We left Denver early in the morning with a connecting flight in Seattle, but our plane had engine trouble on the runway in Denver and we had to wait on the tarmac for the plane to be repaired. By the time we took off we had already missed our connecting flight in Seattle. The next plane out to Kona that day was six hours later. We arrived in Kona at 9pm, just before the animal quarantine checkpoint closed. A two hour drive over the saddle road to the east side of the island and we were at our new home.
We had our car shipped out weeks earlier and to our relief it was waiting for us at the airport parking lot. The Kona airport is tiny, with just two bag carousels that are located in the open air under large Polynesian style roofs. From car to plane can take ten minutes if you’re lucky. We had to meet our veterinarian to get our cats checked and cleared so it took about thirty minutes. With the cat’s free to go we crossed the road and walked into the parking small lot. I pulled out my keys, pressed the unlock button and heard just a few stalls to our right the familiar beep of our car. The rush of warm air greeted us as we drove into the dark Hawaiian night with cats meowing and luggage everywhere.
