cblaisd
May 7, 07, 12:41 am
Due to the wild popular acclaim (perhaps that’s an exaggeration) for last year’s trip report on the annual Boy’s Drive Through the Desert – or Tried To (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=554482) (or, as one poster calls it, The Annual Mancation (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7043914&postcount=2)), let me offer up this year’s report for your no-doubt even wilder acclaim.
DAY 1 Mrs. cblaisd had an afternoon meeting in HNL, so we both flew there in the morning. I rented a car (total cost, thanks to a trade with an Fter, ~$3.00), dropped her at her meeting, and then went to check in at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (http://www.hiltonhawaiianvillage.com/index_flash.asp). The good news is that we had been once again upgraded to a fabulous high-floor, corner room in the Rainbow Tower; the bad news was that the room wasn’t yet available. So I left my bag with the bellman and walked to the Wailana Coffee Shop (http://onokinegrindz.typepad.com/ono_kine_grindz/2005/01/wailana_coffee_.html) to meet a friend for lunch. (For those staying at the HHV, the Wailana is a five minute walk and a Honolulu institution where you can see every kind :) ) Felt like breakfast and had an excellent waffle, bacon, and milk. ^ Room was then ready, so I checked in and soon was met by Mrs. cblaisd (who a fellow meeting attender dropped off at the hotel). We didn’t feel like going out for dinner, but didn’t feel like paying HHV room service prices either so we tried Room Service in Paradise (http://www.rsiponline.com/). A decent alternative indeed. Mrs. cblaisd’s salad from California Kitchen was excellent. My pizza was very flavorful (but cold :( ). Unfortunately, HHV doesn’t let them deliver to the room, so you have to go down and meet them curbside at the lobby.
DAY 2 I have an 8:10 a.m. flight on HA to LAX. So I leave the hotel at 5:45 a.m. (missing, unfortunately, one of my favorite things about the HHV, the breakfast buffet at the Rainbow Lanai). Wanted to use my Diamond free breakfast cert at the Tapa Tower café (the only restaurant that opens at 5:30 a.m.) but the line was already a dozen deep. Despite a slight hitch in getting back to the airport (took a slightly new route and ran into a closed exit on H-1) was back at the Hertz drop-off at HNL by 6:15, and then shuttled to the terminal. I had used 15K HA miles to upgrade to F. I love flying F on HA. The FAs are always cheerful and the sense of ‘ohana is strong as numerous pax greeted FAs they knew. HA has a new menu and new headphones in F. (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=688496) The food was excellent (especially the chocolate dipped giant macaroon!). The DigEPlayers are nice too, and are now actually usable with the over-the-years headphones (instead of the previous awful earbuds). Flight was a few minutes early arriving at LAX. Terminal 2 at LAX just gets nastier landside every day. Dirty, tired, old. Ugh.
Shuttled to the Hampton Inn LAX where I got a high floor room in perfect position to watch landings on 25R. Was then picked up by two old friends from high school (both the friendships are old – and so are we :D ), one of whom I hadn’t seen in 20+ years. We went to In-N-Out Burger (http://www.in-n-out.com/) (I had been counting the hours!) and talked and talked. Good grindz and good conversation. Back to the Hampton and 4:00 a.m. comes early for my 6:00 a.m. flight. At that Hampton, the shuttle runs from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., but 5 a.m. was too late for my tastes and stress level ;) But the hotel will pay for a taxi outside of shuttle hours. ^ So I set up a 4:40 a.m. taxi with the front desk and headed for bed.
DAY 3 Given how much I hate being late or having to run through airports, when the alarm went off at 4:00 a.m. I called the front desk and asked them to change my cab to 4:30 a.m. The night manager said that he would have the shuttle drive me. Cheaper for the hotel and good customer service! The flight today is on UA, so the driver drops me at T6. Thank goodness for the elite check-in. There were probably two dozen people in line for it, but at least 200 in the non-elite line. Ugh. Was at the gate in plenty of time and my stress-o-meter didn’t have to go into the red. I had originally booked LAX-DEN-ORD-STL because on the day I booked the LAX-DEN-STL routing was $400 more expensive. Settled into 1J on the two-class 777 and push was on-time and taxi took awhile (if you look on the LAX website, you’ll find that something like 40 flights have a 6:00 a.m. departure time!). Took off over the ocean, of course and then turned back west, direct LAS as our first clearance. When we got to 18,000 feet I took out my new toy, my Mio handheld GPS (GPSs are allowed on UA). It was fascinating to watch our route and identify the tiny towns below. Very good breakfast, great FAs (all the FAs on this trip, on every flight, were simply great). Arrived at DEN and went to the gate where the DEN-STL flight was departing. Asked the agent if I could “cut the corner” (because I needed a nap before the board meeting I was going to started at 6pm, and if I could take the non-ORD routing I could get a couple of hours of hotel time). The agent was great, and got me the last F seat. Flight was fine, typical UA short-haul flight. Picked up my rental car (using the 25% off weekend days link from Hertz ^) and drove to the Doubletree Westport. (Part of what I used this trip for was to requalify for HHonors Diamond – 10 stays in 90 days. One of the wonderful things about the Hhonors program is that even award stays count for such challenges :) )
Managed, indeed, to get a couple of hours of nap at the Doubletree and then was off to my board meeting at a retreat center in Frontenac.
