gray hairs later we grabbed the receipt and headed for the security line which was pretty long and slow-moving, where we once again got nervous about making our flight since we were already running late from the rental car mishap and Slowy McSlowerson the check-in attendant. But, we made it. We boarded, got settled in, and landed in Chicago shortly thereafter for our connecting flight.

About an hour or so into our second flight, the pilot announced that the main engine generator had failed and we'd be making an unexpected landing at San Francisco International Airport in 2 hours to either fix it or switch planes. You're probably thinking: YIKES!!!!! Well, we were too tired to be scared so it didn't phase us much... we just wanted to get to our final destination! Upon reflection, I'm glad my brain was not functioning because I'm sure I would've been way more nervous if it was!!! Here I am trying to get online to blog during our stopover at SFO:
After a 1.5 hour wait we boarded yet another plane (third one of the day for those of you counting) and were once again en route to Honolulu. We landed safely, but then had ANOTHER plane switch ahead of us. The timing actually wasn't that bad.... due to our flight delay arriving from the mainland, we only had a short wait for our interisland connection.

Upon arrival at HON, we gathered our bags, took a L-O-N-G 200 yard walk with 6 heavy bags in hot sun (uphill both ways) to the interisland terminal, where we once again had to check-in and clear security. This time we played the switcharoo game, where we took some clothes out of the 58-lb. bag and put them into a lighter bag so I wouldn't have to pay yet another overage charge. The only problem was the once-lighter bag now weighed 52 pounds. What a crock. Luckily, we got off with a warning and a warm aloha smile... and proceeded to security for our FOURTH flight of the day...

After a short flight from Oahu to Maui, we landed and took a shuttle to the rental car location. We picked up our red hot Ford Mustang convertible, and wrestled for a good 10 minutes to get all our bulging bags into the non-roomy trunk and backseat. We had a nice relaxing 30 minute drive to the hotel, were greeted with leis, and finally checked in after 20 hours of traveling. Phew. Talk about a long day!!! We found a bottle of bubbly on ice for us in our room at the Four Seasons Maui, which was a nice surprise!
We grabbed a quick dinner in the lobby lounge and crashed.... our first night in the Hawaiian island of Maui! Aloha!