Saving Time in a Bottle

relishing the life God has given us

Month of the Mango

Since our first year of marriage, the idea of becoming homesteaders has been a pleasant dream of ours. We often would think of the small things that we would do: raise goats and chickens, plant an orchard and a garden, and overall do our best to be self-sufficient.

Unfortunately, the Navy does not lend itself well to the large scale homesteading (nor for that matter does our wanderlust), but over the years we’ve picked up skills and learned how to make the most out of what we have. At first this looked like freezing and blanching extra produce in our apartment in Arizona. Then we tried our hand at gardening in South Carolina, and started one here in Hawaii as well. This year, we’ve had quite the crash course in processing fruit – specifically Mangoes.

When we were house hunting in Hawaii, we thought it would be cool to have an existing fruit tree, but it wasn’t on our “must-have” list since it was hard enough to find a place within our budget. After we moved into our house, we were overjoyed to learn from our neighbors that the giant tree in our yard produced the best, juiciest mangoes!

Last year, the tree started off with so many blossoms and tiny mangoes, but a big storm in April blew most of them off. We ended up with a measly 2-3 dozen mangoes, which we either ate, put in smoothies, or froze for later. This year started out the same with many blossoms in the spring, but we were hesitant to get excited knowing that one storm could knock them all out. However, no storm came, and our tree has outdone itself and produced 200+ mangoes! Not to be dissuaded, and with Curtis’ work schedule conveniently lighter for the summer, we were up to the challenge of making the most of this year’s bounty.

For those not as intimately familiar with mangoes there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of different mango cultivars. We have…a something or other. Maybe an Alampur? Regardless, all mangos have a thin resinous rind surrounding the edible flesh with a large flattened ovaloid pit in the center. Our mangoes will become full size fairly early on in the season (late May here) but will remain green and hard until late June through July when they ripen rather quickly. As they ripen, the flesh goes from a pale green through yellow and to a deep orange. The rind remains green until the very end when it might get a bit yellow. Our mangoes also ripen from the inside out, sometimes leaving a goopy mess in the middle of an otherwise normal exterior.

Curtis’ basic everday process of ripe mangoes consists of peeling the rind with a potato peeler, paring off any bad bits, slicing the two hemispheres from the pit, and then cutting the remaining flesh around the circumference of the pit. Firm yellow fruit has an acidic taste and is best for salsa, firm orange fruit is best for drying, and the juicy is blended, juiced or frozen.

Here’s what we’ve been doing with the mangoes:

Pickled Mango: The first few mangoes that fell weren’t quite ripe yet, but we knew that they were right for pickling. This is a food more popular in the Pacific countries and Latin America and is often sold by roadside vendors here in Hawaii. Essentially a sweet brine for unripe green mangoes. This wasn’t our favorite way to enjoy mangoes so we’re glad we only ended up with a few jars.

Mango Jam: A great use for the over-ripe mangoes and the mangoes that have fallen 20 feet onto the yard. Curtis uses all the parts of the mango that he can’t dry or make salsa with. He blends the mass in the Vitamix with lemon juice and added pectin. While the mangoes are probably acidic enough not to require the lemon juice, he defaults on the safe side by adding it. Same with the pectin, the jam would probably be fine without it, but mangoes are supposedly low in natural pectin. We’ll occasionally make spiced jam by adding cinnamon, nutmeg, and turmeric.

Mango Salsa: I won’t lie, after a few days of making mango jam I was starting to get tired of the smell. I thought there was no way that I would still like mangoes after this summer. But then, we started making mango salsa…and I’m pretty sure I could eat every jar we’ve made without growing tired of it! Our ‘recipe’ is nothing fancy, we use the firmer mangoes with tomato, onion, and jalapenos.

Dried Mango: This is the easiest method for processing mangoes, though it can be hard to get the perfect chewy consistency. We just cut up the mango into strips and put in the dehydrator for about 8 hours. We haven’t experimented any further than plain mangoes because honestly at this point we just need a quick and easy way to preserve the fruit!

Mango Bread: We have only made one loaf of this, but it was delicious and we’d make it again if only it weren’t too hot to turn on the oven. We used this recipe.

Mango Frozen Yogurt: Thanks to a very well-timed issue of Midwest Living, I found a recipe for mango frozen yogurt that was an instant hit. I wouldn’t have thought to add these spices, but they compliment the mango taste very well and that led us to adding spices to some of the jam as well. Think pumpkin spice, but with a taste of summer instead of fall. If you’re interested in trying it, you don’t need a tree full of mangoes, just 3 cups of frozen mangoes. Here’s the recipe I have been using, from the July/August 2019 issue of Midwest Living:

Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt

3 cups frozen mango chunks, partially thawed
1 ½ cups half-and-half or heavy cream
¾ cups sugar
½ cup 2% plain Greek yogurt
½ teaspoon lime zest
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 ½ teaspoons ground turmeric
¾ teaspoon ground cardamom
⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until mostly smooth, with just a few small chunks of mango remaining. Transfer mixture to ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to a 6-cup container and cover tightly; freeze until firm. Store up to 3 months. Let sit at room temperature 15 minutes before serving. Makes 8 servings.

