A Stay-cation!

What a great time we've had! From attending my sister's graduation in Texas to having Blaine's family here with us in Hawaii, the past couple of weeks have been a blast...

We flew to Texas the first week of June to be at Cassandra's high school graduation. Although it was a short visit, we had a great time and were so happy to be there to celebrate her accomplishments...check out all of the cords and ribbons around her neck! We are so proud of her and know that she will continue to excel at Texas State University in the fall...yes, the alma mater of both of her sisters! :)

Blaine's family actually arrived in Hawaii the day before we returned, so we were greeted by very familiar faces when we got home! From the day they arrived until just hours before their flight back home, we made the MOST of their visit, squeezing in everything that we could. And we had SO MUCH FUN!

Soon after our plane landed, we took Blaine's family to Schooner's, a really neat restaurant on Pearl Harbor. It's run by the Navy base, so they have military prices instead of Hawaii prices. And we sure did appreciate those $3 Mai Tais after traveling for 10 hours!

The next day, while Blaine was working, we took a scenic drive around the Windward side of the island (my favorite drive) after eating at a cozy tea room in Honolulu. The gorgeous blue water and waves crashing on the rocks is just one of the many reasons I love this drive so much!

On Tuesday, Blaine was still working, so I took everyone to Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu. This was our backup plan, after we tried to visit the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor and there were no more tickets available. So glad we went to the palace, though, what a beautiful place! Before we moved here, I had no idea Hawaii was once a monarchy, ruled by a royal family until 1893. Captain Cook only discovered Hawaii two years after we signed our Declaration of Independence! I thought all of this in Hawaii had happened long before that. My favorite room in the palace was filled with the royal family's jewels and King Kamehameha's cape made entirely of yellow and red feathers. You'll see pictures of this cape all over the island when you come to visit ;) but it was really neat seeing the actual thing in person.

Just outside Iolani Palace, you'll find these amazing Banyan trees. The trees drop roots from their branches and the roots grow toward the ground, and eventually grow into the ground, expanding the size and width of the trees. So neat!

The next day, we tried to visit the Arizona memorial again, but it was closed due to high winds. So, we decided to check out the USS Bowfin submarine instead. I can't even imagine living in such a small place for months at a time. Check out where they load the torpedos!

On Thursday, we spent most of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. This place is incredible! It's run by the Mormon church and their profits support students coming from the Polynesian islands to attend Brigham Young University-Hawaii. In fact, most of the tour guides and employees are students of the university. Our tour guide was a native Tahitian who is studying English and plans to return to Tahiti to teach English. The center is made up of different villages, representing the islands of Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji, Aotearoa, Tonga, and Samoa. Throughout the day, each village puts on shows and demonstrations. After visiting the villages, a luau dinner was served, followed by an amazing broadway-quality show!

A Samoan climbs a coconut tree to pick coconuts.

Blaine and Tim learn a Tahitian dance. You should really see the video! ;)

Kalua Pig at the luau dinner.

"Ha, Breath of Life" show after the luau.

On Friday, we had Blaine's promotion ceremony at the Officer's Club on base. There is an amazing space at the club available by reservation that sits in a tropical garden and overlooks Pearl Harbor. It was just perfect for us! His commander had wonderful things to say about him and everything was just so nice! We are so glad Blaine's family could be here for this celebration!

Blaine's mom and I pin on his Major leaves.

Reception area in the garden...the club did an EXCELLENT job setting up for this!

Food and drink tables at reception.

"Cupcake cake" for reception.

Celebrating Blaine's promotion with a beautiful sunset backdrop!

After the excitement surrounding the promotion ceremony was over, I was able to relax a bit :) and enjoy the rest of our family's visit. We headed up to our favorite spot, the North Shore, for Mary, Tim, and Lisa's last full day in Hawaii. We stopped at the Dole Plantation, hiked to a beautiful waterfall, snorkeled Shark's Cove, and had a yummy Thai dinner at Haleiwa Eats Thai! It was such an awesome day!!

Pineapple plants at Dole Plantation...how many of you knew pineapples grow like this???

An extra treat...we stopped at Turtle Beach in hopes of catching a glimpse of a sea turtle. To our delight, there were PLENTY of turtles out that day and we got to meet this guy up close and personal!

