My first and only trip to Hawaii (thus far in my life at least) was to Honolulu (Waikiki) and was a complete disaster!
I was really excited when I found a great deal on a companion fare to Honolulu. The only trouble was finding someone that could go with me. I didn't do much traveling with people, because I'm really particular on what I want to do and see when I go places. I don't like to have a schedule or itinerary and I like to figure it out as I go along and be a little more spontaneous than planful. However, I do like to make the most of my trips and I make sure I fit in all the "must sees" and "must dos" while I'm there. I think that's reasonable.
I surveyed my friends to see who might want to go with me and my friend 'L' was all over it. She had wanted to go to Hawaii for the longest time and it just worked out well that we could both get away at that time. I figured L and I would probably have similar interests and want to do some of the same things, so we went ahead and booked it!
The trip didn't start of so well. The flight there involved a man that had rank breath and kept falling asleep on my shoulder and he was a drooler! It was disgusting to say the least. My shoulder was actually wet at one point from his drool. Disgusting! I had to listen to L whine and moan that we weren't in first class and nothing was good enough for her. Yes, sandwiched between a whiner and a drooler...I might as well have been in the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall bar!
When we finally landed, we gathered up our stuff (my luggage was literally the last to come off the plane!) and made our way to the rental car agency. We weren't planning on getting a car, but the package deal we got included it. Of course, the car rental place we chose was not easily accessible and was away from all the rest. After inquiring numerous times, we finally found our way to the car. We asked for a map and headed to our hotel.
We had some trouble finding the place, it wasn't one of the nice hotels in Waikiki, it was just off the beaten path and not really conveniently located near anything! The room was ok, but definitely not a place you wanted to be other than to sleep. Once we got there, I was ready to get out an explore and I was starving. I took a quick shower to get the drool off of me and when I got out and was all ready to go, I found L was sound asleep on the bed. I tried gently waking her, but she was out for the count. I decided I might as well take a quick nap too. We ended up sleeping for over 2 hours! What a waste of good daylight! Since we woke up a little late, we didn't head to the beach, we went out looking for food an nightlife instead. We asked the desk clerk at the hotel for recommendations of places to eat and he wasn't much help. We set off exploring and found some Hawaiian fusion place that was decent but not great. So far, Hawaii wasn't turning out to be the tropical paradise I was hoping for it to be.
I wanted to go out after dinner and enjoy the nightlife in Waikiki, but L was complaining that her head hurt and that the food wasn't sitting well and that she was tired....blah, blah, blah. Really?! I mean we were in Hawaii for only 4 days and you want to waste an evening just sleeping and eating sub par food?? I figured we would just call this first day a wash and put it behind us and I caved in an went back to the hotel upon her request.
The next day I wanted to take it all in and really enjoy all that Hawaii had to offer. Of course, that included the beach! It didn't take much convincing to get L going to the beach. We packed up our stuff and started the trek to the beach 'near' our hotel (it was a decent hike). We staked out a nice spot that was partially in the shade and sun. I have an extreme sensitivity to the sun, so I completely slathered myself in sunscreen (SPF 75) to ensure I wasn't going to burn. This included my feet. While we were laying out on the beach I had buried my feet in the sand at one point and with the sunscreen on my feet it caused the sand to stick. This wasn't really a big deal, you expect sand to stick to you when you go to the beach. What I didn't realize is that sand can actually act as a catalyst for the sun and for the next few hours that we were laying out by the beach the sun was literally cooking my feet (I did not learn this until much later).
When we were done at the beach we went back to the hotel to clean up and go out for dinner. I took a shower and I noticed that my feet looked a little red, but I figured they were just slightly sunburned or maybe irritated by the sand. At that point they looked and felt fine other than a little redness.
We went out to dinner and ended up finding a much better restaurant this time. It was a nice evening. Again, I was ready to go out and hit the Waikiki after hours! L complained again that she didn't feel great and was wiped out from our day. Ugh! Are you kidding me. This time I wasn't so nice and I forced her to at least go get a few drinks. She was always walking about 10 paces behind me and every word out of her mouth was a complaint. I tried to ignore it, but it was driving me nuts! I wanted the Hawaii paradise everyone else always exclaimed about!
