Hawaii 2001
Andra and I had booked a vacation to Hawaii departing on September 15th. Unknown to the world community however, air travel nationwide would come to an abrupt halt September 11th after the horrific terrorist attack in New York. As everyone watched in stunned disbelief we couldn't help but wonder if this wasn't the best time for a vacation.
In the end we decided not to cancel and went forth with our original plans. The flights to Hawaii from San Francisco resumed the day before our departure, but the Airlines were still running less than 50% of their normal schedule.
We arrived at the airport three hours before our flight Saturday morning and were greeted by a line a quarter mile long. Slowly as we waited, the airlines cancelled one flight after another. The line would move forward with each cancellation. By the time we had neared the ticket counter nearly half the flights on the monitors showed cancelled. Even with all the cancellations it took us two hours to get our bags checked, clear the metal detectors, and reach the gate.
The flight to Hawaii was only about half full and the news reported that tourism (Hawaii's biggest industry) was only one fifth of normal for this time of year. Hit hard by the reduction in travelers, the locals were very appreciative that we didn't cancel our trip.
Before I go on to describe our vacation let me draw your attention to the link and flag below. Clicking on either will take you to the Twin Towers Orphan Fund website. If you were looking for information about helping the victims, the link below is a good start.
As usual these pictures are best viewed in 1024x768x24 or better. At a resolution of 800x600 these photo images won't fit on your screen.
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