On Second Thought

So, I said "Employed husbands are happier husbands"... and while this statement seems true on the surface, I was reminded that a "happy wife equals a happy life" thus, if the husband's employment makes for less (almost ZERO) free days for that wife to spend with said husband, it makes for an unhappy wife, which transitively equals an unhappy husband.

Or at least, it makes for feeling like there is no time to do the things that make marriage, and Hawai'i in particular, fun!

So, while employment helps to make me feel like a contributing member of society, when it comes with having MANDATORY WEEKEND work, every single week, it kind of gets in the way with priorities. Let's be honest, priorities are important, because, you know, they are things that are important to me and I try to prioritize. They pretty much go in this order. 1. Racquetball 2. Wife 3. Whatever else it is that I would rather be doing than work 4. Work. So, basically, since this job was infringing on priorities 1 through 3, the marina job had to go. Just, had, to , go. Having said that, the job was cool for a few reasons. I did get to learn about boats and I can tie at least 2 knots now. Also, I have a great tan going. Lastly, I made friends with some fish named Barry, Bobbers, and Rocky.

There was the eel that we saw once. Just once

This is "Bobbers" he is a Porcupine fish who, along with "Rocky"
(named for a gash he/she had on his/her forehead) like to troll around
hunting for crabs to gobble up

By "made friends" I mean, sometimes when I was bored I would talk to the fish and sometimes play act scenes from imaginary situations and places I would rather be in. *SIGH*.. Also, saw some puffer fish the other day! It's a really cruddy picture but whatevs dude. Anyway, I have included a picture montage to remember my favorite times from the Marina job as a Recreation Assistant at the Marine Corps Base Hawai'i as a part of the Marine Corps Community Service! Phew! Say that 4,000 times fast!

Sometimes I would eat lunch on a kayak

The views from work were/are amazing

Barry. Barry the Barracuda. 

Hard to see, 3 puffer fish. Bad picture, sorry!

Sometimes, when she had time off, Deanna
would come and kayak with me on my lunch break

So, without getting into the details too much, I am going to try my hand at substitute teaching again. The pay is certainly worth it here in Hawai'i (I can work 3 days a week and make more than I made at the Marina).. just gotta get on some sub lists, etc. Also, there is a prospective position, which I won't go into the details of because I am superstitious enough that I do not want to jinx it... so.. cross dem fingers! KTHANX

Now, just because Deanna and I haven't had many days off together, does not mean we haven't done things. Or that I haven't done things. I have gone surfing a few times.. and by "surfing a few times" I mean, I took my board into the water and tried really really hard to surf, but mostly got thrashed around a lot, but at least once each trip was able to stand up a little longer than I had last time! So, basically, making progress, excruciatingly slow. Like, baby giraffe meets baby elephant meets Texas armadillo roadkill. Progress. Yes.

Also, we went out to a Japanese restaurant with a name. I will google that name right now. It's called Noboru Japanese Restaurant. It was quite tasty. I got some kind of Udon (soup) or something, but forget mostly. Either way, it was tasty (I'm clearly horrible and both remembering things and knowing things) and Deanna got a sashimi platter, which looked like this.

This is what it would look like if Audra got a sashimi platter

This is what it looks like when Deanna gets
a sashimi platter

Proof positive that these two are clearly kindred spirits. 

My case = rested

Wait, wut?

Sidetracked.

Hokay. Japanese food was great. The restaurant definitely disappointed a bit on decor and overall feel (it was kind of shabby looking and not as great a "date night" spot as I had hoped), but it nailed the tasty and super fresh Japanese food part and then knocked the whole "have a lot of different types of Sake you have never heard of to try" part out of the park.

