Made it! Feb 9, 2026

 Early wake up, uneventful drive to Las Vegas Airport.

Almost on-time flight.

Large plane--8 seats across, Airbus 330, we were in the Center section. It was pretty cramped, but at least Mike got an Isle seat. We read and snoozed. The movie selections were pretty small, so reading and snoozing was fine for us. 

Stuff headwinds put us there 30 min late, but we've got nothing to do for quite a while. 

It's windy and "cool" by Hawaii standards. It felt good to me because I'm wearing warm travel clothes for cool airplanes and cool airports. 

The HNL airport has changed and grown a LOT. We found the transit station for the Sky Line train system being built. Bought our one week Holo card pass, hopped a bus to Waikiki -- WITH our luggage! Everything is ready said you couldn't take luggage on board City buses, but you can. Got off one stop too early in Waikiki. Oops. Wandered around in the rain sprinkles, finally got some help and directions from a local. But the maps on my phone were okay. I just mixed up the canals we crossed over on the bus, and the greenery by a park. We were close. But we walked a lot.

We found our place just in time. It started to rain and blow MUCH harder after we arrived in the protected, but open air lobby. I walked, because Mike was more tired and sore than me, to find food. I opted to NOT buy Subway Sandwiches, but bought an appetizer at the Waikiki Brewery --coconut shrimp and fries, to go.  We enjoyed that, plus a pretty darn good egg roll from 7 Eleven around the corner.

We obtained our two room keys from the lock boxes in the lobby, it's past our check in time, and WE CANT GET THE KEYS TO WORK!!

We have been awake since 2:45 am Mountain time with only a few cat naps, walked 3 miles between Airport shenanigans and bus rout snafu( we will get better at theBus), and we are TIRED.

Awaiting a callback from mgmt co.

But Mike encouraged me to go rattle some chains. The lock battery had a red light, so the battery was dead. After about 40 minutes of waiting, maintenance finally came, let us in, and replaced the battery. We are in for the night, I think!

I forgot to pack an umbrella. Double oops. But this wind would have blown it inside out in no time. I think we are good with watching the rain from our little studio with everything we might need in it. Well, except food. Ha! 

Rainy view of the mountains. The Ala Wai canal is right across the street from us. Counts as "Water View" suite. Haha. It ( the room) is cozy and clean. Welp. I take that back. Mike's socks say something else about the clean-LOOKING flooring!

Entry door is in the hall on the left of "Kitchen".

The first thing I did was open the drapes! We are on the 18th floor, but siren sounds still come in loud and clear from the streets.

Rainy view toward the ocean.

A Jack Wyland whale wall very close by.

I wish I could bring the rain and water home with me. I wonder if I'll be able to sleep through the sounds of the whistling wind through the windows if this howling wind keeps up? These windows actually look like they open! They are quite noisy in the blustery wind.

One fun thing we did NOT get to do in Nevada was mail out two Valentine cards to Colorado Grandkids who are trying to collect a Valentine from all 50 states. We started looking and asked seriously about mail drop boxes AFTER we went through security. They recently moved the drop boxes to BEFORE the security checkpoint, so we missed our chance. However, the kind Lady at the airport change booth for the slot machines said ,"Yes" when I tossed her the two stamped, addressed Valentine's and said, would YOU mail them for me, Please? She said the post office was on her way home. I stopped at Ethel M's chocolates and bought her some candy as a thank you and took it back to her change booth. 

So, if Katie's kids DONT get any Valentine cards from Las Vegas, NV, it's because the change lady forgot.