Did I Do Something Right?

Theme song: Give a Little Bit

So. One of my goals for this year was to go on a separate mini-vacation with each of my children.

It came about like this:

Anne Morris, one of my besties, came for a visit with her daughter, and my older son, Hank, learned that she takes each of her three daughters on separate vacations--every year. Flexing his angsty teenaged best (which really isn't that angsty), he said, "I bet you would never do that with us," referring to his brother and himself.

I was all over that! "Sure I would," said I. "Don't ask me twice."

I'll admit: It was very flattering to think that my 14 year-old son wanted to vacay with little 'ole me. Could I, by chance, have done something right besides love the heck out of the kid?

The reason I chose to do mini-vacations is because, and I've been saying this for what seems like years, I'm building a business and I unfortunately do not have time for longer vacations. It's a good news/bad news scenario and I am (I probably also say this a lot) looking forward to a future in which I can take extended periods of time off while business purrs along like a jaguar (Hmmm, I actually never say that. I'll start saying it . . . now.).

So. The older child trumped the younger one with a planned trip to Chicago's Wrigley Field to see the Giants play da Cubs (or is it da Bears?). What could be better than that?

How about a trip to Hawaii and let's stay at a big, fancy resort in Maui with 27 (count 'em) water slides? Sold!

Very excited (and nervous about making the flight, having the right identification, etc.) the morning of the trip arrives. I work until the last second, which proved to be a second or two too long because, well, very few people know this. What I'm about to tell you, that is.

I am keeping it a secret from everyone except my loyal readers. Why? A couple of reasons. One is that I don't want my older son to know about it until our trip is over. He is a somewhat nervous fellow and this will not set him at ease. The second one is that I really don't want a pity party or surprised gasps. Especially once you find out how great everything turned out. Especially once you know that sometimes bad news is very good.

Have you guessed already?

Okay, clever people. Here's what happened:

We missed our flight. So. Instead of having two and half days in Maui we had one and a half. Sounds grim, no?

At first, we felt shock. And I, of course, felt guilt. Here is my opportunity to spend time with my son and I've blown it! Right away I decided that I would do whatever I could to make mango juice out of mangos. Or maybe lemonade out of lemons really is more appropriate here since, I know, mangos already are sweet . . . .

Okay. So, I rented a hotel room with a pool in beautiful, sought-after Millbrae, California.

Then I asked my son what he wanted to do, thinking, maybe Great America might be almost as good as Hawaii.

He said he didn't want to go. He said he felt sad. I could relate. I felt sad, too. He said (how adorable is this?) he needed to relax. I kept my chin up and thanked goodness someone invented credit cards. Nothing like throwing money at a problem!

Then, the miracles started rolling in.

Miracle #1: Trampolines and Foot Massages

We get to our hotel and, instead of the regular check-in person, there was an angel. When she found out what happened, she put together an awesome itinerary for us, which included trampolining at Sky High Sports and getting hour-long foot massages at one of El Camino Real's numerous foot massage emporiums. $20! How will I ever go back to my $100 San Francisco massages?

Miracle #2: Walmart Philosophy Saves the Day

Those who know me know I've never been in a Walmart. My son, of course, is a sophisticate. He's been everywhere except McDonald's and including Walmart.

A little shaky after the flight failure, he sat down to watch some hotel TV and on comes the Walmart ad that became our trip theme: "Life is about the journey, not the destination." Who knew?!

And so my son learned, trial by fire, to live a truth that some people never learn.

Miracle #3: My Boy Became My Hero

Here's the thing. Jonjo never complained about missing the flight and he never blamed me or got mad. We rallied together and ended up having a most magical day.

On the other side of the trip, going home, Hawaiian Airlines delayed our trip for seven hours. I won't call the extra time in OGG magical, but I will say that we again rallied and ended up having a pretty good time shopping every single duty free boutique in the place, reading the true meaning of aloha signs, and having a two-hour lunch and drinking lemonades (him) and iced teas (me)while watching airplanes take off.

Spending even a few short days alone with my son, scooting down water slides, boogie boarding, hauling suitcases, hanging out with new relatives(a story for another day, yes), sharing meals, and navigating airports brought us together in a really special way. It was excellent to take the time to see the world through his eyes. He is (objectively, I am pretty sure) a great guy. I'm so lucky to have him! And spending this time with him was an experience I will always treasure.

Here's What I Learned

I learned that I can't rush like crazy trying to work all the time and expect things to go my way. If I'm spinning plates all the time, something is bound to crash. In this case, thank goodness, it wasn't a crash but merely a missed flight. As Laura said, "There are a million things worse than missing a flight." True. Still, I need to slow down and give myself lots of time, especially if it's something like a flight that has no give of its own. Life is hard enough without me trying to hurry up and then ending up having to wait!

And I learned that things don't have to be perfect to be humbling, inspirational, and flat-out amazing.