The flight home would be about an hour faster since we had
the jet stream at our tail. It would also be unexceptional because it was a
night flight. The penalty for going to Hawaii was to endure a night of lost
sleep and a huge heaping helping of jet lag on the way home. If you have to do
it though a red eye is the way to go.
Terri found us seats in front of the bulkhead. This
wasn’t as advantageous as I hoped because I actually had more leg room in the
other seats. I did however have a commanding view of the first class section.
The fussing over those passengers was nonstop for the whole flight. Some day I
got to fly first class. In this particular case though coach was a better
choice, because at least we were left alone to sleep.
I came close to dozing
and I think I was in something resembling a restful state for about three
hours. The cabin was kept very dark. We had center seats. There was nothing to
see out the window anyhow, so it made no difference.
Our wakeup call was way before we were ready for it, but I
was up before dawn anyhow unable to fein sleep any longer. Actually it
wasn’t even dawn when we landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International airport. It
was about 6:30 AM and it was raining. Under the circumstances though we were
reasonably awake. We did make a dash to try to catch an earlier flight to
Dulles, the one we were originally on. They were boarding as we arrived and
seemed amenable to putting us on that flight. But we thought better of it since
Terri packed our coats in a suitcase. Most likely our bags would have arrived
later anyhow.
DFW has a subway that gets you between terminals. These
mega airports are all starting to look the same to me. Something resembling
daylight emerged from the gloom. I picked up a copy of the local newspaper and
was surprised to find it was a real newspaper: not another McPaper with 90% of
the articles off the AP wire.
Our last connection left around 9:30 AM. I thought we’d
be on a 737 since that’s the plane we took out, but this was an MD-80 and we
were put near the very back of the plane. By this point all we wanted to do was
sleep. Unfortunately we had a very talkative captain who wanted to let us know
every landmark we were passing over. And there was a very loud speaker right
above our seats. So we’d doze or try to for a few minutes they come instantly
awake with another bulletin from the captain. The loquacious captain made sure
to thank us on the way out of the plane. I told him it has been quite a while
since I had flown with such a talkative pilot. Fortunately I said it in a nice
way, but I wasn’t feeling too nice.
But finally we were back. At least it was sunny in
Washington, but temperatures in the high 30s were a rude reminder that we
weren’t in paradise anymore. Our bags were delayed for a very long time.
Fortunately there was no wait for cabs and we were home by 2 PM.
Rosie at least was glad to be home. I wasn’t. I’m sure
we’ll be back to Hawaii again. I was surprised how much I liked the place, and
I am not a lover of the tropics. I can see myself possibly even retiring there.
It was a good low stress vacation and just what we needed. Kicking our rears in
gear has been the challenge since we arrived. If only Washington could learn to
do Hawaiian time!
Hope you enjoyed our story!
Mark