Holiday to Hawaii in Aug 2013: Day 3 – Washington IAD to Honolulu HNL (via Los Angeles LAX)

We took one 5mg tablet of melatonin last night and we both felt the effect early in the morning – we both felt drowsy around 2am, but still found it difficult to turn our brains off. Managed to doze until just before 5am so we were reasonably happy with that result.

The primary use of melatonin is making you feel sleepy, so if you are heading East and you get to the local time for going to bed you can “encourage” your body to feel sleepy and drift off. Within a few hours your body will kick in to the normal sleeping time window, and then your alarm can limit the extra sleep you get, waking you at the right local time.

Anyway, we are up now, and will be heading down for breakfast very soon. Aiming to chill this morning before taking a late courtesy bus back to the airport for our first flight of the day to LAX. There’s no AA lounge at IAD which is surprising, so there’s no point in getting there very early.

IAD was really quiet – we were dropped off at the wrong check in terminal, but having already checked in, and going hand luggage only, there was no issue – straight through – fast track security again and on to the Starbucks.

I’m not sure what I would do without my venti Caramel Macchiato in the morning now. Beats my normal cappuccino from Costa that I have to get each morning at work due to the lack of choice, and always reminds me of being on holiday.

Flight to LAX was relatively uneventful. Food was good, flight attendants were attentive. Entertainment was rubbish and the seat wasn’t terribly good. Managed to sleep for a couple of hours.

Lounge at LAX (Admirals Club – Flagship Lounge) was uninspiring to be honest, but did have good views.  Saw a very musical dispatcher on the ground. I’d hoped for something worthy of posting on You Tube, but unfortunately nothing transpired.

Flight to HNL was very similar to the LAX flight. Good food, good flight attendants. Actually watched the movie (42) and there was a bigger TV screen unlike the previous flight to LAX. Felt relief when we finally touched down in Hawaii.

Taxi to Hilton Hawaiian Village was expensive $42 + tip = $55, but not sure there are many other choices. Checked in and managed to bag a room on the 22nd floor in the Rainbow tower – unbelievable views – see next post.

Popped out to suss out swim options for early in the morning, and where the nearest Starbucks was, and finally grabbed a drink at a bar before taking our melatonin and heading to bed.

Follow the whole story here: Holiday to Hawaii in Aug 2013