Sunday, February 15, 2004
Chris' Hawaiian Adventure
I set out early to get to Pearson Airport. Since my parents were on their way west toward Woodstock for the day anyway, I hitched a lift and got dropped off at Terminal 2 with plenty of time to spare. Customs and security always freak me out, especially after last May's incident with the caps I had forgotten about and inadvertently left in my backpack. Let's just say security was less than impressed with the passenger carrying gunpowder. Since then, I've even been quite afraid of airport security, as most of my packs have far too many pockets and zippers. I'm afraid I'm going to forget about something else that could mark me as a nogoodnik.
My flight to LAX left at 9:00 a.m., and I was lucky enough to get an aisle seat right near the bathrooms. That's especially fortunate, as I was taking the advice of Gareth at Strategic/Ampersand and chugging down a bottle of water the whole way there. The other passengers must've thought I had bladder problems. On the plane, I ended up sitting next to a woman and her twenty-something son. Both were bound for Maui, but while the son was only staying for a couple of weeks, the woman was going to be there on vacation for six weeks. Nice. They seemed to think my four-day round trip to Honolulu and back was a bit much, but what can I say? It's part of the job, and I frankly couldn't afford to extend my stay any longer.
On the flight to L.A., we watched the Russell Crowe movie Master & Commander, and while it was interesting, it was far from spectacular. In the end, there really wasn't much of a story, but the cannons and occasional fights made up for it a bit. Five hours-ish after take-off, I landed in the dreaded LAX airport. It's a good thing I had a couple of hours to get to Terminal 7 (from Terminal 3, as I recall), because that is one big, damn airport. When I went to visit Sony Online Entertainment last May before E3, I had to switch planes at LAX, and I had barely an hour to get across the airport to the commuter terminal. Not bloody fun, but I made it.
From Pearson to LAX, I was flying Air Canada, but the flight to Honolulu was a United plane. I think I prefer the way Air Canada jets are laid out. Also, the headphone jack on the United plane was a bit fucked up, and I didn't really understand the majority of the dialogue in the movie Radio. At least I got the gist of the conversations, though, so I was still able to follow the movie.
Honolulu. Since I was in the middle of the plane, I couldn't see a damn thing as we swooped out of the sky. It would've been nice to have seen the islands as we plummeted toward the airport, but alas, I can only hope I'll have a better seat on the way out when I leave on Friday afternoon.
There's a five-hour difference between Honolulu and Toronto, and we landed at 6:00 p.m. Honolulu time. Do the math, and you'll realize it was feeling like 11:00 p.m. to me. Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep at all on the plane, and by the time I got to the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, I was too exhausted to sleep.
Next time, I'll tell you about my quick jaunt on the beach and the cover band that played alt-rock tunes with a Hawaiian rhythm.
My flight to LAX left at 9:00 a.m., and I was lucky enough to get an aisle seat right near the bathrooms. That's especially fortunate, as I was taking the advice of Gareth at Strategic/Ampersand and chugging down a bottle of water the whole way there. The other passengers must've thought I had bladder problems. On the plane, I ended up sitting next to a woman and her twenty-something son. Both were bound for Maui, but while the son was only staying for a couple of weeks, the woman was going to be there on vacation for six weeks. Nice. They seemed to think my four-day round trip to Honolulu and back was a bit much, but what can I say? It's part of the job, and I frankly couldn't afford to extend my stay any longer.
On the flight to L.A., we watched the Russell Crowe movie Master & Commander, and while it was interesting, it was far from spectacular. In the end, there really wasn't much of a story, but the cannons and occasional fights made up for it a bit. Five hours-ish after take-off, I landed in the dreaded LAX airport. It's a good thing I had a couple of hours to get to Terminal 7 (from Terminal 3, as I recall), because that is one big, damn airport. When I went to visit Sony Online Entertainment last May before E3, I had to switch planes at LAX, and I had barely an hour to get across the airport to the commuter terminal. Not bloody fun, but I made it.
From Pearson to LAX, I was flying Air Canada, but the flight to Honolulu was a United plane. I think I prefer the way Air Canada jets are laid out. Also, the headphone jack on the United plane was a bit fucked up, and I didn't really understand the majority of the dialogue in the movie Radio. At least I got the gist of the conversations, though, so I was still able to follow the movie.
Honolulu. Since I was in the middle of the plane, I couldn't see a damn thing as we swooped out of the sky. It would've been nice to have seen the islands as we plummeted toward the airport, but alas, I can only hope I'll have a better seat on the way out when I leave on Friday afternoon.
There's a five-hour difference between Honolulu and Toronto, and we landed at 6:00 p.m. Honolulu time. Do the math, and you'll realize it was feeling like 11:00 p.m. to me. Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep at all on the plane, and by the time I got to the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, I was too exhausted to sleep.
Next time, I'll tell you about my quick jaunt on the beach and the cover band that played alt-rock tunes with a Hawaiian rhythm.
// posted by Chris @ 12:28 PM 
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