RTW - week 34 (the final day)

This week marks our last and final week abroad. By the end of the week we will board our final plane and make our way across the Pacific ocean, back to our home in Canada.

Hawaii has kept us on our toes, and we are spending each and every day exploring as if this great adventure of ours isn't about to come to a close in just a few days. We are literally dragging our exhausted bodies to the finish line.

When our final day did come, we had a late flight out at 9pm, so we made the 3 hour drive across the island to the sunny side to spend our last few hours on the beach.

If you know us, and our children, we LOVE the beach. Swimming, digging in the sand, tide pools and walking. There isn't an unhappy soul at the beach. What better way to send off our trip?

We arrived on the sand and spotted a lone picnic table under a palm tree overlooking the vibrant blue ocean. It was a perfectly pleasant 25 degrees with a mild breeze.

It was the ingredients for a perfect day, but there was a heaviness that lingered over us.

Not one person wanted to do the things that we all loved at the beach. No one swam, no one explored and no one even climbed the lone palm tree. We all sat at the picnic table, reminiscing.

"Remember the time we got stuck in Ireland on that hill and our rental car started smoking?"

"Remember that afternoon we got lost in Scotland trying to find the "perfect beach" and ended up knee deep in a stream making our way over to a rocky island that certainly wasn't the perfect beach!"

Or that time we tried to cross another stream in Switzerland because we couldn't bare to turn back (making a literal chain of people holding hands, a real sight to see!) and Lily had to hike the rest of the day in her underwear; pants tied around her shoulders.

Remember that time Dad fell in the fountain at the base of the Spanish steps trying to fill an LOL doll's head with water, only to be laughed at by two 10 year old boys. We won't mention the fact that this was the third day I got everyone on a bus at 4am to get pictures at the colliseum only to not have my SD cards.

Remember those hikes we did when we had to hitchike up the last few hundred meters because we were so tired? Or the hike we did to get green sand and it was the most dreadful 3 hours being pelted by sand and sun. Or that hike we did when we had to plough through mud and mosquitos just to find the smallest patch of sand on this side of the island? My kids tell me of course they remember, it was this week and they insist that they will never hike with me again. I am happy to report that after 6 weeks of PTSD, my kids are back on a trail and willing to trust my judgement again.

Remember when we all celebrated the World Cup semifinals stuffing our faces with ice cream and cheering along side the locals who kept setting off fireworks every time they scored.

For hours we talked about our favourite moments. Despite the heaviness, it was peacefull. Hours went by at that picnic table, and we watched the airplanes come in one by one over us.

No one moved.

We just sat together.

Without saying a word, we were all aware of how eachother was feeling. We all knew. We stayed at the beach till the bitter end, watching the sun set below the horizon before making our way to the airport.