Preparing to leave

Mary and I went to Mike and Shirley’s for New Years last night. It was exactly a year ago, now, that we decided to be in Hawaii this time in 2009. We missed our goal by 1 week because of resort availability. Not bad.

Mike has done a great job getting our plane reservations. There is some confusion and uncertainty, though because of 2 big picture things. First Northwest Airlines in the middle of consolidating operations with Delta who purchased them. We originally booked with Northwest. They are changing routes and schedules and our reservations have changed a couple times. When we checked last night, the phone information system had a different return for us from the email itinerary that we received. We will need to reconcile this.

Second, some idiot tried to attack a flight on Christmas day. Though it was clearly the fault of the bureaucrats for not keeping this known threat (his father had turned him in) all airline passengers are being punished by tightening up security procedures. In my opinion, I am in much more danger riding in a car than flying, so why all the panic? Humans are quite irrational sometimes.

I am about to pack. I don’t know exactly what I want to take. Of course, I have around 36 hours to figure it out, so no rush, yet! (smile)

I am most interested in the natural environment of Hawaii and in a virtual tie, is to taste lots of food, especially fruit and seafood. I look forward to hearing some local Hawaiian slack Key guitar players. I am writing this here so I can compare my expectations with what we actually do. Of course, meeting new people and meeting up with some NFB acquaintances will be gratifying, as well.

The next entry will probably be from Hawaii on the 4th or so.