Christmas 2021

Now I know what you are thinking. "Jesse, are you sure a trip home for Christmas is deserving of a blog? We havent even got the rest of the 2019 blog yet, let alone the start of the Hawaii blog, tell us, how did your trip to Hawaii go!" And to those people, I will answer, yes, im sorry, and maybe later. If you want the short version of my move to hawaii, here it is. Due to COVID-19, 3 overlapping and conflicting beurocracies, inconsistent guidelines, broken prommises, I spent nearly 30 grand moving and living in an expensive state for 2 years durring which I only attended online classes, and did not infact, need to be here at all. The weather is hot, it is always 85F (30C), which is 10 degrees warmer than I would like, the groceries are expensive, rent is basically downtown LA, and electricity is atleast 3x what it is where you live. The only up side is amazingly cheep resturants with epic food, a beach within a mile with a perfect ocean for swiming, and a transpacific fiber line that gives the island extreamly good internet (reasonably priced too).

Any way, moving on.

Christmas 2021

In order for you to fully experience the narative I am about to unfold, you first must understand my semester. I flew out the Sunday after finals week. Durring the semester, I TA'd for ICS312: Assembly programming, and I took 2 classes, High Performance Computing (ie playing with a super computer) and Human Computer Interaction (ie how humans like to use computers). For 312, I had to grade the final 2 homeworks durring finals week. For HCI, I had a massive 5 person, 1 month long, project due durring finals week. And for HPC, I had a individual project due... you guessed it, durring finals week. Needless to say, I completed all of them on time, but they add into my story. You see, my flight was the Sunday after finals week. Now that the scene is set, we can start at

Dead Week

The week before finals is called Dead week. Some places there are no classes in Dead week, some places, just no tests. Here at UH, its just no tests. Instead we had final presentations! (yay!) Both HCI and HCP had a final presentation, and neither project was finished. For HCI I had few team meetings to discuss finishing up the project. These where a bit redundent since really, I was the only one who did very much for that project (like seriously, I organized and lead all the meetings, was the only one who did inbetween meeting stuff, wrote all of the final document, and came up with the project. The most anyone else did was participate in the meetings and minor edits to the document). We managed to scrape together a presentation for me to present, by class, but had not started on the paper. For HCP, a large portion is waiting for the computer to run. I had a large program just waiting to run. It took about 2 days to start and a full day to run. Due to technical issues the first run only produced partial results. I managed to scrape together a presentation there too using the partial results and the expected future results.
This is when things started to bad. The Tuesdsy before finals week (December 7th) my left ear started to hurt. Not much, but enough. Fortunatly alternating hot and cold compresses did the trick, but I still had trouble focusing.
It got worse Wendsday, that was a miserable day. I did manage to get one assignment graded, but that was all I had time for between trying to ignore the pain in my ear and changing the ice pack.
On Saturday, it got even worse, and I said to my self "Screw it. Im an adult now, lets run down to the Drug store and see what they have for ear aches." A little research and I decited to try Ibuprofen. I get to Target, grab a bottle, and I see on the shelf "Ear drops! Perfect for Ear aches/infections" and thought to my self "Hey, maybe those will help too" and grabbed a bottle. On my way home, I had to deal with a bunch of assholes who decited it was a good idea to drive up and down the street Honking, blaring their sterios, and flashing all their lights. It was miserable, there where like 100 cars all doing this at the bus stop. Never have I more wanted to step into traffic weilding a sledge hammer. If you ever consider doing this: DONT. Some of us have ear infections, and your not helping.
Once I got home, I emediatly downed some ibprofen and was about to put in some ear drops when I had a thought. "What do you suppose the chances are that these contain Lidocane?" Now for those of you who dont know, Lidocane is a skin application pain killer. Maybe it is a great thing for ear pain, maybe not, I dont know. What I do know, is I ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT HAVE LIDOCANE. For most people, it is a cooling numbing agent, for me it is exactly the opposite. Any area where it is applied emediatly feels like it is burning. If you remember from week 5 blog, applying Lidocane once for less than a minute to a sun burn caused it to take 2x as long to heal as not applying lidocane. Neadless to say, there is a 0% chance that I want lidocane anywhere near an ear that already hurts. So I checked the ingredients. 99.9999%.... Water. WATER! I had accidentaly picked up a bottle of [insert really bad expletive here] Homeopathic "Medicin." For those of you out of the loop, Homeopathy is code word for "placebo" which is code for "is slighly effective, but only because you think it is effective." When it was invented it worked because the alternative was blood letting, and turns out litterly doing nothing was better than blood letting. If you are interested, here is a video about it. But yah, do you know what they call alternative medicin that works? Medicin. Sooo, thats going back to the store unopened.
Another bus ride to Target later and I am stairing at the shelves of "ear drops" realizing that all of them are homeopathic. Welp, screw that, over to walmart. Guess what. All of their eardrops are ALSO all homeopathic. Looking on line, there isnt a single non homeopathic ear drop you can get over the counter. A bit odd, but hey, thats a thing I guess. At this point I figured I would get a good night sleep. Well, a tolerable night atleast.
Thursday. Very little happened thursday, at this point, I could barly hear, my left ear hurt, my right was just clogged. I tried flushing them with water, but it was only a temporary fix. Just trying to cope with the pain and get anything done. Same on friday, at this point even ibeprofen isnt killing the pain. On saturday I talked to my parrents and remembered that as a kid, most of my ear infections where fixed by applying some hydrogen peroxide. So back to target for a bottle of that. Apparently it should be avoided when you have a ruptured ear drumb, but I was pretty sure I didnt, and you also shouldnt over use it, but it disolves earwax like nothing else and is murder on certain bacteria. So I tried that. Nothing. So then I tried also using rubbing alcohol. Dont do that, that just burned my guess it was the mix of the 2 that was problematic. That night, I could not sleep at all. Eventually I moved to my recliner to get some sleep sitting up. That did the trick and I had a restless night. In the morning, I was seriously suffering. I emediatly checked for when the health clinic was open. Turns out that answer is... monday. I struggled through the day finishing grading before deciding this ibprofen wasnt doing the trick. Back to target. This time, I grabbed a bottle of Acetaminophen. Back home I realized, you can have both! 2 ibprofen and 1 Acetaminophen supresses the ear pain. Or it does for 6 hours. Exactly 6 hours. And it takes 45 minutes to kick in. Which means, I am now waking up every 5 hours with extream ear pain for 45 minutes until my next dose kicks in. Atleast I can sleep though.

