I caught a ride to DFW airport around 11 am on Friday morning. My plane was scheduled to take off at 12:10pm, fly for 2 and 1/2 hours, and then land at 12:35pm. I enjoyed watching my phone and ipod disagree about what time it was during the warm-up flight to Phoenix. I existed in a world that was perpetually lunch time, but amazingly was never offered lunch. After some exotic local cuisine at the airport Pizza Hut, I asked a stranger why the multiple time changes. He responded that Arizona lives by standard time instead of DST. Navajo Nation within the state of Arizona does observe DST, but it's too tough for the rest of the state of Arizona to adjust their clocks twice a year. I'm not sure if that was true, but he sounded confident.
The long flight to Honolulu was fairly uneventful. I sat next to a couple that was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with a Hawaiian cruise. Mr. and Mrs. Jones were from Fort Worth, and were not related to me in any way. They were visiting their 50th state as a married couple. My comment was that I didn't want to put off Hawaii until last. Maybe Delaware or one of the Dakotas will be my number 50.
Once we approached the island, strange thoughts started coming across my groggy brain. I was sitting in one of the emergency aisle seats. In fact, I was right next to the emergency door. Given the others in the emergency row, if things went bad I would have to lead these people to victory. I am the youngest person in this row by 40 years. Looking out the window, I could see the ocean and the thought came to mind that if worse comes to worse, I could probably survive the jump from the plane. Then, we saw the coast just before we flew through a cloud, and I realized that I was crazy and would most certainly die if I had to jump from this height.
The approach to O'ahu was amazing. It beat my previous favorite flyover, Las Vegas, by a couple touchdowns (Phoenix placed dead last in case anyone was wondering). The way the beach and the mountains blend together to form such a beautiful landscape is quite something. It reminded me of the swooping aerial shots from Jurassic Park, which I would later find out was actually filmed here. Even the view from the runway was gorgeous.
My good friends Ryan and Angela picked me up from the airport. They took me to a local restaurant called La Mariana Tiki Bar, a cool spot nestled on the shores of Keehi Lagoon in Honolulu. Several boats were docked nearby, and I got to see my first Hawaii sunset. I quickly learn that speedy service is not part of the Hawaiian culture. It was a pleasant wait, due to the soothing sounds of the ukelele/ keyboard combo of the house band. I always felt the Beatles could have used a ukelele solo in the middle of Hey Jude. Angela was unimpressed with their skills, I wanted to know if they had any cds for sale. Great seafood and my first Lava Flow of the week finished off a long day of traveling. Big week ahead!
No comments:
Post a Comment