My alterations: I don’t have an ice cream maker, so I just pour the mixture into a container and freeze — the consistency might be off, but without trying their recipe I wouldn’t know the difference. 😉

Mango Wine (Curtis): I’ve wanted to try my hand at wine making for a while, and so I invested in some caboys and airlocks and got to work. The first batch (3 Gallons) used a 1/3 part mixture of mango to water for the must, which I thought seemed thin so the subsequent batch used a 1/2. I’ve used a Cote de Blanc yeast cultivar (normally used in white wines or something) which seems to work…by which I mean it made alcohol. I am by no means a wine snob and I like my fruit wines sweet and tasting like the fruit they came from. It’s been a learning experience and I should probably be a bit less haphazard with my processes, but I have successfully avoided making either vinegar or nail polish and the first batch is almost ready for bottling and doesn’t taste half bad, although it looks like orange juice…

Mango Juice: An idea I had after thinking of all the things my dad made with apples. Unfortunately, apples and mangoes have very different consistencies and the ‘juice’ is more of a….thin paste? It definitely oozes more than it pours. But at least it tastes good!

Here’s the talley so far:

Salsa: 44
Pickles: 8
Jam: 50
Bread: 2
Dried: 31
Frozen: 24
Juice: 6
Wine: 13
Eaten raw: 6
Given away: 35+

…Which adds up to over 200 mangoes. They’re also still falling every day and we’re running out of time to process them, so the rest will probably go to our neighbors or other people who are interested. It’s been a fun experience, and now we shall forever remember July 2019 as being The Month of The Mango.

Oahu With My Brother

Back in May when I found out that Curtis was going to be gone for an undetermined amount of time, I immediately texted my brother Grant to see if he could come visit me. He was the only one in my family who wasn’t able to come last year during their spring break trip, and it had been over a year and a half since I had visited him in Oregon. He wasn’t able to come out while Curtis was gone — which was fine, since he ended up coming home sooner than expected — but we worked out a time when he could come out here and experience Oahu.

That’s honestly become my favorite thing about living here — giving our friends and family the chance to come see this island for the first time, give them a place to stay, and show them the best things that this island has to offer. Since we haven’t been able to go home or travel at all this year, these weeks being with family have been the highlights for our time on this island. While Grant’s visit was less than a week, we still managed to pack in a lot.

He arrived on a Saturday afternoon. Curtis was on duty that day, so I picked him up from the airport. Right away, we were able to do something none of our other visitors were able to do: take a tour of Curtis’ submarine! We drove over to base and Curtis escorted us on and gave him the grand tour.

The next morning, we went to the beach to see the sunrise, then picked up Curtis from work and drove up to the North shore. We hiked to Kaena Point and saw a monk seal at the end. Curtis and I realized we hadn’t hiked it from this approach during the summer, and enjoyed seeing the tall yucca plants — a reminder of life in the desert. We noticed that the ocean waves were significantly quieter than they are in the winter. We were surprised to see a few albatross — we thought they only hung around here during nesting season. And as we were beginning our hike back, we looked out and spotted two sea turtles out in the water. It was the first time I’d ever seen turtles on Oahu! (Curtis has seen them on base and swimming around his boat while out at sea.)

On our drive back, we stopped at the Dole Plantation for both Grant and Curtis’ first ever dole whip. We then drove around the entire North shore through on and off rain showers. We also stopped at Laie Point for beautiful coastal views. That night, I made our favorite garlic shrimp recipe for dinner.

On Monday, Curtis went in to work for a few hours, and Grant and I hung out around Kailua. When Curtis came home, we drove down to Koko Crater Botanical Garden to hike the loop trail, immediately followed by Makapu’u Lighthouse for sunset. Like I said, we really packed in all our favorite places into a few full days!

Curtis had a test on Tuesday morning and was able to have the rest of the day off, so Grant and I drove with him to base in the morning and took the Arizona Memorial tour. After that we hung out around central Oahu and on Ford Island waiting for Curtis to be done before making our way to the Windward side. We picked up some poke and malsadas on our way, then sat in the shade at Makapu’u beach and had lunch.

Afterwards, we were finally able to do the one thing that everyone that has visited us has wanted to do or tried to do unsuccessfully: swim with sea turtles! I suppose it’s not so much a matter of where you go as it is what time of year it is. If you want to swim with sea turtles on Oahu, summer might be the best time to do so!

On Grant’s last morning here, we got up early and hiked Ka’iwa Ridge to see the sunrise. Controversially this was also Curtis’ first time hiking this popular sunrise trail at sunrise. It was probably my favorite sunrise I’ve seen up here, with the hills and clouds behind us reflecting the red light. But then again, every sunrise I see is my favorite.

Also, while hiking the ridge we saw something we hadn’t ever seen before — all the cactus plants were in bloom, with big white flowers covering the hillside. Curtis suspects that these could be a variation of dragon fruit, so we’ll have to return in a month or so to see if there are any fruits growing! If he’s right, then the cacti only bloom at night, so we were lucky to see them.

We wrapped up the visit with pancakes from Boots and Kimmo in Kailua, then said our goodbyes. This visit was so special to me — I loved being able to spend one on one time with my brother and be able to talk and relate to each other as adults, and as friends. Thankfully it shouldn’t be another year and a half before we see each other again!

Likeke Trail

Hiking the Likeke Trail | June 2019

Back when we moved to Oahu, we heard about the Hawaii Trail & Mountain Club — a hiking club that organizes hikes every weekend around the island. We would occasionally look into what they were doing, but their hikes never worked out with Curtis’ schedule or our interests. Instead, we’ve just been knocking out every trail we find even remotely interesting on our own.

