We did our last morning run together and stopped at Starbucks - there was no Shea this morning! I had a free drink from using my Starbucks app so I got the largest nitro cold brew coconut cream drink I could get, which would have cost me almost $7 if I had paid for it. We put the top down for the drive to the Honolulu airport. Thanks so much, Courtney!
I got into the airport and TSA took forever for such a short line. Where was my PreCheck, United? Why was it not on my ticket?! I'm quite disappointed in you!
It was an easy walk to the gate once I made it past security, and the gate agent immediately started harassing me about my bag. She told me I had to check it, and I refused. I kept telling her that my bag always fits in the overhead bin of a 737, and she kept coming back over. We played this game for a while until I just avoided her during boarding. Unsurprisingly to me, my bag EASILY fit into the overhead bin! Suck it, gate agent! If I had been feeling more malicious I would have tweeted something to United (pretty much the only time I tweet is to praise or complain about airline service, because they respond immediately). The flight to LAX was easy but had some somewhat significant turbulence that definitely scared some of the other passengers. I just kept trying to rest and ignore it.
Since I paid 45,000 points and $11.20 for this flight, I had a stupid long layover in LAX. Stupid long meaning almost 5 hours. Fortunately, I have a Priority Club access card from my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. There were three clubs that were remotely accessible from Terminal 7, so off I went to the Korean Airlines Club in the Tom Bradley Terminal. I put the "indoor walk" feature on my watch to time the walk, see how far it was, and close an exercise ring on my Apple Watch (no shame, here!). It was literally a mile! The Alaska Airlines lounge was closer, but why bother when I had FIVE hours? The KAL lounge was really quiet, spacious, mostly empty, and had decent food. I hadn't eaten anything yet so I housed some mini sandwiches, some pesto pasta, avoided the gross looking sushi, some fruit, etc. They had pour your own wine with the liquor spouts on wine bottles - brilliant! I jotted some blog ideas down, listened to my book, watched some of The Americans, had another glass of wine, took advantage of the clean, spacious bathrooms and then started the mile walk back to my gate.
I was again harassed by the United gate agent but less so this time. Again, my bag fit easily in the overhead. I had the window and shared a row with two young, nice guys named John and Johnathon (easy enough to remember!). John, was a dual English/US citizen graduated from JMU and now lives in Charlottesville. He quit his job and traveled through Asia an Hawaii. I was about 10 years older than him, I think. That made me feel ancient! Johnathan was a French-Canadian ER resident taking a break in Hawaii between rotations, so both of them were great to chat with until the lights went out. Nobody snored, and we didn't have any in-flight emergencies, which I assumed we would have since we had an ER resident and an ER PA in tow. Instead, we slept.
We arrived at Dulles and my brother graciously picked me up at the airport - thanks, Grant! I brought him some 100% Kona coffee and bought him breakfast since it was 8am on a Sunday morning, so I hope that remotely made up for it. I do have a pretty spectacular brother.
Some of my take away thoughts. Next time I want to go island hopping, take a helicopter tour with Tamara at Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, snorkel and/or SCUBA (hopefully the water will be clear - the storms kind of ruined that), and take some surf lessons on any other break than Waikiki. It was great to get to both have time alone, make some new friends, and hang out with Courtney whom I don't see much in DC since she's always in Hawaii! I must say, I still prefer Witch’s Rock / Costa Rica for surfing, but Hawaii is an incredible place! Mahalo, US state #42/50 for me. I will return!
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