Preparations for the Big Island begins...Flight, car and lots more...

This looks like a Golden Orb spider we'd also seen in South Africa. Note the gold head and silver body. We took this photo on the grounds.

This morning we booked our one way flight from Maui to the Big Island on December 1st, a short 37 minute flight. Departing at 1:11 pm flight, its relatively low stress when we don't need to be at the airport until 11:30 am. We love it when we don't have to get up at 5:00 am or earlier for a flight.

The cost for both of us on Hawaiian Air, the most popular inter island airline, is $368, plus another $120 for two checked bags each, making the total cost $488, which seems high for such a short flight. Then again, after all of our flights, it seems the shorter flights are higher proportionately.

Hot pink Bougainvillea.

With a rental car awaiting us at the Hilo Airport, we should be on the road by 2:45 heading to the first of the two houses in Pahoa, the home of the current lava flow. I doubt we'll see any lava flow on our way to the house. The lava hasn't reached the highway or that particular neighborhood yet. Most likely, we'll be able to see the smoke.

By the end of our arrival day, after getting situated in the house, we'll take off to a local grocery store for food and supplies for the first six days until family begins to arrive. Within a few days, a trip to Costco will be on the immediate to-do list with son TJ's family of four arriving on the December 6th.

A pleasing sunset view on the island of Maui.

There will only be six of us until December 21st, when the remainder of family arrives at varying times of the day. Two of the remaining families will each be renting cars with only two requiring pick up at the airport. It will be a busy day, the beginning of many busy days to come which we anticipate with pure delight.

With our flight and car booked and out of the way, we need to consider yet one more car, the one we currently have here in Maui which has to be returned to the airport tomorrow to extend the rental period until we leave on December 1st. Having booked this and all other rental cars online for better rates, Enterprise, in this case, has agreed to re-rent the same car to us for the same great price we received online. That is a first.

A calm sea on a sunny day. There's always white billowy clouds on sunny days.

As a result, tomorrow we have a few tasks to tackle; one, the rental car and two, the return of Tom's laptop to Costco which is next door to the airport, a-no-questions-asked return of the first replacement laptop we purchased in Boston as a floor model.

Having received the new Acer by UPS last Wednesday, which we have working well with all of his data transferred, he's ready to return the fist one. Most likely we'll receive a store credit for $588 for the cost of the floor model which we'll happily use for food when we get to the Big Island. That store credit won't put a small dent in the groceries we'll need for the family gathering.

These Canna Lillies are always so beautiful with the yellow and red coloration.

There's also a Costco store on the Big island, an hour drive from the house, a drive we'll be making several times in December. Luckily, there are a few grocery stores closer to the houses for the short trips we'll surely need to make every few days.

With these few tasks behind us and the fact that I'll be totally done with the post revisions in the next few days, we'll finally have some free time for the remaining days in Maui. Whew! That has been a time consuming challenge.

Yellow Allamanda.

My next task is moving all the email messages that need to be saved in folders that have been lingering in my inbox for months. The folders are ready and waiting so it shouldn't be too long of a project which I should be able to complete in a few hours.

With our Excel spreadsheet up to date, we'll be in good shape to put this 'housekeeping" behind us. The next big project will be doing the 2014 taxes when we're in Kauai but who wants to think about that now? Yuck.

The property manager, Mike, explained that the sea turtles eat this green moss on the rocks, although they never actually rest on the rocks, instead bobbing around in the sea close to the shore at high tide.

To all of our friends and family in Minnesota and other parts of the US and other countries where cold weather, ice and snow has hit: stay warm, stay safe, don't shovel snow unless approved by your doctor, don't skid on the ice when driving, don't trip and fall on the ice and on and on...

No wonder we left Minnesota!

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Photo from one year ago today, November 14, 2013:

Its ironic that one year ago, we posted the information about our current residence, the condo in Maui and this photo (blurry, if enlarged), taken by owner. For details, please click here.