However, we’re now getting to the point where we’re hearing about interesting hikes, but we aren’t able to do them because of restricted access or because there just isn’t enough information about them for us to safely find our way. Last weekend while we were debating repeating an old hike or trying out a new one, Curtis happened to look up the HTMC’s schedule and noticed that they were doing a hike the next day on a trail that we were interested in but questioned whether we could do it legally on our own. The trail was listed as intermediate, so we decided it was the perfect time to check the group out.

We prepared that morning more than we have for most hikes we’ve done in the past few months, packing plenty of water and snacks. We worried about the fact that we didn’t have real hiking boots — we still haven’t replaced our completely worn-out ones from our Mauna Loa backpacking adventure. Would the professional hiking club members judge us for wearing sneakers? We were also nervous about how many people might show up. “How many is too many people to hike with?” Curtis asked me.

“Seven.” I replied.

“Ok, well if there’s more than 10 maybe we’ll just skip,” he said.

We arrived at the meeting place — Ho’omaluhia Botanical Gardens, and learned right away that this group was much more popular than we had been expecting. There were definitely more than my ideal group number of 7. Cars kept pulling in, but we decided that since we had come this far and were so prepared, we should just stick it out. At least now we could maybe blend into the crowd and not stand out as the new weird hikers in sneakers. We signed the visitor’s sheet and paid the the suggested donation. An older man came and greeted us and asked if we were new. We said yes, though we weren’t new to hiking in Hawaii. He told us that this was actually double what the normal group size was, since this was an easier and less known about hike there was a much bigger turn out.

The organizer for this hike was Stuart Ball, the author of the book “The Hiker’s Guide to Oahu,” which we have used throughout our entire time here. He gave a short welcome and described the trail we would be hiking, and soon we were on our way. At first we just followed the large group, somewhere in the middle, but slowly made our way closer to the front. We passed by “No Trespassing” signs, thankful to have a group to let us in on an exclusive Oahu trail (or maybe they didn’t have permission, but hey, the cops can’t get us all, right?). When we came to a fence blocking the trail, the defacto leader at the front started off to the left to find a way around, but Curtis remembered that we were supposed to go right and thus found himself as the leader of the group. He quickly surrendered this title though to not be held responsible for any other possible wrong turns.

As we wandered into the woods, the group became more dispersed and we even found ourselves hiking on our own for a good portion of the trail. It definitely wasn’t as crowded as it had first seemed. We were glad we didn’t follow our first instinct to run and hide!

The part that interested us most about this trail was how it connected two familiar places that we’ve visited before. It made a 5 mile loop going from Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden, under the H3, followed a contour of the Ko’olau Mountains, and eventually lead to Likeke Falls. We then took the familiar path on the old-old Pali Highway to the golf course, then followed the road to the back entrance to the botanical garden and road-walked through the entire gardens. Overall not that hard at all, just some narrow parts along the contour trail and areas where it could be slick and muddy after it rains. The biggest concern might actually be walking the roads with no shade in the heat of the day. I thought back to our 10 mile hike on the Maunawili Trail, and I thought it was cool that we could basically hike from the botanical garden to the Old Pali highway and all the way to Waimanalo.

We took our time walking through the botanical gardens on the road and spent a little extra time wandering around before heading back home. We’ll definitely keep the HTMC in mind when planning future hikes. If you’re ever interested in hiking with a group while on Oahu, check out their website here.

April & May 2019

The Happenings of Spring 2019

After Curtis’ family left at the beginning of April, we had a short weekend together before the craziness began. First came 5 days apart with Curtis still on island, followed by weekend duty, and then — finally — Curtis’ first underway on his own boat. While the past year and a half have had their own challenges, I consider myself very fortunate to be in the position we were, with him staying on island for almost the entire first half of his assignment. We had known this day was coming for a long time, and after many delays, it finally arrived.

Beginning of April: Baby Mangoes!

But I found that after dreading this stage for so long, I felt nothing but pride for Curtis and his fellow shipmates as I watched the boat leave the harbor for the first time in over a year. It seemed so fitting that they be pulling out into the ocean just as colors played that morning. Instead of wondering how I was possibly going to make it through the week alone, I thought about all the hard work it took for them to get to this point, and I hoped and prayed that they would not only be safe, but also enjoy doing what they were meant to do.

The week passed quickly thanks to my busy schedule: work, getting together with other wives from the boat, and pursuing different hobbies. I started walking on average 5 miles every day (and have continued to do so ever since). It truly didn’t feel that long, and before I knew it, I was standing back at the mouth of the harbor with the other wives, waving at the boat as it returned home.

They were home for one week before the next underway. We made the most of the time we had, thankfully enjoying two full days together that weekend. We drove up to the North Shore for snorkeling and swimming one day, and visited the Honolulu Zoo the next. Late Sunday night, I dropped Curtis off for the next underway, scheduled to last several weeks.

This one started off much slower, and more eventful than I would have liked. There was a helicopter crash just blocks away from our house on our first day apart. It’s normal to hear planes or helicopters overhead, whether they be military, search and rescue, or tour guides, but when this one flew over our house it sounded much lower and louder than any other. Then I heard the crash — it sounded like a cannon blast, or a crack of thunder — the thought crossed my mind that it was the helicopter but I didn’t want to believe it until I heard the sirens and saw the news. All 3 riders died in the crash, but miraculously no one on the ground was hit, even though it fell on a busy street.

Having that happen so close to home kept me inside for a bit, but I slowly started venturing out and trying to make the time pass quicker. Charlotte and I were both eagerly anticipating the day when Curtis would come back — not only to have him home, but also because he would be getting a few months away this summer from the boat to study for the final step in his qualifications, which would lead up to our first time traveling to the mainland in almost 2 years!

