This series of days surrounds the crazy trip I had to take from Guam to Denver to pick up my mom and return back to Guam. It was a whirlwind of confusing day boundaries, across many time zones and the international date line.

Travel Log: Day 112 (10/17), Guam

After a normal school day, we went to the beach because it was partly (maybe mostly) sunny out. The beach visuals were stunning in the sun. Perfect turquoise calm water, white sand, and almost nobody but us on the beach. This is the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been to. We did some snorkeling with the equipment our Airbnb provided and we all had fun. The water was incredibly buoyant, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I’m not sure how the ocean here could be more buoyant than any other ocean, but it sure seemed to be. All of us when we were snorkeling easily floated flat on the surface, almost like we were wearing floatation devices. There were lots of small to medium fish to see, but they were mostly all one species that I’m unsure what it is.

I finalized packing for my flight tomorrow to go get my mom. I’m just taking a small backpack which will be nice. After packing, FAC proceeded with JC and I having some drinks. I then ate way too many salty things and now feel like crap. Probably in reality due to the salt plus the alcohol. BC picked Dog Man for his movie and I exercised my right to protest since he had watched it on the flight to Guam. I won’t get into the FAC bylaws right now, but the right to protest meant I didn’t have to watch the movie, so I went and walked around Tumon. It was cool to see it at night, and it still wasn’t very busy. After that I walked over to our beach entrance and enjoyed the dark beach for a while.

Travel Log: Day 113 (10/18), Guam/Denver

It was an early start to the day, waking up at 4am to get ready for my flight to pick up my mom. JC took me to the airport and I was through security and at my gate in about five minutes. I drank some of the worst coffee I have ever had and did a lot of walking.

The flight to Hawaii was great because I had my own row of seats. The connection was weird because I had to walk through the immigration area, but I don’t think I stopped or showed anyone my passport. I then exited the airport outside and had to go back in at terminal two and back through security. Still made it in plenty of time and ended up walking a lot and boarding near last.

I sat by a quirky young twenty-something couple. They seemed to be afraid to ask the black dude to the left of them to let her out, so they both came my way every time they needed to get up. I didn’t mind at all and wished I had to get up more often. They both had stuffies out. He probably thought I was a total dumbass because I was trying to open the bathroom door but was pulling on the cigarette tray instead of pushing. It was a combo of jetlag, opening the other handicap door with a handle, and my usual periodic dumbassary (e.g. shower curtain, kitchen sink sprayer incident). With the guy next to me being tall and no spare seats, it was an uncomfortable six hour leg.

Time Travel

One interesting thing about this flight is that I arrived in Denver at an earlier date/time than I left Guam. I left Guam on 10/18 at 7:10am, and after about 16 hours of travel I arrived at Denver on 10/18 at 6:49am. I arrived as the sun was coming up so I put my sun glasses on before exiting the plane. Went straight for the exit and got an uber in no time. The ride felt long and I got to my sister’s (MS) house (where I am staying) around 830am. Showered, brushed teeth and was asleep by 9am. I slept pretty much straight through until 2pm. I used one of the nice little blankets from united to keep my eyes covered as I slept.

Travel Log: Day 114 (10/19), Highlands Ranch CO

The day started somewhere over the pacific between Hawaii and the US mainland, but I’ll pick up from the point of waking up for the day, to keep this log on Guam time.

After waking up I tried to keep my routine as normal as possible. I had some k-cup coffee that MS had on display, and ate a bagel, banana, and a bar. I spent the first hour or so outside in the sun to keep my circadian rhythm as on time as I can.

Around 5pm MT I walked to King Soopers and picked up food stuff and other things we need like deodorant and razors. Went home and ate what is my lunch around 7pm MT, and had some more coffee.

Between lunch and dinner I watched a lot of TV and made lists of various things in my notebook. Did some Duolingo and then ate dinner at 1:30am MT.

Watched more TV and did an elliptical workout in my evening. The whole “day” here felt relaxing and recharging after the long travel day.

Travel Log: Day 115 (10/20), Highlands Ranch, Denver

I’m writing this day in the blog up to what would be my normal bedtime in Guam. That’s about 6am MT when our plane was getting ready to take off.

I woke up after sleeping from 6am to 1pm MT. Not quite seven hours and a 73 score, but I’ll take it since it keeps me pretty much on schedule. Also took a nap around 2pm Guam time.

Mom and my sister’s family got here right around when I woke up. It was nice to see everyone again. We chatted outside, and mom and I had coffee. I ate stuff from their pantry, and after my brother-in-law (RS) got their dog we watched the Broncos game. It was boring as hell for three quarters and one of the best games I’ve seen in the fourth.

MS made an awesome dinner of roast beef and mashed potatoes. After that, mom and I got checked in and filled out our forms for Hawaii and Guam.

Made coffee and watched the 49ers game with RS and then more TV downstairs. Ate dinner around 1am MT, and went up to my room a little later to pack and shower.

We left for the airport at 245am. When we got there we went to print our boarding passes, but the kiosk told us prints are no longer available. It only had options to email, text, or have them on the mobile app. We used the boarding passes on my phone since we couldn’t get mom’s United app to work. It’s probably good we didn’t book separately because MS’s printer also wasn’t working right.

Travel Log: Day 116 (10/21), Guam

This is picking up on the plane as we took off from Denver.

To SFO

We were on a small plane for our first leg to San Francisco. It was ridiculously cramped, but at least it was only a couple hours. I’m sure these 3×3 planes were always this cramped, but it seems like they shrunk after spending time on the bigger 3x4x3 planes. I didn’t even attempt to sleep because of the short duration.

The gate change at SFO was easy, just a several minute walk. Boarding our next flight was a hit to moral when we saw a very tall dude, his wife, and their baby in the other two seats of our quad row. They were really nice though and the guy even let me have the awkward under seat area that we had to share because of strange out of place metal bars making them not break on seat boundaries. It was still a tight arrangement for 5+ hours. I managed to sleep for 2-3 hours but it was head nodding, head slumped over, constantly waking up sort of sleep.

Hawaii

The connection at Hawaii was even easier than SFO. We didn’t have to show the declaration form to anyone, and I think they must have verified that upon boarding the flight to Hawaii. Our next flight was at the same gate on the exact same plane. We just had to hang out for 1.5 hours, so we ate/drank Starbucks and I did some walking.

As we boarded the leg to Guam it was looking bad as well for comfort. There were 30 people in wheelchairs that pre-loaded, and many of those appeared to be obesity induced. The rest of the people with working legs looked equally rotund, and they announced that the flight was completely full. However, as we sat down there was just one polite young guy beside mom but nobody to his right. That seat never filled, so he moved over which allowed mom and I to be on an island.

I also made the decision to put my bag in the overhead bin which gave me room to stretch my legs all the way out. It was as good as we could hope for on the last leg where we were just wiped from traveling. The only real negative is that the turbulence was a rollercoaster at the end, worse than the Cancun flight that JC and I experienced.

Guam

We showed our Guam declaration forms and JC picked us up. The pickup was annoying because nobody followed the rules. They were all parking long term waiting in the pickup lane, so we had to use the road lane and just hustle into the car.

The rest of the night has been dedicated to getting unpacked and catching up on things.