Arrived!

We arrived safely and soundly yesterday afternoon. The flight across the Pacific was a joy--and I mean that completely sincerely, particularly compared to the previous four flights that I'd taken across the Pacific (to and from Hawaii, and to and from Thailand). Those were all invariably rotten with turbulence, and I really, honestly, was surprised to arrive in Seattle, alive, after the return from Thailand 3 or 4 years ago. So yes, the fact of hardly any turbulence yesterday was an immense relief, and a joy.

I was pretty exhausted by the time I finally fell into bed around 9:30pm Hawaii time (we're two hours earlier over here), having had my post-infusion sleeps of about 2 1/2 hours Friday night, and maybe a half-hour nap on the plane. I figured I'd better really stock up on caffeine if I were going to make it, so I had real coffee at SeaTac and real coffee on the flight. An actual limo picked us all up from Ian's and my house, and we arrived at the airport in plenty of time to check our bags in . . . if the system had been working the way it was supposed to.

Ian and I had managed to check ourselves in online, so we only had to check in our bags. We'd attempted to check D&J in online as well, but were thwarted when I tried to skip printing their checked baggage receipts. Perhaps because of me trying to take advantage of Hawaiian's website promises, N&K were likewise unable to check-in online (the four of them had the same reservation), and so they had to wait for an hour at the airport, along with lots and lots of other people who had been unable to check-in online, presumably from a glitch in the system. Ian and I, free agents after we dropped our bags, delivered coffees. Oh, also, the baggage conveyer belt was broken. But that didn't seem to affect anyone's speed too much.

Nevertheless, we were all able to use the bathroom and get food, and there were even maybe two or three people who boarded the plane behind us.

We're staying at the Napili Kai, which is lovely, and we're so happy to be here that we're not at all bothered by the fact that, at the moment, it's really gray and cold out there, and it woke us up raining in the middle of the night.

Go here to see some of Ian's pics.