Soooo busy...

Sorry for such a long time without posting. We have finally moved into our house (pictures will come once the boxes are unpacked) and we are starting to feel like this is real and not just a vacation. I still really like Hawaii. The job search, however, is not so easy. I have a few things going against me which makes the search that much harder.

1. I'm from the mainland.

2. My husband is in the military.

3. The economy is sucky.

I can't complain though b/c I 've made a deal with Edward that if I search for a job for a couple of hours a day I can spend the rest outside. There is so much to do. I go for bike rides, snorkeling, swimming, and sometimes (let me be honest) I just lay in the sun. It isn't so bad but if I don't find a job soon my family is going to get shells and rotten coconut for Christmas.

Let me tell you what we've been doing.

1. We went on a hike the other day at the Pali Pass. We have an awesome guide book, Oahu Revealed (http://www.wizardpub.com/oahu/oahu.html), and we thought we would go on a hike they recommended. Well we got as far as "get to the right side of a protective cyclone fence and walk along the muaka side. Once you reach the area where the road is sheared away from the mountain, stay left, walking on top of a short, narrow concrete wall and back to the left will be wooden stairs." - Okay, I still don't know what the muaka side is, I never saw the road shear from the mountain, and we never found the wood steps. However, we still had a great hike. I'm posting the pictures below.

2. Edward was sent on a 3 day deployment to Kwajalein, which is in the Marshall Islands. I had never heard of this place before and I'm sure most of you haven't either. To me it sounded like the end of the earth with only dial-up Internet in a few places on this tiny strip of land in the Pacific. Edward loved it. He told me he felt part 19th Century explorer and part Jimmy Buffett. I think the Buffett part is coming in b/c all he took with him were some steaks, my beach cruiser (bike), and a bottle of whisky. He had a blast.

A bit windy at Pali Lookout. Unfortunately it was a hazy day so you can't tell how beautiful it was in the picture.















I swear Edward was on the hike too. I guess he just took all the pictures.















Yep, that's it. This is all there is to Kwajalein.
















So Edward only took like a couple pictures in Kwajalein. This one at the "bar"....












and the other of the hospital. I guess those were the only two places he felt were important.

Getting used to paradise...

Ahhh, my first mai tai ever! I had to go all out and get it in the pineapple.







Well it is official. We are finally living in our rental home. We’ll only be here until October 15th but that will be the longest I’ve lived somewhere since May! We are living in a resort community that also has town homes (http://www.koolina.com/). Ko Olina is great because we are a short walk from the beach, pool, golf course, tennis courts, gym, beach bars, and Roy’s (restaurant).

The past few weeks have been a blur. We’ve been playing tourist and exploring the island. We swam off Waikiki, climbed Diamond Head, spent a weekend on the North Shore, surfed (or at least I attempted to), body surfed at Sandy Beach (Edward, not me), had a plate lunch at a local Hawaiian BBQ place (not like BBQ on the mainland, think meat and 3 but with meat and mac salad and white rice), visited the Arizona Memorial and drank way too many mai tai. It’s been a blast but the real world was calling, so we moved in on Monday and are finally getting settled.

The real world for me consists of finding a job. I’m not really excited about the job search but I think it means I’ll start blogging a lot more!




Some of the sweet people who greeted us at the airport.













Finally at the hotel.














View from the hotel room...little dots are all the surfers.













Sandy Beach on the Windward side of the island.
















More intimidating waves at Sandy Beach.













Lanikai Beach near Kailua.














Seriously, it is this beautiful.














Hunauma Bay, we snorkeled here.













Arizona Memorial














Inside Arizona















Looking toward Waikiki from the top of Diamond Head.














Honolulu and Waikiki from our sunset booze cruise.














Diamond Head. The little white speck is a light house where the Commander of 14th District of the Coast Guard lives. I'm going to a tea there next weekend.










A few rum drinks into our booze cruise. Diamond Head in the background.














Turtle Bay on the North Shore.

Aloha...

We are finally here in Hawaii. It is so amazing. I wanted to catch the blog up before I really got in to the Hawaii stuff.

We left the Grand Canyon and headed to Las Vegas. I simply can't blog about Vegas b/c what happens there, stays there. Seriously, it was amazing. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. After that we headed to Atascadero, CA to see my dad and stepmom. It is a beautiful part of CA - right between LA and San Fran. We got to go see the Hurst Castle too. From my dad's we left for LA were we flew to Oahu on Monday.

Hawaii is awesome. I'll post more on that later.

Hoover Dam

One of the pools at the Bellagio


























Bellagio




































Bellagio
























Bellagio























Bellagio





































Venetian

























Venetian





































Ceasar's Palace

































Watershow at Bellagio - so beautiful.






































