Grateful to embark on another one of our long-awaited, revered trips to Hawaii, affectionately known by us and many others as the beloved islands of paradise, neither my husband or I expected to be faced with the idea of lost luggage and yet, here we sit. Albeit, sitting on our lanai taking in all of the gorgeous ocean waves and sunshine makes it a little more tolerable. And, it is not lost on us that most important of all, even though we are sans suitcases, we did make it safely to our chosen destination. Always a big plus, especially given that there was an earlier threat of Hurricane Barbara, now dissipated, possibly interfering with our travel plans. But, let’s get back to our missing bags….
Now, I don’t know about you, but we understand that mistakes happen and I, personally, have never had to deal with lost luggage in all of my years of travel, which I now realize has been awfully lucky. Of course, when packing our carry-on items, I think us vacationers are all aware of what items are most crucial to have with us should something unforeseen happen with the rest of our checked items. Luckily, both my husband and I had our imminent medications and medical equipment with us on the airplane, so we haven’t had to worry about anything like that on day two of our twelve day trip. What we have had to do, though, is make several calls to our airliner and a few shopping stops to get us through this rather unfavourable situation. That being said, a couple of realizations have come to mind, as always seems to be the case when faced with adversity, if you can actually call it that.
First off, I didn’t realize how much I would miss my ‘stuff’, now that I don’t have any of it. Several times in the past forty-eight hours, my husband and I have each gone to reach and/or search for things that we ‘brought’, but aren’t here including the most basic of items, such as eye drops and hand lotion, to a hat, shorts, flip flops and our little travel fan for white noise. A little frustrating without a doubt. Especially since we had packed so carefully and even adhered to our written tips from last trip, so that we would not miss anything and also try to reduce our expenses, as much as possible. After all, it’s no secret that Hawaii isn’t cheap…to get here or to stay here.
Having said what I just said about the inconvenience of not having our favoured and non-essential essentials, I also have come to discover (much to my own surprise) that when push comes to shove, a person really doesn’t NEED a whole lot. We are here safely, as mentioned, we have our health, and we have a decent supply of our necessary medications/implements, along with a bit of cash/credit and our identification information. Hoping our airline will stick to their word and reimburse us, we have since been able to purchase toiletries, clothing and other necessities from the store, which Hawaii happens to have plenty of; a few establishments of which are thankfully open late in case you are ever here and in need. Mahalo to the many customer service people of the South Pacific!
The other epiphany that hit both of us is that we are grateful not to be stranded somewhere in a third-world country where it would be a whole lot more inconvenient, even unsafe maybe, to not have all of our things with us. At least, here on the islands, we have been able to purchase things that we needed, whereas in other places in the world that would not even be an option. That would be a yikes for sure!
Lesson: Always consider your travel destination and what you should have with you.
Bigger Lesson: We can get by with a lot less ‘stuff’ than we think we can, which then makes you wonder if we even really need all of it to begin with. Probably not! I think we’ve got a bit of the first-world syndrome going on wherein more seems better, but is it really?! I’ll leave you to ponder that one…I know we presently are.
Meanwhile, I am going to continue to sit on our picturesque, oceanfront lanai and take in the sights, sounds and smell of the growing saltwater surf, the steadfast look of the palms swaying gently in the wind and the heat of the big, gorgeous sun poking out between the ever-so white and puffy cloud formations. Aloha, my friends:-). It is a fine day!
Jibber Jabber with Sue 
Oh, Sue–so sorry! We had our bags stolen from our hotel room several years ago, so I can relate to not having your stuff. I hope your bags show up soon. We, too, were in the US but still…..We did learn a lot about packing, though–always a bright spot!
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Stolen—that’s worse! I feel your pain. Hopefully, our bags arrive tonight. We, too, have learned some very valuable things.
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