Friday, October 4: Oahu to Los Angeles to San Jose to Carmel
Is Richard Simmons a good omen or a bad omen?
Even if everything had gone exactly on time, I still would have only had an hour to get my luggage from one terminal and check in at another. But at 6 a.m. on a Friday morning, how many people can be at the airport?
I managed to catch somewhere around 3 of hours of sleep on the plane. I practically flew out the door where the Continental flight arrived after I got my luggage, and was lucky that the shuttle bus was right there. And fortunately I didn't have to wait very long to get to the next stop, but it still took time. It was there that I found myself in line at Southwest at 5:50 a.m. asking the gate agent if there was enough time for me to make the 6:05. I got an "are you serious?" look but he said he'd do his best to help me, then he slapped a "late" tag on the bags. Just in case I didn't make it, I had already made a backup plan. Vanessa was driving in from San Francisco to San Jose to pick me up around 7:30, and I'd call her if I didn't make my flight. The next one was only an hour later, so we still had plenty of time to get to Carmel by 3 pm.
With less than 10 minutes to make the flight, I ran through the terminal with my laptop bag and my regular carryon. I knew I'd have to take the laptop out of the case to send it through the x-ray machine, so that would eat up another minute. Then came the most bizarre incident of the trip – there was Richard Simmons in the Southwest terminal, heading for North Carolina (I overheard him talking to the security guard). Even while traveling privately, he had his red windbreaker and running shorts on. I looked for something to get his autograph (my camera was packed in my carryon, I wouldn't be able to get it out in time) but by the time I thought of something (my e-ticket receipt) he was already down the hall and I couldn't spare time to run after him. I had to run to my own destination. Amazingly, I made it to my gate – the closest one! – with about a minute to spare. The gate agent closed the door behind me as I went down the jetway. We left at 6:05 for the hourlong flight to San Jose.
Jet lagged (my body thought it was 4 a.m. in Hawaii) and with little sleep, I staggered out of the plane in San Jose, got my luggage, and waited for Vanessa to show up. Brrr! It's certainly colder than Honolulu.
This California leg actually drove my trip itinerary. I wanted to be in Carmel on Friday 10/4 for the wedding, which meant that I'd either have to make it the start of the trip (which would then run through October 27th) or put it at the end (which would have meant starting in mid-September). Due to airline schedules and prices, it would be more expensive in October but I'd get more time in Australia with no stopovers in Hawaii, or it would be cheaper in September but I'd have less time in Australia with a couple days in Hawaii. The desire to pack more stuff to do and more places and do it on less money won out. So Vanessa had spent the previous day in San Francisco – the hurricane we had worried about earlier in the week never threatened the Houston area – and we arranged that she'd pick me up at the airport, we'd drive to Carmel, and split the cost of the rental car and share a B&B. (Vanessa worked with me from 1988-89 in my first job, and if someone had told us back then that we'd be sharing a bed & breakfast in Carmel in 2002, we would have said they were crazy!)
It even worked out, too. It was nice to see a familiar face for the first time in 20 days. We piled the luggage into the car and drove south on 101 to Gilroy (taking the scenic route through town), hanging a right towards Monterey Bay, finally picking up the Pacific Coast Highway at Watsonville. The PCH leads directly into Carmel, so we checked into the B&B and I crashed for a couple hours while Vanessa went shopping. She got the big queen-size bed, I got the twin in the other room. She got back and woke me at 1 pm, time to get dressed and head to the Carmel Mission for the wedding. After carrying my suit around for nearly 3 weeks in my suitcase and hanging in various closets across the globe, I finally get to use my suit!
Even though it cost me a couple of days in Australia, I’m glad that I was able to arrange my schedule to be there for the wedding. Had this not neatly coincided with my trip, I would have stayed the extra two days in Sydney, leaving on Thursday morning (according to the calendar, that’s yesterday, but according to my body clock, who knows?) for Hawaii. That would have gotten me in Wednesday night, leaving Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to explore the islands. Maybe even Sunday, depending on flight schedules and how much time I was going to take to recover and unpack (yeah, like I would be able to do all that in just one day). But I can (in theory) go back to Australia any time, you can’t really say “I’ll catch your next wedding” to a good friend. Not if you want them to remain a good friend, that is.
Epilogue
I totaled up all of the numbers for the trip (except for the cost) because I'm a geek.
Trivia/By the Numbers
From
|
to
|
time
|
miles
|
notes
|
IAH
|
HNL
|
7:45
|
3917
|
Houston to Honolulu
|
HNL
|
SYD
|
9:30
|
5086
|
Sydney
|
SYD
|
CNS
|
3:00
|
1223
|
Cairns
|
CNS
|
LZR*
|
n/a
|
0150
|
boat to Lizard Island
|
LZR*
|
CTN
|
n/a
|
0057
|
boat from Lizard Island to Cooktown
|
CTN
|
CNS
|
0:45
|
0132
|
Cairns
|
CNS
|
ASP
|
2:45
|
0907
|
Alice Springs
|
ASP
|
AYQ
|
n/a
|
0289
|
bus to Ayer's Rock/Uluru/Yulara
|
AYQ
|
SYD
|
2:30
|
1462
|
Sydney
|
SYD
|
HNL
|
9:00
|
5191
|
Honolulu
|
HNL
|
HNL
|
n/a
|
0120
|
rental car
|
HNL
|
LAX
|
5:00
|
2556
|
Los Angeles
|
LAX
|
SJC
|
1:00
|
0293
|
San Jose
|
SJC
|
MRY*
|
n/a
|
0069
|
rental car to Monterrey
|
MRY*
|
SJC
|
n/a
|
0069
|
rental car back to San Jose
|
SJC
|
LAX
|
1:00
|
0293
|
change planes in LA
|
LAX
|
IAH
|
4:00
|
1379
|
back to Houston
|
------
|
--------
| |||
46:15
|
22439
|
(air) + 207 (sea) + 547 (land) = 23193
|
22439 miles/46.25 hours = 485 mph avg airspeed
(* I didn't actually fly into LZR or MRY, but they are real airport codes, and it made it easy for bookkeeping.)
Modes of transportation:
- Land: Car/Van (mine, shuttle, taxi, rental), Bus (public transport, airport shuttle, coach), Train, Monorail, Camel
- Nights: Cairns (1x), Alice Springs (3x), Yulara (2x), Sydney (5x), Waikiki (3x), Carmel (2x), Houston
- Sea: Boat (dive, ferry)
- Nights: dive boat (4x)
- Air: Plane, Skyway
- Airports: IAH, HNL, SYD, CNS, CTN, ASP, AYQ, LAX, SJC
- Airlines: Continental, Qantas, Skytrans, Southwest
- Planes: 747 (2x), 767 (3x), 737 (4x), Cessna 310, BAe146 Avro RJ
- IAH-HNL 747-200
- HNL-SYD 767-400
- SYD-CNS 767-338
- CTN-CNS Cessna 310,
- CNS-ASP BAe146 Avro RJ,
- AYQ-SYD 737-800,
- SYD-HNL 747-338,
- HNL-LAX 767-400,
- LAX-SJC 737,
- SJC-LAX 737,
- LAX-IAH 737-700)
- Nights: plane HNL-SYD (1x), HNL-LAX (1x)
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