Aloha!

The lei my awesome husband brought me!

Last week, I was fortunate enough to join my husband in beautiful Hawaii while he did some training. Since I flew standby, I wasn’t even sure whether or not I’d make it on a flight. When I found out I was actually going to get on, I sent my husband an email telling him what time to pick me up at the airport the next morning and then just hoped that he checked it before going to sleep. When I got off the plane, I was a little disappointed to find out that they didn’t actually have people in grass skirts waiting to hand out leis like they did on the Saved By the Bell Hawaiian episode. However, when I walked out the door of the airport, there was my amazing husband waiting with a Lei and a Lo-Carb Monster just for me! Also with him was our friend Steve, and his girlfriend Bryce who had flown in from Florida to hang out for the week.

After stopping for breakfast at a little diner called Zippy’s that served grilled Spam (gross), we headed over to Pearl Harbor Naval Base where the guys had hotel rooms. While there, we went over to the Exchange, which is apparently the largest one in the world. (It definitely made me a little sad when I compared it to what we have over here) We got some beach towels, sunscreen, and a swimsuit, and then we headed out to the beach. We decided to go out to Waikiki Beach since it's a very popular tourist spot. All of the resorts and hotels line the beach, so when we got there, there really wasn’t much room for us to choose from. Most of the beach was taken up by the umbrellas and chairs that have to be rented out from the hotels. While we were walking along the beach, we crossed over a sort of bridge and looked down and saw a huge sea turtle swimming around underneath. Its shell was probably over 2 feet in diameter! I tried to get a picture, but it ended up just looking like water. After a couple hours in the sun, my husband and I were ready to call it quits. Honestly, neither of us are really big beach people. We’ve spent the past 3 years in Florida and have gone to the beach less than 10 times, probably closer to 5 times actually. We then went back to the hotel to get in a quick nap before dinner.

That night, we met up with our friends Lindsey and Pat who had been stationed with us in Jacksonville since last September. They moved out to Hawaii right around the same time we moved to Japan and we have missed them dearly! For dinner, we went to an awesome Chinese restaurant in Honolulu's Chinatown. A chinese girl in Lindsey's unit had recommended it, and it was probably the best Chinese food I’ve ever had! Afterwards, as we were driving back home, we looked out the window and saw a real live hooker. I know, sad right? But this was actually really exciting because none of us had ever seen one before! However, she was really very pretty (and didn't look like a crackhead), so we’re thinking she might have been a cop, but for now, I can say I have seen at least one real hooker so I’m happy.

The next day we drove up to the North Shore area with Steve and Bryce to get lunch and look around a little bit. This is supposed to be the area where all the major surfing competitions are and I was hoping to see some really big waves. However, the surf season doesn't really start until the winter, so the waves weren’t very big yet. Afterwards we drove around for a while and Bryce and I took pictures from the backseat. One of my favorite parts about Hawaii was simply how colorful and green it was. There are so many different types of trees and flowers and plants that they just don't have everywhere else. Plus, the area we live in now is nothing but rows and rows of buildings and tons of cars. Other than around base, there isn't really any green anywhere. I didn't even realize how much I had missed it until we got to Hawaii and it was just green everywhere! Even the mountains looked soft because they were covered in green trees and plants. 

The view from one of the houses on base (someone really high up)

Short walk down to the beach

That afternoon, the guys had to go in for work, so we rode with them up to the Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps Base and met up with my friend Lindsey. While they were hard at work, she drove us around base and took us down to their beach where we took even more pictures and admired the amazing view they have every day! I’ll admit it, I’m pretty jealous. From their house, they can look out and see both the mountains and the ocean. It’s really breathtaking. I can’t believe the views the guys who fly helicopters get to see on a daily basis. They filmed the Jurassic Park movies somewhere not too far from them and they can actually fly over and see the entrance gates that are still there. They’re also currently filming the 4^th Pirates of the Caribbean movie out in the waters nearby. Apparently, every once in a while, you can look out and see the Black Pearl in the water of the bay.

My friend Lindsey

Well we took a ton of pictures and I have a lot more to write about, but I figure this is plenty for now. I'm actually in the process of trying to set up an online photo account so that you can see all of the pictures I took rather than just a select few. If I get that going, I'll let you know!