Red Sky At Night

 Photo credit: Robsalot (that's me!)

I was actually starting to hate taking vacations. I know, I know, it’s weird, but it never failed. Five whole work days off, flight out on Saturday, return flight on Sunday. And once they were booked, I would start planning diligently. (Secretly I thought the planning part was what I loved best).

As the vacation approached, I would get more and more excited. All the things I was looking forward too, the amazing restaurants I had found, the awesome museums, the spectacular hikes, the photos I couldn’t wait to take. Then the vacation would be there. Of course, the flight would always seem too long, and the baggage claim took forever, but finally would come the moment where I deposited my bags on the bed of my hotel room and I would hit the city for my first dinner out (always something simple, since I would be tired from traveling.)

The thing that never failed though, the one constant of every vacation I had taken since I could first afford them on my mediocre salary, was what happened the morning after my first night in a cozy down comforter bed in a brand-new city. I would, inevitably, wake up with a stuffy head, sneezing, achy, and fevery body. I would wake up sick.

My theory was it had to do with stress. Work was so fucking over the top, on all the time, bullshit that when I actually got the chance to relax my body would just give in to all the illness it had been saving up over the months. It never failed. Every vacation would be spent a sniffling mess in a hotel room in some city far away from home. Oh yes, I would still drag myself out to see the sights, as long as I had plenty of Kleenex in tow.

This year, though, I knew it was going to be different. Now, I didn’t have any actual plan to make it different, but I hoped really hard. I also took a lot of vitamin C and drank a lot of Elderberry tea.

The flight to Hawaii actually wasn’t too long, and the thickly perfumed air that greeted me in the terminal felt restorative. I went to bed that night on a pillow of cool down; I was filled with excitement for the days of hiking, and snorkeling, and body surfing I had planned for the days ahead. But of course, when I awoke the next morning, I could barely raise myself out of bed. My body was weak, my muscles were aching, and I was seized with heated chills.

I lied in bed for two days, barely able to touch the fresh squeezed pineapple mango juice and coconut mochi cakes I had picked up at the farm stand on the way to my hotel. It was the third day (I think) when I awoke to the most amazing sight. My bedroom was lit up a deep red. I thought for a moment I might have actually relocated to Mars. Slowly I pulled myself out of bed, and with still aching muscles I pulled open the blinds to find the most spectacular red sunset I had even seen. I couldn’t explain it, but at that moment I knew the rest of the vacation would be alright.