Erin had arranged a stay at Wailea Beach Villas, reserved dinner, and found someone to take the dog. Then she opened the Safe Travels instructions and realized that the trip needed another folder.
This was during the pandemic travel program. The requirements changed over its run, but the part the Members remember most clearly is sitting at home with their suitcases ready, waiting for a document to arrive.
The folder
There were approved tests, timing requirements, results to upload, and QR codes to keep handy. Erin printed everything. Her husband said it was all on his phone.
“Lovely,” she said. “Print it anyway.”
Whitney had organized her paperwork by person. She gave each traveler a separate clip and asked them to keep it attached. By the time they reached O'Hare, she had found two loose pages in her husband's jacket.
She put them back without comment. They still had a long flight ahead of them.
Waiting for the result
Claire Mercer kept refreshing her work email. Her result had gone to her personal address, where it sat between a shipping notice and an invitation to buy sandals.
She found it while looking for the hotel confirmation. There was still time to upload it, but she had already called Erin twice and asked her husband whether they should leave for the airport earlier.
He said yes. He had been ready since breakfast.
A few complications
Another Member discovered that the test she had arranged was not the one accepted for her trip. She found a new appointment and spent the next afternoon answering every unfamiliar number.
At Honolulu, Whitney's party needed additional time at the arrivals checkpoint to sort out their records. Her beautifully clipped pages were opened, separated, and handed back in a different order.
By then the bags had gone ahead. Whitney wanted a shower, a clean dress, and a chair facing the water. She was willing to postpone the dress.
Margot had a more difficult arrival. A problem with her documentation kept her in quarantine at the resort for the first part of her stay. She described the view in every message, then asked what everyone else had ordered for lunch.
When she was finally able to go out, she kept her first afternoon free. She had been looking at the same stretch of beach from upstairs and wanted to walk it.
At the hotel
Erin unpacked the folder into a drawer and left it there. She knew exactly where it was. She preferred not to see it beside the flowers.
The next morning she had coffee outside before anyone else was up. She sent the group a photograph of the water, with no explanation. Several replies arrived immediately.
Why we went
The Members love Hawaii. They love the first warm evening after leaving Chicago, breakfast that takes longer than usual, and realizing there is no reason to hurry back to the room.
There were more forms on those trips than anyone wanted. There were also dinners they still remember and afternoons they would happily have repeated. Margot extended her stay.
“Once I got downstairs, I had a wonderful time.”— Margot
The next trip
Safe Travels has ended. Erin still uses the folder, but it now holds dinner reservations and a handwritten list of places she wants to go back to.