Jess’s trip to Hawaii was long but uneventful. She didn’t manage to get a hoped-for upgrade on the flight from JFK to LAX, but her bulkhead exit row seat provided plenty of legroom and she managed a short nap. Unfortunately, her flight from LAX to HNL was less pleasant, due to the large number of small children aboard. While most of them were admirably well behaved, the combination of two crying infants and an excited 2 year old (who didn’t seem to have an indoor voice) made further napping impossible. Her flight arrived at HNL right on time, but that’s when things started to go awry.
Jess had a bit of trouble finding the Alamo pick-up location, but eventually the shuttle stopped and took her to the car rental lot. She handed over her credit card and picked out a black Hyundai Elantra. She followed the directions of the car rental clerk to get the H1 West, which would connect to the H2 North (the road to the North Shore, where the rented house was located). Unfortunately, the clerk made a mistake, and Jess ended up seriously lost in the residential neighborhoods of Honolulu. After nearly an hour of trying to find the right road, she happened upon salvation, in the form of a fire station. As expected, the firemen were both solicitious and helpful, and they managed to give her simple, clear directions that got her to the H2. Yay! It wasn’t all smooth sailing from there, as the H2 ended abruptly at Rte. 99, but that ended up being the road she needed.
Once she reached Haleiwa, the main town on the North Shore, she knew she was close. When she passed the landmarks she’d been told to expect, she called Jer and he came outside to guide her to the right driveway. The trip from the airport took Jess 2 hours, not the 45-60 minutes it should have taken, and she was an exhausted wreck when she finally got there, so Jer tucked her right into bed.