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First, let me preface this by saying don’t let the following deter you in any way from planning a trip. Just remember all the things people say about plans. And then take a long, deep breath.

Now, to the real story. Picture it, Frankfort, KY Tuesday morning, June 2. Our flight from Denver was scheduled to leave Lexington Bluegrass Airport at 9:05am. Travel itinerary took us to Denver, then Tokyo, with a direct flight to Koror.

5:15am incoming text message: Flight from Den to Tokyo is delayed 3 hours and flight from Tokyo to Palau is cancelled. “Not ideal,” says Todd. Insert a call to customer service. “I can see where your flight has been delayed, but no part is cancelled.” Umm… what? Decision made to head to the airport and take our chances with the ticket agent there.

FUN FACT: there aren’t ticket agents. There are people who take your bags after you print your tags from self-service. Want help? Call customer service they say. Phone call number 2 ensues. No great answers here other than pushing entire itinerary 3 days. “Not ideal.” We decide to stick with our original plan, and figure we can talk to someone in Denver. Go to print our bag tags – see agent for assistance. Tell agent. She decides she’s tired of the nonsense and calls customer service herself on our behalf. She gets stuff done. We are now flying Lexington to Denver, Denver to Honolulu, staying a night in Honolulu, then flying to Guam and Guam to Palau. See the gate agent when we get to Honolulu for our hotel vouchers.

And we are off. Quick hugs to the family who dropped us off and rush to the gate. On the plane and up, up, and away to Denver. Brief layover in Denver to get some food, and back to the plane to Honolulu. Boys both had their first inflight meals (Alex said the beef was eh, Will loved the pasta).

Arrive in Honolulu, see the gate agent. She has no idea about hotel vouchers. Maybe we want to contact customer service? “Not ideal.” This time, I try the live chat.

FUN FACT: in order to game the system and get more miles, Todd and I booked separate flights. He booked 2 tickets and I booked 2. So we have different confirmation numbers.

Customer service chat is amazing. Hotel voucher? Sure. Meal voucher? You got it. Car ride to the hotel since there is no shuttle? On us. Todd goes to do the same. No dice. Nothing. “Not ideal.” He keeps chatting. Meanwhile, Will and I decide to go check in so we know we have at least one room. Honolulu rush hour traffic is real. Takes us 30 minutes to get to the hotel 7 miles away. 5 minutes out, Todd finally gets his vouchers and orders his car.

FUN FACT: people in general are super nice and want to help. During check-in, the man at the hotel is chatty and asks what brings us to Honolulu. Just a layover, heading to a tiny island called Palau, you’ve probably never heard of. BUT HE HAS! How? One of the women who works there is from Palau. She will be working in the morning and we should really say hi. Oh, and since we mentioned Palau and he’s in a good mood, let’s find a room with a view! Waikiki beach on one side, Diamondhead on the other. “Pretty ideal.”

Listen, I would love to tell you that we went out exploring Honolulu. But at this point it was 3:30pm Honolulu time, which is 9:30pm in Kentucky, we’d had 2 flights, lots of emotions, and we were tired. “Not ideal.” So we find a smash burger place. But hey, it’s Aloha Smashburger. They are fancy and Hawaiian.

A good night’s sleep, a walk on the beach, an entirely too expensive IHOP breakfast, and off to the airport again. Flight to Honolulu, then a 5 hour layover in Guam. No worries – we have club passes. Oh wait, the club is closed that late. “Not ideal.” So, off to the gate area we go. A little sleep, a few walks, and a plethora of yawns later, and finally we are loaded in for the final flight.

Touch down in Palau 12:50am Friday June 5 (11:50am June 4 in Kentucky).

It’s currently Saturday June 6 3:30pm and the beach is calling. Love to you all.