Waimea Falls...at the end of a gorgeous hike through botanical gardens.

Shark's Cove is a great snorkeling spot. This was Lisa and Tim's first snorkeling experience...had we known how much they were going to LOVE it, we would have done this at the beginning of the week and made time for much more snorkeling! They loved it so much that we woke up early the next day and snorkeled at Hanauma Bay just hours before their flight back home! :)

Hanauma Bay

It has been such an exciting couple of weeks...we loved seeing family in Texas and I also feel like WE have been on vacation here at home. We really learned more about Hawaii and found a deeper appreciation for the culture through this week's activities. We're super excited about all that we will be able to share with our next visitors...I hope you're getting excited, Matt and Rachel!! :)

An Outdoor Weekend!

We were on the go this weekend, complete with two spearfishing outings and getting some much needed sun! And, yes, I made sure to have the camera on hand this time...

We headed out early Saturday morning to Ko'Olina, on the west side of the island. Ko'Olina is a very pretty resort area and a favorite spearfishing spot of Blaine and some of his fishing buddies. I actually took pictures that day with my old "point and shoot" camera...NO photo editing whatsoever. Yes, Hawaii really IS this beautiful! As I have done before, and said I would never do again :), I snorkeled while Blaine fished. And, once again, the visibility was poor due to high winds and waves and we couldn't see more than a few feet in front of us. I have never felt more like prey in my entire life...again, I caught myself instinctively wrapping my arms around my chest and abdomen, protecting my vital organs from nearby predators. If that doesn't just scream "fun"! And Blaine told me AFTERWARDS that a tiger shark is known to frequent that area. Awesome. I'm sure that shark was watching and stalking me the whole time. ;)

Since Blaine didn't catch anything Saturday, he headed out for more spearfishing on Sunday. He took a buddy with him this time, so I was able to hang out on the beach with the dogs and some friends. Hickam AFB has a beach just for dogs, which is a nice relief since most beaches in Hawaii do not allow dogs, not to mention this beach is just a two-minute drive from our house. We had a good time...Blaze and Holly seemed to enjoy it, maybe because they were very interested in and excited about all the other dogs there. Here are some pictures from our beach outing yesterday...

Blaze checking out the water

Holly smiling at the camera

This is Dog Beach...and one of Blaine's spearfishing spots. If you look really closely, between the two bushes, WAY out in the water, you can see a tiny speck. It's about 400 yards out. That speck is a cement platform that Blaine swims out to...the same place I swam to with him the first time we went spearfishing, when I swore I would never go again. :)

We saw another submarine while at Dog Beach. They come through here often because Pearl Harbor is just right around the corner...I think this area of the beach is technically in Pearl Harbor. Submarine sightings have become a regular occurrence, but it's still so cool every time we see one!

We made a new friend while at the beach...actually, I spent a lot of my time keeping the dogs AWAY from this new friend. Doesn't he look menacing?!

Hanging out on the beach, soaking up some rays!

Heading back from spearfishing...again, empty-handed.

We will be pretty busy over the next couple of weeks, gearing up for a short trip to Texas and Blaine's family visiting us here. With all the sightseeing we will do with Blaine's family, we should have plenty of pictures to post! Until then...

Our New Place: Part 2...

I thought I'd add some outdoor photos, now that our yard is freshly mowed and I was able to take pictures. Drum roll please......seriously, don't get too excited. ;)

Here is our building...you may recall that it's a "fourplex", like four townhomes in one building. We are one of the middle units, closest to the corner unit that you can see here. Most of the houses are set up this way, unless you are a Colonel or above. Oh, and that's Blaine's spearfishing-scuba diving-surfing-beach going Tacoma parked in front. He insisted he needed a truck just for those purposes. :)

This is our front yard and door. You can see our neighbor's door in this picture, too. It's a good thing we get along so well, being as close as we are!

Our back patio, complete with new furniture and all! I have also added some planters, my favorite being the half wine barrel you see here. This is our herb garden, complete with two types of thyme, two types of basil, oregano, mint, italian parsley, and sage. We also have rosemary, green onions, cilantro, and four types of peppers in the other planters.

Another angle of the patio...and a view of our fragrant plumeria trees! I think you can kind of see how close the units in the building are by looking at the space between the sidewalks. No complaints, though, as our neighbors to the left make awesome pina coladas and mai tais, while our neighbors to the right BBQ regularly and feed us more than we feed ourselves!