Finals Week

Into the doc first thing monday. I show up, go through all the red tape and get in to see the doc. They run me through all the questions and can only see wax in my ear, so they get me an earigation and flush it out. That cleared up the right ear, perfect hearing there again. Not sure why my home flushes didnt work, but the health clinic water jet did. Still nothing on left though. The Dr returns and decides "yup, left is an ear infection" (noooooo, Realy?) and so she put me on a 10 day course of Amoxicillin.

I managed to fight through the pain Tuesday and get my HCP project done and turned in. And by Thursday I got my HCI assignment finished enough. Friday I had to go in to see my HPC professor about being his Research Assistant next semester. I was his TA this semester, and did well in the HPC class, so it was pretty much a Fait accompli (he is also french so that is doubly appropriate).
Saturday was spent pineapple shopping. My mother decited she wanted a suitcase of pineapples, and I was going to bring that suit case home anyway empty, so I decited to fill it up. First stop! The farmers Market! I got up early to go there, grabed more pain meds, and one half hour buss ride later discovered that they where CLOSED! Specificaly, this week, next week, and the week after. Soooo, that sucked, but wholefoods is the backup plan. They are about 2-3x as expensive as the farmers market, but they still have fresh pineapple for $1 per pound so its not that bad. So there I was, stocking up on pineapples in wholefoods, craming them into a suit case when it occured to me... "Airplane lugage has a max weight of 50lbs". A good thing to realize there. I weighed 1 pineapple, and it came in at 4 lbs, so I bought 10 pineapples for a total of 40lbs of pineapple.
I cut the leafs off and went home to prep for my flight sunday. At this point the left ear still hurts, and the right ear is now starting to hurt. I also bought a Loco Moco for breakfast tomorrow, and a Chicken Curry Katsu for dinner (incase the airplane isnt surving meels)

