This Blog Is Costing Me Four Dollars

Greetings from Hawaii. My sixteen hour journey here has finally reached its end. Sixteen hours, you ask? Yes, allow me to elaborate.

I started out in Phoenix this morning with a flight that was delayed by two hours. Southwest put me on an earlier flight to Las Vegas, leaving me with a longer layover there than originally planned. The plane in Las Vegas sat on the tarmac for two hours while mechanics fixed the auto pilot (pretty important, I would imagine), and I finally got to Honolulu at 8pm Hawaii time.

Once here, barely knowing where I was going, I missed my exit and meandered down to Waikiki, basically following the lights of the hotels at the bottom of the hill. The address I had been given for my hotel put it between two streets, but I drove past twice (on a one way street, no less), no hotel to be found. I called my boss who indicated the hotel was off a side street opposite of another hotel that looks like a plantation. I found this street, found a Sheraton hotel, but was told by the guy working the curb that I had the wrong Sheraton. I was redirected back to where the address on my reservation indicated, turning south this time instead of north, and found the Sheraton Waikiki. The lady at the curb there told me I was in the right place and gave me instructions on finding a place to park, which took about 20 minutes. I made my way to the lobby only to be told I was reserved for the hotel I was originally at. To add insult to injury, I had to pay two dollars to get my car out of the parking lot. After it was all said and done, I found my room at about midnight local time, and am getting up in about five hours to a) try and find where I parked the car, b) try and find where my first customer is tomorrow morning.

Ironically, the hotel is right across the road from King's Village, a little shopping area that I remember going to when I was here with my parents nearly twenty years ago. I also in my meanderings came across a statue that Emily and I took pictures of two years ago when we rode the bus system around town. Familiar, and yet oh so UNfamiliar.

I will post pictures when the sun comes up, there is no wireless in my room, which is a wee bit prohibitive to me doing my job while here, but for four dollars every two hours for internet access in the lobby, I'm set to take care of business. That's a veritable bargain compared to $3.39 a gallon gas and $14 club sandwiches from room service.

Aloha!