18 hours after my 4AM shuttle pick-up to Newark, a change of planes at O’Hare (my first time in Chicago!), one long meal-less flight and a mad dash through the Honolulu airport, I missed my inter-island flight to Kona… by five minutes.

The missed connection set me back another two hours, but gave me ample opportunity to consider whether $4 was an exorbitant price for a bottle of water. (I decided: Yes.)  And also to snap a few photos of the  tarmac with the misty-topped Hawaiian mountains in the distance.

Despite my aversion to small planes, the flight itself was brief and uneventful. Half an hour later: The Big Island at last!