Sunday, the Flight

Getting to the Airport

To get to the airport I had to grab da bus, now da bus, has da rules. Each passenger is allowed 1 suitcase of any size and no more. Fortunatly, I already knew this and had pre-packaged all of the pineapples into my smaller cary on suitcase, and nested that in a fully expanded checked bag that would be way to big to get on an airplane. (for some reason backpack+suitcase+lunchbox+waterbottle is fine). So I got on fine. Oh, I also brought by Amoxicillin prescription and a bottle loaded up with 8 Acetaminophen and 16 Ibuprofen, enough for 2 full days, just incase Dad didnt have any at home, this would give me time to buy some.
I got to the airport, with plenty of time to spare and repacked my bags, moving all the pineapples to the checked bag which has been collapsed to its minimum setting. I threw the bag on the scale and it came in at..... 60 lbs. Yaaah, I didnt factor 20 lbs of other stuff. So I took all of it out. That took the weight down to 55 lbs. Still 5 lbs too heavy, apparently that suitcase weighs quite a bit all by its self. This put me into a panic, fortunatly, I double checked Delta checked bagage, and "First class and sky priority have a 65lbs weight limit". Awesome! Oh, At this point I feel I should mention, I am flying first class. And its not for the perks. I NEED to fly first class. I do not FIT into economy class. This isnt me being fat (well, not just that). I am 6'8", my femer is 18 inches long all by its self. If I where just my skeleton, I still could not fit in ecconomy class. So I fly first class because I physicaly need the extra leg room.
So, now that I have sorted out the 60lbs problem, it is over to US Agricultural inspection. From what I read online, pineapples are fine to take home. But from what the locals told me, they arent. After running it through their scanner, USDA's opinion on the matter is "We dont even need to look at them, pineapples are fine, have a good day, here is your blue tag".
Agg inspection cleared, its over to check in bags. When I put the checked bag up, the nice helpfull man behind the counter asked "and what about your other bag? would you like to check that too? you have 2 free bags as first class"
"I do? I DO!, yes I would love to check my second bag too! (its just cloths), here you go"
"Oh, this hasnt been through agg inspection, you need to go get a blue sticker for it". Back to agg inspection, run it through the scanner, its just clothes, get a blue sticker, back to checked bags, check it in, on to security. At this point I should mention. It is 85F in hawaii. Always. And I am wearing my black hoody and sweats (I will be landing in the snow after all) Witha backpack on. It is HOT in the security line, and its a long line, and my back is sweating. I get up to security, "passport, mask off, that way sir" and begin the arduous process of binning my stuff. Pull all the stuff out of my pockets, dump it in a tray. Pull the laptop out, dump it in a tray, Nintendo switch, in a tray, headphones, tray, empty water bottle, tray, jacket, tray, lunchbox, tray. Shoes off, on the belt. Run everything though the scanner and go into the backscatter. When they scan me, there is an entire plate on my back that couldnt be scanned. Yah, guess what all that sweat on your back does to the backscatter. One quick pat though and I am good to go. Which means we are on to part 2, re packing the bag.
Still, the hard part is over, I have cleared security. As I wandered through the airport looking for a water bottle filler, I noticed something. The secure portion of the airport is set up into more secure zones. But this time, secured from disease. Hawaii is doing a vaccine/test/quarentine program for new arivals, so after a certain point, there is no leaving the airport without going through medical security. Fortunatly, I knew this and am carying my vaccine card in my passport, AND I dont need to go back.
after hunting arround, there is 1 working water bottle filler, and 20 people trying to fill waters. Eventually everyone gets through that system, and I can fill my massive water and find my gate.

