Day #9 (Tues, last day)

Leaving day. :-( What an awesome trip. Thank you Debbie & Kelly!!!!

Kelly is a Gold member of Alaska Airlines, thus he gets free upgrade to First Class. Debbie is MVP, and can chose to be upgraded. Kelly, being Gold, can "bring someone up" to first class with him. So we were all upgraded to first class, free! Otherwise, it would have been $150 each. So cool!! There were only about 12 seats, all full. We couldn't all sit together, but Kelly was behind me on aisle and Deb was across aisle from him. His seatmate at the window, when asked if she wanted to switch, said "No. I'm happy here." So they couldn't sit together. I was beside a hawaiian/asian fellow who was nice, and not too talkative. :-)

First class comes with drinks as everyone else is boarding, more drinks, free meal, more drinks, snack, and they checking with you all the time! And they memorize your name and call you by it. Lots more room here too, obviously. My seatmate said he's thinking of upgrading when he heads to Hong Kong in a week. Worth it for that long of a flight!

We were landing in Portland late and heading to Boise the next day (Christmas day), so Debbie got us hotel rooms at the Red Lion - only $50/room!! 

The condo they lease

Some views on the way to the airport, one more time for me to see the beautiful scenery

Plumeria tree

Entering the open air airport (one of the coolest I've ever been to!)

A little entertainment!

Kelly heading to plane

Last look before boarding the plane

Peak-a-boo! It's Kelly!

Hawaii as we travel the runway

Bye-bye island paradise!

Last look at land...I thought. Coast line of Big Island

Blue water (right corner is window reflection)

Wait a min! What's this??

Land! already??

If you trace back from Portland to Kona, you'll see we skirt the edge of Maui.. that's what I saw

Maui coastline

Ok. now all blue

I chose the Chicken Marsala (sorry it's blurry, I didn't want my seatmate to think I was weird taking pic of menu..)

Appetizer - Lentil salad with lemon shrimp. It was ok

Chicken Marsala

Dessert - Macadamia nut Kona coffee cake

Lots of cloud cover over the ocean today

Portland!! With an inversion, fog covering street lights. Looked cool