One of our goals while we're here was to get over to see Molokai. With the baby on the way, we decided it better be sooner than later. Earlier this summer we began planning our trip and Noel warned me that the cheapest flights from Oahu to Molokai “are all on small planes.” I balked at first and said I wouldn’t go on one, but then he explained that most of the larger carriers farm out flights to small planes anyway, so we didn’t have much choice. Plus we’d save about $50 bucks. So I reluctantly agreed to let him book whatever he thought best, just don’t tell me about it! Of course, we get past security and Noel says, “You know we’re on a pretty small plane…”Flying inter-island on small carriers from HNL does have a few advantages: parking, check-in, and security are super easy. You’re far from the masses heading back to the Mainland or Japan in an entirely different building across the street from the main airport. Our pilot - who we had to have had five years on - met us at the gate and took our tickets and then walked us out to the plane. His safety speech (issued while the engine was warming up and he was turned around in the pilot’s seat) was, “Don’t inflate your life vest until you’re in the water. Read the safety card for the rest of the instructions.” Our pilot on the return trip - again, we had five years on him - just said, “You can use the [safety] card as a fan.”
Another advantage with small planes is that you fly relatively low, so the aerial views of Honolulu, Waikiki, Diamond Head, Hawaii Kai, and Hanauma Bay were great. Noel got very excited and got out his camera and said, “You can put this in our blog!” And here they are. Diamond Head and Waikiki are below.
Molokai’s airport is in the middle of the island, giving us a good fly over of the area before we landed. I was really surprised it looked like a very harsh landscape. Not tropical at all, a lot of red dirt and flat terrain. I caught myself thinking, “Well, if we go down we won’t disappear into a forest and they will be able to find the wreckage quickly!”The return trip via Pacific Wings is not for the fearful flyer…after re-tracing our outbound route over Waikiki and Honolulu, the pilot made a tight near-180 degree turn at what seemed like a 45-degree angle, hovering over the airport and adjacent crystal blue bays. Luckily, like the flight itself, the approach/landing didn’t last long. If you’ve got a yearning to see Molokai for yourself and you’re not into small planes, head to Maui first and then book a ticket on a ferry that runs from Maui to Molokai. (It’s not the Superferry. This service has been running many years.) Or do a little homework. Larger planes do fly into Molokai, so you can find out what island they depart from and start your trip there.
We decided to splurge for two days on the “ocean view” tentalow, versus the “path view” or “garden view” tentalow. Well, here’s the difference - Ocean view from our Tentalow ($218 / night):
Paths and gardens surrounding other Tentalows ($176 / night):
Yeah, a little disappointing, huh? The web site claims that one of the Tentalow clusters is $386 a night! I can’t figure out what you get for the money. I better check with Noel, I hope we didn’t pay that much!! They are also a wee bit more rustic than we thought. You have power to light your Tentalow cluster for about 5 hours. There’s a ceiling fan and many windows / zippered vents for circulation, but no electrical outlets. The bathrooms are across the platform, and the sink and toilet areas don’t have a roof. Surprisingly, the showers heat up pretty well, and it’s not as slimy as I feared. Overall, they were very clean. We didn’t have Robbie with us, but we discussed just how family-friendly the tents were …bottom line, fun for elementary kids and above, no fun for small toddlers and infants. But the rooms are separated, so the kids should be mature enough to be able to sleep in a room apart from the adults. The tents also are not the easiest to access via dirt paths and no ramps. And parking? They make you park a quarter-mile away at night. You can pull in kind of close to get your bags unpacked, but then you have to re-park. And don’t forget to bring a flashlight with you! They provide them in the room but not when you pick up your room key. So if you are checking in after dark you can’t see a thing. (We ran into a couple on our second night who couldn’t find their tent. The female was almost hysterical. As I pledged earlier, I need to keep this family-friendly, so I’ll say no more about what else happened!) Our first night in the tent was really hot, even with windows open and fan on. The mattresses are lousy and sheets were rough, so a good night’s sleep was hard to come by. Saturday night was much better. I think the combination of a cooler day in general and a day to air out the tent helped. 
After a few minutes of watching this, I walked over (making a wide circle around the seal) to get a better look. We hung out with our cameras for an hour or so, watched the seal readjust his sleeping position a few times, and heard a few good snorts. They made me jump because I was so scared the thing would pop up and run after me and I wouldn’t be able to outrun it, but it was nothing. Coincidently, after we got back home I saw a news story about people behaving badly around Monk Seals. They reported that it is illegal to get closer than 100 feet at any time. But they also said that your behavior in this zone is equally important – you need to be quiet and leave them undisturbed if you find yourself too close. While we broke the law, we did use hand signals to communicate and were very conscious of disturbing them.
After breakfast, I grabbed my book and sat in the shade near the beach, waiting for Noel to finish up at the Lodge. Not one to enjoy sitting around the beach, even with a book in my hands, I found myself saying over and over how bored I was, and how Noel better get there quickly so we could head off! Later I realized it had been a huge mistake not to join Noel up at the Lodge and go swimming in their pool. It was a very small pool by Hawaii hotel standards, but oh-so inviting! I blew it as we wouldn’t have time for the rest of the weekend. 