The gate

When it is time to board, the flight attendent gets up, and says "Prebord people", a few couples with children get on (uh oh, hope those arent right behind me (shouldnt be, im in first class)). "Now boarding First class and millitary", everyone in the gate stands up, and packs arround the bording ramp. That pore flight attendent called for first class 3 more times before I realized "Oh, these people are not first class." Once I realized that, I pushed through to the ramp. As anyone who went to highschool with me knows, I am expert at moving through a crowd. I dont push, but I also seem to leave a very wide wake. A wake that the millitary people in the crowd used to best advantage to also get through the crowd. Once to the gate, bording was easy, and I left my cares behind. When on the plane, the nice stewardess directed me to my "seat". Whoooo boy, I was not expecting that. Usually, (to me) first class means there are only 2 seats in a row, not 3, and they have 2x the legg room. Not so on this flight. There are no rows. There are cubicals. Each one offset from the one infront with a door and a recliner. Oh and since they are offset, your legs have to go next to the person infront of you, so they put a table there. You have a good 18x32 inches of table as an arm rest, a full size charging port and USB. Oh, and your seat has a pillow on it. a REAL pillow, 6 inches thick, 18 inches square (it also contains a blanket, but I didnt find out about that until after my flight). So I settled into my cubical, stuffing my backpack over head, switch in a little cubby basicaly designed for switches, water bottle in the holder, headphones on the headphone holder (displacing the set already there), lunch box at my feet, and phone on the charger. It was wonderfull. The only problem was my personal screen was on the fritz, and it took maybe 30 mintues for the crew to restart it, but whatever. My flight attendent wandered over to me and asked "So what would you like to drink, we have a full bar". I hadnt given it much thought, but since this is hawaii, I figured, might as well have a Mai Tai. So I said as much, only to get the response "Cant do Mai Tai, no curico." Er, ok then,
"Irish cream?"
"Cant do Irish cream"
"Batida de Coco?"
"No rum". Eventually I settled on the one thing they had, a fruty wine. (So much for a full bar). Any way, that settled we took off and began to taxi, and I emediatly downed a set of pills (not taking any chances with the preasure). Oddly enought, the preasure actually helped a bit, it was certainly a releaf to be able to pop both ears again. Once at altitude I cracked open my Loco Moco and had breakfast (at 1:30, but its the first meal I had so its breakfast). Then I adjusted my chair and pillow until it was just sooo, closed the door to my suit and spent the next 2 hours watching "The Big Lebowski", if you havent yet watched this Jeff Bridges film, eh, probiably dont bother. Maybe watch a highlight real of it and read a summary. There are some good quotes/scenes/gifs, but the movie its self is mostly a waste of time.
after that I followed up with "Inception" Which is a FANTASTIC movie that you should DEFINITLY watch (Especialy on a plane). I decited against taking a nice tempting nap on the plane because I didnt want to ruin my sleep schedule. It is already wacked as is, and the time change wasnt going to help, so the fewer disturbances I create in it the better. Another round of pills right before landing and we are good to go. I left in a bit of a hurry so I slipped my phone charger into my left pocket instead of my backpack. After all, I dont need to go through security again so it doesnt matter what I have in my pockets.

Seattle

We landed at SEA TAC and disembarked. I have never been more glad to not have my other suit case. We apparently landed on the other side of the airport from my outgoing flight, so I had to walk quite a way to get where I needed to be. Fortunatly I had the time. I got over there with plenty of time to film burning tree with my friends.
For those who dont know, burning tree is an anual tradition me and some friends have. Every Christmas, we build a giant disfigured tree in Minecraft, and then we "decorate" it with all the bad things that happend in the year. All the riots, health problems, boats stuck in cannals, etc. And then we burn it to the ground to symbolize the fresh start of a hopefully better year.
I had to leave slightly early as they announced we would be bording soon before we finished, but hey, atleast I got in on most of it. Its about 10:30pm at this point.

Seattle... Still?>

It is 11:00, the plane is definitly here, but no one is bording, we dont know what is going on, flight crew doesnt know what is going on, flight control doesnt know what is going on, and Delta sure as anything doesnt know what is going on. Soon enough the call comes through. "Flight (possibley) cancled, due to weather in Spokane (We think)." Weeeeeeeeeellll fun! 15 minutes later, the cancled status of the flight is confirmed. There is absolutely nothing I can do. Dad booked the ticket for me, so I cant even check for rebooking. Only thing to do is call Dad. I call Dad, who is AT the airport in Spokane. (yah, there is no weather there). Fortunatly he got an email from Delta he forwarded to me. I have been shifted to the 1:30 PM flight the following day. This is good news since this is the earliest possible flight. So yah, I will be here for 15 more hours. I crack open the Chicken curry and have dinner while the other passengers scream at help desk personell (Oh sure, like those people can do anything). A few minutes later we get the announcement "Oh and btw, your bags have been unloaded and are on carrosell 3." Well thats just great. Once I finished my dinner I wandered over to the help dest. Still 50 people in line. No point standing arround, so I grabbed a seat and waited. Once there where 2 people left I got up (didnt loose my place at the end of the line btw) and went to the help desk. They confirmed that Yes, I am on tomorrows flight, Yes still first class, here is your ticket, We dont know exactly the gate, but here is a guess, no we wont pay for a hotel or rental car, yes the pass is probiably snowed over". Time to pick up the bags