We had just passed the halfway point when I got the call — plans had changed, they were returning immediately for a day and then they were leaving again for an undetermined amount of time. I knew that this kind of thing could happen, but didn’t expect it to happen so soon after they had just left the shipyards. The next 24 hours were an emotional roller coaster as we were reunited for a short time, but not knowing when the next time would be. The worst part was this meant that the ‘time off’ and mainland vacation that we had been so excited for were put on hold for who knows how long.

During this time, it was so hard for me to feel inspired to write or share anything. Obviously I couldn’t share what was going on, but I also just didn’t feel any desire to post on here about anything else despite having several drafts already written. All I wanted to do was escape from my thoughts. I went on long walks, read, and put together puzzles. I’m thankful I had a friend nearby that I was able to get together with a few times — we hiked together, had a wine and sushi night, went for walks, and other social events with the other wives. But some days it felt like all I was doing was trying to make it through, rather than make the most of my time alone.

As I sit and try to think back to this time, I find it so difficult to remember how I felt. It amazes me how quickly I adapt to these less than optimal circumstances and they become normal to me — and how quickly those routines and feelings disappear as soon as Curtis returns. Every day feels long and I don’t feel like I’m any closer to the finish line than the day before, but on the day he returns it feels like the whole thing flew by.

A week after he was supposed to return home (the first time), we received the best news: they were coming home earlier than expected! On the day after Memorial day, we gathered to watch and wave as the boat pulled in to the harbor. That afternoon, I also got to watch Curtis receive his Submarines Warfare pin, signifying that he is a qualified submariner. It was a long road to get here, but I’m so proud of how hard he worked for it and how he persevered through the challenges of the past year and a half.

End of May: Giant Mangoes, so close to being ripe!

April and May were filled with new challenges, but now we’re passed all that and are finally enjoying more time together as Curtis finally gets that much needed time “off.” We’re excited to enjoy this summer together, to embrace this time and live in the moment, not thinking about the inevitable time apart that will once again arrive all too soon. Lord willing, we’ll finally get that mainland trip we’ve been looking forward to ever since we touched down on Hawaii over a year and a half ago. We’d love to see as many people as possible while we’re there, so please reach out to us if you’re free to meet up late summer and we’ll see what our itinerary will allow!

Foster Botanical Garden

Visiting Foster Botanical Garden | Honolulu, HI | April 2019

Whenever we’re looking for an easy outing on the island that is filled with natural Hawaiian beauty, the botanical gardens are always on the top of our list. Most are free and give the opportunity to go for a leisurely walk, and aren’t as crowded or touristy as the easier hikes around the island. Each one is unique and we always find a new favorite tree or flower in bloom.

The past 2 months have consisted mostly of time apart — far too much time apart, in my opinion — but we’ve made the few days (or hours) that we’ve had together count. On one weekend we had but a few hours together before Curtis left for a week, so we decided to spend some time at one of the botanical gardens downtown that we hadn’t visited yet — Foster Botanical Garden.

Foster Botanical Garden is located near where the Pali Highway meets H1 in downtown Honolulu. It’s one of the only ones with a small admission fee, but has free parking (which is a big deal in Honolulu!) and was well worth the few hours we spent there. While its proximity to H1 means that you are always hearing traffic in the background, it is still a peaceful environment and a breath of fresh air from the busyness of the city surrounding it. Highlights of this botanical garden for us include the incredibly tall pine trees, the butterfly garden, and the herb garden.

While we were visiting, there were some exhibits we found interesting that were part of the Honolulu Biennial Foundation. They were created by artists with the theme To Make Wrong / Right / Now, with the purpose of bringing to light different issues or histories that this island has faced. Our favorite was the Huaka’i / A Wake — a giant double-hull canoe form constructed from invasive plants on the island, created by Leland Miyano.


• • • • •

The past few months have provided new challenges for me, such as navigating the blogging world while abiding by the rules of Operational Security (OPSEC), and finding motivation to share anything when my Editor in Chief is MIA. Thanks for understanding, hopefully we’ll have some more fun things to share in the coming months. 🙂

Curtis’ Family Comes to Oahu

Curtis’ Family Comes to Oahu | Spring Break 2019

At the end of March and beginning of April, we were excited to host some more guests in our tiny home: Curtis’ family! I had a great week showing them around the island to some of our favorite spots, and checking out some new places with them as well! Unfortunately for Curtis, it came at a time when things were more eventful at work so he wasn’t able to take much time off, but we were thankful that he was at least on island for their entire visit. Fortunately for me, it came at a time when Curtis was working long hours and having company helped make time go faster!

Here’s a run down of what we did during their week long visit:

Friday, March 29 | They arrived in the afternoon. After lunch (featuring our homegrown Okinawan Sweet Potatoes) and showing off our home, we went for a walk on Kailua and Lanikai Beaches — it was Claire and Julie’s first time at the Pacific!

