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Lookout Mountain / Mt. Hood National Forest

Island to Inland PCS Road Trip | Day 1 | July 25, 2020 | Hiking Lookout Mountain

On our first day of vacation, we packed all we had into our tiny rental car, picked up my brother, and headed for the hills. We made a quick stop to pick up groceries for a week on the road, then continued on to Mount Hood National Forest. When planning our trip, we honestly had no idea which route we wanted to take, just a lot of ideas of places to see between Portland and Omaha. But the one thing we knew for sure was that we’d spend a night camping with my brother around Portland, so we had our first hike and campsite planned out.

We drove East on highway 26, getting more excited every time we caught a glimpse at Mount Hood. This was Curtis’ first time seeing it — last time we were in Portland, the Eagle Creek wildfire was going on and visibility was poor. I had fun remembering my own adventure with Charlotte and pointed out places where I had stopped. We eventually turned North on OR-35 and then took forest road 44 further into the wilderness. We came across small campgrounds and dispersed camping sites, and ended up setting up camp at Fifteen Mile Creek Campsite. This site was the only one during our whole trip where we were concerned about finding a spot since it was a weekend near a major city. Once that was squared away, we prepared for our first hike — with the trailhead conveniently just steps away from our campsite!

Since we had absolutely no skills or acclimatization for summiting Mt. Hood, we chose the next best thing: a peak with unobstructed views of Mt. Hood, as well as other glaciated volcanoes on the horizon. Curtis had chosen Lookout Mountain, located on the East side of Mount Hood. The shortest trail to the peak is only about 3 miles, but since we were taking an alternative route starting in our campsite, Curtis said it would be about 6 miles. At this point it was only noon, and we had nothing else to do and nowhere else to be, so we all gladly went for it, starting out on the Fifteen Mile Creek Trail (#456).

Not long after beginning the trail, Curtis checked his AllTrails recording and noticed we were going the wrong way. However, he pointed out that this trail still went up to Lookout Mountain; it would just be a longer approach and more gradual elevation gain. We decided to stick with it and come back down the other trail, making a big loop. Curtis estimated off the map that it would end up being around 8-ish miles. Again, we had nowhere else to be, so we continued onward.

The temperature was perfect for hiking — in the upper 60’s with clear skies all around. There were purple and white wildflowers along the trail and a breeze in the air. The trail meandered its way up, crossing the occasional forest road, but never too steeply. It’s a good thing that the trail was well marked though, or else we might have had a few more problems.

Just before we reached the two mile point, the pines started to clear out and the trail got rockier. And then, we were in the clearing of a small hill (Eightmile Point) and had our first close look at Mt. Hood. But we also had our first look to peaks to the North in Washington. Grant was quick to point out Mt. Adams, but we were unsure of the one behind it. A quick survey of the horizon showed us Mt. St. Helens peaking out from behind Mt. Hood which left only Mt. Rainier to be the peak further North from Adams. Incredible to think that we were over 100 miles from Rainier and could still see it so well.

We took our pictures, Charlotte rested in the shade, and then we pushed on. The trail dropped about 50 feet from the lookout and then began its gradual ascent again. We passed by some mountain bikers, presumably coming down from the Lookout Mountain trailhead, and admired the wildflowers in bloom. We joined up with the Lookout Mountain Trail (#450) which indicated we were going in the right direction. At one point, Curtis noted a bright yellow and orange bird which he later identified as a Western Tanager.

The trail eventually merged with a forest road and started going more steeply up the mountain until it ended at the official trailhead for Lookout Mountain. By this point we were already about 5 miles in, but everyone, including Charlotte, was doing well and we had plenty of water and snacks for the summit.

From the parked cars at the trailhead, we followed the High Prairie Trail (#493) up to the crest of the ridge. This trail led us through wide open prairies with so many summer flowers in bloom. And just when you thought it couldn’t get better, you would turn around and have a clear view of Mt. Adams.

At the ridge, we turned to the South and made the quick and easy hike up to the summit of Lookout Mountain. There was one other family at the top, but there was plenty of space to keep our distance and still enjoy the views. We now had unobstructed views to the South of more Oregon peaks such as Mt. Jefferson and The Sisters, as well as a lake in one of the valleys. We had some snacks and drank Gatorade, and Charlotte found a shady spot for a nap.

By this point we were almost 7 miles into our hike with about 2000 feet of elevation gain, and Curtis believed we had about 3 miles left to get back to the campsite. A bit off from his initial ‘8 miles round trip’. Satisfied with our time at the summit we continued South on the Divide Trail (#458) which quickly, if not steeply lost all the elevation we had gained hiking up.

We passed by several hikers heading up towards the summit and were glad that we had chosen the route we did. Besides being steeper, the trail was very dry and we were kicking up a lot of dust just by walking. About a mile and half from the summit, we split off from the ridge and started following the Fret Creek Trail (#456A) down. Curtis pulled off from the main trail at one point and started leading us down an embankment. It wasn’t until we were at the waters edge that I realized he had led us to a small lake. The reflection of the treetops in the water had blended in so well with the trees I hadn’t noticed it. We enjoyed the tranquility of the water and let Charlotte sniff around and drink her fill before continuing on.

At just over 11 miles total, we walked back into our campsite tired but glad for our days adventure. It was more than we had bargained for, but the weather was so perfect and the views so wonderful. Maybe we were just starved for a change of scenery.

We were so impressed with how well Charlotte had done considering she hasn’t hiked more than 4 miles with us lately. The cool weather certainly had something to do with it as we learned later on — she doesn’t do quite as well hiking in heat. She hiked the entire trail with such determination and enthusiasm, and didn’t stop until we made it back to the campsite. Immediately after arriving back at the site, she went and laid down in the tent, only coming out when we started cooking sausage.

This ended up being our only major hike while traveling, and it was certainly worth it! We were thankful for the perfect conditions and visibility. If you’re interested, here is a link to our AllTrails recording.

Goodbye Hawaii

On Friday, July 24, we awoke in our rental house in Hawaii for the last time. We ate breakfast and finished packing, then took Charlotte for a walk to the park for the last time. We said goodbye to our neighbors, and walked through our house for the last time. All of this felt surreal and emotional, but walking through our house was the part that made me cry. I loved our house. We don’t ever want to live in Hawaii again, but if we do, we can’t imagine living anywhere but there. We loaded up our car, then after one last look we drove away.

