Sept 14-15, 2016  time to go home:

I thought it was a long day traveling home to st. Louis from Kauai with stops in LAX and DFW along the way.  Going to Atlanta was even worse!   We had an 11am (HST) flight on Alaska Airlines to San Diego.  Then a 3 hour layover and another 6 hour flight to Miami.  Another 1 1/2 hour layover and a 1 1/2 hour flight to Atlanta. 
Not really anxious to go home, but anxious about the long day ahead, so I didn't sleep well.  Decided to get up and watch the sun rise on our last morning in Kauai.   A lot of clouds, but it was still nice.

 Sure going to miss this view.

 The sun did rise, and quickly hid again.

We left for the airport about 8:00am ---gassed up the car and took it back--managed to not have a dead battery or flat tire.

I wasn't thinking when I picked our seats months ago.  Should have picked the other side of the plane so we would have a view of the coast for awhile longer.  

 That's all we saw---Good Bye Kauai!

 We did encounter quite a few clouds near the islands (a tropical storm has been pounding the other islands for the last few days---lots of flooding), but otherwise the skies were clear and calm.

Seemed like we just saw sunrise, then we were landing in San Diego (about 4 HST)  to the sun setting already.  We did have 3 seats for the 2 of us, which makes those long flights much more comfortable.  We were on Alaska Airlines for the first leg of our return trip and really liked them.  Think we have decided to get their credit card and cancel our American Airlines card.

I have been to San Diego twice, once for winter meetings when I worked for Prestige Portraits (apparently haven't blogged that yet) and once for our son and daughter-in-law's friend's wedding which I took the wedding pictures for ( http://travelingwithsue.blogspot.com/2013/07/2007-southern-california-with-carolyn.html ).  I was shocked at how much I liked San Diego on those 2 visits.

 I remember looking out the window of the hotel I was staying in for the winter meetings and watching airplanes land.  I swear I was higher then the airplanes as they flew past me.

 I don't think Ken was too impressed with San Diego.  Could be because not only did we have to leave security to get to the American Airlines terminal, which our other 2 flights were on, but we actually had to go outside to get to the other terminal. 

 I didn't mind it.  It was a nice little walk and going back through security wasn't bad.  But it could have been a big hassle if our connection was tight!  It was also interesting that we were TSA pre-approved leaving Lihue, but not in San Diego!  Later I found out our boarding passes from Alaskan for American weren't good either.  Good thing I went up to ask what zone we were suppose to board with.  But they were good enough to get us through security!

We were on an old AA plane to Miami.  It still had the little flip down from the luggage cabinet tvs.   The seats were really close.  Ken's knees were in the back of the chair in front of him.  Unfortunately we didn't have an extra seat between us so we were a bit cramped.  Fortunately the young lady who sat with us was pretty small and really friendly.  She and I had an interesting conversation for about 2 or 3 hours.  She works as an animal trainer at Sea World.  The architecture firm my daughter worked for in St. Louis is the architecture firm that works on Sea World and many other tourist sites.  My daughter even designed the penguin encounter at the Atlanta aquarium and this gal knew all the penguin handlers there.  It's a small world!
On to Miami.  By the time we got here we'd been on the go for about 17 hours (including the 2 hours we were at the Lihue airport waiting for the first flight).  Ken pointed out this interesting glider hanging from the ceiling where we waited for our next flight.

 Not much going on in the Miami airport at about 6 am. 

The sun had just risen as we boarded our flight.

Can't believe I lived down there somewhere last year!  Can't believe how much I loved it!

Yep, must be the bromiliads that are causing the spread of zika here, not all those canals and ponds!

  This was taken on our approach into the Atlanta airport---love all the trees around Atlanta. 

Our daughter was there waiting for us.  Another hour drive through the city to get north to our apt.  Finally got here at 11am (EST).  It was a brutal day, but our time in Maui and Kauai made it all worthwhile!  Can't wait until our next trip back there!