Seatle Unsecure

Seattle Secure Area: Monday

By now it is technicaly Monday. I still havent slept and am greatly regretting not taking a nap on the airplane. Back over to the Delta Help desk. "Hey, I got these through security, any chance I can check them on this side"
"No you will have to go back out, and then go through security again in the morning"
"Can I leave my backpack and water with you when I do"
"Not a chance"
So that was to be expected. They did point me to the reclined chairs though. So I settled in, for a night of not sleeping. And had another round of pills. Turns out reclined airport chairs SUCK for sleeping in. I didnt get much sleep at all in that chair. I didnt get any before 3AM, and at 4:30 "Passengers to Denver, your flight is at maximum capacity, we need 7 of you to gate check your bags". Well, serves me right for sleeping in an active gate. I move to another one. Shortly "Passengers to LA, we are at max capacity and need 4 of you to gate check your bags to your destination." This was repeated until I gave up on chairs at 9AM having got a total of maybe 4 hours discontinous sleep. Thats when it clicked. Gate check? They told me there was no way I could check bags from this side of security! Take another round of pills, and wander over to the delta help desk. "heeeeeey, I heard them talking about gate checked bags. Could I gate check these instead of going back through security?"
"Yah, sure no problem! just talk to the flight agent at your gate right before your flight."
"Ok, and what gate was that again?"
"Why its the one on the other side of the airport OC"
so I wandered over to McDonalds for a breakfast coffee and meel, then over to my new gate to eat it. Then I suddenly got tired and found a nice dark corner to sleep in. Turns out, sleeping on the ground is better than in a chair. Or it WOULD have been, if I didnt have active ear infections in BOTH ears. There was not a comfortable side to lay on since either side put preasure on on ear or another. I got another few hours of fake non sleep there. Stairing out the window at the snow falling in Seattle, wondering what the chances flights in to Seattle will get cancled due to weather today TOO. At this point, I spent the rest of my time in the airport bumping back and forth between the best estimate of my gate (always on oposite sides of the airport) before at 12:30 landing on the final gate in the series. Advertising a flight to Sao Paulo? Thats not Spokane.

Seattle Final Part?

More and more of my fellow passengers trickle over bound for Spokane, all of us sure this is the right gate. Turns out our flight was just late. Half an hour late on landing. Finally the flight attendent shows up, and I wonder over to enquire about gate checking my bags. Everything is fine, and the bags can be checked at the bottom of the ramp.
And then the announcment came.
"Passengers, the 1:30 flight to Spokane is over booked, we need 17 of you to volunteer to change to the 5:30 flight, we have $500 in visa giftcards if you do"
Now, some of you may be wondering "Jesse, did you go for the $500?" and the answer is: No. On any other day, I would have. HOWWEVER, there where several factors acting on me. First, I had been in airports/planes for more than 24 continous hours at this point. I will remind everyone that airports/planes are federal mask regulated zones, so I had also been wearing my mask for more than 24 hours with only limited breaks when eating, or drinking. 2. I was also running on 4 disscontinous hours of sleep, mostly caused by 3. a DOUBLE ear infection that I am taking 3 pain pills every 6 hours for. (might as well take another dose of those). Which, I will remind you, I am now down to 24 hours of pain pills left. If these run out, I will get EXTREAM pain in both ears until I get more. the 5:30 flight is a "night" flight, and my previous flight was cancled for weather (fog) on the landing airstrip, if the 5:30 flight also gets cancled and I am delayed for another 24 hours, thats it, I am out of pills. Additionaly, it is snowing in seattle. There is a good chance they will close THIS airport for landings. All of these factors working together kept me from taking it. Anything less than this perfect storm and I would consider it.
"600"
I have already done my mental calculus, I am not moving, but then neither is anyone else.
"700"
No takers.
"800"
Still nothing
"One Grand"
At this point the calculus changes. What do you suppose the chances of them kicking someone off unvolunteraly are? No takers at 1 grand feels like the forced off a flight sinario is gaining traction. HOWEVER, I am A. a first class travler, who B. has already been bumped off 1 flight within the last 24 hours. If they where going to pick someone to bump, it probiably wouldnt be me. So im not budging.
"1.1K"
3 takers finially decided that was enough for them. And the Delta agents decited to stop playing games
"15 HUNDRED, and 2 meal tickets to take the 5:30 TODAY flight"
Ooooo soo tempting. That is a full months rent, for a 4 hour stay in an airport. Still, its a perfect storm for me, and I am activly in pain still.
I probiably couldnt have gotten up fast enough in any case. The other 14 passengers jumped on that, including some who where bumped from my over night flight. Still, everything is fine.
"This flight is at 100% capacity, and can only hold 23 wheely cases, now looking for volunteers to gate check bags in exchange for priority bording"
I wonder over to the lady, to ask if they factored in my bags to the number they needed checked, and they said they had. Back to my seat then as they found a few other passengers willing to play ball.