We were thankful that we had been able to work out an easy transaction for our car — Curtis drove us to the airport, left Charlotte and I on the curb with all our bags, then drove to a house just a 15 minute walk from the airport to drop off the car. Char and I sat together outside for less than 30 minutes. The terminal was obviously much quieter than normal, but there were still cars coming through, dropping off and picking up here and there. Curtis made it back and we hauled all our bags into the airport and to the ticket counter.

Things took a turn South as soon as the ticketing agent saw Charlotte in her kennel. It was the same kennel we had used to fly 3 years ago, and in our opinion she hadn’t grown any (she flew at age 3 and now she’s 6, but still weighs the same as 3 years ago). The kennel was tall enough for her to stand up, but in the agent’s opinion it wasn’t long enough for her. It didn’t help that Charlie was just sitting right at the door crying incessantly. We started to panic — what could we do now? We didn’t have a vehicle, the nearest Petco was 20 minutes away, the airline didn’t have any other options.

But we couldn’t give up — we needed a solution, and fast. Curtis went for a long walk around the airport to see if any other airlines sold kennels while I waited with Char and our baggage. When that came up empty, I decided to call a wife and friend from the boat — I knew they had flown with a dog larger than Charlotte, and they lived only 15 minutes from the airport. I called her and asked if she could bring it to us and we buy it from her. Thankfully she was available, and within 20 minutes had the bigger kennel at the airport for us, and saved the day! Like I mentioned before, the part of this entire move that gave me the most stress was having to fly with Charlotte, and I don’t like to think about what the alternative would have been, and all the steps we would’ve had to take to get her on another flight. Another vet visit and health certificate, another waiting so many days for her to be able to fly, and either Curtis or I staying behind or both leaving her with someone else… So thankful we didn’t have to make that decision! Additionally, I’m very thankful that the agent who checked me in 3 years ago thought Char was fine in the medium-sized kennel, because having to deal with this in an unfamiliar city by myself at 5 AM would have been even worse!

Oh, but the bigger kennel couldn’t fit on the scale, and the agent started questioning whether it was too heavy, so there was that. Thankfully we were able to get it on a bigger scale and the combination of the kennel and Charlotte *wasn’t* over their weight limit. I can’t stress this enough, I hated this situation, having to fly with a dog. This may be the one thing that keeps us from staying in the Navy — the possibility that we could have to come back someday. Once she was finally checked in, we took a deep breath. Hopefully the worst was over.

I guess there was also some issue with my name not being on Curtis’ official orders, but I missed most of that discussion because I was so concerned about Charlotte. But hey, we all eventually made it on that plane with all our luggage and Charlotte, so I guess it all turned out alright!

The security line was the shortest we’d ever seen here. Besides wearing masks and handling boarding passes on our own, there wasn’t much different about checking in or going through security. They did have temperature checks and health forms for people traveling inter-island though.

The day we left, Hawaii had over 100 new positive COVID-19 cases, the first day they ever hit triple digits. The airport as a whole wasn’t as empty as we had expected and hoped, but it was quiet enough that we were easily able to keep our distance. There’s still a mandatory 14 day quarantine for everyone arriving to the islands, which made us believe there wouldn’t be many people from Hawaii leaving only to have to quarantine when they get back. However, there was also a hurricane headed towards the islands — I doubt many were evacuating but that still could have affected the amount of people flying.

We sat by a window and gazed out at the little bit of scenery we could see. We saw the baggage cart drive by, and then a truck behind with a lone pet carrier — Charlotte! I don’t know if this airline normally only flies one pet at a time or if that was a new COVID-19 policy. Poor girl. The flight attendants assured us that they were monitoring the temperature for her.

Finally, it was time to board. This also went so much faster and smoother than we’ve ever experienced. They let families with young children, handicapped people, and first class board first, then boarded from the back to the front of the plane. As far as seating went, they were intentionally leaving all middle seats vacant, and it ended up being either a single person or a couple in the occupied rows. The plane was smaller than every other plane we’d flown between the islands and mainland, and with much less people. We settled in to our row, and watched out the window as the plane taxied and took off, soaking in our last glimpses of the island. Goodbye, Oahu.

We had the choice to either fly straight to Omaha with 3 different flights, or fly direct to the West coast and drive the rest of the way. We debated either way with which would be the safest and most responsible thing to do, what would end up with the least contact and exposure to COVID-19. On one hand, we could have 3 different flights, sitting in a small enclosed space with who knows how many people, as well as 4 different airports. On the other, we could have one flight and 2 airports, then hotels, restaurants, and gas stations along the way. Things are so uncertain, there wasn’t an obvious answer.

So instead, we did what we knew was best for Charlotte: one direct flight, followed by a socially-distanced road trip. We decided to get a hotel the first night so that we could shower and thoroughly clean ourselves after the flight, but after that we would buy food at a grocery store once and then camp the rest of the way to Omaha. We did research on what different state laws were, we came prepared with masks and hand sanitizer, and we set our expectations accordingly. This wasn’t the PCS road trip we had hoped for (PCS roadtrip choice #1 was a flight to Anchorage followed by a roadtrip down the Canadian Rockies), but we were still going to make the most of it. It didn’t take long though before we figured out that pretty much all of our trips have been ‘socially distanced’ so planning for this was very easy.

That being said, we did spend time with one person along the way. We decided to fly through Portland, OR because my brother still lives there and we wanted to see him. I made sure he was okay with seeing us after our flight, and he said he was fine with that. With how uncertain things are, we weren’t sure when we could see him again, so I’m glad we were able to work things out for the weekend.

We made it to Oregon around 8:30pm as the sun was setting. We gathered all our luggage and then got our very excited puppy. We made it! We made it through the flight, we made it back to the Mainland together, we made it through 3 years in Hawaii!

Curtis picked up our rental car, we loaded up and drove to our hotel. We went to bed excited for all that lay ahead of us back on the Mainland. And then Charlotte woke us up at least 3 times in the night because she was just too excited to sleep.

Next up: our reverse-Oregon Trail road trip! Stay tuned. 🙂

Last Week on Oahu

Each of our ‘Last week in ___” posts have been about a combination of final moving preparations, as well as a few adventures for some final happy memories in that place. In that regard this post is no different, but because of the current global situation, we’ve had a few more logistics and obstacles in our way. Since we have to rely on the Navy for so many details, it was out of our control when we would leave the island. We weren’t sure when our official ‘last week’ would start, so I guess you could say we were living the entirety of July as though it were our ‘last week’ on Oahu.

