We left Seattle for LA on May 1. We had 7 hours lay over at LAX for our connecting flight to Philippines that same day. The 7 hours waiting inside LAX was not so much of a problem because we had prepared for it. But unfortunately when the plane took off and landed in Honolulu for refueling, for some mechanical or technical reason, it was not able to take off as scheduled. The sad part was, the passengers were kept inside the plane waiting for 4 hours before they finally announced that we would be stranded in Honolulu for a day. We were further kept in Honolulu airport holding area for an hour or two before we were finally released for transfer to our hotel. We were more than 300 passengers all in all and you could imagine the queue and the many frantic people trying to get ahead of others. When we finally got our room keys and food coupons, the sun in Hawaii was already near mid morning. I opted not to eat breakfast and lunch and went for my much needed sleep. I woke up in the afternoon and was kind of recharged for another adventure. From my first travel to Hawaii where I was billeted at the same hotel, I knew that Hotel Ala Moana was located near a big mall. With a renewed adventurous spirit, I first explored Macy's alone by myself but later egged on my family to go with me farther to find the huge Ala Moana shopping center and together, we all went out even further down to the beach. I felt sorry for some passengers who stayed all day in the hotel lobby, afraid even to go to their rooms, lest they be left behind by their flight. Getting supper at 5:30PM, was a long chaotic queue; as well as returning back to the airport at 9 o'clock in the evening. The epic wait for our next flight at 3AM/4AM was a total nightmare. My family and I, we tried our best to make the most of this trip. We befriended people and chatted with them to make the waiting bearable. We arrived Manila on May 4. Thank God we're safely home!
