Mammoth Doesn't Go to Hawaii Day 8, 9 and return

Sunday 8/15 and Monday 8/15 (seem to have lost a day again)

We had a predictably boring and inexpensive McDonald's breakfast. Yahoo. And then headed out for our big tour of the Waimia Canyon, supposed to rival the Grand Canyon in grandeur.

Nope. And it was crowded and grew more crowded as the drive went on.  The views were indeed pretty awesome, and if you'd hiked the trails and gradually experienced the unfolding of the canyon expanse as you climbed ever higher, it might have been quite an experience. But just to drive up, marvel a minute, climb over all the other people to snap a selfie...not worth it.

After our drive, we planned to go swimming in the condo's lovely pool, but never managed it. It was cloudy and a little chilly that day. Instead we took a short walk around the neighborhood and ended up finding "Baby Beach", one that I'd seen in the guidebook as okay for snorkeling. It didn't look all that great, though, and probably even less protected from the waves as the one nearer the hotel.

But dinner was good. We cleaned out the last of the poke in a little grocery store's deli counter, and dined quite well on it. I made a cucumber salad out of the leftovers from a few days earlier, but only after I put olive oil and cheap balsalmic vinegar on it did I remember my leftover ranch dressing. I put that on, too. Yummy and fattening.

Some random fruit

Baby beach and some flowers

Tuesday 8/16
Was leaving day, and we were a little at odds about what to do and where to go. One place we had to go for sure--Ed's hat was missing and he was pretty sure he left it at Daddy-O's restaurant on Sunday. They were closed on Monday, so I couldn't check, and on Tuesday morning when I started calling they never answered their phone. So we packed up and headed back there.

And yay-oh-hey--there it was!  Hat in hand, we went to a different place for breakfast. It wasn't all that good, either, and certainly not worth the half-hour wait. We both had a "fish omelet," which was okay, white rice, a morsel of soy sauce (aside: what's the point of "giving" you soy sauce if you are going to waste a plastic container and only put a half teaspoon in it?  How much would it really cost them just to put a bottle on the table? For crying out loud!)

The waitress tried to be nice, but she kept trying to upsell me a half papaya. When she originally offered it, I said, "Well, I love papaya but how much does it cost?" she didn't answer, so I shook my head,.  You think she'd get the hint, but later as she was taking one past our table, she stopped to show it to me?  If there had been a language issue, I'd have thought she thought I was asking "what does it look like?" rather than "what does it cost?"  Not likely.

After that there was nothing to do but kill time until the plane left. We blew some bucks at a little clothing shop in Lihue. The lady there was really nice and gave us the key to the restroom, so we didn't begrudge the expense.

 

Returning the car at Avis in the airport was a nightmare. There was absolutely no signage or directional arrows telling you where to turn or what to do. Luckily, it wasn't all that big a place. We stopped and asked, but even after being told where to go we couldn't figure it out.

It turned out that the problem was that they were overloaded with so many returns that the lots were full up and overflowing everywhere. We did eventually get a helpful lady who could check us in.

The airport was tiny, of course, and we had no problem getting to our gate. it was so crowded that we ended up sitting a couple of gates further down, where Ed drank an enormous Starbucks Calorio-chino and I played on my computer. Then we took a walk.

Bye!

The flight was, unfortunately, delayed by about half an hour. My original ticket had about 1-1/2 hours layover in LAX. Plenty of time to get from anywhere to anywhere in your typical airport. But after a flight change or two (not by our request!) and the delay, we ended up arriving at Terminal 4 with about three minutes to make a thirteen minute walk along an underground passageway to Terminal 5.  We hoofed it, and ended up at Terminal 5 just as they started boarding the group a couple of numbers before ours. We had time to visit the restroom and that was all.

No meal on this fight, either. American's "Airbus" flights used for trips under about six hours do not include a meal. We had some beef jerky sticks and trail mix in our backpacks and that was about it.

We arrived on time, more or less, and so hungry that we stopped at McDonald's on the way home. Whew.

Good trip, but it could have been better. I should have booked a boat trip or two. But still good.