We had originally planned to leave in the second week of July and, due to COVID-19, our first step was to acquire a travel waiver — basically permission from the military to travel during the pandemic. Curtis applied for a waiver at the end of June, hoping that 2+ weeks was enough time. Turns out, it wasn’t — our planned departure date came and went and we still had no waiver. It finally arrived 5 days later, on July 17. We didn’t know it at that time, but that was when our ‘last week in Hawaii’ officially began.

Curtis went to work on that Friday morning and found out that our waiver had arrived. He called me and told me the good news, then submitted his travel request so that the military would buy us plane tickets. We requested the following Wednesday because they required 3 business days between the request and our travel date. We knew we would have to be a little flexible, but hoped for the best as we planned out our weekend.

On Saturday, July 18, we drove up to the North shore to hike Kaena Point one last time. We started our hike at 8am, and it was already rather hot with the sun rising higher in the sky. We drank plenty of water and I tried my best to walk in front of Curtis so I could be in the shade of his shadow. 😉 We made it to the point and took our time walking around the tide pools. Sadly we didn’t see any seals on our last hike here, but we did see albatross ‘chicks’ which were quite large. They just sat there and let us take all the pictures we wanted. Someday they’ll join the majestic adult albatross and soar around the Northwestern Hawaiian islands with their huge wingspan…but for now, they look like oversized fluffy chickens that just woke up.

While walking back from the point, we met up with some friends that used to work with Curtis on his boat and hung out with them for a while. We ate, drank, and Curtis went cliff diving and snorkeling in the cove (I didn’t come prepared for that…and hanging out and chatting with the other wives was more appealing to me!) We ended up getting our last Hawaiian sunburn as well.

On Sunday, we walked into town and got a few favorite treats — Chocolate Haupia pie from Ted’s Bakery (sold at Foodland in Kailua) and Koloa Rum punch. That evening we got Bob’s Pizza and had Curtis’ best friend over to hang out.

Curtis also listed our car on Craigslist over the weekend. We loved our car, a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid that we bought off Craigslist here. It had great gas mileage and all sorts of nice features, but most importantly, it never randomly shut off or stalled while we were driving like both our previous vehicles have. However, we didn’t want to deal with shipping a car after our last experience. We also knew we’d need something that would do well in the winter, and wanted something a little bigger for the future road trips we hoped to take. We listed it hoping we could work something out where we could hold onto it until the day we left…whatever day that would be. The mistake we made here was pricing low AND mentioning that we were selling because we were leaving the island soon. We got so many low-ball offers from people assuming we were desperate. Thankfully there was one that was actually reasonable, as well as a couple ‘backups.’

On Monday, Curtis went in to work to check on our flight status, and found out they were reserving our tickets that day! However, once we were given our first choice of Wednesday, we called to reserve a spot for Charlotte and learned that the soonest she could fly was Friday. We had friends on island offer to keep her and then drop her off at the airport, but there was no way we’d leave without her, so we switched our flights to 2 days later. Finally, we had a set date when the 3 of us could leave the island together! After waiting so long for this time to come, it didn’t feel real. But it was, and we still had a lot to do to get ready!

On Tuesday, Charlotte had her vet appointment, and passed her health screening to fly. She’s still very healthy so I wasn’t concerned about her not passing, but the biggest part of all this that stresses me out is centered around getting her off the island with us. Every little step we took to get closer to that helps me feel better. Because of COVID-19, we weren’t allowed in the vet’s office with her, but the vet told us she was “very talkative” about how she felt about being there, and had very strong opinions against getting her nails clipped.

That evening, we hiked to Makapu’u Lighthouse for the last time, and had poke from Foodland for dinner. We had never had poke before coming to Hawaii, and since we’ve only had it here I don’t know if we can ever enjoy it anywhere else.

On Wednesday morning, we rose early and went to Kailua and Lanikai Beaches to watch the sunrise. We determined that we didn’t do this nearly enough to make up for the cost of living here.

Earlier that week, there had been reports of a hurricane (Douglas) in the Pacific that was headed our way, but all the early reports said it would turn into a tropical storm before it reached the islands. However, around Wednesday or Thursday it was still a category 3 hurricane, and as it grew closer it was clear that it was headed directly for the islands, expected to make landfall on Sunday. Of course we now knew we wouldn’t be there so we weren’t concerned for our safety, but we still owned our house and were concerned about having to deal with any sort of damage from the mainland.

Thursday was Curtis’ last day going to his boat. He had already turned over his job titles and said his goodbyes, so this was mostly just checking out and officially going on leave. That evening, we walked the Kawainui Marsh trail for the last time and watched our last Hawaiian sunset.

It’s no secret that we were ready to leave, but that doesn’t mean that leaving was easy. And after waiting for this day to come for so long, all of a sudden it felt like it had snuck up on us. It’s not easy leaving behind a place that’s so familiar, leaving places like the marsh and our first house which hold so many memories. This was the longest we’d lived anywhere since getting married — almost 3 years. We were looking forward to our move and to calling a new place home, but for that night, we were sad.

I don’t know how I can come up with anything better to say about this week and how we were feeling, much less summarize the past 3 years in Hawaii. We’re thankful for our time on Oahu, for the opportunity to live on the island and get to know it so well. We’re thankful for all the lessons we learned, for all the people God put in our lives, for the ways we’ve grown during this time. We’re thrilled to have Curtis’ JO tour on a submarine behind us — after a complicated start and a challenging first half, things vastly improved for him and now we’re leaving behind a wonderful boat family with positive feelings towards this experience. This wasn’t what we wanted, but it was what God knew we needed, and we trust that His plan for us is always better than our own.

Hawaiian Favorites

As we’re getting ready to leave, we wanted to share some of our favorite things on Oahu. It’s not easy to sum up all the highlights of the past 3 years, so we’ve broken it down to our top 5 for each category. When we look back on this chapter of our lives, these are the things that stand out and the memories we want to hold onto the most.

