NBWM18 Mahalo Mom and Dad

I’m so glad that if I had to get sick, at least it was at the very end of the trip. My throat was sore and I could barely speak and the sinus drip was going crazy. I wasn’t able to sleep and I had two flights in my very near future. I was concerned that the sinuses would cause me a lot of pain on the flights.

Greg and I didn’t make the very last ship excursion, which was to see the “Grand Canyon of Hawaii.” Mom and Dad said it was nice, but if there was one to miss, that this was the one, as it was very small in comparison to the Grand Canyon on the mainland.

I went to see the ship’s doctor. He gave me some antibiotics and said that I would be feeling great tomorrow. I don’t think he took me seriously. I was NOT better and felt completely miserable. Poor Greg. He really wanted me to be well. I felt bad that he missed the excursion.

Greg would eat his meals and then bring me back something to eat and then worry because I didn’t have much of an appetite.

That afternoon, I gathered strength enough to see the beautiful Na Pali Coastline from our balcony.

The day that we disembarked from the ship, we had to leave by 9am but our flight wasn’t until 7pm. We toured some more around Oahu, going to the Palace and having lunch at a Japanese restaurant. I barely had energy to walk and somehow made it through the day.

One thing to mention – Greg’s Irish luck was holding strong. We took a cab ride from the cruise ship to the rental car agency. From the rental car agency, we did the touring around of Oahu. Then we dropped off the rental car and went to the airport.

When we go to the airport, I saw my pink iPad cover and asked, “Greg, where is your iPad?” He couldn’t find it and the last time we remember seeing it was in the rental car agency. The good news was that we arrived really early for our flight, so Greg had enough time to go back to the agency and they had his iPad. Whew… Luck of the Irish, I tell you!


The flights, on the other hand… that was horrible. My right ear wouldn’t pop on the flight from Hawaii to Texas. On the short flight from Texas to Louisiana, I was in so much pain that I wanted to bang my head against the plane, anything to stop the pain. It was awful.

The next day, I went to my ENT doctor. I showed him the medicine the ship’s doctor gave to me and said I was worried I had ear damage from the flight. My ENT doctor was furious that the ship’s doctor didn’t give me anything stronger. He said that nobody should be sent on a plane flight in the condition that I was in without stronger antibiotics. My doc said, "Those ship antibiotics didn't do you a damn bit of good." (And it cost 180 dollars, which the ship doesn't mind charging!) My doctor gave me 2 shots and put me on two medicines. In the future, if I get sick somewhere else, I’m calling my ENT doctor to see if he can send me a prescription.

When I wrote on FB about being sick, one of my friends, Rene, wrote back, “I’d feel sorry for you being sick… but you got sick in HAWAII!” Lol. That DOES put things into perspective.

Also, so many other things could have happened ~ no sunburns, no seasicknes, nothing broken from all the hiking we did...

There’s absolutely no way that my sickness affected my view of the trip. My gosh – it was fantastic:

Diamondhead Hiking

Beach house

Sunset beach

Lava Rock hiking

Black Sand Beach

Pearl Harbor

Valley of the Temple

Vow Renewal

Pineapple Tour

Cruise Ship

Haleakala Crater

Parasailing

Awesome, Awesome

MAHALO MOM & DAD!!!

Thank you so very, very, very much for an incredible trip to Hawaii. It was everything I could have ever wanted to more.