San Leandro 17 April 2013 : Caspar Institute

Back in California

Flight from OGG to KOA in the little 9-seater goes without a hitch, and we enjoyed the last of our farro salad and balsamic vinegar with a delicious Haiku tomato before submitting ourselves to TSA (I imagine it's pretty much the way cattle feel on the way to slaughter) before our flight to OAK.

In Hawaii, still a third world country in the government's eyes, you get extra scrutiny before returning to the "sanitary" mainland: TWO trips through USDA's fruit inspection, plus the usual shoes-off stupidity of TSA. Since it's Hawaii, there's a tiny seasoning of Aloha in the TSA crew, unlike the bored but militantly tolerant thuggery of the mainland crews. The USDA inspectors are completely aware of how meaningless their jobs are, and perform an "inspection" that's as perfunctory as possible.

About the time boarding's supposed to begin, the gate crew tells us that our plane has a "scratch" on it, and the "engineers are evaluating the situation." We can see a guy on a ladder sandpapering what looks like a dent below the front door -- probably a heedless jetway operator in Oakland. We're told that we're going to be delayed by ... well, no one knows how long.

Luckily, not that long. We're wheels down in Oakland an hour late, one minute past midnight.

We overnight near the airport where our car has spent the time. Breakfast with Damiana, a bit of shopping, then up the road toward home.

Haleakala above, La Perouse Bay below -- the view from the 9-seater

From the Mendocino Headlands, we can see Point Cabrillo lighthouse, the same one that gently flashes in our second floor windows every ten seconds throughout the night. The waves are waving, the northwesterly blowing their tops off and making a familiar oceanic haze. The lupine is blooming. We're on home turf.