View from Old Pali Highway to Maunawili Trail

Top 5 Favorite Easy Hikes

Makapu’u Lighthouse – One of the first hikes that we did when we arrived, and then became our favorite go-to for an easy sunset hike when we didn’t have a lot of time together. I also love bringing visitors to hike it – I love seeing their reactions to the views at the end, looking North up the Windward coast!
Kaena Point – The best hike for wildlife viewing! We’ve seen whales, seals, albatross, pheasant, and all sorts of fish or eels in the tide pools at the end.
Old Pali Highway – this hike had so many highlights. History, lush forest, a paved walk, hardly ever busy, waterfalls, and views of Kaneohe and the Windward coast. It’s great to do both when it’s sunny and when it has rained recently — there’s adequate shade to keep you cool, and the paved road is safer than all the other dirt trails in the Ko’olaus.
Mt. Tantalus System Trails – There are so many paths you can take, it’s easier to sum up all these trails into one category. There are many different starting points and ways you can create loops around this area — check out AllTrails to see what I mean! We personally liked the Nu’uanu-Judd trail up to the lookout, and the Manoa Cliffs trail.
Pu’u Ma’eli’eli — There are many pillbox trails on this island, and this one is less busy than Lanikai or the Pink Pillbox on the West side, making it one of our favorites. On sunny days, it’s a great place to enjoy views of the Kaneohe Bay sandbar, contrasting with the bright blue ocean water.

hiking the kst on the kulepeamoa ridge loop trail windward oahu hawaii

Top 5 Favorite Difficult Hikes

Aiea Ridge – The conditions of this hike on that particular day were just perfect, which makes it my favorite hike we’ve done. We were all alone on the entire ridge trail and had spectacular views all around.
Kulepeamoa Loop Ridge Hike – This is more of an unsanctioned trail, but it was a fun experience to climb up to the Ko’olau summit on one ridge, hike a ways on the Ko’olau Summit Trail (KST), and down another ridge, making a giant loop. Again, the views that day were good and we were alone for the majority of this hike.
Makaua Falls – This is one of Curtis’ favorite hikes, which I cannot say I completed. Most waterfall hikes on this island have disappointed us in some way or another (usually because they were crowded and would end with a bunch of people swimming in the pool) but this one was more challenging and technical, and led to a truly impressive waterfall in a box canyon. You need to go after a good rain though.
Konahuanui – After spending over a year gazing up at the highest peak in the Ko’olau mountains, we finally took the chance to climb it on a clear day, and it certainly lived up to the hype!
Ka’ala – Unlike Konahuanui, we weren’t prepared for how much of a challenge this hike would be, and once we were done we knew we wouldn’t likely be back. However, the views to the West of the peak while hiking are unmatched, and if you’re a fan of scrambling climbs and using ropes, this hike is for you!

All that to say, all 4 of the ridge/summit hikes were done on clear, relatively cloudless days – days which Oahu does not have in abundance. If the ridges are clear, head to the peaks.

Top 5 Favorite Beaches

Kailua Beach – This may seem like our favorite by default because it’s closest to us, and in a way that’s true. We aren’t ‘beach people,’ but since it took no effort to get here, we visited frequently and really did enjoy it. The water is calm and warm, the sand is fine, there’s space to walk and swim, and beautiful mountain views in the distance. Lanikai beach isn’t far away, but we didn’t visit that one nearly as much as Kailua.
Kawela Bay – Kawela is a small bay just to the West of Turtle Bay on the North Shore. There’s a short walk to the beach that takes you past a huge banyan tree which is well worth seeing. It’s not too difficult to find a shaded spot along the bay, and the water here is calm in comparison to other North shore beaches. But we don’t always stop here — there are other trails between here and Turtle Bay Resort that take you to other beaches. The effort always pays off for us because we’re able to find large stretches of empty beach where we can let Charlotte run around and hunt for crabs.
Bellows AFB Beach – We came here several times for picnics with families from Curtis’ boat, but also brought friends and family here to swim. The waves are bigger here and it’s great for swimming and boogie boarding.
South Waimanalo Beach – We didn’t come here often, but this one makes the list because 1) I love the views of the Southern Ko’olau Cliffs and Makapu’u Lighthouse from this area, and 2) This was the first place that we swam with turtles!
Kaena Point (West side) – We only visited this beach once, but at that time it was Curtis’ first experience snorkeling and I had only been to Hanauma Bay, and it was hard to find snorkeling to live up to this experience. We (along with our friends) were the only ones there in the water, and there were so many colorful fish and the coral was so healthy. The only reason we didn’t return is because we don’t enjoy driving to the West side of the island.

Top 5 Favorite Regular Activities

Walking the Kawainui Marsh Trail – since it’s walking distance from our house, we visited at least once a day. A fun place to walk Charlotte, and a great way for us to unwind and walk together after a long day.
Sunsets at Kailua Beach – I enjoyed walking the beach while Curtis metal detected.
Hiking to the Makapu’u Lighthouse or the Old Pali Highway – easy hikes that weren’t far from home, that ended with great views of the Windward coast.
Playing PokemonGo in Kailua Town – an easy way to get to know a large community of people!
Visiting Botanical Gardens – We visited Ho’omaluhia a lot, but Koko Crater was always our favorite!

Top 5 Favorite Foods

Poke – There are a lot of great places that serve this here, we especially enjoyed the poke nachos at Nico’s. But when we wanted delicious poke for a lower price, we would get it at Foodland and make our own rice at home to go with it.
Kalua Pork everything – tacos, breakfast burritos, and nachos. We loved Kono’s and Killer Tacos. This inspired me to start making BBQ pulled pork and putting it in my own breakfast burritos (tortilla, eggs, and salsa) and this flavor combination was life changing!
Malsadas (aka Portuguese donuts) – Besides their storefront location in Honolulu, Leonard’s Malsadas has several food trucks conveniently located on our way home from different hikes, and we can’t say no to their Li-Hing flavored malsadas. We also liked Penny’s food truck on the North shore, though they don’t have the Li-Hing flavor.
Shave Ice Cream – You’ve heard of Hawaiian shave ice, but have you tried shave ice cream?? Just like the name implies, it’s ice cream instead of just ice with flavored syrups, so you’ll never end up with either too much sugary syrup or flavorless ice at the bottom of your cup. The two places we’ve tried that have this are the Snow Factory (food truck in Haleiwa and store front locations in Mililani and Honolulu) and Frost (Honolulu).
Garlic Shrimp – I’ll be honest, we only got Giovanni’s famous garlic shrimp once, but it was enough to fall in love. Since then, we learned to make it ourselves to save money and time (because there’s always a long line, and really 10$ a plate?!) All you really need are garlic salt and lots and lots of butter to fry the shrimp, then we’d enjoy it with rice and pasta salad, traditional Hawaiian plate lunch style!

