My trip actually started the night before; since my flight
to Dallas departed at 6 AM I chose to stay near the airport the night before,
purchasing a park/fly deal so I could leave the car at the hotel. I was very glad I’d followed my usual
practice for mission-critical wakeup calls and had a backup; the hotel call
came at 3:45 AM as requested. My phone,
it turned out, was set to go off at 3:45 PM. Oops.
It was a cold trip in the hotel shuttle but we arrived at
the airport in plenty of time; despite the boilerplate advising us to be at the
airport 2 hours early (4:05 AM? I don’t
think so!) I checked my bag, cleared the TSA Nude-o-Scope and was airside at
before Starbucks even opened.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the flight to DFW took off on
time. It’s never a given this time of
year but fortunately there was no snow to interfere with air traffic- just
biting cold.
The airport in Dallas wasn’t much warmer. It was 25 degree outside and I swear they
didn’t have the heat turned on in the airport.
I was very grateful I hadn’t stashed my ancient fleece-lined
shirt-jacket in my checked bag.
Finally after I’d amused myself by surfing the Internet for
a couple of hours (avoiding shops at DFW selling perfume, expensive whisky, Montblanc
pens, perfume, makeup and everything else imaginable), we got onto the plane.
Ah, the plane. I’d
forgotten what I’d paid for Business Class but it was a great decision. I
sipped pre-flight Champagne, checked out the noise-cancelling headsets, power
ports, the lunch menu and the seat controls, and giggled.
The flight was pleasant but long- a little over 8
hours. I was grateful for all the space
I had and took a couple of naps in between movies. I later switched to an
episode of “Expedition Unknown” in which the archaeologists were searching for
signs of an ancient city under Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. I’ll be going to Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and
the Galapagos in March. I lead an
interesting life.
Because the flight was so long, I felt as if I’d need to
fill out a landing card and get out my passport for the immigration
officials. No, but they did pass out an
Agriculture declaration. Hawaii is very
protective of its wildlife and is also rabies-free. Apparently you have to go through a lot to be
permitted to bring a dog on this flight!
One side of the Agriculture form was a detailed question about what
plants, animals, etc. you might be bringing in.
The other side was pure marketing: is this your first trip to Hawaii,
how many previous trips, what islands will you be visiting, business or
pleasure… I filled it out anyway.
It was nearly 2 hours from landing to my hotel: half an hour wait for my checked bag (so much
for “Priority Handling”); half an hour wait for the shuttle and 45 minutes
through traffic worthy of Manhattan to the hotel. I had a light dinner in the hotel bar, then
slept for 8.5 hours, waking up at 4:30 AM.
Oh, well- Hawaii was 4 hours earlier than Central Time so that wasn’t
too bad.
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