"Jesse McDonald, please come to the ticket Counter"

Waiting

So we sit there. Not moving. For 15 minutes, before we finally move away from the gate. Then we sit there for 10 minutes. Before finally getting on the run way and sitting for 5 minutes. When the jet actually starts to speed up, I text Dad "we are departing, see you in 45."
then I cross my arms and have the best 45 minutes of sleep all day, before waking us to us landing.

Back in Seattle

Kidding, kidding. We landed in Spokane like we where suppose to. I texted Dad to let him know I would be out shortley and could use a hand with the luggage. We Deplaned and I went streight to bagage claim where Dad was waiting. And could not see him. Turns out he was loitering by the other exit from the secure area, so missed me. We got it sorted out quickly though. The bags came down the shoot, and we pulled a 60lbs bag of 40lbs of pineapples off for the last time, threw it in the truck, and headed for Red Robin.

Red Robin

You may think this is a short stop, not warenting of a section, but that is where you are wrong. Red Robin is a highlight of our trips, we always get the same thing. A Royal Red Robin (Burger with over easy egg), Steak Fries with campfire sause, and a Salted Caremel Shake. This time Dad decited to mix it up by ordering a pizza, but the order mostly stayed the same.
Or it WOULD have, except CORPERATE PULLED THE SALTED CARMEL SHAKE FROM THE MENU!!!!! YOU CANT GET THEM ANY MORE!!!! WHY RED ROBIN!!!!!!! WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so after some sympathy from the waiter, we ordered a oreo shake instead (Not as good :( )and sat down to enjoy the rest of our meal. From there we embarked on the road trip home. Dad has been listening to a civil war history book, and what with one thing and another, and not getting any sleep, that put me right out like a light. 1 hour later I woke up to rumble strips.
I was worried dad was dosing off, but glancing out the window revealed an even more disturbing situation. We where driving in white out conditions. Visibility out maybe 100 yards, and the road was completely covered in snow so you could not see the markings. Another few hours of this moving along at 30 and we finally got home.

Homecomming

We got home and unloaded all the suitcases. I walked in the door with a backpack, 2 suitcases, 40 lbs of pineapple, 6 discontinous hours of sleep, 2 ear infections, and pain killers starting to wear off to a smiling mother asking "So how was the trip?"
I just couldnt. I dropped the suit cases and downed another round of pills before I was ready to tell her about it. As I did, she put the 40lbs of pineapples in the fridge. They had aged in a suit case quite a bit longer than intended, and where definitly ripe. I then recounted this tail to her. Then went to bed and got 14 hours of sleep.

The Rest of Christmas

But surely the rest of Christmas went well right? Well yes and no. We had plans, but for 3 more days, I could do almost nothing due to an ear infection. 2 days into that, Dad slipped on the ice and brused his legg. So the 2 of us where couch ridden for the week going up to Christmas most. After 3 days my left ear infection cleared, but not the right one. But then, 3 days before I finished the course of antibiotics, it came back. The day after Christmas saw Dad and me back in the Health clinic getting my ears checked out, only to find I had not 1, not 2, but 3 ear infections. A deep ear infection in both ears, and a surface ear infection on the right. This time, a 15 day course of Amoxicillin+ was proscribed as well as some antibiotic ear drops. We went to the pharmasy and found out these eardrops are obserdly expensive, BUT, you can get the 2 antibiotics separate in eye drops for much cheaper and then apply the eye drops to your ears. So we did that.
The very next day we were back in the health clinic because the bruse on Dads leg swelled up to 2x the size. XRays later that day showed that he actually broke his legg. Not bad, but still a 6 week recovery window. My brother flew in that day. Needless to say, my dad and me where useless for the rest of vacation. Me with an ear infection, him with a broken leg. My ear infection didnt completely clear up until I was back in hawaii, only a few days before the antibiotic eye drops ran out. Fortunatly the flight back wasnt NEARLY so eventful, and the ear infection hasnt come back since then.