Our evening was rather boring and I finally caved to L again and went back to the hotel. When we woke up the next day my feet felt really tight and when I looked down at them, I noticed my right foot was extremely swollen and my left foot was getting a little puffy too. There wasn't any sign of a blister yet. When I stood up my feet were stinging and it was rather painful. I figured this was going to go away naturally and wasn't going to turn into anything serious. We were going to the Dole plantation and to drive around Oahu since we had the car. As we drove out to the plantation, I literally watched my feet get larger and larger and larger. As we went on the tour, a blister started to form on my right foot. It was the craziest thing you ever saw, my foot seemed to be alive. This blister was growing and my foot was getting larger by the minute. We drove up to the North Shore of Hawaii and explored the beach and watched some of the surfers. At this point my foot was throbbing and a VERY large blister had formed on the right foot and smaller blisters were forming on the left. I couldn't even get my foot in my flip flops anymore and putting any weight on my foot was extremely painful!
We drove back to Waikiki and to our hotel. When we got back to the room I called my mom for advice on what to do about my foot. The advice she gave me turned out to be the worst thing I could have done! She told me to take a needle and to pop the blister to release the fluids. I was terrified to do that because it was extremely painful and the blister was huge! I did it anyway. After that, my foot became this raw, bloody, fleshy, disgusting entity. The pain was beyond belief. I couldn't do anything. I went down to the lobby to see what first aid they had available, hoping they might at least have some gauze or bandage that I could protect my foot with. All they had were tiny band aids and after looking at my foot the guy just gave us the full box of them. So, I tried to make the best of it and had this patchwork of band aids all over my foot. It was pathetic.
The next day we were flying home and the nightmare didn't end! We were driving back to the airport and were already running late, and we couldn't find the directions on where to return the rental car. We found almost every rental agency but ours! I had lost all my patience and I was yelling at L and I threw the map at her. It was pure drama! We finally found the way to return it, then we had to wait for like 15 minutes to get a shuttle back to the terminal. We were so late! We were going to miss our flight. We got the shuttle and at the terminal we were going to have to run or we were never going to make it to the gate. I could barely walk, let alone run....I couldn't get any shoe (flip flops included) to fit on my foot. So I was running around barefoot with about 20 band aids flopping on my raw and oozing foot! I hobbled as fast as I could to the gate and we made it at the very last minute. We were seated in the back of the plane and I hopped back to get to my seat (which was the middle seat), and I had to beg L to give me her aisle seat so I could stretch out my foot. She was so selfish! Of course, during all of this, the flight attendant took notice of my foot and the pain on my face. I thought for sure she wasn't going to let me fly. I convinced her I was ok and it was just because we ran to the plane.
The whole flight was miserable, my foot was throbbing, stinging, and the pain was unbelievable. I had NOTHING I could take, not even Tylenol. I was suffering and I had to do everything I could not to just cry or scream.
Once we landed back in Chicago, I slowly limped to the baggage claim to get my stuff and make it to my car. L had the nerve to ask me to drive her home, even though she lived downtown and could easily take a cab! I just screamed "NO, I'm going to urgent care!!" I did just that. I drove straight to urgent care with my band aids dangling off my foot at this point and exposing a foot that looked like it had been attacked by a flesh eating virus.
When I arrived at urgent care the nurse asked me if I had poured acid over my foot. She could not believe that I could have such severe burns from just the sun. The burns on my feet were third degree and the doctor said I was lucky I didn't wait any longer or I could have lost my right foot. OMG!!
They gave me bandages and cream to start the healing, but walking on my foot was not possible. Just standing up caused so much stinging pain that I would pass out. I was out of work for over 2 weeks and when I did finally go back I still couldn't get a shoe on my foot, so I had to wear flip flops and people wanted to throw up when they saw my foot.
Needless to say, my Hawaii trip was one of the worst vacations I've ever had, and I still shiver when I think about going back :(
For two years I had a permanent tan line on my feet that looked like I always had a brown sock on. Now, I just have scars that look like birth marks. I am thankful it healed as well as it did.
Never bury your feet in the sand when they are covered in sunscreen!
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