A Really Long Travel Day

​Read my PreTrip Report here.

Remember how my pre-trip report said we were going to fly to LA, on Friday, spend the night and then fly to Honolulu the next morning? Well... that didn't happen.

Tuesday night, we checked the loads and the Friday flight to LA was getting tight.  We did what all good non-rev passengers do, and we looked at every angle.  Leaving Thursday and spending 2 nights in LA seemed like our best bet.  Until I went to our homeschool co-op on Wednesday and Rob started texting me that maybe we should rip the bandaid off and fly all the way from Cincinnati to Honolulu on Thursday, giving us two extra days in Waikiki.  I told him if he could take care of the hotel details and the rental car, I could be packed and ready to go.  This non-rev life is not for the inflexible!

So after a full day at co-op, I got everything ready while Rob worked fast and furiously on the computer to get hotel and car arrangements in place.  We told the kids at the last possible minute about the change, because we wanted to be sure.  They still thought we were leaving Friday, so after dinner we told them we were waking up at 5am the next morning to go straight to Hawaii!!

Smiles, bright and early!

The boys, not so much.

There were wifi issues. This was not a happy sight!

The Rocky Mountains, as seen from 36,000 feet.

In the upper half of this picture you can kinda see the Grand Canyon.

The problem with going from Cincinnati to LA and then LA to Honolulu in one day is what they call in the biz "a five hour sit."  Yup.  Five hours in LAX.  Since we have the Delta Amex card, Rob and I can access the Sky Club and when we saw that there were no places to sit in LAX (and people were sleeping on the floor), we decided to buy the kids a one day Sky Club pass.  

It was so nice to sit in the relatively quiet Sky Club instead of out in the hubbub of the main terminal.  Plus there are free food, drinks and wifi.  Winning! (Are we still saying winning?)

I wish this was true!

How big are these kids?

Five hours later we received a Delta miracle! 4 seats to Honolulu, together!  Well, sort of.  We got three seats next to each other and one seat across the aisle.  At first, Ryan said he wanted to sit by himself.  But at the last minute he changed his mind and I got to fly to Hawaii alone! Let the vacation begin.

Apparently Rob was checking in a beer while over the Pacific.

Before the switch, we actually thought we would get to sit together.

When we finally landed in Hawaii, we were exhausted and we still had to get the luggage and the car, then drive to Waikiki.  We decided it was best to divide and conquer.  The boys went to get the rental car and the girls got the luggage.  

Mommy! My first Hawaii palm tree!!

Waikiki is a short 20 minute drive from the airport, which is nice.  We quickly checked into our first (of 3) hotels.  We were staying just one night at the Courtyard Waikiki.  The lobby was very impressive, and although the room was clean and looked nice, there was a weird smell.  We were glad it was just one night.  

Finally, our day was done.  A mere 20 hours after we woke up in Kentucky, we fell asleep in Hawaii.

Read Day 1 here.