Saturday, March 30 | After stopping for letterboxes at Bellows Air Force Beach and Waimanalo Beach, we went for a walk around Koko Crater Botanical Garden. For lunch, we went to Zippy’s in Hawaii Kai, then visited the Mount Tantalus Scenic Overlook and National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Sunday, March 31 | We were finally able to go pick up Curtis from his 72 hour shift, then we went to visit the Swap Meet held around the Aloha Stadium. It was Curtis and my first time there, and we learned that this is a good place to go get…well, just about anything, from souvenirs to fresh produce to clothing to gear and more! Next, we drove up to Wahiawa and walked through the botanical garden up there, then stopped for lunch at the Islander Drive Inn. That afternoon, Curtis, Ray, and Claire went snorkeling at Lanikai Beach while Julie and I prepared for dinner. Since Ray has some extended family also living on island, we hosted a mini family reunion for dinner that night!

Monday, April 1 | Curtis went back to work that morning, and we went to spend the morning around Pearl Harbor. We took the AZ Memorial tour, Ray, Julie, and Claire toured the Missouri, then we met Curtis for lunch at 604. Afterwards, we returned to Ford Island to see the Utah and Oklahoma Memorials and find some letterboxes, then did a little more letterboxing in Pearl City. Feeling the need for a sweet treat on this warm day, we drove up to the Dole Plantation for some Dole Whip — my first time! It was delicious and I’m now in search of a copycat recipe.

Tuesday, April 2 | Curtis was on duty on Tuesday, so we decided it was a good day to spend on the North Shore. We stopped to check out some beaches and letterboxes along the way, and spent a good amount of time snorkeling at Turtle Bay and Shark’s Cove. We enjoyed a delicious meal at Seven Brothers and wrapped up our time by getting Hawaii’s Whispering Giant letterbox. Still have yet to locate that statue…

Wednesday, April 3 | This morning, we rose early for a sunrise hike up to Makapu’u Point. Afterwards, we grabbed Leonard’s for breakfast and stopped to see the Halona Blowhole. That afternoon, we drove up to the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie and fit in as much “island hopping” as we could. Curtis was able to drive up and join us, and we all enjoyed dinner and the show, “HA! Breath of Life” together that evening.

Thursday, April 4 | Since it was shaping up to be another warm day on the island, we decided to visit Ho’omaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe since they have easier walks and are more shaded than other areas on island. We lucked out with perfect, cloud-free mountain views here as well! That afternoon, we took advantage of free re-entry into the Polynesian Cultural Center to fit a little more exploring in. On our way up, we also spotted a monk seal resting on a beach!

Friday, April 5 | On their last morning, Ray and Julie planned to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, but knowing that Claire had wanted to do more hiking, I had them drop us off for the Lanikai Pillbox hike. I enjoyed reconnecting with her as we climbed up to the bunkers with scenic views over Lanikai Beach and the entire Ko’olau Ridge free of clouds. Once finished with the hike, we walked to Kailua Beach until Ray and Julie came to pick us up. We had one last lunch together before they began their long trip back to the mainland.

Thank you family for making the trip out here and keeping me company for the week! We’re so thankful that we won’t have to wait another year and a half to see you all again (Lord willing)! And as a reminder to those who are still considering visiting — we’re now halfway through our time on Oahu (Lord willing, again!), so time is ticking! 😉

March 2019

The Happenings of March 2019

This month gave us much to be thankful for. As we close out another ‘season’ and begin another, we were so blessed to be reunited with family and friends that are like family, and to be reminded of who we are and what we’re working towards. Having them here also helped make time go faster for me!

And somehow, we’re now right at the halfway point for our time on Oahu — in a way it seems like it’s been so much longer, but on the other hand I can’t believe we’ve made it this far. I’m thankful for the passing of another month, which reminds me that each trial will pass and I need to enjoy each season for what it is.

Konahuanui at sunset, taken from Kailua Beach

On the other hand, this month we watched a dream die right before our eyes. For the past 6 months, we had our hopes set on Curtis applying for a new program within the Navy. If he was accepted, it would have us leave Hawaii a year earlier than planned — meaning we’d move back to the mainland this fall. We know that the military (and life in general) is supposed to give you trials and challenge you and help you grow, but when we heard of the program, we saw it as a way to take control of our future and remove some of the ever-present uncertainty that comes with being assigned to an active boat in the Navy. We started praying that God would provide a way to make it possible. For a while, right up until January of this year, it seemed like Curtis had the support he needed and that things might work out. But over the past month the situation changed, and during the week with our friends this month it was basically confirmed that it wasn’t going to happen.

USO Day at the Polynesian Cultural Center

We’re disappointed, but continuing to persevere on, believing that God has a purpose for keeping us here even though we still don’t understand it. When I think about it, living in Hawaii really hasn’t been that hard for me and being here that extra year isn’t going to be that bad. The real trials have come through Curtis’ job (though I suppose that’s going to be affecting me more now that he won’t be home as much). I think I’ve just grown restless having been here for a year and a half, and I crave the newness and excitement that moving from state to state provides. Would a new state and location actually make things better, or more exciting? Maybe, but once the newness fades I’m sure I’ll start realizing how much I take for granted here. Such is life!

A candid photo of us receiving official allegations from the Arizona Department of Allegations regarding our false claims to having summited the highest point in Hawaii

Anyway, now to the happenings of March 2019. Not a lot happened besides hosting our friends at the beginning of March and family at the end (a post about that is coming soon), but here are some things worth noting:

— Curtis and I attended the USO free event day at the Polynesian Cultural Center up in Laie. We had put off visiting this attraction knowing that this event would someday happen, and we’re glad we waited. We had a nice time, but the whole place encompasses 2 things we generally try to avoid: high prices and crowds.

— We enjoyed another year of not suffering from ‘springing forward’ for Daylight Savings Time. However, just like many people on the mainland, I’m enjoying the increasingly longer days. There have been so many days that it’s still light outside when Curtis gets home, and we’ve been enjoying more sunset walks together!

