Hawaii Adventure - Day 1 - 17 August 2012

We spent the morning packing and preparing for our trip—not like we haven’t been preparing for it over a year and a half.  We first got the idea when I looked at resort trades in Hawaii and saw one available on the Big Island.  We both decided to go for it.  Some time later we decided a trip to Hawaii needed to last longer than a week, so we looked for a Marriott hotel on Oahu where I could use all my Marriott points from travel plus the points from this past year’s Marriott Vacation Club.  We also decided early on that we would fly first class all the way.  That meant leaving from the Atlanta Airport.

2:30 pm - Our son, Cam, picked us up at our house and took us to EZRide Augusta (operated by Groome Transportation) where we waited for our 4 pm shuttle.  The ride was as uneventful as most trips are to Atlanta, especially since we were the only ones on the shuttle.  We chose to take the shuttle because it’s only $98 each and we don’t have to hassle with (or pay for) parking.  We sure appreciated Cam helping us out that way.  Because we wanted enough room for what we will buy in Hawaii, we both took two checked bags and a carry-on (plus personal items).  That turned out to be a lot of bags.  Fortunately, since we're flying first class, all of our bags are free.

6 pm – Our shuttle driver took us directly to our hotel instead of to the airport.  That was nice because it saved us getting the hotel shuttle and transferring all our bags from the Augusta shuttle to it.  Getting the bags from place to place posed more of a problem than I thought.  When we got to the hotel, I tried using the straps to connect bags together.  That did not work well.  The hotel staff suggested using their baggage cart—something I should have thought of before, but just didn’t.  We checked in our hotel and walked up the hill to Ruby Tuesday’s.  We were both pretty hungry and glad that the food was good.  That evening I decided two things—always use a baggage cart when we have to go any distance and try to think ahead better so our trip will be smoother.

9:30 pm – Get ready for bed.  Just as we were about ready to say prayers, we smelled what seemed to be a heater just turning on.  We couldn’t figure it out because we were using air conditioning.  It was summer in Georgia after all!  It turned out that I had my suitcase a little too close to the AC unit, so I figured it sensed it was going to freeze up so it turned on a little heating element.  I moved the suitcase and all was well for the rest of the night.