Our amazing road trip drew to a close, we said good bye to our trusty Dodge Caravan (not the car I had ever envisaged driving down The PCH in but when you don’t travel light, 8 cases between 4 people you have to cut your coat according to your cloth, or in this case you hire a car according to the amount of shoes you pack!! Hahahah).
Chris, the boys and I saying our farewells to our Dodge Caravan, good times, amazing memories.
We also said farewell to our suites at The Encore, we had an incredible stay here.
Would I return to Las Vegas? No, can’t say I would. Am I glad we’ve been? 100% - it’s a sight to behold.
With my eldest Sam,
Top from Tory Burch, Trousers from Micheal Kors, Shoes from Micheal Kors.
With my baby boy, Ben.
My top Five favourite (and would thoroughly recommend) destinations are;
Alcatraz
Carmel by the sea
Beverly Wilshire
Cut - Beverly Hills
Spago - Beverly Hills
The Chinese theatre - Hollywood
Santa Monica pier
Disneyland Anaheim
Grand Canyon
Joshua Tree National Park - and seeing a real life chipmunk.
Ok, so that’s 10, I could go on and on, It’s incredibly hard to narrow it down as I loved every part of our trip whether I’d want to return to it or not. Everywhere was amazing.
Then it was time to fly home. Oh Lordy, although the flight was on time and Ok. My goodness it takes its toll.
We’ve been back five days now and still no sign of the jet lag abating.
I like to do things well and have had diarrhoea with my severe jet lag since Wednesday (who even knew that was a thing? I certainly didn’t till this week).
Not that it’s not a huge issue in any big sense for me as I’m pre bagged and good to go. But it’s so tiring. I’m drained ~ literally. The up side being - I’ve lost all of the 5lb weight gain from the holiday in the first 5 days back! Hahahahaha. The down side is I’ve had to wear dresses in the rain all week because wearing jeans or trousers was an absolute no no.
A break from the rain, Dress from Tommy Hilfiger, Shoes from Tommy Hilfiger, Bag from LV.
Weathering the storm in dresses. I would usually wear a half petticoat under this but I couldn’t face anything around my belly.
I didn’t know much about jet lag, I have had it before of course on our return from Cuba twice and NYC twice but never this bad, we’re all struggling, although very I’m lucky as I don’t work, Chris however returned to work 2 hours after he stepped off the 10 hour flight, he’s my hero that man!
Having done a bit of research on an NHS site and others I have found it’s all ok and perfectly normal.
If I’ve done my calculations correctly, it should only last about 8 days in total. So fingers crossed for a happy, brighter day come Wednesday next week. :)
It’s been totally worth it though. Although traveling with a colostomy or stoma of any type isn't always easy and isn’t without it’s issues, some more concerning than others, the thought of not going anywhere and experiencing the beauty the world has to offer is far more painful to contemplate.
The memories we have from this trip will last a lifetime, there will never be another time just the four of us will go away together. Six maybe, when girlfriends join us for future adventures, which will be lovely but this trip was a fitting end to our family of 4 holidays.
Tips for travel;
Take far more colostomy supplies than you could ever possibly use. And spread them throughout all the luggage. I had wonderful peace of mind that no matter what I would have plenty of bags and supplies with me.
Also, I have to take daily medication, in the UK I take this at about 9.30pm. Usually when I go abroad I take it at 9.30pm in the country I’m in. But I decided to take it at 9.30pm UK time throughout the entire trip, which is 1.30pm Californian/ Nevada time.
I didn’t want to take the entire pack out with me just in case I was mugged (or what was more likely I’d leave my hand bag somewhere in my jet lagged fog ( yes, bad jet lag both ways!!) I therefore cut individual tablets from the pack and took them out with me each day, setting an alarm on my phone for 1.30. It worked a treat. I usually get a bit of a kick back from taking my medicine at different times in different time zones but so far so good, it’s been plain sailing on that score.
I miss America, I miss the sunshine, (having missed the mini heat wave in England while we were away, it’s very rarely stopped raining since we’ve been back).
But I really miss the food...
My Crab, mango and avocado salad STARTER! :o
I’m stunned I only put on 5lbs!
Back on my low carbing and part time vegan-ing from here on in. May is a big month with lots of exciting events, not least my best friends birthday, my birthday, a wedding and a holiday to Spain...
Bring on May!!