Ireland day 0984. Saturday 08 June 2024- Los Angeles

Today’s summary	Sadly said goodbye to Hawaii today and caught a lunchtime flight to Los Angeles. Staying at the LA airport hotel tonight then continuing our travels east tomorrow.
Today’s weather	Sunny dry and warm at Kona airport. Light south westerly wind. Appx 27c. Quite cool in Los Angeles this evening, at about 17c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we were driven in the hotel shuttle bus) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Los Angeles Airport

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Well, today it was time to move on to the next stage of our travels. We’ve had a wonderful time in Hawaii for the last couple of weeks, but are now starting our journey back east again. We’ve really appreciated the warmth, the sunshine, the fresh tropical fruit and particularly the laid-back lifestyle. So we were sorry to be packing our things and heading down to Kona airport this morning.

For me, I have noticed that my general sense of well-being has improved immeasurably since we arrived here, and I feel ten years younger. I have made a mental note to try and incorporate more warmth and sunshine into my life, especially during the long winter months.

So after another fabulous breakfast featuring fresh papayas, bananas and dragonfruit from the garden of our guesthouse, we packed up the Nissan one final time, and drove the short way to Kona airport.

It’s extremely relaxed as airports go, with the waiting area seating outdoors with palm trees all around and exotic birds hopping under our feet. About as far from the frenetic airlessness of Dublin or Heathrow as you could possibly get.

After our six hour flight halfway across the Pacific, we’re staying at the airport hotel in Los Angeles tonight before resuming our journey tomorrow. The flight was straightforward (even if the process of downloading the United app, creating an account and uploading your credit card – all so you can buy a packet of peanuts from the trolley – wasn’t) and actually arrived a few minutes early. We made it off the plane and into our hotel room in double quick time, though the signage in the terminal building was a bit haphazard. Unfortunately we won’t have time to look round Los Angeles today as we are resuming our travels again early tomorrow morning.

I do enjoy travelling and seeing all these new parts of the world. It’s real privilege to be able to do it

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Inside our cottage – actually an annex to the main guesthouse. The ceiling fan is fun but can get a bit draughty when you’re trying to sleep	Terminal 1 departure gates at Kona Airport

The United 757 which flew us back to the West Coast	Trying to find our way out of LA airport and onto the hotel shuttle. It’s huge, confusing and not very well signposted – but more by accident than by design, we made off the plane, out of the terminal, onto the shuttle bus and into the hotel in less than 15 minutes

At the airport Hyatt Regency hotel. Reassuringly bland, or disturbingly Overlook Motel, depending on your viewpoint

Saying goodbye to our cosy cottage!