Here, you can see our papaya tree, a couple of tropical bushes, and our lime tree.

Stay tuned for "Our New Place: Part 3" for the upstairs pics! And don't forget the picture I promised of Blaine in his spearfishing gear...we're going tomorrow and I plan to pack the camera! ;)

Update: No spearfishing yesterday, as the parking lots near Blaine's favorite spot were full. But we did find an awesome snorkeling spot on the North Shore...and discovered an even MORE awesome Thai food restaurant! Yummy!

Our New Place...

I know you've all been waiting on pins and needles for pictures of our base house! ;) Well, maybe you really have been if you hope to make Hickam AFB your next assignment and are considering living on base. Before you look at the pictures below, let me warn you that we still have SO much to do in the house, but I want to get these pictures on here so that you can see where we live, even if it is half-decorated...

This is the view upon entering the front door. To the left is the living room, which leads into our office, and to the right is a hallway that leads into the dining room. I plan to paint that big white wall in the living room and office; I just haven't decided what color yet. I would like to find a color that accents the blue that is already there.

This is the hallway and view of the stairs from the front door. There are a couple of closets and a half bath in this hallway.

This is our living room...which has been extremely frustrating when it comes to decorating and arranging furniture. I'm not sure the furniture will stay this way, but it's working for now...and I've moved these couches a million times now and don't want to touch them again. We also want to mount the television on the wall, but I'm not optimistic we'll ever get to that. :) Notice the "stylish" vertical blinds that protrude from the wall at least six inches...it's nearly impossible to hang any type of window treatments. We're making it all work, though!

This is our "dining room"...yes, the floor plan calls this little nook a dining room. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why on earth you would carpet a dining room. We have decided not to use this as our dining room. It has, instead, become our office. This floor plan has really required some creative thinking on our part!

Just another angle of the office...you can see where it is situated with regards to the living room. I must comment on our desk here. Blaine's late Uncle Bob gave us this desk. Uncle Bob was an amazing man with even more amazing life experiences. He was from England and spent a significant amount of his life in Africa, where his children still live. I should probably write an entire blog entry on the life of Uncle Bob sometime, since he deserves way more than a couple of lines in this paragraph. Anyway, I'm not sure how he acquired this desk, but we do know that it came from the USS Alabama, a WWII battleship. It has a metal seal with a serial number and everything! The desk was an orangeish-yellowish finish, but we had it refinished in this espresso color. And we love it!!

This is our kitchen, looking into the office and living room. It's not too exciting, but it gets the job done!

Another shot of the kitchen...yes, I know I am missing some cabinet doors. :) The couple who lived here before us wasn't crazy about the "pickled oak" cabinets (imagine that!) so they took the doors off for more of an open shelving look. They also painted the inside of the cabinets, which actually goes very well with our cobalt blue Mexican glassware! We like it, and it's unique, which isn't a bad thing when you and all of your friends on base have the SAME house.

Here is our "family room", as described in the floor plan. We are using this as the dining room, since that makes the most sense to us, being that it is not carpeted and is located right off of the kitchen. If you look closely, you will see the light sitting in the hallway. This is my proud Craigslist find...it's an iron and wood chandelier and I got it for $20! While I like the shell chandelier that is currently in this room, it doesn't really go with my decor. So, as soon as I can talk Blaine into hanging it, we will have a new light!

You may have noticed that there are no upstairs pictures on here...that's because there isn't a whole lot to take pictures of up there yet. I've just started decorating the bathrooms, so two of our three have nothing more than hand soap and a hand towel...not picture-worthy. Our bedroom is not even near completion and one bedroom is completely empty! I promise to post those pictures as the rooms come along. I will also post some outdoor and patio pictures in a later entry...this post is long enough as it is.

I know I'm putting too much thought into a place we will only inhabit for two years. The last thing I want to do is be stuck indoors, trying to overcome my "decorator's block" instead of enjoying this beautiful island! That said, I am planning to get out this weekend for some snorkeling while Blaine spearfishes. It will be my first time at the beach in over a month! And I could use the break from organizing and decorating...

Another Water Sport...

