Day 229
We arrived safely in Kauai today without too much trouble although we were all exhausted and did not do any exploring this evening.
We didn’t have the best night of rest since Simon woke up around 3am and wouldn’t go back to sleep until he had some milk. He seems to be waking in the early morning again since he hasn’t been eating much dinner. He looks so peaceful here though at 2am.
Thank you Dan for giving us a ride to the airport this morning. At the airport, the Hawaiian airlines counter was a bit disorganized and we weren’t able to print our boarding passes online or at the kiosk so we were directed to wait in another line. While we were in the line, they told us we needed to wait in the other line. We stayed put and were eventually helped. It was basically because our connecting flight was overbooked so they wouldn’t let us print out those boarding passes. But the attendant that helped us eventually printed us priority boarding passes for our connecting flight and handed them to us at the gate. I thought that was great customer service that made up for the disappointment earlier.
We had a bit of coffee and a pastry while waiting for our flight to board. Simon still in his PJs to be comfortable for the flight.
On the plane, Simon checked out the luggage trucks outside loading our plane.
On take-off, Simon didn’t even let our a whimper.
He fell asleep shortly into the flight.
Then continued to sleep in my arms for about 2 hours.
He woke up as there was noise in the cabin during the meal service. The complimentary meal was a spinach frittata.
Upon arrival in Honolulu, we had to take a bus over to the interisland terminal and check-in at the gate to get our seat assignments. We ended up being seated in the very last row of the plane but at last we got onto the plane.
Then arrived safely on the island of Kauai! It was a really short flight, maybe 45 minutes end-to-end. Simon got a little fussy though since I’m sure he wanted to stretch out and because we were in the back, it was really noisy and he couldn’t hear himself.
Upon exiting the airport, we were greeted by the famous Kauai chickens… why did the chicken cross the road? To avoid getting run over by a car of course!
On our way to our first lunch in Kauai.
Ron met this gentleman on the airplane who recommended this place called Hamura Saimin Stand. Here is their menu.
We had a teri chicken skewer and a teri steak skewer.
This is their special saimin with won tons.
The won tons were different than what we are used to since it had chopped pork instead of ground pork. It gave it an interesting texture while eating.
The noodles were nice and chewy and the broth light but rich. Either we were just really hungry or it was really really good since we finished our bowls quickly.
We also ordered a slice of lilikoi chiffon pie to go. It was very light and airy with a crunchy light crust. The lilikoi flavor was very light though, it almost just tasted like lemon chiffon pie but there was that hint of passion fruit flavor as well.
Afterwards we did a little shopping at Kmart before heading to our hotel for the evening. Simon got to finally change his clothes and stretch out. He showed us his card tricks with our hotel key card.
Simon had some playtime in the crib provided by the hotel.
Then we basically all konked out for the evening. Ron fell asleep at 6pm. Simon fell asleep at 6:30pm. I fell asleep at 7pm. Ron and I eventually woke up hungry for dinner around 11pm but not much is open that late here so it was off to McDonald’s which is open 24 hours. Simon will probably wake up soon too so it might be a long night for all, including our neighbors.
For traveling mommies who exclusively pump breast milk, don’t read if not interested… or read if secretly interested but don’t want to admit it 😛 … since Simon won’t take milk from the boob anymore, I’ve been solely pumping and bottle feeding him. It brought up some difficulty while traveling though since there are no electric outlets on the plane and my pump does not use batteries so I had to pump before I left home and find a place in the Honolulu airport to pump. In the interisland terminal, there was supposed to be a family room but there were no signs directing me to where it was and the employee I asked had no idea where it was so instead I got stuck in the ladies’ restroom, standing at the baby changing counter (which is a basically a tiled table), pumping with my nursing cover on. I’m guessing newer model pumps can run on batteries or if you don’t have one, invest in one that does. I’m grateful to my coworker who gave me her pump but it doesn’t do well for long plane rides. Also, I’d check online to find out the location of the family rooms (if there are any) at the airport. The Southwest terminal at SFO, has a family room with a nursing chair, a changing table with a sink, and a foam bouncy house and all you need is the code to get in.