We slept wonderfully last night. Linda left the air-conditioner on all night and it made a big difference. As usual, we're starting our day off at McDonald's for breakfast. Linda met us after her chiropractor appointment. It has been raining all morning.
We went back to the condo to pack, shower, and clean up a bit. Linda suggested a lot of touristy things we could do but we're about touristed out and our minds are looking toward home now....We decided to head to Starbucks to kick back and read our IPADs. Just a relaxing day. The sun and blue sky has come out - weather is perfect! What a nice ending to a perfect time. Goodbye Wailea.......
Norm and Pam had plenty of time allowed at the airport. Norm's boarding ticket had the TSA pre check so he was able to breeze through the security line. Pam, on the other hand, had to wait in the rather long line. They say its random - we think its a plot to get everyone to buy the annual pre-check boarding fee. Norm's boarding pass at SFO also has the pre-check.... and Pam's does not! What the heck! Pam is the one with the TSA background check.....Norm is stuck waiting for me.....
We sat in the Maui airport waiting to board - no wifi unless we wanted to pay 40cents per minute....Ha Ha Ha Ha NO! So Pam got out her uke music and softly practiced. When we boarded the plane, we were lucky to get a spot overhead for the luggage - a full flight.
An hour into the flight and all they've played on the TV screens has been the same United ad over and over. People were warned that if they swiped their card to pay for a movie, that coverage will stop mid-flight (mid-ocean) then pick up again 100 miles before SFO. What? What about satellite coverage? The woman next to me has a TV screen that won't turn off. The flight attendant put one of the emergency evacuation cards on the screen to help cover the bright light. We hope the maintenance of the plane is better than the entertainment equipment.
Update: Turns out that there is NO TV to watch unless we've swiped our credit card. Not even free TV programs like we've watched in the past. So....if the TV screen is on, it constantly flashes ads - the same ads - and also asks us to swipe our credit card. What a rip!
To top it off....we had a flight attendant that read all of his lines from a card and kept stumbling..and had an accent so we really could not understand most of what he said. Another flight attendant was walking by Norm after the last announcement and Norm told her that he couldn't understand the guy...he asked her what he had just said. She said, "We're making our descent into San Francisco...We're going down". I heard the last part and joked to Norm that she really shouldn't phrase it that way!
Wednesday - February 19:
We made good time and actually arrived at SFO 1/2 hour early. We had to find gate 36A which required us to walk to gate 87 and line up to take a small elevator down to the outside and board a shuttle bus to take us to the United Express terminal. We have free wifi, a deli next to us, and electrical outlets....we'll be ok with our long wait. We don't board our flight to Sacramento until 8:40am.....We could almost have walked to Sacramento in this time. Next thing we know, the flight has changed to a different gate so off we go. We got settled in a new lounge area and awhile later we decided to check when we'll start to line up.... Then... There is another announcement to say our gate has changed back to our original gate....so back we go. Gotta love air travel.
We finally boarded a small Embraer 120 turbo prop plane for Sacramento ( Norm has been doing some research on the planes and this model was made in Brazil.) We boarded it out on the runway (like in Honolulu) and up the stairs...I think its the smallest plane I've been on although Norm thinks the one in Honolulu was similar. This one had one seat on the left side andd two seats on the right - we were in the exit row with lots of leg room. The flight was so short though - no sooner were we up in the air that they were announcing the descent.
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This cartoon represents our airline flight with United today!!!!
Home sweet home.........Our neighbors, Bob & Linda, picked us up at the airport. Our luggage made the earlier flight - glad we weren't charged extra for that. When we asked to fly on the earlier flight, they would have charged us an extra $200 each for the change....these are the friendly skies of United!
We arrived home and everything looked good except for a leak under our master bath sink. We don't know how long it has been going on and could have been worse. Its time to call a plumber....bend over!
