On Saturday, the last day, none of us really wanted to leave. We got all our stuff packed and ready to go and then we hung around the resort, outside, watching the ocean and just soaking it all in as if attempting to take it with us.
We had all day to kill so, we drove down the Kona Coast, stopping at several of the small "beach" accesses, Some have just a very small patch of sand, some have just less rocky paths to the ocean. Every conceivable path to the water is in use. We sit on rocks or stumps or what ever is handy and watch the ocean and some surfers. We see more flowers and flowering trees; try to drink in all the beauty and the ruggedness of the coast we can. After a while we head back up the coast (the airport is north of the city of Kona), doing some of the same. We go to another resort that is famed for its grounds. The entire public area of 'hotel' is a water habitat for all kinds of fish, turtles, just everything. The resort is so vast and so beautiful and there are walkways and walkways and more turns and fish than you can imagine. It is mostly outdoors and even the resort welcome desk and office areas are open air. It is a very pretty way to end our visit.
Then we get to the airport and this almost ruins my visit. Now it is about 85 degrees and there is no shade and no buildings and absolutely everything at this airport is out doors. There are no signs or directions and I just about get attacked for going the wrong way towards the check in desk. You have to go through no less than 3 checks of your luggage. Once all of it goes through the x-ray, then you check them in at the desk and then all but your carry on luggage gets searched thoroughly. At least we don't have to carry the heavy things from here. One of Richard's bags is over weight so he has to shift some to one of my bags so he doesn't get charged extra. Now keep in mind we have spent about an hour getting this far and it is HOT and I am HOT. Then we finally get our tickets and get in line to go through another security check. They look through your carry on luggage and you even have to take off your shoes and go through the metal detector. Then the final insult. Since the airlines provides no food
(they sell boxed lunches), we have purchased some food of our own so we know it will be fresh etc. for our dinner. Victoria and I have chicken salads that we got at Sam's and they even make us take the tomatoes out of them. I am so pissed that I think I embarrassed the rest of the group. It was just so indignant the way they treated you. The tomatoes possibly have something they do not want to get back into the continental states. But my argument was I intended to eat them and they would not last that long!!! Doyle had two tangerines that they took away from him and some body else had something. The guards had all kinds of fruit that folks intended to eat on the flight for themselves. By this time most of us are sweating like pigs and stinking worse because everybody but me dressed for Nashville weather. I wore shorts, which didn't help much, and had some slacks in my carry on with my airplane pillows.
But we made it through finally and walked out on the tarmac to board the plane. Now get this, it is a 777 and that sucker is so big! There are what looks like 2 flights of stairs to get up into the plane and my knees are killing me from all the standing around! I am a stubborn cuss though and I made it up there to spite them and carried my own carry-on bag. It was a good flight though and we even got some sleep. It was quiet and very nice when everyone settled down. It took about 8 hours to fly to Chicago. We left Hawaii about 6 in the evening and it was breakfast time when we got into Chicago.
So ends our fairy tale of a vacation in Hawaii. I am still trying to decide what was the most wonderful or the most beautiful or the most awesome and can't. Doyle still says that the day we spent up on Mauna Kea at the observatories was the highlight for him; it was great AND WORTH IT ALL. Now to pay the bills.