Lucky Number 13

So, yes, the travels are glamorous, but exhausting and we all started to second guess things when a few strikes of bad luck came up against us.

There was the Newark debacle that was heart-breaking. The problems in NJ made us miss our flight on Dec 28th. Thankfully I was able to rebook our Honolulu to Kaua'i flight for 24 hours later without a penalty and the rental car company didn't seem to care. Our boat tour around the Na'Pali coast was also easily rescheduled to January 1st without problems.

But Continental or Newark or both, despite perfect flying conditions and above 0 temperatures, got us out 2 hours late from Newark - enough that we missed our connecting flight in Honolulu.

Hello Best Western Honolulu Airport!

This time the Hawaiian airline was less understanding and it cost us $400 to get on the first flight out in the morning.

So overall, we lost 1 day and 2 nights in our beautiful condo by the ocean and were out close to $1000. And there was the toll on us - waiting around airports, calling all sorts of 1-800 numbers, lugging our stuff all over the place. Thank you, Consuela, you Biatch!

Cassandra is usually our "canary in a coal mine". She started to throw up at 1:45am in Newark. I lost count at 6. Thankfully she rebounded quickly and other than some false alarms, it was over by morning.

Harrison continued to eat everything in sight. Trish and I managed to keep everything down or in or whatever, but were queasy after meals for a few days. Despite the external beauty of the Na'Pali coast, I was very quiet during the trip and the seas were apparently quite calm for January.

On takeoff from Kaua'i back to Honolulu, as Trish tried to remind Mackenzie that her tray had to be stowed and her seatback in the fully upright position, she sat bolt upright and said "But my belly is very sore ..." Well, the last word was kind of muffled by the chocolate cheerios and curdled milk flying out of her mouth. She threw up all over herself and Trish ... and - no joke - every 30-40 minutes for the entire 8 hour flight to Guam (our stopover on the way to Hong Kong). We must have used half the plane's supply of Continental little blue barf bags.

To boot, I grew to really hate Dylan, the toddler in seat 37A, who screeched "WASSER" for the entire 8 hour flight. Dylan's Dad and Dylan had some kind of communication issue. Dad's repetitive threats of "10 minutes of stroller time tomorrow" were misinterpreted by Dylan as encouragement to escalate the volume, pitch and repetitions of the "WASSER"s.

As we deplaned in Guam, we were all really exhausted and glum. I started to wonder if it was too late to rejoin Harrison's hockey team. Dylan and his family started to follow us to the gate of the flight to Hong Kong. Shit! Maybe if we ran to the gate, we would lose them. No such luck. They were on the same flight as us again! Another f***** 5 hours of "WASSER"s. Guess where they were sitting? I'm sure you all got it right - in the row directly in front of us!!!

And then our luck changed.

Mackenzie's gastro got better. She never vomited again and ... well nothing else either. Dylan (and all the rest of us) slept the entire flight to Hong Kong. We landed at 10:30pm in Hong Kong's beautiful clean efficient airport.

Our hotel van driver was right on time and the transport to the hotel and check-in were seamless. Harrison and I ventured out into Kowloon to find some comfort food for the ladies.

Nathan Road, Kowloon - 1:00 am

It couldn't have been the air (in Kowloon???), but as we walked back to our hotel with chicken McNuggets for the fairer members of our family, Harrison and I both felt that things had changed and that now the real trip had started. Hong Kong would not disappoint.

Rooms 1315 and 1316 at the CityView