It felt good to get out to see the world finally. Our destination? Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. The trip to the island was a journey on its own, definitely during Covid. Before the flight, we had to fill out an electronic form on Hawaii’s Safe Travel Website to inform the island of our Covid-19 test results or vaccine status, where we live, where we were staying on the island, how long we would be there, and why we were visiting. Once we completed our form, we got a QR code, but we will talk about that later. Sounds like a lot, right? Yes, but it was worth it in the end.
On the day of travel, we made sure that we had lots of snacks and hard copies of all requested documents. We took a Lyft to the airport, checked our bags, and took off to our first destination – Chicago O’hare Airport. There’s no non-stop flight from Tennessee, unfortunately. Once we arrived at O’hare and made it to our gate, airport staff instructed us to hop in line to scan our QR code. We got a wristband in return. The next thing we knew, customer service was calling our names. Hearing that was nerve-wracking, but they called us over to tell us that they upgraded our seats. What a win! We were flying to Hawaii in even more comfort with lots of snacks!
Ten hours later, we arrived! We trekked through the airport to make it to baggage claim and requested an Uber. Shortly after, we met our driver Mustafa. The trip from the airport to our hotel was about 20 minutes, so let’s say we got to know him very well. In the next blog, I will share more about our experience with Mustafa plus more. Stay tuned!