On our second day in Hawaii, we saw a man wearing a camouflage wetsuit, toting a spear gun and his fresh catch of the day, walking down the street near Waikiki Beach. At the time, we thought it was hilarious...but I should have known it would only be a matter of time before Blaine added this sport to his list of hobbies. :) Blaine has quickly taken up the sport and has been spearfishing the last four weekends.

Spearfishing is a pretty physical sport, complete with lots of gear. Blaine wears the following when spearfishing: a wetsuit, a hood, gloves, booties, fins, a mask, a snorkel, a knife, he carries a spear gun, and he also has attached to him a float with a dive flag. Why the float with a dive flag, you may ask? Because spearfishing is all about taking a deep breath, diving down to anywhere between 30 and 60 feet, stalking a fish, spearing that fish, and bringing it back to the surface. The flag lets boats know that you're there so that you don't get hit. Boats? Yes, Blaine swims out 100-200 yards into the ocean to do all of this. I went with him one time...when I couldn't see the bottom anymore, I decided it would be the last time. I am still extremely afraid of sharks...thanks to watching Jaws when I was a kid. Did I mention that he strings whatever he catches to that float right above him? It kind of looks like shark bait, if you ask me. But he loves it, and I love it when he comes home safely!

Last Saturday, Blaine brought home four trigger fish and two octopi. We found out very quickly that a few fish and some octopi tend to attract every kid from the block to our house. The kids were all so amazed and had a blast squeezing the ink out of the octopi. It made for a messy, but fun, afternoon!

I haven't actually captured on camera Blaine decked out in his full spearfishing gear yet...but, you can rest assured that as soon as I do, it will be posted here for your viewing pleasure and for a good laugh!

Side note: You can see our beautiful plumeria trees and our back patio in the pictures posted here. More pictures of the house coming soon...STILL organizing and unpacking!!

Finally getting settled...

We have been living life out of suitcases...for FOUR MONTHS now. And, just for fun, I have counted how many homes and hotels we have stayed at or lived in since December...NINE! Yes, I have carried my ginormous suitcase in and out of nine different places...well, I guess Blaine probably carried it for me most of those times. So, we were extremely excited to receive the keys to our house on base! We are in the process of unpacking box after box...110 of them to be exact. It feels a little like Christmas morning, unwrapping all of our household goods...some that I haven't seen since JUNE. I'm pretty sure I won't have to shop for a while and that I'll be content with just discovering the things I already own...maybe. ;)

Some of you may recall us throwing around the idea of living off-base...to make a long story short, we decided that living on base was a better fit for us and were offered the perfect place at the last minute. But I promise to take any of you who visit to see the sea turtles that would have been in our backyard. Anyway, back to the house on base and how it all came to be...

The housing office told us they had two houses coming up and that we could choose which one we wanted to be "considered" for. The first one was a historic (older and not renovated) home...we noticed the demolition of other homes going on right across the street and quickly marked this one off of our list because of the potential for a lot of noise. The second home was in a four-plex (I like to think of it as a townhome) and looked nice, but was in between two other homes. We still had our hearts set on a brand new home on base, but these wouldn't be ready until the fall. We thought about waiting for the new homes, hence the short-lived plan of living off-base on the North Shore, so we didn't even consider the "townhome". THEN, the couple who lived in the townhome called us to invite us over to take a look. FYI, this was in the last week of FEBRUARY! That's how long we've been waiting for a home. As soon as we walked into the townhome, Blaine and I looked at each other with the "wow, this is our house!" look. I'm certain the house was staged just for us...same tastes, decorating style, color choices, everything! Not to mention the couple who lived there are just the nicest people and we became quick friends. The house is a two-story, three bedroom, two and a half bath home, with plenty of living and kitchen space. There's a nice patio in back with a spacious yard...complete with a plumeria tree, a papaya tree, a lime tree, and lots of other tropical vegetation! And did I mention the awesome neighbors?! The families next door, on each side of us, have already had us over for dinner and another friend, Jenn, had tea and desserts at her place, and invited the entire neighborhood over to meet me! We are so very blessed.

Stay tuned for pictures to come soon...I promise to post them as soon as I have everything just right. Back to more unpacking!!

Sea Turtles and Sharks and Whales...OH MY!

