Kapahulu

Well, today was definitely going to be a challenge! The last few days haven’t been the easiest, as I seem to have caught something like a cold, complete with cough and nasal congestion. I think it could’ve been caused by either sleeping with the air conditioner on, lack of water or a mediocre diet but either way, it isn’t ideal.

We packed up the car quickly before going to breakfast and checking out of the hotel. The drive to the border though seemed to find every delay possible, whether it was being stuck behind a garbage truck, roadworks or detours!

Even though the GPS didn’t send us to the border crossing we’d requested (assuming it was sending us to the one with the least traffic), the process was extremely easy especially since there was only one other car in front of us! That was fortunate though because the traffic we encountered closer to Toronto was chaotic! Luckily we were able to use the carpool lane which made the drive a lot easier.

The process of returning the rental car and checking in was seamless, so we headed to our gate to have something to eat. Toronto airport has a great system where the gates have chairs and tables set up with iPads and charging stations, where you can order food and drink and have it delivered to your table. It was slightly more expensive but considering the ease and lack of stress, totally worth it.

I thought I’d finish off the meal with a good coffee, but had to settle for Starbucks instead. The boarding staff at the gate indicated the flight was full, so Ted and I made sure we boarded early to avoid the inconvenience of having to part with our bags due to lack of baggage space. We ended up being in the second back row.

The flight attendant on board knew we were crew and looked after us wonderfully. The flight from Toronto to Vancouver was just over five hours, but we both had plenty to keep us occupied. WestJet has a good online entertainment system, so I made sure I downloaded the app when we arrived in Vancouver.

The walk to our next gate was very long, and when we arrived at US customs and immigration, we needed to sit and wait in a waiting room for confirmation that our bag had arrived for the next flight. We had about two hours to connect to our next flight, and most of that time was gone due to all the processes we needed to go through!

The flight to Honolulu was similarly full, and we had seats third from the back. The flight attendant from our previous flight had mentioned us to the crew on this flight, and they similarly looked after us wonderfully. It seems that WestJet employees know each other very well, as they also knew some of the FAs we’d had on our very first flight from Los Angeles!

I managed to stay awake most of the flight by eating, reading and watching episodes of “Modern Family” even though it was 3am in our original time zone. When the plane was coming in to land, I closed my eyes and was surprised that I was already starting to doze when the aeroplane landed. Even though disembarkation is never as quick as you’d like, we didn’t have to wait long for either our bag or the Uber to our accommodation. We even saw Janice in the terminal, one of the FAs from our first flight, waiting to take the flight back!

Our accommodation is somewhere we’ve stayed before although this time, Ted chose a different room as the previous one is noisy due to the elevator. As exhausted as we were, we went to a nearby ABC store to buy something small to eat, before showering and heading to bed.Leggi altro