— I’ll always think of our order modification and PCS to Hawaii as the most stressful time of my life, or at least in my first 25 years of life. Now that we’ve been here a year and a half, I really thought all that stress was over…but it turns out I was wrong. This month, we found out the Navy “lost” all our paperwork that Curtis filled out upon arriving on island, and now claims we owe them thousands of dollars. Right, like we’d just go and move to Hawaii without them ordering us here with the promise of covering all our expenses…. Curtis is resubmitting paperwork to get it sorted out, but all this just makes me want to share a tell-all of our crazy military life stories even more…

— Curtis’ work schedule is intensifying and changing every day, but my ray of sunshine through all of this has been having a new friend move to the island — and not just anywhere on the island, but actually close to where I live! The timing couldn’t be better, and I’m looking forward to having someone else here to both commiserate with as well as enjoy island life with together!

— Thanks to having visitors and doing more hiking with them, I managed to hike 142 miles this month, putting me at 405 miles for 2019 — that much closer to my 1000 mile goal for the year! (In case you’re wondering, I’m not upping my goal if I reach it early. I’ll just be done hiking/jogging for the year. 😉 )

— I’ve mentioned this before in the past couple posts, but it’s worth noting again that this month we finally crossed 2 major things off our Hawaii bucket list: swimming to Chinaman’s Hat and Snorkeling! Now that we’ve done these, it seems so much easier to plan and go do them more often.

Participating in March’s Community Day in PokemonGo. Please don’t think less of me for sharing this.

That’s it for now, happy April everyone!

Swimming to Chinaman’s Hat

Chinaman’s Hat | Kualoa Beach Park | March 2019

One thing that’s been on our bucket list since arriving to the island has been to kayak to one of the smaller islands off of the Windward side of Oahu. However, just like snorkeling , we never really put much thought into it because going for a hike is easier than working out the details for such an adventure. We’d have to figure out the tides, surf, and best time to go, as well as rent or borrow a kayak or paddle boards. Way too much work when we could be halfway to a trailhead in no time at all!

But after our recent discovery that snorkeling is actually pretty cool, we decided to venture out a bit more and journey to another island. Mokoli’i Island, also known as Chinaman’s Hat, is located a third of a mile off the coast from Kualoa Beach in Kaneohe Bay. Many kayak or use a paddle board to get there, but we had also heard of people walking or swimming. I wish I could tell you that we did lots of preparation to take on this challenge in the safest way possible, but honestly all we did was wake up one morning, asked “Should we try this out?”, and checked the tides online. Upon seeing we were approaching a very low tide thanks to the recent super moon, as well as no high surf advisory, we just went for it.

We drove up to Kualoa Beach and arrived around 8:30, knowing that low tide would be at 10:50am. I was expecting to see lots of other people with the same idea that we had, however when we arrived there were only a few people there that had camped the night before, and none were heading to the island. This was troubling news for me, because I happened to know that there is a school of tiger sharks nearby and I was really hoping that there would be more people so the odds of the sharks coming after me would be more in my favor. Curtis even admitted later to being a bit apprehensive, but despite our lack of confidence and planning, we just began wading out into the ocean.

The entire time, I kept thinking how ridiculous this was. What were we doing, just making our way over to this island with no experience or planning, and no one else doing it? There we were, just two adventurous souls, walking/swimming hand in hand to reach this tall uninhabited island. I chose to disclose to Curtis how bad I was at swim lessons growing up when we were about halfway there, with the water about neck deep on me. I’ve never been a very confident swimmer, and I hear way too many stories of how unpredictable and unsafe the ocean can be. I had thought about the sharks beforehand, but once we were in the water I started remembering all the other sea creatures that could possibly be out there.

But we continued on, saying over and over how ridiculous this was, Curtis continually checking his swim trunk pockets to make sure the keys and GoPro were still there. (I’m happy to report that we did not have another incident involving losing the keys like we did a month ago!) Occasionally there would be small waves rolling in, but nothing to be concerned about. For the longest time it felt like we weren’t making any progress — the safety of the beach was getting farther away, but the tiny island didn’t seem to get any closer. But suddenly the depth of the water became less and less, and soon enough we were walking onto the shore of Chinaman’s Hat. I was honestly in total disbelief. We did it! We actually made it!

We turned on the GoPro to find it had a low battery, but still managed to get a few pictures to document our success. We had no idea what time it was, but we knew that we didn’t want to spend too much time here and risk getting too far from low tide or having the surf or weather turn on us.

We knew that it was possible to climb up this tiny island, but I had heard that it was steep and involved rock climbing. I was skeptical that I could make it in my water shoes without any traction, but since we were already there I decided to go as far as I could. The climb started off gradual, and eventually it did turn into a rock climb, but there was a pretty secure rope in place that helped us reach the top. And once again, I felt the same overwhelming feeling of success: I climbed to the top of this island! I can’t believe I did this! I had doubted myself so much that day, that each victory had me in such excitement and disbelief!

While at the top, we spotted a diver off the coast of the island, but for the majority of our time on Chinaman’s Hat, we were all alone. A whole island to ourselves! I knew that kayaking here is a rather popular activity, so I was in shock that we were all alone!

