Hawaii Trip MSP to KOA

After a year of talking, planning, fundraising and anticipation the day is finally here!! For those of you that don't already know this trip is a destination fundraiser for Bolder Options. Bolder is an activity based youth mentoring program that I've been involved with since early 2007. Every year they do a run trip and a bike trip independent of one another. This year they happen to both be in Hawaii so I decided that I was going to sign up for both of them. The bike trip is up first. 242 miles around Hawaii's Big Island in 5 days. Then off to Oahu to run the Honolulu marathon. After that I've scheduled a couple days to just relax and enjoy Hawaii.

I wake up at 6:30am on Sunday December 5th and look out my window. It's a brisk 5º outside! What a great day to go to Hawaii! So I grab my bags and head off to the airport. Not wanting to carry too much stuff around in Hawaii I only wore a long sleeve shirt and a wind breaker. I decided to cab it the 6 blocks to my train stop. Once on the train it's all inside until I get to the islands. At the airport I met up with Chris & Becky, two other Bolder Options people that will be on the trip. We had a pretty uneventful flight to LA where we stopped to have some drinks.


I pay for the Delta Club so I always try to get my moneys worth when I travel. It's nice to bring in some friends once in a while as well.

Once we arrived in Kona it was quite a trip. You fly into this lava field right on the ocean. They they tell you they don't use jetways so you'll be going down some stairs and walking across the runway to the airport. As you deplane you notice that the airport is basically just a bunch of huts. There aren't really any walls to speak of.


Here's a stray cat just chillin' out in the middle of the airport


This is baggage claim

We got picked up and headed over to our hotel. We got a drink and some dinner and then had to make sure our bikes were all set up because we were riding in the morning. As far as travel days go this one was pretty good. The flight was nice, I had cabin bulk heads on both legs so plenty of room and Kona was beautiful. Good way to start the trip.