Postcard from Hawaii
LAHAINA, Maui – Theresa Mitchell had a chance to fly her family here to watch the 2005 EA SPORTS Maui Invitational men’s basketball tournament for nothing.
It was a chance she was unwilling to take.
So instead of using her husband’s status as a pilot for United Airlines and risk being bumped from the family-flies-free standby list, she purchased full-fare coach tickets from Seattle to Maui for herself and her three children, while her husband, Randy, settled into the jumpseat in the cockpit of the United plane that brought them over.
It was the same thing Mitchell, a stay-at-home mom and 1985 graduate of Gonzaga University, did in 2002, the last time her alma mater played in Maui.
“We’re not about to miss a chance to see the Zags play in Maui,” said Mitchell, whose husband is also a GU alum (Class of 1982). “And after we bought the tickets to the games, we weren’t going to risk not being able to get there.
“It was a good thing we didn’t, because every seat on the flight over was taken.”
The Mitchells, who now live in Poulsbo, Wash., have a 15-year-old daughter named Megan, a 12-year-old son named Danny and a 10-year-old daughter named Colleen. Since arriving in Maui on Friday, they have gone snorkeling and wake-boarding.
“The kids are just having a ball,” Mitchell said on Sunday afternoon, following the family’s wake-boarding adventure. “And they can’t wait until the (Gonzaga) game (against Maryland) tomorrow.”
Mitchell and her husband are Bulldog Club members and occasionally get back to Spokane to watch the Zags play at home – whenever single-game tickets are available and there are not other scheduling conflicts.
Their son plays center on his grade-school basketball team and is missing practice this week.
“But his coach said that’s O.K., as long as he watches what all the centers do,” Mitchell said.
The Mitchells also have a trip planned later in the week to the Maui Ocean Center on Maalaea Harbor.
“Just so we can say we did something educational with the kids,” Theresa Mitchell said. “But tomorrow night after the game, we’re taking them to Cheeseburger in Paradise.”
Steve Bergum