Jeff and I woke up around 3:45 a.m. to be ready for his dad to take us to the airport at 4:30. We arrived at our gate in plenty of time to catch the 7:00 Alaska airlines flight to Seattle. I was apprehensive about this first layover because King County, Washington, has featured so prominently in the news on Coronavirus. At the same time, I tried to convince myself that everything would be fine, given the statistical improbability of catching anything serious. Nevertheless, I brought plenty of Wet Ones wipes I happened to have in bulk because of disinfecting my CPAP every night. I think Jeff believed wiping down the seats and hard surfaces, and our hands, wherever we went was overkill, but he humored me.
The way our flight bookings panned out, we had a very long layover in Seattle, so immediately upon arrival, we got some massive burritos at Qdoba. They were very good, but I do think I prefer Moe’s.
From Seattle, we flew a little over 5 hours to Honolulu. The airport seems older, and some places were under construction, but I thought it was really neat how there were open air passageways that let me feel the Hawaiian breeze that Jeff has praised to me for so long. It was so nice outside!
After we ate supper from the airport Burger King (nearly $25), we waited a couple of hours for the Hawaiian airlines flight that was the last leg of our journey to Kauai. At each of our layovers we had checked Facebook to stay caught up on the news from home, and in Honolulu, Jeff voiced a feeling of guilt at leaving on vacation while so many people in Tennessee were still in cleanup mode. It’s a feeling I’ve had all week leading up to our trip, compounded by the guilt of being able to travel to a place like Hawaii at all. I have always been too poor to travel anywhere, so I haven’t been able to get used to this privilege that being married to Jeff brings. He really is a blessing to me in every way.
I think it took longer to board our plane than the flight actually lasted. We had barely made the ascent to cruising altitude before descending into Lihue airport. Finding the rental car place was easy, as was the transaction. Jeff is now driving a big black Jeep Wrangler that I sort of have to climb up to get in.
The Kauai Palms Hotel knew we were going to arrive well after their office closed, so they sent instructions that our room would be unlocked and the key would be on the table. Everything was as they said it would be, and the note on the bill said to come by the office in the morning to settle up. I don’t know if this trust in us is because this is a family-run hotel or if it’s just the culture, but I’ve never seen anything like it. Our room reminds me of what old Hawaii of the 50s and 60s might have been like. We were very pleased to find a mini fridge, microwave, and stove, so we would be able to cook at “home” instead of wasting money eating out all the time. The only thing that made me make a “Kermit face” was the naked woman in the vintage print from Hawaii’s territorial days. But Jeff is a very smart man, and told me I’m prettier. Bless him.
