Long Travels, Happily Here

By the time I post this we’ll be in Hawaii. It’s been one of those long travel days where you get up extra early to get to the airport in time to catch one of the first flights out. We did all that and then had two flights, the second being close to eight hours.

That long flight worried me for two reasons: my children and me. My children because that’s a long time to stay occupied. My son was fine with his iPad and Nintendo Switch. He and I did some things together but mostly he’s happy entertaining himself.

My daughter was the main worry. She needs more interaction with other people. She both needs it from the vision impairment perspective and also craves companionship. She was great though; she listened to some audio books and worked on two stained glass projects I’d found for her that were tactile and fun looking. She could almost do it completely independently, although I told her I would come in for quality inspections.

The other thing that worried me is me. I travel “so so” to “super painful”. It’s not something I can predict or prepare for, there are just too many variables. Wait, that’s not true, I prepare for and try to prevent whatever possible—because who wants to travel in pain?

There have been ups and downs on the travel from my perspective, buy my in-laws had upgraded us to economy plus or something like that and that made a huge difference, It might not have been as bad if the changeover to the backup nerve medication hadn’t happened yesterday. But we’ve got a pool and hot tub and all kinds o fun planned now that we’ve arrived. It’s just the getting there that’s a bit of a trick for me sometimes.

The Big Boy Update: Greyson said enjoyed the airplane because it was nice, relaxing and quiet—and his iPad and Switch never died.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter just told me, “there was this really nice lady I met named, Amanda on the first flight. She let me feel the bag and mask.” I didn’t realize she was talking about the safety demonstration at the beginning of the flight until she said, “You know when they want to put me to sleep, the nose and mask part of that is basically the same thing.” She hasn’t anything, but she’s felt the airline cabin pressure loss mask assembly and knows what they use on her in the OR and she’s right, they’re very similar.