Our Last Week in Hawaii - COVID 19

Family Week - shorter than expected....

Jen, Rick, Ruby, Bennett and Miles flew over on Thursday, March 12 and we were very excited to see them.  We got busy right away starting with fun in the pool here, Miles was getting some one-on-one instruction from Ruby.

At Hapuna Beach the waves were pretty big so it was good for boogie-boarding...

49 Black Sand Beach

Exploring the Petroglyph Trail

Great trees to climb at 'Bennett's Beach'

Grandpa's specialties - Games, and preparing snacks and drinks!

And the week wouldn't be complete without an evening at the Lava Lava Beach Club....

Miles listening to hear the ocean in the shell

Very cool ...

There's lots to do on the entertainment lawn, every year brings something new.  The kids were definitely prepared to play ping-pong as they've been playing with Gpa alot at home.

A Change in Plans

Barry and Emanuelle were supposed to arrive in Hawaii a few days after Jen, Rick and kids, but decided they needed to cancel because of the rapid succession of COVID-19 throughout the world.  Travel in and out of Canada was declared now as essential travel only, and we were listening more and more to the news reports: 

HEALTH

Worldwide cases of coronavirus surpass 200,000 as borders close

BY DAVID RISING AND CHRIS BLAKE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted March 18, 2020 10:04 am

We all made the decision to fly back to Canada in light of what was happening, we didn't want to get stranded in Hawaii - although at first we thought that may not be too bad.  We changed our flights to fly home early, and seats were not easy to get - but we all flew home together.  Although we booked separately we ended up with Jen, Miles and myself in the middle row, Rick was on one aisle beside us, Ted was across from us on the other aisle, and Ruby and Bennett were seated just two rows behind us. Chance?  Good luck?  No - to me it was Divine intervention!  Jen was busy with the Purell making sure the surfaces were all disinfected and then we had a direct flight to Vancouver, and entered a 14 day isolation period at our homes, as required by BC Health.

We've been home now for two months, and after being pretty much house-bound for most of that time we're starting to look forward to this next phase as restrictions are eased and we're able to get out more.  We haven't seen Barry since before we left to go to Hawaii!  It has definitely felt like a different world that we came home to, and although it will be a new-normal for quite some time I'm thankful that we are all healthy and getting through this pandemic.