Top 5 Favorite Memories

Hiking to the summit of Mauna Kea, the highest point in Hawaii
Watching the sunrise while backpacking in Haleakala National Park
Reaching the summit of Konahuanui (K2), the highest point in the Ko’olaus
Hosting our families – how great is it that we were able to have our families & friends come stay with us and get to experience this beautiful island without having to pay the high costs of a hotel or rental?!
Buying/Owning our first house – a more personal milestone in our lives, but this house that we’re leaving now holds so many memories – both good and bad, of happy times together, difficult times working through the stress of Curtis’ job, and lonely times when I was alone.

The Kawainui Marsh

In our almost 3 years here, we have hiked up many ridges and walked on many beaches. We have marveled at mountain top views, were enchanted by lush forests, saw colorful fish while snorkeling, and gazed at the bright blue water in the sunshine. But my favorite part of this entire island will always be our own backyard.

When we were looking for our home, I told Curtis that something I really wanted was to be within walking distance of something: the town, the beach, a trail, or maybe a park. Somehow we lucked out with every single one of those items — the beach is a 20 minute walk, town is 15 minutes, and best of all, we have a little park down the street that’s also the start of a 2 mile walking trail!

On our very first day in our new house, we drove there from the hotel where we had been living for 2 months and got the keys. We unpacked the few suitcases we had been living out of for the past 5 months, and then Curtis had to go to work. Charlotte and I spent a few hours in the empty house, then decided to go for a walk. I had been eyeing this park down the street on Google Maps ever since our offer was accepted, and now was our chance to finally check it out. We walked down the street, entered the park, and continued following the sidewalk. We walked through a garden, past a big plaque, and rounded the corner, and right away I knew we had stumbled across something special.

The Kawainui Marsh Park is located at the end of Kaha Street in Kailua. There’s a big grassy field where people let their dogs run around, and pre-pandemic kid’s soccer or football leagues would meet. There’s a garden area where volunteers work every week to maintain the native vegetation. And then, there’s the levy trail.

The Kawainui Marsh is the largest wetland area in all of Hawaii. In the late 1980’s, there was a flood here that affected much of the Coconut Grove neighborhood in Kailua. After that happened, the Army Corps of Engineers built a levy to protect the neighborhood from the Kawainui Marsh, where much of the rain from the Ko’olau Mountains drains into, and from there into the ocean.

The levy trail is a favorite spot for many Kailuans to walk, run, bike, and bring their dogs. It stretches along the East side of the marsh and goes all the way to Kailua Road, which you can then follow into town.

Charlotte and I soon got in the habit of visiting the park every morning together, where she would sniff around the gardens and greet all her friends – both dogs and people, many who also visited the park on a daily basis. She isn’t usually interested in walking the entire trail, so I would often return later to walk it by myself and enjoy the views. Then I would convince Curtis to walk it with me at night as often as I could.

For our first two months on the island, we lived in the Navy Lodge on Ford Island. While there, I would walk Charlotte every day to a dog park. From here, I could see the South side of the Ko’olau Mountains. While I knew they had so many gorgeous views and amazing trails, I would look at them from this side and all I would see were sprawling neighborhoods going up and into each ridge and valley. It felt like no matter which way I looked, all I saw was buildings, houses, roads, and other development — it made me feel trapped in a crowded place.

In contrast, the Windward side has reminded me daily of how lucky I am to have this experience. On the East side of the island, the mountains aren’t a gradual slope, instead they are dramatic cliffs with hardly any development to be seen — just tall, steep, dramatic, gorgeous mountains. The levy trail is the perfect place to walk along the quiet marsh and enjoy unobstructed views of the Ko’olau mountains.

I visited this park every day, good or bad, rain or shine. Sometimes I ran the trail, I usually walked. I got to know my neighbors and the other regular visitors. The other walkers, joggers, bikers, dog owners, the volunteers. It made me feel as close to being a ‘local’ as I ever will. I loved being able to take in the views day by day, from the days when the skies were perfectly clear to the ones where the clouds would hover around the mountains. This is truly the place I’ll miss the most when we leave.

View of Konahuanui at sunrise from Kawainui Marsh Kailua Oahu Hawaii

So why did I wait until now to talk about this place? Well, mostly because this place is so close to my heart, it’s hard to put into words. Also, I just love how it is now, a quiet neighborhood park that isn’t overrun by tourism. Most would see the highlights of Kailua as being Kailua and Lanikai Beaches, Kailua town, Lanikai Pillboxes, Olomana, or Maunawili Falls. But for me, if I ever return to this island, this is the first place I’d go. I’ll forever be grateful that I was able to live so close to this beautiful park.

Besides the Kawainui Marsh park and trail, there are two other smaller parks you can visit on other sides of the marsh that have more historic significance and efforts to clear out invasive plants and plant native ones.

Na Pohaku o Hauwahine is a small park on the West side of the marsh. There’s a small parking area off of Kapa’a Quarry Road, and a couple of short and easy trails that make a loop around the area. You can see a different perspective of the marsh, Kailua, and Olomana from here. It doesn’t take long to see it all.

Ulupo Heiau is a historical site on the Southeast side of the marsh, off of the Pali Highway/Kailua Road. To reach the park entrance, go to the YMCA and follow the road on the left of the building. There are a couple short trails here as well that take you around the Heiau (Hawaiian temple) and maintained gardens with native plants.

Lahaina Noon in Honolulu

Lahaina Noon in Honolulu & Queen Lili’uokalani Botanical Garden | Written by Curtis

We’re currently living in this weird sort of limbo where we don’t know exactly when we’ll move, but we know it’s coming. Any day now, the Navy could issue us a waiver to travel, and then we’ll have less than a week before we leave. All of our plans are tentative — for our time on the island, for our move, and for our arrival in Nebraska. On Thursday, July 16th, I started the day with high spirits, thinking that I might have my paperwork in to leave the island, only to drive across the Ko’olaus and find out I did not. So we went forward with our previous plans and did the unthinkable: we drove into Honolulu right before noon.

Normally we tend to avoid downtown Honolulu, but this afternoon was (or so I thought) special. For (I believed) on July 16th at 12:38 pm, Honolulu would be at the ‘sub-solar point’, a term locally referred to as Lahaina Noon.

