Our Maui Trip

Friday DAY 1

Flew from Newark at 10AM and arrived at LAX at 4PM (1PM local time). Not a bad flight but it's the first one I was on where you had to buy food. Drinks were free but even snacks now cost.

Stopped in for a chili dog at Jody Maronis and are waiting for our flight from LA to Maui which is scheduled to leave at 5 local time 4 hour layover!

The flight from LA to Maui was classic. Good news - the plane is brand new. Bad news - it doesn't have and entertainment devices installed. Good News - The plane is less than 1/2 full Bad News - there's a screamer on board. This kids crying was annoying in the beginning, but after a few hours I was beginning to think it might be a new type of terrorist attack where the passengers voluntary take the plane out.

Karen is sprawled out across three seats and is using 7 airplane blankets as a pillow. She almost fits in the space with the exception of one of her bare feet sticking out into the walkway. Since I can never sleep on a plane I poke her foot and it moves in under her blanket like a turtle pulling in it's head. I do this not just out of envy that she can sleep, but also to prevent it's being severed off by a fast moving food cart.

I really have to sleep know, been up over 24 hours. But wait till I tell you what happens at the airport in Maui and the story of our luggage!

The Luggage Disaster!

We arrive in Maui, get our luggage and pile on to a bus (large bus) that is taking us to Alamo rental car. After a 3 minute drive we all pile off the bus and the driver loads everyone's luggage on the curb. We can easily identify our bags because Karen has tied a large silver ribbon to each handle. The guys all grab the bags and the women head into the office to get the cars.

Later we drag our bags to our rental car and I ask Karen where the car charger is for my phone (as that will be our GPS device and it is near dead due to the non-entertainment flight). She opens one of our two large bags and SURPRISE!!! IT'S NOT OUR BAG!!! PANIC ENSUES...

We grab the shuttle, wrong bag in hand, back to the airport, but our bad is not there. And when they ask for our luggage tag numbers, we left then back in our car. So I hope back on the shuttle to get our car and the tag numbers. I get in the car and have little idea how to find Karen back at the airport. It's pitch black and every Hawaiian name sounds the same to me at this point.

Somehow I find the airport and give Karen the bag tags but the cops wouldn't let me stop there so I circle for an hour. By this time the guy who took our bag has also discovered the mistake and luckily Karen has her cell number listed on the tag so he calls her. While he is returning our bag to the airport, I'm circling like a moth around a flame.

The guy shows up and gives us our bag and to his surprise we have his bag. (It will never be know if it was he or I that initially picked up the wrong bag. But all ended well.

Later we figured out the great bag switch occurred after the bus dropped us off at Alamo as he flew in United and we were on Continental.

When we finally got to our room, I only needed 2 things: A stiff drink and a comma, luckily both were ready available.

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