Honolulu to Minneapolis - a LONG day

Wednesday, March 30

Five large pieces of luggage, three rolling carry-on bags, four backpacks, four adults...and ONE small Subaru SUV. All of it needed to be at the Honolulu airport by 6:00 a.m. I was doubtful, but the guys were convinced we could make it work. I was pretty sure two of us + luggage would be going by taxi.

I am happy to admit that I was wrong...but will also state that it was a VERY tight ride. Laurel and I had one of the large suitcases wedged between us in the back seat as we held our backpacks. Bob was holding two of the carry on bags on his lap in the front passenger seat and all of the rest was crammed to the ceiling in the back. Yes...it was tight. I prayed all the way to the airport that we would not have a flat tire or any other type of car emergencies.

Look closely and you can see Bob in the front seat buried under luggage...
and the top of my head peaking over the suitcase between Laurel and I! 

The car was returned to the Alamo office off-site and then the four of us and all of that luggage took the shuttle to the airport. The next hurdle was weighing the luggage to see if it was under the 50 pound weight limit. All was good to go...except mine...which weighed 51.3 pounds. I was ready to start re-distributing stuff into Bob's suitcase but the extremely nice gal working for Alaska Airlines just threw the bag onto the conveyor belt and said "I'm not going to quibble over a pound or two." Bless her little heart!!

Even Honolulu airport has the feel of paradise. There is an outdoor courtyard full of tropical plants and the bathroom signs show Hawaiian symbols.

Most of the flights leaving Honolulu for the mainland leave in the evening. After an overnight flight following our Alaskan cruise in 2014, Laurel and I swore we would never want to do that again. To avoid the red eye flights, the four of us were flying together on the 8 am flight to Seattle. From there Bob and I would connect to Minneapolis. With the flight and change of time zones, we were due to arrive at MSP around midnight.

Looking through the dirty airport window...the sun was just starting to peak over the mountains as we got to the gate for our flight.

There weren't any good connecting flights going to STL for Kent and Laurel, so they opted to spend the night in Seattle and fly out the next morning. This plan also gave them an opportunity to have dinner with a close friend who drove down from Vancouver.

I had dreaded the five hour flight to Seattle, but the time went by much quicker than I had anticipated. I had movies downloaded on my iPad which helped. Before landing, we got a nice view of Mt. Rainier.

We said good-bye to Kent and Laurel and then walked to the gate for our connecting flight. My tummy was telling me it was time for lunch, but after losing several hours from the change in time zones, my watch said it was time for dinner. There weren't many choices to choose from near our gate and we settled on bagel sandwiches. The airport food prices made Hawaii prices look reasonable...and the food was mediocre at best.

Our flight was delayed a bit and by the time we landed and collected our luggage, it was after 1 a.m. My original plan was to take a shuttle to our son's house where we would pick up our car. Even better, our son was nice enough to offer to come pick us up at the airport (even though it was the middle of the night!) We considered driving the additional 3 hours to get home, but even though I wouldn't be the one driving, I was wiped out and was thankful that we could spend the night with our son. The long drive was much easier to face the next morning after a good night's sleep.

An update...

It took a long time (several months) but we finally received a refund check from NCL to cover the missed day of the cruise AND another check to cover our expenses we encountered for the extra day in San Francisco.

Our other compensation that we received (a credit in the amount of 50% of what we spent for the Hawaiian cruise) has also been applied to a future NCL cruise. The credit would have been  enough to cover the complete cost of a balcony cabin for a week long Caribbinean cruise BUT...we had other ideas. For now I will leave the destination a mystery, but will say that even with the credit, the cruise we have booked will be a little bit of a splurge for us!