At any given moment the sun is at the perpendicular zenith to a singular point on Earth (called the sub-solar point in astronomy circles). This point moves East to West around the earth as the Earth revolves about its axis. But the point also travels North and South due to the axial tilt as the Earth revolves about the sun. That is, the sub-solar point will move between the Tropics throughout the year in the following cycle: at the Vernal Equinox the sub-point will be at the equator, it will then progress North ultimately reaching the Tropic of Cancer on the Summer Solstice. The sub-solar point then reverses course and heads South, passing over the equator again at the Autumnal Equinox and reaching its Southern terminus at the Tropic of Capricorn on the Winter Solstice, then returning North again for the Vernal Equinox. Therefore, any point that lies in the Tropics will pass through the Subsolar point twice every year. In Hawai’i’s case this occurs in mid-May and mid-July.

Hawai’i, being the only State within the Tropics, has also lent the name to whenever a place is under the sub-solar point: Lahaina Noon, which translates to ‘cruel sun’.

But what does this have to do with Downtown Honolulu? Besides being an interesting astronomical phenomenon, Lahaina noon also has the added effect that vertical objects will not cast a shadow. A Japanese-American artist/sculptor named Isamu Noguchi took it one step further by designing a sculpture that, when the sun is at Lahaina noon, the shadow cast by the sculpture (called ‘Sky Gate’) is a ‘perfect’ circle.

We essentially went downtown to look at shadows.

We parked in front of Iolani Palace and walked to the green space in front of the City Hall/Civic Center where the sculpture is located. We showed up about 45 minutes early so we could see the sculpture and shadows before Lahaina Noon struck. The sky was partly cloudy, but the sun would come out frequently enough that we weren’t too concerned.

When we got to the sculpture, the shadow was off center and showed the bumps as it was intended. We took some before pictures, expecting there to be an obvious difference at the exact time of Lahaina Noon.

As 12:38 approached the shadow of the sculpture clearly started to move inside the circular concrete base, but it still had a hexagonal look to it. I pulled out my phone and double checked the time given by the Bishop Museum and saw to my horror that Lahaina noon was at 12:38 – on the 15th! We were 24 hours too late. The sub-solar point was 18 miles south of us. No wonder there was only one other group of people at the sculpture.

Oh well, looking online I don’t think that the sculpture actually makes a perfect circle, but it was still cool to see. Our piece of advice to you if you’re trying to view Lahaina Noon in Honolulu at the correct date and time is to check the Bishop Museum’s website, or make sure whatever search page you stumble across on Google clearly says the correct year. There are plenty of pages sharing the date for previous years, and the exact day can move around a bit.

To make the most out of our trip downtown, we decided to follow up by visiting the last botanical garden that we hadn’t yet seen — Queen Lili’uokalani Botanical Garden. It’s located on the other side of H1 from Foster Botanical Garden, but it isn’t possible to walk between the two gardens. There is a small lot off of Kuakini Street and admission is free.

The story behind this garden is that it was partially on Queen Lili’uokalani’s property and she donated the land to the City and County of Honolulu to be preserved and enjoyed by many. The gardens are still under development, so there isn’t as much to see as there is at any of the other gardens on the island. For now, there’s a paved path that leads you through the majority of the park with some native plants and a stream with a small cascading waterfall.

Oneawa Hills

Hiking in the Oneawa Hills | July 2020

As we’re getting closer to leaving Oahu, we’ve been making an effort to return to all our favorite places. However, there are still some hikes on our list that we haven’t completed, and every now and then we revisit the idea of crossing them off. We decided this weekend that it was finally time to hike in Oneawa Hills, one we had considered many times but had let the parking situation keep us from going. There are reasonably only 2 legitimate spots, so we agreed to get an early start even though it was a relatively short hike.

When we got to the trailhead, it was before 7 and there was only one other car there, but it left just after we arrived. Like I mentioned, there are only 2 off-street parking spots here and this trail is located in a neighborhood with a very narrow and steep road. We can’t imagine that the neighbors enjoy having all the hiker traffic come through and park in the street.

The beginning part of this trail is commonly referred to here as the Friendship Gardens loop, and is fairly easy as long as it hasn’t rained recently. There are different flowers and signs identifying them, as well as a bamboo section and a large banyan tree. We went about the loop counter-clockwise, and then made our way up a spur trail towards the crest of the hills. The spur ends at a T – to the left is a lookout over Kaneohe Bay, and the right continues through the Oneawa Hills.

We turned left, and walked to the viewpoint where we sat on the bench and ate some snacks. The bay was quiet and there was a gentle breeze; we were alone and we were happy to be doing something new. When we were ready, we returned to the T and headed confidently deeper into the hills.

I had actually hiked part of this over a year ago with a friend. I vaguely remember the highlights of the loop, but not the direction we went or how long the trail was. I remember we stopped at the lookout, then ventured on the other trail a little ways. It is steeper and more narrow than the loop trail, and eventually becomes steep enough to require using ropes. Since we were wearing sandals then and were not prepared for a challenging hike, she and I had turned around after the first set of ropes.

Once we passed this point today, we found the trail was actually easier after the first set of ropes, at least for a while. The trail was under tree cover for the most part, but we also enjoyed periodic views of the Kawainui Marsh to the South and Kaneohe to the North. My favorite part about this whole trail was the views of the Ko’olaus — the clouds were hovering just above the mountains so we were able to see most of the peaks and ridges. Even Konahuanui was visible!

After passing some cell towers, the trail began going down, and eventually had to regain that elevation. There were 2 more rope sections before reaching the highest point in this portion of the Oneawa Hills. The point was tree covered and didn’t have a view, but we continued following the trail a little longer until we found another spur trail that took us to our final viewpoint.

The ‘highlight’ of this trail from what I’ve gathered from other trip reports is the view over Kapa’a Quarry. This is a part of the island we hadn’t really seen before today — despite driving past it so often on the H-3.

Up until this point, this whole hike had been a reminder of how much we enjoy exploring the island together. We had been all alone, experiencing new views, enjoying the beautiful day. However, our return trip reminded us of why we’re so ready to leave.

We ran into one group almost immediately, blasting their music as they walked. Shortly after we came across a single hiker, then another group with more loud music, and the groups of people became constant throughout the rest of our hike. The trail was quite narrow which made social distancing difficult, and we did our best to move off the trail and face the opposite direction when all the other groups passed by.

