The officer spouse group I am apart of took an adventure to Coconut Island which is a restricted access research island used by the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (all beaches in Hawaii are free to access by anyone, there’s a small beach you can use on Coconut Island pictured above but can’t go past that). It is also the island featured in the opening song of Giligan’s Island . It got its coconut trees when a Hawaiian Queen wanted to host a luau on it but didn’t think it was pretty enough, so she shipped a bunch of coconut trees over. We were told to always be situationally aware because falling coconuts kill more people than sharks do every year.
We were provided a guided tour of the island which took maybe 15 minutes to walk around. We learned about some of the projects like this pontoon turned vacuum boat which suctioned up invasive algae and was so successful it’s now retired.
We could see some of the research facilities
And touch sea life in their touch tank.
Our tour guide was a retired veteran who wanted to keep his mask on, which was fine, but it made it difficult to hear. We heard a lot about the history, and at times in a little scatter brained manner, and not much about the research. I was a little disappointed by the tour guide… but it was still a worthwhile adventure.
The last fun fact I really remember is that one of the prince’s who lived on the island kept all kinds of exciting animals like gorillas and elephants which eventually became the beginning of the Honolulu Zoo. The elephant, Empress, could’ve been the longest living captive elephant at her death in 1986.
P.S. It’s mango season in Hawaii if you couldn’t tell.
If given the opportunity, I might go again, but I won’t go out of my way.
Backstory. I’ve made mention of my subwife friend on here a few times. She was with us at SOAC in CT, then her husband stationed in Hawaii with us now. She was renting a short term rental from another sub family in Kaneohe and recently moved to a more permanent location. Her old landlord had brought her some limes from her tree, but had too many so she shared with me.
Fast forward to Wednesday. There was an event held by the Marine Corps officer spouses club (Kaneohe Officer Spouse Club, KOSC) (all officer spouse groups tend to co-mingle and allow other branch wives to join in). It was bingo night at the O-Club (officer’s club, a restaurant on base that, in theory, only officers (and their families) and above are allowed at. I offered to bring a prize for one of the rounds, which was a glass from Tiki’s, two rum nips, a small can of orange and pineapple juice, and a lime that Caitlyn had brought me.
I entered this big, restaurant room they had reserved with three or four large tables and took a seat at what was probably the head table (the chairs and bingo ball puller person(?) was there). Two women sat near me, one next and one across. It was quickly revealed that we were all Navy wives (we somehow find each other) and the one next to me was a subwife. She had told me that I looked familiar, and I kinda brushed it off because I hadn’t really met anyone yet at any events and everyone in subs starts to look familiar. So we both sat on it. She told me she lived in Kaneohe, and had been there for a while (6+ years). Kaneohe was where my friend was renting, and her landlord had been there a while. After a long delay, my brain has been fried from work, the thought occurred to me they must know each other, so I turned to her and asked her “Do you know the Jones’?” (name changed). She look across at her friend, who is about to bust out laughing, and turns to me and says “I am the Jones’!!” and we all erupted in laughter.
A little while later, someone wins my prize and I tug on her shirt and say, “Do you know where that lime came from? Your tree!” And we laughed again.
She had been inviting my friend to Thursday night booze cruises on their boat docked at Kaneohe Yacht Club. I had brought up a conversation my friend, her husband, and I had had about their boat and if it was a sail boat or motor or what. She took this to mean I was trying to nudge at getting invited to one of these, and that wasn’t the case at all, I had truly completely forgot that was a thing. Regardless, she told me to come tomorrow (Thursday) on their boat booze cruise. And if there’s anything that’s going to make me feel at home, it’s a boat booze cruise.
I was kinda caught up in the moment, so I didn’t get any pictures of their actual boat except one, but it is a house boat of sorts. There’s a below deck with two bedrooms and two bathrooms and small living area. They have a deck and front walkabout. We took it out, “chased” the sailboats for their weekly Thursday night race, got rained on, and moseyed on back to the dock. It was SO picturesque and I really enjoyed photographing regardless of the rainy weather. This is the same bay we went to the sandbar on Saturday.
This first picture is of me on the front walkabout before it started raining. I didn’t bring a towel to wipe my lens again. Face palm.
The next set of pictures are them on their way out. Lots of sailboat pictures, it was so fun to photograph!
Marine Corps base in the background
You can see the heavy rain we’re about to get hit with in this next one.
And on their way back in.
Brian was on duty last night and even if he wasn’t he probably wouldn’t get home early enough to come. I am so thankful he is a really supportive husband of me going out and doing things on my own. I’m harder on myself about it than he is. I almost feel a little guilty, and I also just know he’d love doing it with me. I married him because I love spending time and doing these types of things with him. I remind myself this won’t last forever.
He just got home, so we get to eat dinner!
Oh, one last thing, we caught the Marine Corps practicing search and rescue drills.
Friends of ours are having a baby in December and invited us for gender reveal cake cutting and pontoon boat to the Kaneohe Bay Sandbar. You can rent Pontoon boats from the Marine Corps base (another reason I love them.) You need to get your license first, which I am going to a “hands on” course in a couple weeks for. There was a rainbow right as we started!
It’s a girl! (There’s a theory that submariners only have girls because they are around men all day and their bodies believe the world needs to be populated with more females. I think there’s an actual study going on about this).
Then we took the boat to the sandbar, it was low tide so some parts were uncovered. Behind me is the island Mokoli’i, aka Chinaman’s hat. I feel like I need a crash course in posing.
The dog (Kylo) had ZERO fun…
Neither did the humans
The water coloring gradient is unreal and something you just need to experience in real life, but here’s the best I could do.
Saw a hydrofoil and a bunch of turtles
There were plenty of other people who had the same idea, but this sandbar is massive so it’s like you’re not near anyone.
We rented it from 8am-12 noon. Which gives you 8:30-11:30am at the bar, and I thought that was plenty of time. I think the cost is $80. And we’re on our way back!
It was on and off rain most of the morning, but we made the most of it. It’s just kinda part of life and it’s not like we aren’t wet already anyway. The hardest thing was keeping my lens dry, which I’ll do a better job of bringing a specific lens towel next time and keeping it dry. This last picture is a bit fuzzy because of my wet lens. We can’t wait to do it again!