I am officially a certified PADI open-water scuba diver as of today! After a week's worth of classes and practice in the base pool, two days of boat dives, and some Mexican food and margaritas later, PADI recognizes ME as a diver who can go out and survive the waters on my own. The entire experience was so great, but I must dwell on yesterday's dive for this post, since it will undoubtedly be the most memorable dive of my life...

Yesterday's boat dives were my first open-water dives this week. I, along with Blaine (who has been certified for some time now), another classmate, our instructor, Amy, and a boat-load of other certified divers headed out to our first dive spot, Koko Craters. Here, we practiced some skills at about 40 feet down...and I saw my first sea turtle in the water! This turtle was a good size...about three to four feet wide. We saw some other fish, including halibut and angelfish. There's even a Buddha statue sitting at the bottom of the crater...we rubbed it's belly for good luck. And, boy, did it work!!

Our next dive spot was at Fantasy Reef and Shark's Cave...yeah, the sound of this one was not very appealing to me. I was really concerned with the possibility of seeing a shark. We dove down to about 40 feet again, this time seeing THREE large sea turtles right away. A couple were sleeping under coral overhangs, while one was swimming around freely. As we're swimming along, Amy looks at me and gives me the symbol for "shark"! While I was a little worried, I was more intrigued and wanted to see this thing! We found a four-foot long white-tip reef shark sleeping under a coral overhang. It was so neat...and I didn't feel threatened or afraid at all. We swam a little further, and, again, she gave me the "shark" symbol. This time, there was a six to seven-foot white-tip sleeping! And a baby (about two feet long) next to it!! As I swam next to the baby, it started swimming along-side me! Very cool!!

After some more skill work, we decided to end our dive and resurface. When we reached the top, our boat captain told us to stay in the water. He said, "there's a whale about 50 feet from you!" A WHALE!?!? We looked to where he was pointing and saw the whale's hump on the surface as it was blowing water from it's blowhole. We went back under and I couldn't see anything. As we swam a little closer, the most amazing creature came into plain view...it was a gorgeous, full-sized (they grow to about 52 feet long) humpback whale in the water! And if that weren't cool enough, she had a baby calf with her!! Blaine and I hovered in the water, just in disbelief at what we were seeing. The baby hid under the mother and then would find some courage and test it's swimming skills, diving down and resurfacing, swimming loops around the mother. It was as if they were putting on a show just for us. The mother remained suspended in the water, just supervising her calf and being available when the baby wanted to eat. I cannot describe in words just how humbling, majestic, and all-around amazing this experience was for us. Honestly, the awesome-factor of this made me a little emotional, being privy to such a large, but graceful, animal in it's environment .

When we got back to the boat, one of the dive-masters said that he has been on 5000 dives, and this was his first whale sighting. All of the experienced divers and instructors were so excited...it was a huge deal! We were pretty blessed to have such an amazing day of diving...and on my FIRST day!! Unbelievable...

We didn't have a camera, but, fortunately, another diver did! She captured the amazing photos and video I have posted to this blog. Thanks so much, diver from Denmark!!

Mother Humpback and Calf from Jennifer Baker on Vimeo

So there IS more...

Because I like to begin my posts with pictures, I share with you a sunset on the North Shore...this is how we spent Valentine's Day. I'm sure there will be many more of these to share with you in the future. A little random, but I just had to share...

We've started to figure out that there is a little more to this island than pasty-white tourists on Waikiki Beach (yeah, I know, WE still fall into that category right now). Besides familiarizing ourselves with the base amenities, our explorations thus far have taken us to several beautiful areas on the island.

The Eastern, or Windward side of the island, is really incredible. The H-3 (Oahu has three highways...numbered one through three) winds through a mountain valley and it is a really spectacular experience, leaving the drier, Western (or Leeward) side of the island, and all of a sudden being in what I can only describe as a rainforest. We went from sunny and 80 degrees to a misty rain and 70 degrees within seconds! I cannot even describe in words the beauty of the mountains here, especially those on the Windward side, with the clouds hovering just around the tops...AMAZING!! The rain didn't make for great picture weather, so I will post pictures of this area as soon as the weather cooperates.