We know we can’t have every trail to ourselves, we were more just baffled at how people were in fact parking all along the narrow neighborhood road. We were tired of being around hikers who came unprepared or with loud music. And we were ready and excited to live in a place that (we assume) doesn’t attract a whole lot of tourism, at least not like we’re used to here!

Anyway, we returned back to our car about 2 hours after we left. Altogether our hike was 2 1/2 miles and had around 700 feet of elevation gain. You can see our AllTrails recording here.

June 2020

After finding out in May that we’d be moving in July, June became all about trying to accomplish as much as we could to make the move go smoother. Right now, we feel satisfied that we have taken care of almost everything that is in our control. Now all that’s left is for the Navy to issue us our PCS waiver and schedule our flights. It’s just a waiting game at this point, and we pray we don’t have to wait until the last minute, like many others have…

Anyway, let’s start with the beginning of June. I shared in our Moving off the Island post that Curtis went on potentially his last underway. For once, I can actually share what they did because the Navy released this awesome video of their mission. I’ll share the Youtube video below:

And like I mentioned in my last post, while he was doing that, I was frantically printing, filling out, signing, and scanning in forms so that our household goods move could happen on time. He clearly had the more exciting mission!

During the first half of June, we packed, cleaned, disassembled furniture — all that fun stuff before the movers came. Curtis stood his final duty days on the boat. I began the process of talking with our realtor and figuring out the steps needed to have our house go on the market, and lined up a place to stay for our last weeks here once our stuff was gone and the house was staged and listed.

The moving company came by a week before our move was scheduled to survey our belongings and determine how many crates and boxes were needed for the move. They told me that it would be 2 days of packing, then on the third day they would bring the truck and take everything away. Given that timeline, I told Curtis it wasn’t necessary for him to take off work for the Monday and Tuesday, that I could probably handle that on my own.

However, on day 1, three guys showed up early with the truck, and the move that was scheduled to take 3 days ended up taking 3 hours from when they arrived until when they left. Curtis barely made it back in time to have them pack a few last things he had brought home from the boat. It was all so much easier the second time around, compared to our move out of New York when I had to handle everything alone! We’re pretty proud of ourselves for only owning enough to fill 3 crates.

Following the moving day, we spent our last night in our little house sleeping on the floor, just a little too uncomfortable to be emotional about it. Our rental home is actually right next door, so we haven’t really had to say “goodbye” to it yet. We moved the few things we kept with us over to the rental, and began the process of deep cleaning, scrubbing every surface, repainting, and finishing projects. Our last house project was installing a new backsplash in the kitchen, a white ceramic subway tile to go with the new butcher block countertop. I’m in love with the way it looks and sad I never got to enjoy it…though I guess this way, it will look brand new for the next owners.

When our projects were done, we were able to enjoy the last weekend together revisiting a few of our other favorite places on the island – Kawela Bay, the Old Pali Highway, and Kailua Beach. It still doesn’t feel quite real that this was our last full month on the island (as long as our move remains on schedule…). I’m still waiting for the real emotions to set in, but for now am still stressed enough to preoccupy my mind with everything that needs to happen before take off. It’s a lot to process, but I’m thankful we at least have time to make a few more memories at our favorite places. I’m sure that in the not-so-distant future, we’ll be reminiscing this time and missing the island, missing the familiarity, the routine, this life that we’ve grown used to here.

And now here we are… July is here, and life is about to be turned upside down again. So far, PCS-ing during a pandemic has created a lot of extra obstacles, but I’m sure that we haven’t seen the worst of it yet. We know we can rest knowing that God has it all planned out, and somehow by the end of summer we will *hopefully* *Lord willing* be settled in our next home, back in the Midwest.

Moving Off The Island

We’re so excited to share that we are moving back to the Midwest, to the closest we’ve been to ‘home’ in the past 7 years! This summer, we are saying goodbye to Hawaii and aloha to Omaha, Nebraska, and believe it or not, we are thrilled!

As most of you know, we’ve been living on Oahu for nearly 3 years while Curtis has been attached to a submarine. His next step is to detach from the boat and serve on shore duty for about 2 years. The way shore duty assignments are given are the detailer releases a list of around 90 different jobs. All junior officers on the subs that are nearing the end of their sea duty take the list and rank every job from most to least desired, turn them in, and hope for the best.

We turned in our list in January 2020. While making the list, our wanderlust took over, and we decided to put almost all the overseas jobs in our top 10. This included Japan, Spain, Italy, UK, and Australia. Our reasoning was, if we could survive living on a very isolated island for 3 years, surely we could do 2 years abroad? And how could we pass up living and traveling overseas on the government’s dime?!

As far as the continental US goes, we decided anything would be better than living on the East coast, so most of those jobs fell below the top third. We were disappointed by the lack of variety in the West — the majority of jobs fell between Norfolk, VA, Washington DC, and Groton, CT. Our list basically went from West to East, and the few positions on islands (Hawaii and Guam) went on the bottom of our list. We’ve made the most of our time living on Oahu, but were ready to leave the island life behind.

Curtis left for most of February, and at the time we thought that February would be the longest month of 2020 for us since we’d be apart and waiting to hear the results. Now, we look back on those days and fondly reminisce on the time when the only thing on our minds was “where would we end up?”

As the month of February progressed, COVID-19 news started to pick up as the virus spread across the globe. All of a sudden, putting Japan, Spain, and Italy on the top of our list didn’t seem like such a good idea. As things escalated, it became clear that moving to any overseas location would be much more complicated than we had originally thought, and we anxiously waited to hear the results.

I mentioned some of this in our March 2020 post, but after Curtis’ underway in February, he was home for 2 weeks before leaving again in March. We had been hopeful that we’d find out while we were together, but it wasn’t meant to be. After he left, I met with the detailer that was assigning the jobs to all officers on March 10. The detailer told me we’d find out by the end of the week (by March 13). Instead, the military travel ban came into affect on March 12, and it was another 2 weeks or so before I heard from the detailer again.

