I was torn, should I visit France or Hawaii this summer? Both places were equally important for me to visit. If I decided on Hawaii then I could meet up with Daniel during his month long internship at Big Island Farms in Hawaii. If I visited France then I’d be able to see Paris perform in Fontainebleau with the Arizona Ambassadors of Music. Since I’m lucky to have flight discounts, instead of choosing one destination I decided to visit both locations or at least try to accomplish visiting both.
I’ll admit that there was a certain level of nervousness with the magnitude of planning this adventure. After all I was attempting to fly halfway around the world to visit 2 different places. Destination number one was an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Destination number 2 is one the most popular summer destinations in Europe, Paris. I love adventure though, so I thought to myself, BRING IT ON!
June 20, 2019
The day had come for me to set out on my adventure. The first leg of my trip would be to fly almost 3000 miles from Arizona to Kona, Hawaii for a 4 night stay on the Big Island. The second part of my trip would be a nighttime departure from Kona to Newark to catch a connecting flight to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris France.
The alarm rang at 3:15 am. It was no doubt early but waking up early for vacation is different than getting up early for a regular day so when the alarm began to wail, I did not press snooze! Getting up that early was necessary to allow enough time to get ready, load the suitcase in the car and be at the airport by 5 am for a 6:15 am departure. As I had hoped all went smoothly. I was through security and at the gate on time. My original flight itinerary called for me to fly out of Tucson to connect in San Francisco then onto Kona, but a delayed flight from the night before caused my original plan to hit a snag. My morning flight was now oversold. In order to still get to Kona and not chance missing my first night in Hawaii, I drove to Phoenix to leave from there. The change in plans didn’t cause me any stress. I’ve traveled enough to learn to just go with the flow. Fretting never makes anything better. In the end everything always works out as it should.
After an almost 6 hour flight over the Pacific the airplane landed on the Big Island of Hawaii around 8 pm local time. The airport was a cute, open air little island airport where the air was balmy and the breeze was fragrant.
HELLO HAWAII! The airport had only one arrival luggage carousel so after picking up the suitcase and rental car I made my way to the Kona Seaside Hotel for check in. It was after 10 pm and after a long day of traveling, I was tired. After all of the hustle and bustle I took a moment to let it sink in, I was on an island in the middle of the ocean. I peered out to the reflections on the dark night water as I dined on an aloha pineapple screwdriver and french fries. I was in paradise, I didn’t need anything fancy, my meal was perfect.
Now, back to the title of this blog entry, why should you just go with it? Because it wouldn’t be an adventure if you knew what the outcome would be.
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