After enjoying the peak of the island for a while, we made our way back down and started walking around the coast of the island. On the East side, there was a small cave and tide pools where we spotted some unique sea creatures. When we were ready to head back, another kayak arrived and several more were on their way. There seemed to be more waves on our way back, but they actually helped us to make it back this time. We arrived back at the beach after 11, this whole venture taking just over 2 hours.

We weren’t quite ready to head home, so instead we started walking South and East along the beach. I had heard of an area that is “owned” by Kualoa Ranch, but since all beaches in Hawaii are supposed to be accessible to the public, we just had to follow the coast to get there. We passed by a campsite, but besides that there was mostly just a lot of empty beach.

However, we eventually came around a bend and found a very populated clearing. There were lots of people playing volleyball, swimming, and lounging on the beach. I think Kualoa Ranch refers to this as the “Secret Island,” and according to their website people pay like $50 per person to come here… We wandered inland a bit and found the large pond with the beautiful Kualoa Mountains in the background, where we stamped into a letterbox we had found along the way. It was odd finding all this out here after walking down the vacant beach, but hey, we learned something new and now we know the secret to Secret Island. Let me know if this travel hack saves you $50 a person like it did for us. 😉

We made our way back to the main beach, but before leaving Curtis went out to snorkel for a bit in the bay. The water was shallow and perfectly still, I would’ve been fine to go out but I had left the extra snorkel set in the car and opted to just sit and relax after all the excitement we had just had.

So there you have it friends, that’s how we took a perfectly good weekend day and for the first time, rather than spending it in the mountains, we went to the beach. Anything is possible!

The Guys Come to Hawaii // Sightseeing

March 2019 | Exploring the Island with Our Friends

If we weren’t on the trails or under the water when our friends were here, we were usually out exploring the island through different scenic spots, historic sites, or trying out foods unique to Hawaii at different restaurants. Here’s the final post sharing what we did with our friends while they visited us on Oahu for a week:

Halona Blowhole

The highway along the South Shore of Oahu has plenty of scenic spots where you can pull over and enjoy the incredible views. After our time at Hanauma Bay, we stopped at the Halona Blowhole to see both the blowhole and walk down to the beach cove just to the West of the parking lot.

Japanese Cultural Center

I’ll be honest, our primary interest in visiting here was for the National Park Site cancellation stamps for a new national monument that is still in its early stages of development. However when we arrived we learned that the stamps for this site are currently kept at the Pearl Harbor gift shop. We still spent a little time here learning about what this new national monument site will feature. It will eventually be located on the Leeward side of Oahu, but we aren’t sure if we’ll still be here when it opens.

Don’t ask why I have a picture of the tea eggs rather than the delicious shave ice cream!

The real highlight of this stop was walking down the street to get ice cream and discovering another place that sells shave ice cream (before this, we were only aware of Snow Factory) so we got to introduce the guys to one of our favorite island treats! This place is called Frost, and we liked it just as much as Snow Factory! Also on the menu was something called the Tea Egg, so naturally the guys all had to try that.

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

Curtis and I really enjoyed our visit to the National Memorial Cemetery last December, so since it was on our way home we made a return visit. Along with having plenty of history to read about, it also offers great views of Honolulu and Waikiki.

It should also be noted that during our time downtown between the Japanese Cultural Center and the National Memorial, we made our first ever visit to a Walmart on Oahu. I could say that’s another thing checked off some non existent Oahu bucket list, but in actuality I’m more disappointed that I can no longer say I’ve never been to a Walmart on the island.

Waikiki

In my last post, I mentioned one thing I had never done in my 1.5 years of living here before the guys came: snorkeling. The other controversial thing I hadn’t done was visit Waikiki. Curtis and I attended a dinner downtown one evening in our first few weeks of living here, but hated the traffic, crowds, parking costs, and prices at the restaurant and were in no hurry to ever return. However, with the promise of mai tais on the beach, I was persuaded to join the guys for an afternoon/evening in Waikiki on Saturday while Curtis was on duty.

So how was it? For the most part, it was exactly what we were expecting, but there were a few highlights that made it worth it. It turns out Waikiki is a great place to enjoy activities such as PokemonGo and people watching. We also found a relatively cheap parking area across from the Army museum, where military ID holders can have their tickets validated at the Hale Koa hotel, and had a delicious dinner at the Hale Koa. And yes, the mai tais were also good, and made being around all the tourists more bearable. We also enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the beach. Most of all, it made us appreciate the other parts of the island even more!

Pearl Harbor

We saved Pearl Harbor for a day when Curtis was at work so that we could meet him for lunch afterwards, and that worked out perfectly. We started with the USS Arizona Memorial tour — you might have heard that it’s currently under repairs so the boat no longer docks at the memorial and you can’t walk around, but I thought it was still absolutely worth doing. We were still able to take a boat into the harbor and go near the memorial and the Missouri Battleship, and a volunteer veteran spoke to us as we made our way around the harbor. Our tour was timed perfectly so that we were out on the water during the national anthem being played on the navy base. Direct quotes from the guys were, “The most patriotic moment of my life,” “In that moment, my blood went from just red to red, white, and blue,” “I just kept telling myself to keep it together,” and “That was the most emotional I’ve been all year.”

Afterwards, we took a tour of the USS Missiouri Battleship, and I gave a short driving tour around Ford Island, pointing out other historic sites and sharing memories from when Curtis and I spent 2 months living there. When Curtis was finally on lunch break, we met him at 604, which is a favorite restaurant of ours that’s located right next to the historic sites and the Ford Island bridge.

