<10/19/04 2:00am Pacific time>
Oh wow, what a start to the honeymoon!! Who would've guessed a little bad weather could so completely ruin plans? As I sit here typing this it is 7am Tuesday morning (EST) and we're sitting, or laying, in the Honolulu Airport. Let me back up...

We arrived in NoVA Sunday night, technically Monday morning, around 1:30. The nice man at the Holiday Inn upgraded our room to the hot tub suite. Too bad we never got to really enjoy it since we were out of there 6.5 hours later. The hot tub was massive; 10 people could have fit in there! Oh well, at least the 4-poster king bed was very comfortable!

The 8:30 shuttle took us to the airport where the ticketing line was non existent, and security took all of 10 minutes. The extra time gave us a chance to grab some breakfast at Starbucks (and I was glad for that later!). About 10 we started to board the plane only to be turned back around because Cincinnati was closed due to bad weather. Must have been some storm to close the airport for 2 hours!

Even though we immediately jumped into line to be rebooked it ended up taking us and hour and 40 minutes with the Delta rep to come up with a plan. Ironically enough, we ended up taking our original flight to Cincinnati when they decided it was time to go. It was kind funny, they decided the delayed flight was going to be taking off and 10 minutes later had everyone boarded and ready to go. And because of that, we didn't get boarding passes for our next flight, we would just have to check in at the gate when we got to Cincinnati.

To make this easier to understand, here's our original flight plan, the one given to us at Dulles after the flight was delayed, and the one we actually ended up with:

Original
IAD to CVG Flight 5799 10:30am-11:57am
CVG to LAX Flight 1019 12:30pm-2:13pm
LAX to OGG Flight 541 3:25pm-5:52pm

Rerouted
IAD to CVG Flight 5799 12:30ish (Delayed Flight)
CVG to LAX Flight 49 4:45pm-6:30pm
LAX to OGG Flight 161 6:25pm-8:44pm (American Airlines)

Actual
IAD to CVG Flight 5799 12:30ish (Delayed Flight)
CVG to LAX Flight 49 4:45pm-6:30pm
Ran like crazy to catch Flight 161; missed it (duh) because we landed at 6:45
LAX to HNL Flight 341 8:15pm-10:45pm
10/19/04 HNL to OGG Flight 106 5:25am-6:02am (Hawaiian)

<10/19/0410:30pm Pacific time>
So, yes we spent Monday night in the Honolulu airport. We had to pick up our bags because there were no more inter-island flights until the morning, and in doing so, left the secured part of the terminal. Which meant, without boarding passes or tickets, we couldn't get back in. Luckily there were benches and seats outside the security areas (near the check in counters) were we could sit, and, at times, sleep. We were run off once, from the first area we chose, looked like they were cleaning or something. But the second place, which was closer to the Hawaiian Airline terminal, had several other people, and no one bothered us.

I'm sure some of you wonder why we didn't get a hotel room; we just couldn't justify spending money on a room we'd be staying in for 4 or so hours. Plus a cab ride to and from the airport. So we just stayed put, sleeping on cold,s tone benches with a blanket stolen from the last Delta flight. :)

We woke up at 4:30am (Pacific time) and made our way to the Hawaiian airlines counter only to find out Delta had not given up the right paperwork to allow Hawaiian to book us seats on the 5:25 flight, and bill Delta for them. Well, turns out they actually had, but the gate people in LAX took them with our tickets when we boarded the plane. Doh. So we chose to pay for the island hop and deal with reimbursement from Delta later. At this point we just wanted to get to Maui.

At 6am, we arrived. Yay!!! That early in the morning, there was no line for the rental car, so we picked up our bright green Jeep Wrangler and set off to find the Sheraton. Our first officlal stop and purchase on Maui? A dozen doughnuts from Krispy Kreme! Aww, yeh! Some of us had not eaten in over 12 hours and were very hungry. Once we arrived to the Sheraton, we were greeted with leis and complimentary valet parking as well as porter service for our luggage.

On our way in the door, who do we run into? Randy, fellow CTer from Missouri! Ok, so it wasn't a surprise really, we knew he and his wife were vacationing here this week, but it was complete coincidence that he came by to leave us a note at the same time we were checking in. So sometime this week we will be getting together with them for dinner maybe.

We spent the rest of the morning napping (in a real bed!!), eating at Maui Tacos, and shopping in Lahina. We picked up some really cool beach artwork and a few other things. The sun went down around 6:30, so after a while we headed back to the hotel to check out the amenities. We're going to try to make it an early night so we can start fresh in the morning. Lots to do, so little time!!