Our second weekend here, we ventured out to the Diamond Head area and snorkeled Hanauma Bay. It was great! The water is a gorgeous, turquoise color and there are so many different colored fish and coral. It was a little cold...85 degrees outside, but a cloudy sky made it seem much cooler. We bought our own snorkeling equipment at the Navy Exchange, and with free admission for military to Hanauma Bay, we will certainly make snorkeling a regular activity in the Baker household. Still waiting for a sea turtle or whale sighting, though...

Side note on water creatures: the only thing I've seen in the water that was large enough to get really excited about was what I THOUGHT was a whale. Blaine and I were enjoying lunch on the water's edge at one of the base restaurants a few days after our arrival. The water's edge we were at was actually Pearl Harbor. As we are eating lunch, this large, whale-shaped thing appeared out of nowhere in the water...it was a SUBMARINE! Neither Blaine nor I have ever seen a submarine in real life, but there it was...just carrying on like no big deal! And I saw another one about a week later! Seriously?! It was pretty cool.

We also went to the farmer's market in Haleiwa last weekend. Haleiwa is a small, surfing town on the North Shore. Their farmer's market was a little smaller than Charleston's, but was still really neat. I love that everyone here is into eating healthy foods...it makes it so much easier for us to stick to a healthy diet. And the fresh pineapple is awesome!! There are several farmer's markets on the island, as well...we plan on visiting them soon. I really don't think the mountain views will ever get old...you can see them from the Haleiwa farmer's market! And did I mention our trip down memory lane?? This farmer's market has boiled peanuts, just like our beloved Charleston! Another thing that is really popular here is Hawaiian Shaved Ice. I'm sure you all have seen what I refer to as "snowcone stands" where you're from, but here, they are a BIG deal! I think it has something to do with all of the extras you can add to them...we just got plain, flavored ones...no weird toppings this time around.
Haleiwa is also where the infamous North Shore waves are found. I have to say that the North Shore is my favorite area so far. The waves are incredible and the beaches are not crowded at all! This might be attributed to the fact that you can't swim at some of the beaches because of the enormous waves. But what a gorgeous area!! And we also found some great Mexican food in Haleiwa with even greater margaritas! That's all I really need to be content. :)

And for those friends thinking of adding Hickam AFB to your wishlist of places to move to...I will say that the views from here are incredible! The base is so pretty...the streets are all lined with palm trees, you can see mountains from anywhere on base, and the private beach is wonderful! There's even a bar and grill on the beach so that you can enjoy a Mai Tai while you sunbathe. I think I could get used to this!

I have been writing this post in segments at a time...so much to share since I wrote the previous paragraph. I have been taking scuba diving classes this week and will be a certified diver on Sunday! More to come on that... AND, I think we found the perfect place to rent off-base while we're waiting for base housing...and I think you, our future guests, will find it as amazing as we do! DEFINITELY more on that in the near future. We just looked at it tonight, and if all goes well, we will move in soon!

You can bet on more pictures and updates soon. Miss and love you all!!

We Made It!

We made it!! After many months of preparation, packing, and paperwork, we are now Oahu’s newest residents. And what an adventure it has been…

We began the moving process in August, right after receiving word that we would be relocating to Hawaii. Believe it or not, the most time consuming (and stressful) part of this move was not our household goods shipment…it beat us here by three days; it wasn’t our car shipment….it should be here in the next day or so; it was actually getting Blaze and Holly here! Hawaii is a rabies-free island, so they are very particular about whom they grant entry. I have devoted the last six months to making sure our dogs would be allowed on the island, with many visits to the vet and LOTS of paperwork (and money). I must also mention that the military vet in San Antonio, who was supposed to do the health certificates, informed us the day before our appointment (two days before we were to fly out) that they were not qualified to complete health certificates! That was fun. Thanks to my hometown civilian vet, who was AWESOME and scheduled us at the last minute, we got them done just in time. A couple of microchips, rabies vaccinations, blood tests, health certificates, and 30 hours of being cooped up in their kennels later…..AND our flight was delayed and our dogs showed up at the quarantine station in Hawaii AFTER HOURS. Huge disappointment! Normally, they would have had to spend the night there and undergo inspection the following morning. But, Blaine pleaded with the agent and she let them come home with us that day! Needless to say, we have been giving them extra loving after all they had to go through. Poor babies. All is well now, and they are sleeping peacefully as I write.

