A Few Miles West of Expected

You know the old saying about ‘When pigs fly’? Well, pigs still can’t fly, but because of pigs neither can we. To Mexico anyway. Yes, because of the whole H1N1 Swine Flu virus, our originally scheduled flight this coming Friday to sunny, warm, beachy, breezy, fun-filled Mazatlan was cancelled by American Airlines. Unbelievable. Now I am stuck with a whole case of face masks and nowhere to use them. Great. Just great.

Ok, all kidding aside, the truth is we were not going on this trip anyway. Not after all the reports that came out of Mexico. Plus my parents, who were scheduled to travel with us, were going to have to cancel for non flu related reasons anyway. We were just waiting patiently to see if American would cancel so we could get a full refund on the flights. I had a great poker face, and thankfully they folded.


Sure, the whole news blitz about the possibility of a global flu pandemic has died down considerably, but in reality there was no way we were going to take our little guy to a place where they still don't have a good reason why the outbreak was so much worse, and more deadly, than it has been elsewhere. One of our worst fears would be to be stuck at a foreign hospital, where we don’t speak the language, with a sick or injured Lukas. No, we were happy for the refund thank you very much.

If you have deduced that this left the parents of an energetic two year old, who have not been on a real vacation (see: not visiting family) in 2 ½ years, and who also would have been celebrating a milestone anniversary during that trip, with nowhere to vacation. . . .you are right on the money. Yes, it was a disappointment. However, the cancellation happened a couple of weeks ago, at the height of the flu scare, giving us enough time to come up with alternate travel plans.

We still had credits towards a timeshare – a gracious gift from my parents – to use, but finding an opening which corresponded to a manageable flight within our vacation time frame was a challenge. In the end, what we came up with seems ideal. We will be spending next week on Hawaii’s Garden Isle, Kauai.

Better yet, we are staying close to a place called ‘Baby Beach’, apparently named so for it’s perfect conditions for toddlers. Just what the Doctor ordered.

Help me out readers. Since this will be our first extended trip with our son, what have you found to be the best things to pack to keep toddlers occupied and interested, but take up the least amount of space? And, if you happen to have visited The Garden Isle before and know of any good places to frequent, please pass them along.

In the mean time, I'll be packing.