Kona, HI

Wednesday, March 17

Wheels up to Hawaii! It’s been almost a year since we’ve traveled by airplane — Andi, Tory, Aden and I were both nervous and excited to take this trip. The last time the four of us were on a plane was March 2020 when we traveled home from New Zealand. The world was seemingly shutting down before our eyes on that trip, and no one knew much about this new virus called COVID-19. Fast forward one year later, Andi and I weren’t completely sure how safe traveling by airplane would feel or how busy airports would be.

Additionally, the state of Hawaii requires all travelers visiting the island to submit a negative COVID test result within 72 hours of arrival from one of their pre-approved vendors. Taking the test is free — you can either spit in a test tube at home and mail-in your sample, or visit a testing facility in person. Results take 24-72 hours to receive. Andi and I decided to do both because we were concerned we wouldn’t have our results back in time for our Wednesday morning flight.

Monday afternoon, Andi, Tory, Aden and I drove to Minneapolis to take a COVID spit test in person at a COVID testing facility and we also took the same test at home & mailed in our samples to the lab. It was a pain driving all the way to Minneapolis & back on Monday, but I’m glad we did. We had our test results (which were negative, by the way) back in about 12 hours. We didn’t receive our mail-in test results until Wednesday morning at 8:30am — exactly two hours before our flight departed to Hawaii. Once we had our negative test results, Andi submitted them to the state of Hawaii via website and we were cleared for travel.

As a side note — we learned who is the best “spitter” in the family (Tory), and who isn’t (Aden). The COVID spit test requires a person to collect a sizable amount of spit in a test tube for the sample. Impressively, Tory was able to spit enough liquid in one solid try; it took Aden over an hour to come up with enough spit for his. Andi and I tried everything we could think of to help Aden spit (bite your cheeks, touch the roof of your mouth with your tongue, think of something sour), but nothing helped. How do you MAKE your child spit? It was a new parenting challenge.

Our flight departed Wednesday, March 17 from Minneapolis which meant we left our house in NW Wisconsin about four hours beforehand. Andi and I were surprised how busy (shall I say “normal?”) the airport felt that morning. There were lots of people traveling through the airport, but it was to comforting to see airline protocols in place for social distancing and people generally following the rules as far as wearing masks, etc.

Our flight from Minneapolis to Seattle went smoothly. The four of us ate lunch in the Sea-Tac airport and then boarded our flight to Kona, Hawaii shortly thereafter. It’s such a treat traveling with Tory and Aden now that they are older! They contently played games and watched movies on the plane without complaint. Our seating assignments on the plane weren’t any different than pre-COVID days of travel — Tory, Aden and I sat together three-in-a-row and Andi sat across the aisle from us. There was an open seat between him and another traveler.

About an hour into our flight to Kona, Aden started to complain that his belly felt “hot sick.” That’s his tell-tale way of saying he’s about to vomit. There wasn’t much I could do for him on the plane, so I encouraged him to lay down on the seat next to Tory. He did look pale. By this point in the day, we’d been awake for 12 hours so I thought maybe he was just tired. Aden nestled up to Tory’s leg and fell asleep for about 30 minutes. He whimpered on and off for another 30 minutes or so after that before — splat! He threw up all over himself and his blanket. I usually travel with extra ziploc bags and baby wipes, but I didn’t on this trip for some reason. I had one of those airline barf bags at the ready, but I just couldn’t get the tiny opening of the bag to Aden’s mouth fast enough.

The audible groan of disgust from the people around us was embarrassing. I’m sure they were thinking, “Oh great! This kid has COVID!” but I assure you we didn’t — we’d just taken COVID tests to prove we didn’t to get on this plane. Aden bounced back to his happy, chipper self as soon as he threw up. Meanwhile, Andi and I were scrambling to get both Aden and the seat he’d been sitting in cleaned up.

The last hour of our flight was pleasant, except for the waft of vomit in the air. Tory was seated near the window oohing and ahhing at the ocean below us. As we landed in Kona, we could see a rainbow in the clouds over the Big Island.

Once we landed, the four of us spent the next hour waiting in line for an airport employee to verify our negative COVID results and then surprisingly everyone had to take ANOTHER rapid COVID test before leaving the airport. Just as it was our turn for the dreaded nose swab, I looked down and saw vomit coming out the sides of Aden’s face mask. Ack! I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the nearest trash can where he proceeded to vomit profusely for the next few minutes. As I wiped his face and arms down with my last Purell hand sanitizer wipe, two men dressed in full scrubs and PPE equipment came over to shove cotton swabs up our noses. I wanted to shout, “DUDE! Give me a minute here!” but I didn’t. None of the airport employees seemed that alarmed about Aden throwing up in their COVID testing area. All they said was “feel better, little buddy.”

Sweetly, Andi’s dear friend Claire and her brother Clark met us in baggage claim to present us with four Hawaiian flower leis (and a bottle of booze for Andi — much needed after a long travel day!). Coincidently, Claire is visiting her brother who lives in Hawaii. We chatted with Claire and Clark for a few minutes and then collected our luggage in baggage claim. Andi took an airport shuttle to the rental car area to pick up our rental car while I changed Aden into fresh clothes. What a long day!

We’ve rented a condo for the week in Waikoloa Village on the northwest side of the Big Island. On the way there, we stopped at a market to pickup something quick for dinner. We were all exhausted, but we needed a little food in our belly and something for breakfast tomorrow morning. At the condo, we all took showers and went to bed around 9:00pm — a full 24-hours since we left Wisconsin Wednesday morning.

There were a few new hoops to jump through in order to travel to Hawaii, but it was worth the effort! Tomorrow, we’re excited to swim & explore our surroundings on the Big Island. More to come…