When we awakened on the morning of our departure to Hawaii, the outside air temps hovered in the single digits Fahrenheit with a dusting of frozen snow on the ground.

Thankfully, our Boeing 777-200 plane left on time with 372 people reportedly on board, including the two pilots and eight crew members. The pilot announced that every seat was filled! The seven-hour direct flight from Denver to Kahului went well, but we did have several long stretches of turbulence that interrupted dinner service.

During the flight, I read an entire book for my March book club, “The Life Impossible” by Matt Haig. So I’m ahead of the game! The novel’s fantasy trip theme seemed to weave right into our own impending adventure.

We arrived in the late afternoon Maui time (Hawaii Standard Time, which is three hours earlier than our usual Mountain Time). Our expected rental car, though, could not be located. I’ll spare the ugly details, but after almost two hours without securing transportation, we ended up taking an Uber to our rented condo, and we also called in Uber Eats for a late Mexican dinner. The food shopping at Costco would have to wait until the morning, when John nabbed a different rental car—the last one to be located on the island from any dealer.

Entrance to our rented condo in Kihei…right across from the beach!