1/16/99 Pt 2: Took off from Narita Airport late in the day on January 16th for an overnight flight to Honolulu… But, somewhere over the middle of the Pacific, we crossed the International Date Line with a 220mph tail wind, and arrived in Honolulu ahead of schedule in the early morning of January 16th! We get to live the same day over, but in an entirely new location… What is even stranger, our second January 16, was our 300th day of travel… As we were going through customs, we found ourselves being eyed suspiciously by the agents. With all of the extra luggage full of gifts and goodies, I am sure that they suspected us of trying to surreptitiously import a pile of goods for re-sale… Right before we had to start unloading all of the carefully packed souvenirs, we were thrilled to see Auntie Shirley stroll up… She is Ruth’s father’s youngest sister, and also happens to be a high-ranking US Customs Agent in Honolulu… So, without explanation, she told the other agents to let us close up the suitcases, and whisked us through the line… She delivered us straight to curb-side pick up where Uncle Al was waiting to drive us home to freshen up and take a nap… Auntie Shirley arrived home from work around 1:00pm so we all went out for Hawaiian style hamburgers, and then they drove us around Ford Island, a military base in Pearl Harbor… This place is normally off limits to regular tourists, but Uncle Al is a retired Air Force Colonel, so he didn’t even have to stop his car at the gate… In fact, he even was saluted by the guard as we drove past… Their daughter-in-law works for one of the airlines, and arranged discounted tickets for our flight to Maui, so after a wonderful, but too short afternoon with Uncle Al & Auntie Shirley, they drove us back to the airport and saw us off to the Valley Isle… Kathy, a childhood friend of Ruth’s, picked us up at Kahului Airport with her new one year old son Micah… We haven’t been back to Maui in three years, so this was the first time we got to meet him… I have a feeling that he could have waited to meet me, at least. On the way to Kathy’s house, we stopped to get some groceries, and I stayed out in the car with Micah while Ruth and Kathy went inside. He was placid for all of two and a half minutes, then looked at me and realized he really didn’t know about me, so he began wailing inconsolably… Also new to us was the newly completed home that she and her husband Todd (another childhood friend of Ruth’s) had built… They had just begun the building process when we last visited three years ago, and now it is this big beautiful home on two sprawling acres. They made us a lovely dinner of grilled chicken, with cherry pie for dessert… We were given our own bedroom and bathroom upstairs. Living two days in one is exhausting, so when once we hit the sack, I was out cold…
NOTE: The photo above shows Ruth with her Aunt Shirley and Uncle Al, as we prepare to fly from Honolulu to Maui, Hawai’i.
