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We finally made it home early Wednesday morning.

No, we never caught a military flight home. Showing up at the passenger terminal on Hickam Air Force Base in the middle of the night all dressed for flying with everything packed gets pretty old fast. We weren't even close to making it on those flights. Here's a little snapshot of a couple days we tried to get on a flight back to the mainland:

How am I not category 0.5??

So, never mind the flights to Japan and Guam. The Air Force flies there pretty regularly, but that was the opposite direction from Tennessee. One flight to Travis Air Force Base, outside San Francisco, only released 10 seats, yet 144 people (including us) tried to get on. We were category 6, but they rarely went lower than 3. Salt Lake City went up to category 4 for their 20 seats--we tried to get on that one too. Here's the last day we tried to fly home:

We were so close to continuing our vacation on Kwajalein Atoll

I was hoping to get on the flight to Fort Worth, which was then planning to fly to North Carolina. Unfortunately, 120 other people showed up with us at 1:10 AM for 16 potential seats. It was looking increasingly hopeless for us to ever make it home on a military aircraft, so we bought tickets through Priceline. The cheapest thing we could find left at 8 PM Monday night and arrived in Los Angeles the next morning. After a three hour layover we flew to San Diego for another 3 hour layover (the closest I've ever come to Comicon) and a change in airlines (American to United). We then took a United flight to San Francisco and a two hour layover before our final flight to Atlanta, which landed at 11:30 PM.

LAX - mommy got no sleep on the red-eye flight

San Diego - probably the nicest airport I've ever been to

San Francisco - I guess Betsy can sleep through anything

While on the flight to Atlanta, Betsy struck up a conversation with a father who told her his four year-old son was tube fed. Betsy asked if I could meet him after the flight and he said that would be great, so while I was waiting for our luggage, I got to meet Gage.

My hero, Gage

Gage is a super cool kid who has a button. He used to have a PEG tube but recently switched to a button because it's more practical for an active young man like him. I could tell he was as excited about meeting another tubie as I was. He introduced me to his entire family in the airport, including mom and dad, two siblings and his grandmother. He loves Legos and The Lego Movie. He even broke into an excellent rendition of "Everything is Awesome." I think he could've talked with me the whole night, but his parents said he had to get to bed. Words can't describe how inspiring it was to meet other tubies like Gage and Jesse Jones who overcome the setback of having a feeding tube with such a positive attitude. 

It was still a three hour drive from Atlanta to Knoxville. We could've sayed at my sister-in-law, Katie's house ("Hey Brian, watcha doin") because she lives just outside Atlanta. However, she wouldn't have been able to drive us home for another couple days and we didn't relish the idea of being so close to our goal--much less living in Katie's house; you should see that place!! Budget rent-a-car was offering a really good deal on cars and it was technically only 5:30 PM Hawaii time (even though we'd gotten very little sleep) so we got a car at the airport and drove home. We had to stop at Waffle House for coffee and a Real Food Blend.

Thanks, Jesse, for the Real Food Blend!!

We didn't end up pulling into our driveway until just after 5 AM. It sure felt good to be home though.

The dog acted like he didn't care, but I think he missed me deep down

Hawaii was an amazing experience. Watching F-16s getting refueled, the Polynesian Cultural Center, meeting Jesse Jones (and Gage!), the beaches on all four sides of the island, snorkeling, Waimea Falls, great seafood, touring the USS Missouri battleship and the Bowfin submarine. Oh yeah, and Grace got to do this:

What?!?!?

So, even though we'll be paying off our credit card until the year 2034, it was a fantastic experience. I'll try to write more about eating in Hawaii on another post.