Finally in Paradise!!!

We are finally here in Maui. What a day yesterday was!!! I was almost afraid we weren't going to make it. Here's how the day went. It started out all good. We stayed at a hotel in San Francisco by the airport the night before. Got up at 5:00 to make the 6:00 shuttle to the airport. Boarded the plane at 8:00. The plane taxied to the runway, then stopped and turned around. Apparently there was a bird on the wing. So we sat there for an hour and 15 minutes, until 9:15. We had to fly to Los Angeles to transfer planes to go to Maui. We got there late. Airport is huge. Our flight leaves at 10:50. We are at terminal 3 (Alaska Air) and have to figure out how to get to terminal 7 (United). We are frantically running aroung the airport trying to figure out how to get on the bus to Terminal 7. We get to the check in desk at Unied 25 minutes before the plane is ready to leave. Because we were late checking in, we couldn't make the plane. According to the United clerk there was a flight that was leaving out of SF at 5:00. Just where we came from!!! So she puts a hold on that flight for us and sends us back to Alaska Air to have them pay the difference or find another flight for us. We spend an hour at the Alaska Air desk with a new clerk. He finally gets clearance to put us on the 5:00 flight and pay the difference. So with new tickets, he sends us back to United. Everytime we go back and forth, we have to go outside, down the escalator and wait for the bus to take us to the terminal. We get to United and the tickets that we were given are not valid. So, they call Alaska Air and get put on hold. And, on top of that we don't know where our luggage is and Bill forgot the little folder that has the claim tickets in it back at the Alaska Air counter. So, he has to take the bus back while I try to settle things. The lady is on hold forever. So I give up and tell her that I will pay the extra $200 for all 4 of us to get to Maui. So she goes to find someone and is gone a long time. She finally gets back with the original clerk that helped us. She settles things with Alaska Air, Bill get's back and we wait to board a plane back to SF. OMG. I was so beat. Finally, we got on the plane to Maui and got here at 10:00 California time. And, we should have been there 6 hours earlier.