By Rick Janssen
Jet Lag
March 23, 2026
This was our fourth time flying back from Hawaii and for some reason the flights that we have taken back to the mainland always leave very late in the day. Our flight for this trip was scheduled to leave Maui at 11:15 pm. That is 3:15 am Iowa time. We needed to check out of our condo at 10 am so that left us all day trying to figure out what to do.
The problem comes from the fact that we need to have all our bags packed and loaded into our vehicle. With that in mind, it does not work to go to another beach since we would need to get cleaned up before our flights. I know some people could pull that off, but our group is not comfortable with that idea.
We decided to go out for breakfast, then come back to the condo, pack up and head out for the day. We would need to drive down the coast and then over to the other side of the island where the airport is located. Now we just need to find something to do. We discovered a nice miniature golf course along the coast the last time we were in Maui, so we decided to stop there for a game.
As with most things in Hawaii, it is expensive. It cost me more money to play 18 holes of miniature golf than what I pay for my regular round of golf at Thorton. Oh well, that is just part of vacation. By the time we had finished our round of golf it was very warm. Lucky for us there was a shave ice place right next door, so I HAD to have one before we left the island.
Next on the agenda was to head to Lahaina for some lunch. You might remember that Lahaina suffered a major fire a few years ago. We could still see the results of that fire. There were some homes and businesses still under repair. We found some food trucks for lunch and had a quick bite to eat. It was still warm, so we looked for someplace indoors. We decided to take in a movie.
We had the whole theater to ourselves and enjoyed “I Can Only Imagine 2” and got cooled off at the same time. Now what to do? We decided to just head down the coast and found a nice park where we could sit and take in our last sunset on Maui. There is something marvelous about watching the sunset over the ocean. It was like the island was saying goodnight to us on our way home.
We then filled the rental car up with gas and headed to the airport to wait for our plane to leave. Our flight was on time, and we settled into our seats for the long ride back to the mainland. We did enjoy our very late meal on the flight. I watched a few movies, and I think I even fell asleep for a short time.
We had arranged a car for our ride back to my wife’s brother’s house. Since we had traveled with them in the past, this provided a nice spot for us to relax overnight before our flight home. They would drive us to the airport the next day for our flight back to Minnesota and then our drive home to Iowa.
We arrived at the Phoenix airport early and got right through the check in procedure. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:38 am and the board showed it was on time. About 45 minutes later the announcement came that our plane was having some mechanical problems and we would be moving to another gate. The whole crowd of people headed in that direction. We waited there until that plane was unloaded. Then they announced that this NEW plane was having problems with the toilets and we would need to wait. Another hour went by when they announced that this plane would not be fixed and we were to head back to the original gate.
The group headed back to wait. The next announcement was that the plane needed to be cooled down before we could board. I guess that it took another hour or more. By the time we had taken off it was 4:30 in the afternoon. We would be getting back to Minnesota much later than expected
When we finally landed in Minnesota, we headed to the baggage claim area to pick up our bags. It seemed to be taking a long time?? The announcement came that they were having problems getting our bags to the beltway. We waited 50 minutes to get our bags. Then it was a wait to get our pickup van to take us to our car.
As we were leaving Minneapolis it started to rain. We drove down the interstate slowly as the rain was really coming down in the dark. We pulled off for supper at Faribault since we had not eaten anything since breakfast. The drive home took a very long time since I could only drive about 50 MPH because of the rain. We got home at 11:48 pm after a very long day.
Now the jet lag hit. My body was still on Hawaii time for over a week. I tried to stay up as late as possible, but 10:30 pm Iowa time is only 6:30 pm Hawaii time. I don’t remember the jet lag being so hard in the past. Is it possible that the older you get, the harder it is to adjust to jet lag? That must be the case because I could surely feel the effects of the trip. It was still worth it.
