On Family Trips
This post is just slightly after I was able to take the family to Hawaii for a much needed vacation (November). I’ve been to Hawaii a handful of times, though it’s always been for work and only a couple of days at a time. An opportunity arose for me to go for work for a couple weeks. I figured it would be a good opportunity to take the family considering my lodging was going to be paid for by Uncle Sam, as well as the per diem to offset the meals for the family. The other bonus to having Uncle Sam pay is the fact the hotel removes their daily resort fee ($35), which adds up quickly.
After being assured the trip wouldn’t cancel, and I wouldn’t be removed I decided to buy airfare for four, at a total cost of just over $2k. I should have known better. I was taken off the trip a week before it was set to depart, having already bought airfare. Thus began the stress of looking to rebook the families airfare for several months in the future or buy myself last minute airfare, and trying to figure out the date in which everyone needed COVID tested and results uploaded to the HI governments travel website. Results would need to be uploaded prior to taking off for the final leg of the flight and we were getting anxious having not received them until around 11pm the night before we left. I ended up booking myself a last minute flight that was almost $1,500 cheaper, though it was on a different airline, the rental car, and the hotel. Downside, depending on how you look at it, is that I was flying there by myself, though I landed only 30 minutes after the rest of the family.
Considering I had been there a handful of times already, it was pretty stress free actually being there because I already knew the great places to eat. The first day we ended up spending the morning at Waikiki Beach, and decided to head up the eastern coast of Oahu in the afternoon, stopping by the Halona Blowhole for a bit, and finally ending the day in Kailua.
The second day we decided to start in Kailua and finish our trip around the island, checking out Sunset Beach on the North Shore, and Shark’s Cove. Downside is my middle child got a pretty hellacious ear infection after Sunset Beach and we ended up having to take him to a doctor the following morning for medicine before we flew out that afternoon. Luckily, we were able to get the swelling down before our flight, otherwise there was a pretty significant risk to ear drums rupturing from the cabin pressure on board the aircraft.
All in all, a great success. The only downside to the trip is now the kids won’t leave me alone about going back and their insistence that we move there after I retire from the USAF in a handful of years.