Kailua

Throughout their visit, we spent a lot of our time around Kailua town, at Kailua and Lanikai Beaches, and the Kawai Nui Marsh. Restaurants we visited in town were Kalawapai Market & Deli, Zippy’s, Boots & Kimmo’s, Maui Brewing, and Nico’s. Several of these were new for Curtis and I as well, and we especially enjoyed the banana pancakes with macadamia nut sauce at Boots & Kimmo, and the poke nachos at Nico’s.

North Shore

On their last day on the island, we went for a drive around the North Shore. Typically when Curtis and I visit the North Shore, we go to do hikes, and on our way we’ll consider possibly stopping at a beach when we’re done, but usually after hiking we’ll find that there are just too many people out and we’ll return home without any more stopping. However, since it was a weekday, traffic wasn’t bad at all and we had a very enjoyable time driving around and stopping at several beaches. We stopped at Waimea Beach briefly and saw a rainbow that ended out over the ocean. We stopped at Shark’s Cove, and while the waves were too big for snorkeling, we enjoyed walking around the tide pools and seeing yet another rainbow, this one stretched out perfectly around the cove. And finally, we stopped around Sunset Beach to watch the surfers take on the huge waves. If you’re ever wanting to do a similar drive with several stops, my best advice is to go early and beat the traffic!

Thank you to Mitch and Alex for making the trip our here and giving us one of the best weeks we’ve had in a while! We value our friendship with you (as well as our other AZ friends who weren’t able to make it) so much and are looking forward to the next time we’re reunited!

The Guys Come To Hawaii // Snorkeling

March 2019 | Snorkeling with Friends on Oahu

Would you believe it if I told you that in my first year and a half of living here, I had never once fully immersed myself in the ocean or gone snorkeling? It’s true — Curtis and I are mountain people and not beach people, and we cling tightly to that label. When we found out we were moving here, we assumed that at some point we would either try snorkeling or maybe even diving, but whenever the weekend rolls around all we want to do is go hiking. Hiking is just easier — it takes less planning, we’re more comfortable and experienced, and even the busier trails are still less busy than most beaches on a sunny day.

However, Mitchell spoke so highly of snorkeling that we knew we just had to try it with him. After our first time snorkeling, our reaction was the same: “What took us so long?!” It’s actually much easier than we had led ourselves to believe; we already had some goggles and snorkels from Goodwill, all we need are the right beaches or conditions of waves. Thanks to Mitch’s instructions, we both picked up on it and were introduced to a whole other side to the island we hadn’t enjoyed before: underwater. Of course seeing and learning about the many types of colorful fish that live here is the most exciting factor, but for me, I found the coral so interesting to look at after spending over a year looking down on it from hikes such as Ka’iwa Ridge and Hanauma Bay Ridge. I’m not saying that we’re giving up our “mountain people” title, but maybe we’ll be a little more open to visiting the beach more often now.

Here are the places that we went snorkeling over the course of the week:

Hanauma Bay

After hiking Hanauma Bay Ridge for sunrise, we entered this state recreation area and prepared for our first snorkeling experience on Oahu. Hanauma Bay is the most popular snorkeling spot on all of Oahu, but thankfully on this overcast weekday the crowds weren’t too bad. We watched the short film that taught how to help protect the coral and the creatures that live here, then made our way down to the beach. Even just by wading in the shallow water near the coral, we were able to spot colorful fish, but by venturing further and going underwater we were able to see how much depth there is to this bay. Knowing it was so popular, I wasn’t expecting to see a lot — I guess I assumed that the fish would stay away from people — but that wasn’t the case at all! Mitch was quick to spot the Hawaiian state fish, the Humuhumunukunukuapua`a — which we simply refer to as the Humu-humu, or the reef trigger fish. 😉

Kaena State Park

Curtis’ first experience snorkeling came the next day, after our hike to Kaena Point. We wandered down the beach towards the Southern end of the state park, and since it was a weekday we basically had it all to ourselves. There were signs in place saying to watch out for the stronger waves, but on this day we were fine. The guys started off just practicing snorkeling in the surf and quickly spotted more Humu-humu. And as they got more comfortable with the waves they started venturing out towards a reef and caught sight of plenty more fish: tang, butterfly fish, angel fish, trumpet fish, and a couple puffer fish. The coral was also really cool; Curtis especially liked the pencil coral. One of these times we’ll take the Go-Pro with us so we can show what we’re talking about.

Bellows Air Force Beach

On weekends, most beaches tend to be pretty busy, so on Sunday we opted for a less popular one: the military access only side of Bellows Air Force Beach. The waves were much stronger on the Windward coast that day, but that didn’t stop the guys from going swimming, boogie boarding, and getting crushed by the waves. I enjoyed my spot safe on the beach with the mountain views, watching them get knocked around. 😉 We also discovered that the military side of this beach has a mini golf course, so we played a game together, with Curtis and I hoping to make a comeback after a game that took place several years ago. Alex still took first place today, but I happened to be the only one who got a hole in one, which is basically as good as winning.

Turtle Bay

For Mitch and Alex’s last day on the island, we did a long drive around the North Shore. Along the way, we stopped at several beaches and noted that the waves were much too strong to snorkel in safely. However, while we were hiking to Kahuku Point, the guys noticed that there was a perfect calm spot, so after some other obligations *coughPokemoncough* we returned and spent a few hours here. It turned out to be another great spot, with several fish spotted. Mitch also noted that it would be a great place to spot sea turtles in the summer when the water was warmer. However, the real highlight here was seeing a dog on a surfboard!

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