Whew! We’re sooo glad that our big vacation of 2018 is over! After many months of planning, starting over a year ago, we had lined up a four-day camping trip in the San Juan Islands outside of Seattle. My Mom joined us for the camping, and my sister (Marie) and brother-in-law and their seven-month-old joined via a cottage reservation on the other side of the island. We planned to do hiking, swimming, sight-seeing, and we had made reservations for a big orca whale watching boat tour as well!
The weather was perfect, the scenery was gorgeous, and all looked like it was setup to play out as planned for our long-awaited, much-anticipated family trip. Until the plague hit. Every one of us ended up with a puking and/or diarrhea sickness at some point on the trip, which was later confirmed to be norovirus. What a disaster! Tent camping with vomit and the runs is no fun… so many “runs” to the bathroom were had! It didn’t help that we didn’t have cell coverage either, so communicating with Marie and with anyone not in camp was impossible.. We probably won’t ever do a trip again with small children where we’re stuck on an island and a ferry-trip away from home.
On Monday night around dinnertime, Joshua threw up several times — seemingly out of the blue. Elliott followed soon thereafter. Joshua started to have diarrhea soon too. We didn’t know what to do! I (Joel) buzzed into town to buy ice and a tarp, so we could have Joshua and me sleep outside the tent with a tarp to avoid getting vomit or diarrhea all over our nice tent. Elliott was sleeping in a pack-n-play, which we figured would contain his mess. Thankfully, by bedtime, they were both done with being actively sick.
On Tuesday afternoon, we had our reservation for the 3-hour orca whale watching trip. Everyone seemed well enough, so we proceeded to do it. This involved getting on a ferry to another island, snagging some lunch, getting on the whale watching boat for the tour, and then catching another ferry back to our island. The return ferry was delayed, but otherwise the logistics of the trip worked great! We even saw two different types of orcas (residents and transients) which is pretty rare to see on the same trip. Joshua was so tired from being sick that he slept through nearly all of the whale sightings though.
On Wednesday morning, Joel woke up with diarrhea and felt bad all day. Joel’s Mom Laurie got it later that day. Kristen also started to not feel well. The boys still had some fun playing in the lake next to our campground, but the energy level of everyone was super low. Thursday morning, Laurie was still experiencing the lovely symptoms of the plague, and Kristen had started in on it too. Joel packed up camp, and we headed home.
Our plan had been to get a hotel somewhere on the way home and have another play day before returning, but we were all ready to be home, so we drove straight home after getting off the ferry. It made for a very long day of travel but we were glad to have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to rest and recover. We had expected that having a couple of days after the camping trip would be nice to get unpacked and settled in again, but little did we know how much we’d need that recovery time!
Maybe next year!
The Meyers 
If it was Noro, I think you got off very light. when K and G and I had this, when K was 4 or 5, we were down for 3 or 4 days each and it felt like we were puking from our toes. I’m so sorry you all had to go through this and pray the Kirkpatricks were spared….and Laurie…but the good news is, NONE of us has been that sick since, so the immunity lasts a LONG time. So go ahead and plan that next vacation. You are safe for a while.
And aren’t the Orcas impressive? I remember when they had Keiko at the Oregon Coast Aquarium and you could walk up right next to him….the size…the beauty….simply amazing. I’ll never forget that experience…..
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Thanks! The Kirkpatrick’s weren’t spared unfortunately. Baby Rachel had a medical care visit just after getting off the island – Marie’s story to tell or not, but that’s how we got the diagnosis that this was norovirus.
The Orcas were amazing for sure!
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