Kauai

I am so excited! I get this regular weekly e-mail on travel deals. It's how we found out about the deal on the trip to Morocco we took (geez, has it really been almost) four years ago. This week there was a deal on roundtrip air from the West Coast to Honolulu. $245. That's cheaper than flying to Kansas. Of course, I'm trying not to get worked up about travel deals, because a) we don't make as much money as we used to, b) traveling is more of a hassle when you live six hours from a major airport, c) what money we do have is going to pay medical bills, d) we've already booked all of Stan's time off for this year, and e) I need to conserve vacation time so I can sell it back to cover some of the aforementioned medical bills. Still, when you see a deal that good, you just have to check. I mean... airfare from SFO to HNL is typically in the $400-500 range.

So, yeah, the airfares to Honolulu are great and all. But do we really want to go to Oahu? No. And so then we'd be stuck with adding on airfare to another island. And there's the cost of a hotel. And a rental car. Okay, but wait... this deal is not on an airline website, it's on a travel package operator website. So what if... okay, just for kicks I'm going to check three nights in Molokai, which is where I really want to go. I mean, I KNOW it's going to be over $2,000, because you've got the connections and that's not a high-volume route and it's always... HOLY CRAP! It's under $1,000. Airfare to Molokai and three nights' hotel. Well, if Molokai's that cheap, how much would it be to... Kauai is under $900! For TWO roundtrip tickets from SFO and three nights in a hotel. Wait... our timeshare has a place on Kauai. Okay, how cool would it be if...? No, it's time to go to our Wednesday night Bible study. Wait... I just have to make ONE phone call. "YOU DO? You have three nights available in Kauai? Okay, I'll call back later."

"Honey, I know we have other things to spend our money on, but you're going to have major surgery this fall, and we won't be able to travel ANYWHERE for up to six months. So wouldn't it be great to just take a little trip for my birthday? A last hurrah before you go under the knife and I am completely devoid of travel for the longest period in my adult life... Why aren't you saying no? You're the practical one..."

So, we're going to Kauai for Halloween. I'm going to be in Tahoe for three days before for a conference, so I can just meet Stan in San Francisco. Work won't miss me; I'll just be gone for six days instead of three. It's the week we don't have a Board meeting, so my boss is planning to leave town, too. Stan can actually check in at his office for the last time before his surgery. Using the timeshare instead of a hotel through the website, the two roundtrip tickets (which apparently even qualify for frequent flyer miles--I was amazed because I thought sure these people were a consolidator outfit) and the rental car totaled $711! Did I mention I'm excited?