DAY 1 Mrs. cblaisd had an afternoon meeting in HNL, so we both flew there in the morning. I rented a car (total cost, thanks to a trade with an Fter, ~$3.00), dropped her at her meeting, and then went to check in at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (http://www.hiltonhawaiianvillage.com/index_flash.asp). The good news is that we had been once again upgraded to a fabulous high-floor, corner room in the Rainbow Tower; the bad news was that the room wasn’t yet available. So I left my bag with the bellman and walked to the Wailana Coffee Shop (http://onokinegrindz.typepad.com/ono_kine_grindz/2005/01/wailana_coffee_.html) to meet a friend for lunch. (For those staying at the HHV, the Wailana is a five minute walk and a Honolulu institution where you can see every kind :) ) Felt like breakfast and had an excellent waffle, bacon, and milk. ^ Room was then ready, so I checked in and soon was met by Mrs. cblaisd (who a fellow meeting attender dropped off at the hotel). We didn’t feel like going out for dinner, but didn’t feel like paying HHV room service prices either so we tried Room Service in Paradise (http://www.rsiponline.com/). A decent alternative indeed. Mrs. cblaisd’s salad from California Kitchen was excellent. My pizza was very flavorful (but cold :( ). Unfortunately, HHV doesn’t let them deliver to the room, so you have to go down and meet them curbside at the lobby.
DAY 2 I have an 8:10 a.m. flight on HA to LAX. So I leave the hotel at 5:45 a.m. (missing, unfortunately, one of my favorite things about the HHV, the breakfast buffet at the Rainbow Lanai). Wanted to use my Diamond free breakfast cert at the Tapa Tower café (the only restaurant that opens at 5:30 a.m.) but the line was already a dozen deep. Despite a slight hitch in getting back to the airport (took a slightly new route and ran into a closed exit on H-1) was back at the Hertz drop-off at HNL by 6:15, and then shuttled to the terminal. I had used 15K HA miles to upgrade to F. I love flying F on HA. The FAs are always cheerful and the sense of ‘ohana is strong as numerous pax greeted FAs they knew. HA has a new menu and new headphones in F. (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=688496) The food was excellent (especially the chocolate dipped giant macaroon!). The DigEPlayers are nice too, and are now actually usable with the over-the-years headphones (instead of the previous awful earbuds). Flight was a few minutes early arriving at LAX. Terminal 2 at LAX just gets nastier landside every day. Dirty, tired, old. Ugh.
Shuttled to the Hampton Inn LAX where I got a high floor room in perfect position to watch landings on 25R. Was then picked up by two old friends from high school (both the friendships are old – and so are we :D ), one of whom I hadn’t seen in 20+ years. We went to In-N-Out Burger (http://www.in-n-out.com/) (I had been counting the hours!) and talked and talked. Good grindz and good conversation. Back to the Hampton and 4:00 a.m. comes early for my 6:00 a.m. flight. At that Hampton, the shuttle runs from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., but 5 a.m. was too late for my tastes and stress level ;) But the hotel will pay for a taxi outside of shuttle hours. ^ So I set up a 4:40 a.m. taxi with the front desk and headed for bed.
DAY 3 Given how much I hate being late or having to run through airports, when the alarm went off at 4:00 a.m. I called the front desk and asked them to change my cab to 4:30 a.m. The night manager said that he would have the shuttle drive me. Cheaper for the hotel and good customer service! The flight today is on UA, so the driver drops me at T6. Thank goodness for the elite check-in. There were probably two dozen people in line for it, but at least 200 in the non-elite line. Ugh. Was at the gate in plenty of time and my stress-o-meter didn’t have to go into the red. I had originally booked LAX-DEN-ORD-STL because on the day I booked the LAX-DEN-STL routing was $400 more expensive. Settled into 1J on the two-class 777 and push was on-time and taxi took awhile (if you look on the LAX website, you’ll find that something like 40 flights have a 6:00 a.m. departure time!). Took off over the ocean, of course and then turned back west, direct LAS as our first clearance. When we got to 18,000 feet I took out my new toy, my Mio handheld GPS (GPSs are allowed on UA). It was fascinating to watch our route and identify the tiny towns below. Very good breakfast, great FAs (all the FAs on this trip, on every flight, were simply great). Arrived at DEN and went to the gate where the DEN-STL flight was departing. Asked the agent if I could “cut the corner” (because I needed a nap before the board meeting I was going to started at 6pm, and if I could take the non-ORD routing I could get a couple of hours of hotel time). The agent was great, and got me the last F seat. Flight was fine, typical UA short-haul flight. Picked up my rental car (using the 25% off weekend days link from Hertz ^) and drove to the Doubletree Westport. (Part of what I used this trip for was to requalify for HHonors Diamond – 10 stays in 90 days. One of the wonderful things about the Hhonors program is that even award stays count for such challenges :) )
Managed, indeed, to get a couple of hours of nap at the Doubletree and then was off to my board meeting at a retreat center in Frontenac.