A week ago my sister and I were on a Delta Airlines flight, supposedly, headed for a fabulous week-long vacation on Kauai. The flight, scheduled for 11:40 a.m., was an hour delayed leaving SLC because one of the right generators had to be repaired. We took off and got as far as Elko, Nevada (100 miles over the Utah border) and the pilot made an announcement that a left generator went out. We still had 3 generators, but it wasn't safe to fly across the Pacific ocean in this condition. We had to return to SLC.
We had too much fuel, so they were going to put down the landing gear to create some pull. We still had to circle SLC for awhile to burn more fuel. As we were approaching the airport to land, we were told not to worry about all the fire trucks lining the runway-- they were there just as a precaution, if something happened, because after all we had too much fuel. Fortunately we made an uneventful landing... though it took us a long time to come to a complete stop.
The airplane repair people decided to try and fix generator #2. At 3:00 p.m. they let us off the airplane and gave us a $7 meal voucher. As another passenger said, "I hope this $7 makes up for the inconvenience we have caused you today." By the way, you cannot purchase too much airport food with $7. It was a Burger King lunch.
As instructed, we returned to the gate 45 minutes later. After a few "stay tuned" notices, they made the announcement that they couldn't fix the generator, but a part was coming on a 6:30 p.m. plane. They said they planned on boarding at 7:30 p.m. But to his credit, the guy making the announcements said that it wasn't a realistic take-off time. They had no other aircraft to go across the Pacific, so they couldn't put us on another plane. And they couldn't get us to L.A. and leave from there.
So here is where plan B comes to play. At this point we would not make our connection in Honolulu. There was no guarantee of when we would get to Honolulu, let alone Lihue, Kauai. When I called Hawaiian Airlines, she said that when we got to Honolulu, check with them, because they were still flying, but with the tropical storm coming in there was no guarantee that they would be flying. Yes, there was a tropical storm approaching Hawaii. Two to four inches of rain was forecast for the island. Hum...
We could get to Honolulu sometime on Tuesday, but not sure when. If the storm arrives, we wouldn't be able to get to Kauai. Paying a lot of money to sit in a condo or the Honolulu airport while it rained didn't sound too appealing. We would only have Wed-Sunday a.m. on the island. My sister has a health condition where she has little stamina and so two days of travel would wipe her out and take a couple of days to recover. The vacation we had looked forward to for months was looking more and more bleak.
At 4:30 p.m. we decided to cancel the trip. Everything was refunded except Hawaiian Air, which have us vouchers to use within the year. With our bags packed and the kids with grandma, we decided we should at least go somewhere. Our clothes were for the beach, so that meant our only choice was going south.
Monday night we drove to St. George, arriving about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday we drove to Las Vegas. We spent 3 days there and returned home on Thursday. On Friday I took my sister to meet her husband and then spent a couple of days with my parents.
I decided that Las Vegas is not my vacation destination of choice. In fact, if I never go back I won't be disappointed.
Here is our assessment:
The food was fabulous (Valentino, Belagio Cafe, Kahunaville, Basila's Cafe)
The hotel pillows were plush.
Cirque du Soleil "Mystere" was incredible, but the storyline very mysterious.
The pool was pleasant... though not even close to a week on the beach. And we felt very over-dressed in our one-piece modest swimsuits.
The heat was horrendous. Who lives in 105 degree weather and enjoys it???
The outlet mall was out of my style and price range. Okay, well the one store where I would have bought clothes wanted $400 for a sweater and I just can't bring myself to pay that much.
But all in all, it was fun to spend a few days with my sis. And we are still going to Kauai next year!
Life is Good!
This is my favorite new kitchen tool. It is a dough whisk made in Poland. I first saw it when Ms. L and I visited King Arthur Flour Baking Store in Vermont. I almost bought one there, but wasn't quite sure if and how I would use it. I came home while reading my favorite cookbook (A Passion for Baking) the author said that this dough whisk was one of those "must have" kitchen tools. So for my sister's birthday this month I ordered one for her. And of course I had to order one for me.
