Moving day - Hawaii, here we come!

 It's moving day. I'm dog tired because I've been up all night packing and repacking our bags. I set our alarm for 5am so we don't miss our 6am shuttle. I get ready, wake up Lo, my daughter, who has only had an hour of sleep. We grab the Toddler and drag our 12 bags down to the hotel lobby to get the shuttle. We are delayed because the front desk called to find out if we were coming down. The Toddler is asleep in her stroller, still in pajamas and no shoes. We should have plenty of time at the airport to get her ready and grab breakfast so I'm not worried.

We miss the shuttle by six minutes. The front desk reschedules us. The driver shows up at 6:45am. Our flight is at 8:10am. The Toddler is awake, still in her pjs and shoeless. We get to the airport at 7am. The driver dumps our bags on the curb but when he sees my bewildered look, he grabs us a porter. I tip them both and make a mental note to save my cash so I have tip money.

We have to use the self-checkin portal. Despite having weighed my bags over and over at the hotel, they are overweight. I repositioned everything as much as I can but I'm sweating profusely and time is ticking away. I had tucked the cover bag for one of our inflatable mattresses in my bag so I grabbed everything that didn't fit in our checked bags and shoved it in that bag. It's incredibly heavy but I'm using it as one of our carryon bags. I have to pay for two additional bags but it's cheaper than overweight luggage charges. I pay around  $577 for eight checked bags and we are ready to go. It's 7:20am now. Toddler is still barefoot and in pjs. None of us have eaten.

Right then, an airline attendant comes to help us. She finds out that we are going to Hawaii and asks if we have our pre-travel results. We say no. She freaks out and says she can't let us board. Lo pulls up the State of Hawaii site that states that this is the last day that you can provide results after you land but you have to quarantine until the results come in. Airline rep now makes it an issue and insists on calling to be sure. I remind her that our flight is at 8:10am. She doesn't care. Time is ticking away. Finally at 7:50am, she releases us to go to our gate but we still have to drag our bags to baggage drop-off and go through security. Thankfully, another attendant has mercy on us and takes our bags for us. We run to security checkpoint. The TSA guy asks if we have any electronics in our bags. I'm so tired, I can't remember. He says don't worry about it but several of our carryon bags get flagged. Time is ticking, people. Bags get swabbed and checked. We make it to the gate as they are boarding. Toddler is still in pjs and shoeless. None of us has eaten. 

We check the stroller and board. We have practiced for two months on wearing masks so that the Toddler keeps hers on. She does so good. No food is served other than some pretzels and water. It's better than nothing.

Flight lands a little earlier than the 4 hours planned so we have plenty of time in Colorado to dress the Toddler and eat lunch. The second flight is long, really long (8 hours) and it's delayed on the tarmac for 75 minutes due to a fuel leak. We finally take off and, five hours in,  the Toddler is over it -- we cover her face with her jacket so they don't say anything about her not wearing a mask. We spend $30 on three snack packs (hummus, crackers, olives and piece of chocolate). Not a great value. About an hour before landing, Lo pays for an hour of internet so she can check emails. She's pleasantly surprised to see that her negative pre-travel result is in. We breathe a sigh of relief and check my record. Nothing. 

The arrival process in Oahu takes a long time because our flight was full. Lo gets cleared but I'm placed on quarantine until my results arrive. We are given the rules: I must go straight to my apartment without stopping, I have to check in daily, I can't leave the apartment and I can't rent a car. The airport official throws out words like $5000 fine and jail time. My personality is more rule maker than rule breaker so I agree to the rules. We provide a copy of our lease agreement and we're off.

We attempt to go to the car rental place to see if they'll change the booking to Lo's name. Too late - they're closed. We try to get a cab only to find that they can't meet us at baggage claim so we have to drag all our luggage across the street. Some nice people help me. I run out of cash so I'm apologizing to those I can't tip. I don't even know how long I've been up by now.

We finally get to the apartment and meet our landlord. He's lovely and helps us bring our bags up. Thank God, there's an elevator.  I ask the landlord if there is a store nearby that Lo can walk to -- he said he didn't think it was a great idea given how dark and late it was. He mentions that the former tenant left some dish soap and half a roll of toilet paper. I felt like we won the lottery! 

Thankfully, I felt the need to pack two inflatable mattresses (even though everyone told me not to) because at least we had something to sleep on. I am so thirsty but we have no dishes. I scoop water in my hand to drink. We inflate our beds and crash early -- it's around 8pm. 

It's safe to say that our Aloha adventure didn't quite start out the way we imagined it would but I went to bed knowing that tomorrow's another day and, hopefully, my negative pre-travel test would post soon. Despite everything, we are so happy to be in our new home.