missing aloha spirit

  We headed to Hawaii last Friday April 9th and had to get up at like 4 a.m. to get to the airport by our 7:00 flight.  Heading through security is always a joke with Mike's explosive knee (titanium knee) and the lines were super super long for that time in the morning.  our standing joke is how many hours do we have to be early so that Micky bob won't feel stressed and think that we aren't going to make our flight.  Funny how we are so opposite....i live in the moment enjoying the journey (most times) while he speculates so far down the road i wonder if I will meet him somewhere on the freeway  a hundred miles ahead of me...so we usually end up compromising (isn't that what marriage is all about?) and I end up getting a little less shut eye and he can live with the fact that we aren't running through the airport like some airline commercial....
  So we got to our US air terminal and got our tickets changed to first class!  the front row...whoot!
After a short flight of an hour, we arrived in Phoenix!  at 7:00 Kimberly (daughter's) time.  We had a two hour layover and then just when we thought, This is ridiculous....the lady came onto the intercom and said, that our PILOT had JUST called in SICK!  hmmm. sounds like a golf day to me!  So we had to wait almost 2 hours before they could round up another pilot who happened to just be hanging around wanting to fly abunch of sunburned (from the tanning beds) tourists to Hawaii!  We all applauded when he made his grand entrance onto the plane.  And so our final leg of the journey began...7 long hours worth...WHO REMEMBERED??? course we did go SOUTH one hour to Phoenix instead of WEST to LA or San Fran...so there you go...I did get a 3 seater row until a grammy sat by me when she discovered that her last row seat (in our ahem..first class section) didn't recline!  WEll, I must be a great
manifester, because there at the back across from her original seat was a whole row that didn't recline and that NOONE wanted,  DIBS!!! even though Micky bob was on the bulkhead with plenty of space, I opted to lay down with my 1/2 xanex to see IF I could sleep on a plane....lo and behold..NOPE....the 1/2 xanex did nauta...so I took thee OTHER half and experienced a little dizziness and I THINK I might have dozed off for a bit...cause that 7 hour flight sure went by fast!
Spying the island is always a thrill....out in the middle of nowhere LAND AHOY!  and then we were down and no leis for us!  but we did get our luggage and our rental convertible (black...I wanted red)  from Hertz...Priceline for $30.00 a day...bargain!
We headed to Costco to pile up on the fruit and granola for breakfast...fresh pineapples! watermelons, mango, fresh salmon and ahi....bargain buffet!

Up to Princeville we drove....such a green lush landscape...why did we stay away two years? We had stayed at the Cliffs last time.  We traded our Marriott for the Westin Resort, which was very lovely.
Our rooms....three rooms exactly, two bedrooms, and a kitchen, front room, dining...two washer driers..
we are spoiled were very well appointed...as the brochure says...the pools were wonderful, (we never dipped a toe in them) and the hot tubs looked very inviting.  ALas, we are beach bums and headed to Hanalei for the sunset view there.   We prayed our vacation would be on SLOW MO time....