Tom, the girls and I, along with Ashley, Andrew and Zoe, left for Kauai on March 5th. It's impossible not to love Hawaii! The humid air, the warm sun, the sand, the tropical fruit, the fresh seafood! There are rainbows in the morning, and chickens and roosters running around everywhere!
We spent the first week with Andrew, Ashley and Zoe on the south side of the island in Poipu. This is where we stayed with my parents in 2017, and it was both drier, and more family friendly than the north or east side of the island. We fell into a routine of hitting the beach at least once a day.
Lacey was living her best life. She loved the beach (although she actually loved the pool more), specifically digging in the sand.
Scarlett on the other hand, found sand to be incredibly traumatizing. Standing in sand was basically the worst thing we've ever made her do. Getting vaccinations, taking antibiotics, being held down for pink eye drops paled in comparison to standing in sand. According to Scarlett, we are clearly monstrous parents.
Scarlett also found the beach to be an insurmountable amount of hard work. She fell asleep at the beach twice during our holiday.
On about the fifth day of our trip, Tom got an email from work that said when he returned from our holiday, he would have to work from home for a two-week self quarantine. Tom and I both couldn't believe it! That seemed absolutely unbelievable, and unnecessary. We wondered why his company was over-reacting so much!
We continued our holiday, and made a stop at Costco to stock up on food. Costco cuties (back when it was totally normal to take your kids to Costco--- remember that!?)
We continued to watch the American news coverage of COVID-19, as well as our home province news. Stories revolved around how not enough testing was done. How the virus was accelrating in Italy and Iran. A sense of unease was creeping in. Maybe this WAS a bigger deal than we'd initially thought.
On March 10th, Tom's parents arrived and joined us in Kauai.
We enjoyed a day at the beach, got some family shots, and the girls gloried in having grandma and grandpa at the beach with them.
And then, March 11th. Trump declares all flights to Europe will be suspended.
Initiate sense of impending dread in the pit of stomach. Yep, there it is. Oh man, am I ever going to sleep normally again?
I'm sure everyone who is reading this experienced some form of this anxiety in their own way, shape or form. Suddenly, it became very clear that sh*t was getting real, and... What did this mean? How bad was this situation at home? How bad was the situation in Kauai? We still had another six days left in our trip... These were Europe flights, but things were changing so fast, we didn't know what to expect. Were we going to be able to get home? I've experienced true anxiety only a handful of times in my life, and this was by far the worst of all.
Logically, I knew that we were actually probably safer in Kauai than we would be at home. There had only been 2 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the island, and both were travel related. Someone from a cruise ship, and someone returning from the mainland. But logic isn't the best weapon against anxiety. It should be, but it's not.
Still, we had six days left! We might as well make the most of our time on holiday, right?
So, we took a long, winding, nausea-inducing ride up to Waimea Canyon. We have made this trip twice before, and still, I never learn. If there is a next time: TAKE GRAVOL.
We enjoyed the views.
We enjoyed the chickens! I know... They're just disgusting roosters and chickens. I'm sure the locals think tourists are crazy taking pictures of chickens. But in the sunlight, all colourful and iridescent, they're actually quite beautiful!
We enjoyed the ultra-touristy plantation train. My favourite picture from this outing is little Zoe sticking her head out of the train!
Tom and I managed to get away for an evening out on our own. We ate an amazing meal -- I'll just let the photo of it speak for itself. It was delicious.
The last few days of our trip were quite rainy, so we shopped in the rain. Went to the pool in the rain. And all the while, I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. Stories of the overflowing hospitals in Italy were all over the news, and dire warnings and forecasts for what was to come for Canada and America were all the headlines. I mean, at one point, the Canadian governement issued the statement that, "It was time for Canadians to come home, before it was too late." WHAT DID THAT MEAN?! That's very vague and unsettling, Canada!
So... I do not recommend travelling at the onset of a global pandemic. In the future... We'll try not to do that again! ;)
And another week left to go on our self-quarantine.