Fast forward a week or something and we hiked the Lanikai Pillobx trail. You have already heard about this and seen pictures. However, what was not mentioned is when we were atop the trail I said to Deanna "I think I want to try snorkeling that more eastern section of Lanikai where it looks like there might be decent reefs to swim around and it's likely less populated with sun bathers, tourists and the like. So, the next day, I hopped on my bike and did just that (before and after running some errands and other stuff I won't bore you with). The snorkeling there was solid. Not the worst. Far from the best. Just solid. I'd rather take a boat on Kaneohe bay and snorkel, and certainly Hanauma Bay is better, but for, "just hop on your bike and go snorkel" it more than works. I ended up locking my bike up at "Beach Access #10" (pretty far down into the Lanikai area) and walked down. I realized there was pretty much zero beach here and it basically is just an access to the water. Away I went. Snapped these pictures.

The little purple and yellow guys are Hawai'ian Cleaner Wrasse
and are only found in Hawai'i waters. They set up little cleaning
stations where all the other fishes come by to get all cleaned up.
We have seen some before, but this was the first time I saw TWO!

I super like the way that it looks like this little guy is dancing in
this picture =)

Milletseed or Speckled Butterflyfish, not sure which.

Oh, thems not fishes, but thems is cute. =)


Bye bye for now!!

Oh Juno!

I guess while you all are hunkering down for a cold spell, we should blog a little bit and share our warm thoughts with you!

This last week has been mostly uneventful.  It flew by and nothing happened.  They say time flies when you're having fun, but I guess in this case time flies when you're not looking.

I worked.

Stephen worked.

And then it was today.

Thrilling, right?  There was a huge swell that led to enormous waves on the North Shore on Wednesday, but we were both working and traffic to get up there was ridiculous.  One guy said he went to see the huge swells last year and spent three hours in traffic.  I think on a good day you could circle the whole island of O'ahu in three hours.

Stephen did put in his two-weeks notice, although the subbing thing is still confusing and isn't picking up as quickly as we'd like.  I kinda hope that with him not working, there will be more time to actively pursue school interviews and get into the system.  Please keep your fingers crossed!

The band owed us a three-day weekend because we weren't able to take one for MLK day (like everyone else in the military), so today we decided to check out the Lanikai Pillbox trail.  It's on the potential list of things to do when the family visits because it's supposed to be an easy, scenic hike.

On the scale of Hawai'i hikes, Pillbox really is pretty easy, but it's not the flat thing I was expecting.  It kinda goes up and down a lot, but it is super-scenic.  It might be my overall favorite hike so far because it combines great views (not spectacular views, though --- those go to Diamond Head and Koko Head) with a noticeable lack of tourists.  Since it's really, truly all I have to talk about, let me stop talking and start sharing pictures.

In case my hair isn't a giveaway, it was windy today

Selfie at a lookout point

Looking back over the trail.  That area jutting off to the right is K-Bay.

More views

The perfect strip of sand is Bellows.  This is 180 degrees behind the previous view.

Na Mokulua, otherwise known as the Mokes.

Lanikai and the Mokes -- Moku Nui and Moku Iki, respectively

On one side, ocean, and on the other, beautiful mountain views

Double shakas.  For extra awesome.

I feel so tiny.

Cuz this is huuuuuuuuge!

And there you have it.  A little taste of Lanikai Pillbox trail.  When we have a little more time, we'll do the whole thing.

So, enjoy shoveling yourselves out!  Aloha!

Sorry for the laziness

Wow, I guess I slacked a little bit on the updates.  I guess there really wasn't anything to say.  Stephen is still working at the marina on the weekends, and I'm still working for the band on the weekdays, and between us, we have been seriously lacking in adventures.

It's put me in a really cranky mood.

There is nothing quite like living in paradise and working all the time.  No really.  You should try it.

Having said that, Stephen finally got his Hawai'i teaching license squared away and has an appointment with the vice-principal at Kalaheo High School to fill out some paperwork and get into the sub system.  He already basically told the marina that he's going to leave sooner than later, and on Wednesday he'll give them his two weeks' notice.  I cannot wait until that happens.  We've already saved up enough to buy an "island beater" (that would be a car) so he can hit the ground running.  He's also already started networking with the guys in the 111th National Guard band and the Honolulu Wind Ensemble (our community band).  We are also thinking about our first off-island adventure!  Wooooo!

