saturday.
traveling was okay. the first flight departed from portland and went to seattle quickly. even though it was eight-thirty in the morning, there seemed to be a large number of people who were all consuming fritos for breakfast. there was a goal for the hour layover in seattle: get a refund. halfway through the first flight I realized that i was double charged for the baggage fees. no problem. alaska air issued a refund and made sure everything else was fine. the flight left seattle and it was time to head to hawaii.

i completely forgot the adapter for the iphone 7 to be able to use headphones for the movies i brought. the flight crew announced that they had tablets for rent to make the six hour flight easier. three movies later and the collected them for landing.

the kona international airport is neat. there aren’t really any walls. you land, then walk across the tarmac to a small cluster of open buildings. thirty seconds after you walk in, you’re out the other side at baggage claim next to the taxis.

after baggage was claimed, it was time for check-in at the hotel. hunger overcame us and there was a small place across the street that announced on their chalkboard sign how wonderful their happy hour specials were. happy hour was 12-6. we sat down and ordered mai-tais then saw someone from the tour. we had actually met two others from the tour after landing. we were all waiting for the bicycles to come out from baggage. we invited over the woman from the bar. her boyfriend was at the bike shop getting his bike. it was mentioned that his frame was too large for conventional bike bags, so he had shipped it. the bike shop had received it and put it together for him. she texted to see where he was, but he had made a pit stop at a bar along the way.

a few drinks later he arrived. we ordered some food, had another couple drinks and made plans for later. it was time to visit the pool and shed some of the heat that layered us. only being in kona for about five hours after traveling for the entire morning and losing three hours was beginning to take a toll on us. it turns out that we weren’t the only ones. the plans we made fell through due to exhaustion from everyone. this was the first early night of many to come.

portland’s iconic airport carpet.

captain milton will take us to seattle.

just a shot of the plane…smallest plane i’ve been on.

above the clouds between portland and seattle.

time to leave seattle.

first glimpse of hawaii.

i can see the ground!

flying along the horn of the big island.

one of the northeastern beaches on the big island.

now that we’re here, time for some photos.

we’re not actually waiting for a cab, this is the baggage claim area.

waiting for baggage & bicycles.

mai tai’s at the kona canoe club.

sera fell while facetiming her sister. the bruise was a nice way to start a bicycle tour.