Goodbye Oahu

 

It is always sad when a vacation ends. For me it's a double edge sword. On the one had I love being on vacation. I don't want to go back to my real life of work, adult responsibilities, and the boring day to day life that makes up a working grown up. It's so not fun.

On the other hand I do find I'm ready to sleep in my own bed, not have to eat out every single meal, and be able to have more options in what I want to wear for the day. Plus having access to everything I need and not just the bare minimum.

At some point all vacations end. The last night there we went and watch the sunset on the beach. The sunset on the ocean is always a show stopper. Afterwards we went for dinner, and then it was back to the hotel as our flight left at 7am the next day.

It's always hard to leave a fun vacation, but it was an extra miserable trip home. 

Because we had such an early flight, and we were told the airport takes a very long time to get through security, we had decided to get up at 4am and head over there so we had plenty of time. I woke up about midnight so sick. As in I haven't been that sick in a very long time. It was miserable - as in I was very sick from both ends. 

I spent the rest of the night in that scenario. Water would make me sick, so it was bad. And the thought of having to fly home was not something I wanted to face. Every movement, any smell, set me off to the bathroom for a good 20 minutes. 

I was ready to pay a ridiculous amount of money to stay another day and change out flight tickets, but my husband had not flown on a plane for 20 years and didn't know how to do that. I was too sick to be able to look at my phone, or explain to him how to do it, and his work really needed him back to work the next day. I'm a pretty tough cookie.

I didn't want to be putting people at risk being sick, but I was confident it wasn't covid. This was a full on stomach flu. I have no idea how I got it. The husband and I had eaten the same thing the whole trip and he never got sick like I did. I just caught some fluke.

But he has to do everything. He made sure all the bags were loaded and everything in the room we needed was packed. He had to check out, get the car, load it, and do all the navigation to the airport. It took me 20 minutes to get from the room to the lobby, and I almost lost it on the elevator. 

We made it to the airport, and it was a very long slow walk for me through the muggy heat. There was no AC, and I was struggling. We had to wear masks, which was a good thing because I'm pretty sure I looked like death. I almost passed out waiting in the security line, but didn't. As soon as we made it to the gate it was off to the bathroom again.

It was a miserable flight to Phoenix, then a 3 hour layover in a crowded airport followed by another long flight to get home. I have never been so sick traveling before. More than anything I wanted to lay down on the floor of the busy airport and just not move. But I didn't. I gagged at the smells, and prayed for the day to end. 

3 days later the stomach flu finally passed and I felt human again. It was a far too dramatic ending to a vacation that I hope I never experience again.

But Hawaii was beautiful.