Anyway, catching up.

For New Year's Eve, Stephen had a gig with a community jazz band, and then when we were done at 9:30, we met his friend Sheri to try and go down to Waikiki for the countdown.  Of course everything was booked, so we ended up at Dave and Busters.  Apparently they had a champagne toast on their rooftop deck (who knew), but when we decided to head up there fashionably late (ten minutes before midnight), it was full to capacity.  We ended up walking down to the Ala Moana beach park and midnight happened somewhere along the way.  We were able to stand on the beach, though, and see the fireworks that were happening at Waikiki and at the Hale Koa.  At least, I think that's where they were happening.  There were fireworks to our right and fireworks to our left.

It's not a great picture of us, but that's the three of us on the beach.  After the fireworks, we agreed that we were really tired and left.  And that was that.

The other exciting thing that happened over the winter break was that Stephen used the money his brother gave him for Christmas to buy a surf board.  Surf boards are way less expensive out here than they were in Newport.  I'm not sure if it's just a supply and demand thing, because at 9'1" it qualifies as a longboard, same as what they sold in New England.

Anyway, here's a picture of him waxing his new board:

Oh yes, it's also pretty.  That doesn't really hurt, either.

He's been really excited about it, so he went to a different surf shop to see what their option were for used boards and what he might be interested in purchasing so any potential visitors can hop on one, or so I can possibly learn.  The joke was that I'm so bad at surfing that I'd need a raft.  Lo and behold, it's actually possible that I'm so bad at surfing because I've always rented an 11' longboard, and those are extremely difficult for women to maneuver.  The lower center of gravity, lower weight, and narrower width of a girl compared to a guy means that girls need smaller surf boards, more like an 8' "fun board."  With that in mind, I think I'll give his board a whirl a few times before I just totally write myself off as a surfing failure.


Speaking of surfing failure, I did take a few pictures of Stephen out on the waves.

Totally on top of that wave, which means he missed it.  It's just shore break anyway and not really good to surf on.

Paddling away on another little shorebreaker.  Yup.  Not the shining pinnacle of success.  But he's been going maybe once a week (which is good considering our work schedules mean I have the car on our days off), and today he apparently stood on the board for a whole 8 seconds... out of a 3-hour outing.  Baby steps.

Those were some nice days, and then work started up again, and two straight weeks of not seeing each other.  Today was a three-day weekend except for the band, which met at the band hall at 6:45am in uniform, ready to go for the MLK parade in Waikiki.  That meant a 4:30 wake-up call for me, because I needed coffee to wake me up enough so that the next cup of coffee would render me functional.  Still, I had a lot of fun (after all, this is the job I signed up for, not the paper-pushing and collateral duties... collateral damage?).  I was just jealous of all the people in their swimsuits and kayaks taking pictures of us while we marched and played for three miles with sweat dripping down our dress white uniforms.  Yay, laundry.

Stephen was surfing while I did that, and then got home quite a bit after I'd already gotten back, ate lunch, and took a nap.  We were going to kayak out to the Twin Islands (the Mokes), but we weren't going to spend that much money when we only had 2-3 hours, so we grabbed our snorkel gear and biked down to Lanikai.

Now some more jealousy-inducing beach photos.  I'm well aware that it's the middle of January everywhere else, but here, we're still working on our sunburns.

The Mokes.  These pictures are not enhanced.  Just sayin.

Stephen walking back from rinsing his mask

More tan, less fish belly.  He liked how I caught all the girls, too.

Sad little dying fishie.  But so pretty.  So I shared.

Deannafish.  The water really is that blue.

Hawaiian Gregory

Crappy picture of a Hawaiian Lionfish.  I tried to get a good photo, but good grief he was at the bottom of the ocean and wedged against a rock.

Purple coral looks like brainzzzzzzzzzz....

Well that is all I have for now.  In a few weeks, we should be back on our whirlwind tour of Hawai'i.  I did not accept assignment here just so we could never do anything, so at least I FINALLY had something to share!

Until next time!