Curtis was still gone the morning I got the email. I was in our bedroom when I saw the notification on my phone. I opened it without giving it a second thought and scanned the email looking for the job location: Omaha, Nebraska. My immediate reaction was an overwhelming feeling of relief, and then excitement. While it wasn’t really on our radar when we first made the list, we made it our 11th choice because of its proximity to family and the fact that it was one of the few jobs West of the Mississippi. If we had made our list post-travel ban, it would’ve been much higher. Several times over the past few months, I had thought that it would be cool to live so close to family again, but after being isolated at home by myself for several weeks, this really felt like the best case scenario!

Because of the travel ban, we weren’t sure when this move would actually happen. However, just knowing we had a new location and a new job for Curtis to look forward to was enough to get us excited about what was to come. We started talking about all the things we could do — visit all the counties in Iowa and Nebraska! Go kayaking on the Niobara and Platte Rivers! Hike the Lewis and Clark trail! And best of all, be more present for family events and holidays! We realized while emailing back and forth that we were actually more excited about this move than we were for our move to Hawaii. I realize that this opinion may not be shared by everyone, perhaps even the majority would say that we’re crazy… But respectfully, let’s all just see how this plays out. After 2 years in Nebraska, we will report back with our results. 😉

But simply receiving the news didn’t mean that the waiting was over. Next came another long wait that we hadn’t been anticipating: waiting for our orders to arrive. At the beginning of April, the detailer sent some follow up information, saying that we’d be moving in June, and that our orders would be coming soon — but if they weren’t there by the beginning of May to reach out to him. Also at the beginning of April, we found out that Curtis would be leaving for over a month. I started to stress out thinking about all the moving details I would have to take care of alone.

As it turned out, we didn’t receive our orders until late May, after Curtis returned. The whole time he was gone, I worried about how the details and timing would work out with us having to not only ship our things and move ourselves and Charlotte, but also all we would have to do to get our house ready to put on the market. I constantly tried to remind myself that God would work it all out, as He always does. I just didn’t see how so much could happen in so little time.

When Curtis returned in May and received his orders, he immediately went about filling out forms in order to schedule a move. The moving office wasn’t the most responsive, and it seemed to me like it was taking longer than it should. I imagined that since so many families had their moves delayed until the travel ban lifted, we’d be competing for moving dates in June. I started to worry that I’d end up having to stay here alone for the move while Curtis had to report to his new job in Omaha. After a week and a half of nothing happening, Curtis left for a short 72 hour underway — potentially his last ride on his submarine.

He left on a Tuesday night. That evening, I decided to check his email before I went to bed. Thank God I did, because I saw that he had received an email that afternoon from the moving office with a message that literally said: “Please fill out and sign these forms. If they’re not finished by Wednesday at 1200 then we will cancel your move request.” Oh the irony…we had waited 10 days to hear from them, and all of a sudden it was very urgent, at the worst possible time for us! Thankfully Curtis had already gotten a Power of Attorney for me before leaving last April, so I was able to sign the forms for him and turn them in before the deadline the next morning. He returned the next day and I was so excited that I could proudly tell him of the progress I’d made in the short time he was gone.

Now, we’re definitely not ‘there’ yet, as I’m sure there will be many more obstacles to overcome in the next month. But God is faithful, and things have slowly been coming together. Our orders were changed to July instead of June, giving us extra time to get ready. Our move is happening this week, which will give us extra time to deep clean our house when empty and finish up some projects. And while I hate to say that COVID-19 has helped us in some ways, that has been the case when finding a temporary home to stay in between moving out and leaving the island.

It’s crazy to me how something that we’ve been anticipating for 3 years can suddenly just sneak up on us. I’ll eventually write some follow up posts summarizing our time here and things we learned. Now that things are coming together, we’re so excited and amazed at how this is actually happening! We’re already in our 30 day countdown till takeoff! Well, unless 2020 throws us another curveball. But at this point, that would just make for an even better story, so we’ll just wait and see what happens!

May 2020

This year’s May felt similar to last year… Minus the pandemic part, of course. It started off with Curtis being gone, his ride being extended and there being several weeks of not knowing exactly when he’d come back, but ended on a positive note. He returned home in the third week of May, and we finally received our orders at the end of the month!

Charlotte and I after 2 months of quarantine

The first half of the month was uneventful — just the way I prefer life to be when Curtis is gone. I walked to my park every day, I worked, and I went to the grocery store once. I waited for the PCS orders that never came, I stressed about the move, and I did everything I could to trust God, remain calm, and live in the moment.

The day Curtis came home was a great day — this ride actually turned out to be the longest we had been separated since OCS in 2015. It was 33 days in total…nothing compared to a deployment, but having it come up last minute, during a pandemic, and when we were getting ready to PCS made it more challenging. But like all other underways, it eventually ended, and we were better for it. We celebrated with poke and chocolate haupia pie from Ted’s Bakery.

Given a couple weekends together, we returned to two of our favorite hikes and botanical gardens. First, we went to Koko Crater Botanical Garden to hike the loop trail and enjoy the blooming plumerias. Additionally, we finally planted some letterboxes — the first we’ve planted on this island. We’ve been hesitant to do so because we don’t see an active community here or longevity with the boxes that have been planted. There are either too many people to be stealthy, or the environment isn’t right to hide on narrow and eroding trails in the mountains which see rain frequently. But our friends had left some carves for us to plant, so after a year of trying to find the best place, we hid them where we hope they’ll last the longest.

On the last weekend of May, we returned to Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden and hiked the Likeke Trail again. Last time we hiked it with the Hawaii Trail and Mountain Club, and we were excited to hike it alone. Since we weren’t surrounded by other hikers, we were able to go at our own pace and really enjoy the views. We only saw 2 other groups hiking the loop in the opposite direction. However, when we came to the back entrance of the botanical garden with only 2 miles of road walk left, we found that the gates were locked with signs saying it was illegal to enter this way. Without saying how we got around that, I just wanted to note this to future hikers, this trail may not be as doable without the Hawaii Trail and Mountain Club. Or maybe the signs are still up from when the botanical garden was closed for COVID-19. Who knows? The gardens are still free and open to public access, so besides them not wanting cars to enter the back way or people to enter the gardens when they’re closed, I don’t see why this gate is locked.

Finally, the month ended with us finally receiving orders — confirmation that this move is actually happening! Hopefully. We’ll share more later. Happy June, everyone!

Lookout Mountain / Mt. Hood National Forest

Island to Inland PCS Road Trip | Day 1 | July 25, 2020 | Hiking Lookout Mountain

Goodbye Hawaii

Last Week on Oahu