Taking a transoceanic voyage is not cheap.

When I took this picture, at 2am Hawaii time, it was at the behest of the Man who said, "That just says it all right there".

[One of our unplanned expenses: new shoes for all of us when we looked at our girls grimy and smelly closed toe shoes and said, Enough, let's go shopping.]

Even if you fly for free.

If I am going to give a tip on that, it's for military: Fly Space A, be tough, plan ahead for days of layover and bring all your device chargers to pass the time in the terminal.  Have a bag for snacks, and assign everyone a back pack.

here's Iz having a sing with her new favorite drink, my ipod and what's left of her eatery lunch

Aside from taking military Air Mobility Command Flights, we did not do this on the cheap.  We stayed in hotels in California and Hawaii, to ease the burden on our parents and to have a "real" vacation that felt restful.  We ate out and in.  We shopped (the bargains were overwhelmed by the the few splurges, but that's how it goes).  And we used more quarters than an adult can carry in two hands.  I would say more than $40 in quarters given that we spent a good chunk of four days in and out of terminals.


We saw our parents.  We visited with my cousins and grandparents, and aunts and sisters.  Which is, of course, priceless.