Me, Dad, and Diane at Hurst Castle






























ALOHA!!!!

Ain't it Grand....

Mon. 8/11:
We leave New Mexico and head to Tucson to stay with Edward’s friend, Tim. While in Tucson I find out one of the many “benefits” of being married to an aviation freak. Tucson happens to be home to the Pima Air and Space Museum which manages the military's plane bone yard. It is basically a place where they store operational aircraft that are not in use. They choose to do it in Tucson b/c of the temperature and lack of humidity. Edward was like a little kid on the tour. He said he had dreamed about coming here since he was a little boy. Thank goodness he wasn’t let down.

Tues. 8/12:
We wake up early so that we can make it to the Grand Canyon in time to do a little hiking. The drive through Northern Arizona is really pretty. All of a sudden you go from desert and cactus to green trees. The neatest was when we hit about 6000 ft. all the trees turned white; I guess they were birch trees. We stopped for lunch in Flagstaff and couldn’t believe the change in weather. It was almost 90 at 6:30am in Tucson and it had dropped to 75 in Flagstaff.

We rolled into the Grand Canyon around 1:30 and started our hike. This will sound so cheesy but the first time I saw the Grand Canyon it took my breath away. Maybe it was the elevation of around 8000 feet but it really is amazing. Pictures can not do it justice. It is HUGE. We think from the maps that we hiked around 6 miles and I was pooped. One of the stranger things at the Grand Canyon, I would say 9 out of the 10 people we passed on the trail were foreign. Seriously, we might as well have been in Europe or Asia. It was truly bizarre. However, all in all it was amazing. I truly recommend going and seeing it in person.









C130's at the "Bone Yard"













More planes...

















Tim and Mandy in Tuscon












The white trees in Northern Arizona














































































My first view of the Grand Canyon.



























Amazing!

Happy Happy Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday Jackson! Being TWO will make you tired...or at least it'll make everyone else tired. I love you and miss you, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Edward, and Cousin Teddy

Texas is ridiculously huge...

Not only is Texas huge but it is HOT. I like Texas but I think it should be two states - East Texas and West Texas. Enough about that - let me get caught up on where we’ve been.

Wed. 8/06 and Thur. 8/07:
We leave PCB and head to Pensacola to pick Edward’s dad up at the airport. He flew down to spend Wednesday and Thursday with us in Pensacola. Edward picked Pensacola b/c he loved being in flight school there. We had a great time and I even got to visit the Naval Air and Space Museum for the SECOND time. I will have to say I never thought I would have to say I’d been once.

Fri. 8/08:
After we leave Edward’s dad at the airport we start the trip to New Orleans. Edward decided that in an effort to save money on gas we would set the cruise control at 60 MPH. After about an hour of driving and many obscene gestures and honking horns he bumped it up to 65 MPH. At this point I was just praying we would make it to California in 2008. We FINALLY get to New Orleans and head out for dinner and drinks. I think I am getting too old for all New Orleans has to offer…it sure was fun though.

Sat. 08/09:
We wake suffering from last nights festivities and hit the road by 7:45am. I think I was still under the influence to get up that early. San Antonio is our destination and I wasn’t sure we would make it. It all started to fall apart around Lake Charles, LA when I swore that I saw a short cut around the stand-still traffic on I-10. Turns out I was looking at the map upside down and we got off track for about 2 hours. I know you’re probably wondering how this could happen since we have a GPS. Well, I often feel like I know more than the GPS. I obviously don’t. One good thing, while on our little detour we stumbled upon a Books-A-Million where we finally got some books on tape. Since Edward had been controlling the radio I felt confidant that one (me) could lose there mind if they were forced to listen to NPR all the way to California. We get to San Antonio and feel dirty, tired, and hot. We see the Alamo and Riverwalk. It was crowded and I was not in the state of mind to deal with such things. We eat and go to bed. We finally pushed the cruise control to 70 MPH.

Sun. 08/10:
Today we finally reached Las Cruces, NM. We spent the whole day, 9 hours or so, driving across Texas. We only drove about 40 miles in New Mexico. That is just silly. It felt like we weren’t making any progress to still be in Texas around hour 7. Don’t have much to say about Las Cruses. We ate an Outback. We pushed the cruise control to 80 MPH today. I’m thinking we’ll actually make it to CA.

Air and Space Museum in Pensacola. Couldn't miss this photo op.

Mississippi - boring.

WHAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I tried to get a picture of the 9th ward. Pictures can't show the damage.

Pat O's - Edward has to get his fruity drink!

Some of you will see that some things never change.

The Alamo

The Riverwalk. We ate at the restaurant with umbrellas.