Wednesday, Thursday Seattle to Hawaii

Wednesday
After a leisurely morning we headed out for a walk to the Village; had a good coffee at Tulleys, then walked around the shops a bit Got a camera case to replace the one I left under the seat at the Convention Centre; then we went to Barnes and Noble and Graham bought the book again that he'd bought in Gatlinburg and then left on the plane at Denver! We're not doing too badly, though; after 4 weeks on the road, those two items have been the only casualties. To finish off a lazy afternoon sitting on the back porch talking, we took another walk to the Village and then across to the beautiful park that's a local outdoor activity centre. All the trees and gardents are beautiful with their springtime colours. I like the “messy” style of garden that a lot of people have. In the evening, Bob and Joanne King, who we first me t when they came to Sydney 10 years ago, came for dinner. Barb cooked a delicious meal which was, of course, accompanied by some rather nice red liquid: first the wine, then the port. So lovely to catch up with them and then pray before they left; Bob and Graham even worked out how to take a time delay picture so we could all be in it.
Thursday
Up very early to be at the airport in time to try to get better seats on the plane; it's a 6 hour flight, so we wanted to be a bit more comfortable than the middle bank seats we'd been allocated. Got the exit row - :)
Couldn't get free wireless at the airport, but we didn't have all that long to wait anyway. No-one gives you meals on domestic flights anymore, but Barb fixed us a packed lunch. Hawaiian is a nice airline to fly with – very friendly. We've booked our taxi from the airport, so we should be at our hotel without too much hassle. The surprise was that not only did we get a snack with our drinks, we also got a complementary “breakfast nacho” which was rather nice, plus a chocholate muffin.
So … here we are in Hawaii! The limo that Ann and Carl told us to book was indeed a stretch limo – very nice; somewhat pricey though, so we'll do the shuttle on the way back to the airport. It's hot and humid. The hotel is very nice, with a kitchenette; we're on the 23rd floor and can see Waikiki beach from here, just at the other side of the block in front of ours. We needed some supplies, so we caught a bus to Ala Moana Centre: a huge mall where we'll go and shop tomorrow for real; for tonight we bought most of the food stuff we think we'll need here in the room. Fun doing the trip, although we had to wait wait forever for the bus back to the hotel. Just had some nice wine and very nice cheese.