Ugh – what an early start. Our flight was at 9:30. I set my alarm for 6:00 but was up and moving before 5:00.

In life before the pandemic I travelled constantly. I knew what to expect. I knew what to do. And I was comfortable with all of it. But things are different now. The rules have changed. It is messy for all of us as we try to find our way back to some sort of new normal. Hence, my slightly higher anxiety as we prepared to depart.

The journey was largely uneventful. The flight was quite empty so boarding was speedy. We departed well ahead of schedule, yet arrived 1/2 hour later than scheduled. The flight crew had advised us of the longer flying time so we were prepared and had settled in.

We had collected some food from the lounge to serve as our in-flight meal: greek yogurt, complete with a ‘borrowed’ spoon, some almond nut bars and bananas. It was healthier than most of what would be offered on the flight.

I watched the Fabelmans and loved it. Michelle Williams was outstanding. The I watched about half of Tar. This was clearly a film designed audiences deeply knowledgeable about classical music, the composers, the musicians and the orchestras. It was too slow and just not in my realm of interest or experience. Now a similar film about wine? I could get on board with that.

Then, I decided to try Succession. So many people I know are fans of the show – big, big fans. I watched 2 episodes. I am just not sure. These characters are really just assholes. I was surprised to see that Will Ferrell is one of the Executive Producers. Really?

The last half of the trip was very, very bumpy. I was already jumpy. I am not a fan of flying over large bodies of water and am weirdly superstitious with those flights. (Ergo, I made certain the kids knew where the wills could be found.) Water informs my flight choices; I will always preference a polar route. So flying over the ocean in a lot of turbulence is not my thing. I was grateful when we touched down.

Bag retrieval was messy. We went back and forth between two carousels to finally track down our bags, with 30 or 40 others, tucked away in a corner. So much for the benefits of priority baggage handling.

Final step, pick up the car and be on our way…. Shit show!

When we arrived at the rental office there were 20-30 groups in line and only 2 counters open. None of the workers seemed in a rush. To the positive they were on Hawaiian time, friendly and helpful with everyone. Unfortunately, when I did the math I realized it would take us 90 minutes before we would even be at the counter. So much stress trying to get to a our beach condo and relaxation. A few more counters opened until there were 5, though that had a surprisingly small impact on the length of the line.

We chatted with others in the line to pass the time. We particularly enjoyed one fellow from Seattle wearing a shirt that said “Bacon is meat candy”. He was filled with helpful and humourous suggestions on how best to pick up the pace. In the end, it took us just over an hour to finally get to the counter, organize our paperwork and be on our way.

Sidebar: we booked our car online and paid in advance using points. By the time we had added a driver, sorted out insurance and final gas it was another $400+. No such thing as a cheap car rental.

All that was left was dragging our luggage to the garage to pick up the car and whizz away! Nope. We waited another 45 minutes as they were all out of the mid-size cars. The line grew longer by the minute and we were not the first. Finally someone offered a full-sized pickup truck to anyone that wanted it at no extra charge. We gratefully accepted and high tailed it out of there in a very familiar Ford F-150 :0) By ‘high tailed it out of there’ I really mean got in another lengthy line to exit through the single exit gate garage, along with another 30-40 cars jockeying for position.

Three plus hours after arrival, we finally made it to our rental condo at Kihei Sands. We had no trouble finding the place and flung the door open with anticipation. This place ain’t no White Lotus.

The condo was clean, but smelled very musty. It was also quite dark, probably because it was on the bottom floor. The glass doors opening to the lanai and the pool was a nice touch. And Sugar Beach is directly in front of us.

We went back and forth forever on restaurant choices for dinner. In the end, we were just too tired to choose. Instead, we opted to go to a nearby grocery store to pick up some things for dinner, and perhaps a bottle of wine to toast the sunset.

And look who we found in the parking lot? In fact there were a couple of roosters, a number of hens and several chicks roaming around looking for snacks. We sent photos off to the grand-daughters confident of their appreciation given their love of chickens.

The shelves in Safeway were surprisingly bare; sparkling water was extremely low, almost no yogurt of any kind, only a few cartons of eggs, few bread choices… you get the picture. Fortunately fruit and vegetables abounded and that’s most of what I eat now anyway. We also took note of the fresh fish counter for a future visit. We came away with most of what we needed, including a bottle of french rose to match the pink sunset.

We enjoyed our dinner salad on the lanai watching the early sunset and… whales!

Yep, there seems to be a large number of humpbacks wandering through the waters in our little bay. We saw blows, massive fins, an occasional tail and even heads spy hopping out of the water. This was without a doubt the very best part of my day.

The sunset was lovely, though the trade winds made for a chilly evening. (I would argue that the sunsets in Ucluelet are at least as nice.)

Whenever we travel, I bug Rick about bringing a sweater or warm jacket. He rarely listens so we have a number of sweatshirts emblazoned with “Florida” or “Phoenix”. The nicest ones are from the golf courses. This time we both arrived with a very optimistic collection of summer clothes and absolutely nothing for warmth. Purchasing a sweater is on my list for today. (Suitably chagrined.)

The 3 hour time change, the long journey, and a glass of wine was enough to send us inside and off to bed at an early hour. Tomorrow we will make a bit more of a plan: rowing, turtles, beaches, snorkeling, Haleakala Park… so many options. And maybe just some laying about in the sun with a book. That sounds nice.