Our actual flights out here were very nice and didn’t seem as long as I thought they would be. Our first flight was from Austin to Sacramento…we upgraded the tickets to first-class. It was great. The dogs were under the seats in front of us while we sipped on our Bloody Mary’s and had a yummy lunch. It was during this flight that it really hit me. We were moving. And to a far-away place! I was overcome with emotion…reading Glenn Beck’s Christmas Sweater during this flight didn’t help things. I cried the ENTIRE flight. Blaine laughed while I tried to hide it…and I’m sure the other passengers were wondering what was wrong with the basket-case woman in seat 4A.

After a night at Travis AFB, CA (which I would recommend to anyone…nice place!), we headed to the passenger terminal to board our military-contract flight to Hawaii. Here, we also pleaded with the airmen on duty to let us carry Blaze and Holly on, but to no avail, they had to go in a separate compartment. I felt much better, though, when they reassured me that they were going to be in the same cabin, just separated from us by a wall. The DC-8 plane that we were on has a space for cargo in the front (near the cockpit) and seating in the back. The dogs went in the front instead of down below with the baggage, which was much more comforting. The flight attendants even checked on them and gave them water throughout the flight. Blaze charmed one of the flight attendants to the point that she wanted to take him home with her! Our flight was a Space-A flight, and most of the 32 passengers were retirees heading to Hawaii for vacation. They had lots of good advice for us, which was very nice. This flight was just like first-class; with meals, drinks, and plenty of leg room. Leaving the mainland and being over the Pacific made the move seem even more real and made me think about how much I already miss Charleston and my friends there. Cue the Bloody Mary’s again…I had SIX to ease my anxiety.

Arriving in Hawaii, I was overwhelmed with how gorgeous it is! I couldn’t believe the 80 degrees of tropical weather that hit me when I stepped off the plane. And the palm trees! They are much taller and tropical-looking than those in Charleston. I wasn’t expecting mountains either…but they’re here, too! It’s really amazing. I felt as though we were in St. Lucia on our honeymoon again. Our sponsor from the squadron met us at the airport and, as Hawaiian custom goes, presented us with leis. REAL leis! Mine was made out of beautiful, fragrant, fuschia-colored orchids and Blaine’s was made out of seashells, leaves, and kukui nuts (see picture at top). They’re not the cheap silk-flower ones I’m used to. I was very impressed! We spent our first two nights at Hotel Renew on Waikiki Beach. Very nice! And pet-friendly!! The hotel even provided a dog bed filled with treats, food, a dog bowl, and a magazine called Island Dog. We soaked up a few rays on Waikiki, had some P.F. Chang’s for dinner, did some people-watching…we came up with a new game which is very easy to play here. It’s simple…you get 10 points for every guy you see in a Speedo…20 points if he’s over 50! ;) Waikiki is very touristy and not my kind of place. We’re looking forward to seeing the rest of the island to figure out what Oahu is REALLY all about!

I’m writing from TLF now…our temporary lodging facility. It’s in a nice neighborhood on base, and very spacious. It has two floors, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen. It’s okay for now…but we really can’t get settled here. The housing office told us they can guarantee us a brand new house on base…in AUGUST. In the meantime, we have to find something off-base. The good news is that the AF will move our things to base in August so we won’t have to worry about it this time! We are going to do some house-hunting and island-exploring (I promise to have more pictures posted) in the next few days. And who knows? We may like our place off-base so much that we won’t want to move back on base this summer. Either way, we will have a place for you to stay if you’d like to visit!!

And, now, for the most difficult part of all. I can’t finish this blog entry without writing about it. I miss my family! And I miss you girls in Charleston! I’m getting teary-eyed just thinking of you all. In all honesty, I’m crying like a big baby right now! Of course, I will see my family and friends in Texas again soon, which makes it a little easier being so far away from them. But I won’t see you girls nearly as often. I hate that I won’t be there to celebrate all of the upcoming births, or see my favorite little ones grow up. I know I will make new friends here, but you girls hold such a special place in my heart. I wish you could all be here with me…it’s the only thing that would make this the perfect assignment. I’m always really uneasy about starting something new…and THIS is NEW! And I know it will be fine. But it doesn’t make it any easier or make me miss any of you any less. I love you all so much!! I will keep in touch! And I hope to see you all again real soon...