There is a crater on the Marine Corps base called Ulupa’u crater. It faces out toward the ocean, and inside is a setup for various training exercises. To use the hike there are a few logistics involved, including getting a key and radio and signing waivers. I tasked my friend Jess to coordinate this because I thought there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to. She did great!
We did it for sunrise. We set off in the dark.
We thought it might be tough to get everyone up in time, but we did! There was a bit of scrambling and a few steep parts. But you can see all of base and over to Lanikai.
There’s the golf course we played with my parents, and pyramid rock beach and North Beach.
We got to take our husbands.
You can kinda tell how steep it is here. There are ropes the whole way.
I would not want to do this when it was slippery! Thankfully we had perfect weather for it and it’s been dry.
It was certainly challenging and Brian and I were the last to get up, but we did! I unfortunately don’t have a selfie of just us, but he was there and I was thankful he went slowly with me. There were a TON of gnats through some of the higher elevation wooded parts… the noise was deafening trying to walk through them. We covered our mouths with shirts and ducked low, it helped…
I don’t know if I’d do this again. We’ll see. I’m glad to have gone at least once!
People of good enough health can’t come to Hawaii and not do the pillbox hike… so we did the Pillbox hike! I think I was a bit more nervous this time because of my recent fall and I didn’t have my pack mule (aka Brian) there to help. I definitely was a bit more careful this time, or last time the path was different and easier? I remember making fun of the ropes the first time thinking they were completely unnecessary, then using them a lot this time. Anyway, the views didn’t disappoint!
For lunch we got Banan, her first Acai bowl so far, and I was super proud I remembered reusable bowls.
Later that day we went and got massages (we were late due to Lanikai construction backup) and then to MCBH. I showed her secret beach and we went to another submariner’s house for dinner (She has base housing on MCBH.) She has the cutest 3 month old, Maeve. Not pictured to protect privacy, per usual. It was nice meeting her.
I’m behind in blogging. Been a crazy and tiring week.
Bunco is a dice game, described by wikipedia as “housewife’s drinking game”. It’s very easy to play. Tables of four players take turns rolling three dice. You get a point if the number on the dice matches the value of the round you’re playing, so starting with 1, if you roll a one you get one point, two ones two points, three ones three points. If you roll no points, the next player rolls. You’re on a team with the person across from you, and the round ends as soon as one of the head table teams hits 21 (they ring a bell so everyone knows to stop). The team with the most points at your table, wins. Then, you move on to the next round, 2, and repeat when the dice values match 2. This repeats up to round 6. If you roll three of a kind, you get bunco which is 21 points if it matches the number round you’re in, or 5 points if it’s any other set of numbers except 1. If you roll 1s, “snake eyes” your points clear and you start from zero (unless you’re in round 1, in which case it’s a bunco). Winners rotate tables (unless you’re at the head table). If you get a bunco, you get to wear a lei. You keep track of your mini buncos, buncos, team wins, losses, various stats…and at the end you get prizes for all sorts of things.
They hosted in O’Club, the officer’s club on base. This a new friend of mine, we carpooled together. She actually reached out to me about it which encouraged me to go. (Fun, life in Hawaii tangent, she had a cockroach in her car, so I drove)
It was a lot of fun, mostly because there is zero skill involved so I can’t really get mad at winning or losing. I think it’s kinda hard to socialize, because it’s so fast paced. All in all, I’d definitely go again.
Backtracking to the weekend again, I volunteered with “weed warriors” on Saturday. Let me tell you, “weed” was certainly an understatement. This was a gigantic bush/tree we were pulling out! Three no less. I didn’t get great pictures, but in this first one you can see a pile separated of cut up branches. Behind it is the rest of the bush we still need to do! Behind the bush in the beach.
In this second picture, you can just make out a truck we’ve filled for branches to be hauled away in, and a better perspective of the pile. A lot of the invasive species come from from South America. The idea is to cut them out so native ones grow in their place. This particular one we were working on is commonly known as Sea Grapes. Less commonly known as Coccoloba uvifera.
This was at Pyramid rock beach. The guy leading it likes to talk about some history, and told us that Pan Am airlines owners used to own the land and had housing on it. I forget if the military kicked them off or if they had to sell it… I also overheard others I was working with talking about watching “the game”. I asked which, and they answered “Patriots!” And I said “raise your hand if you’re a Patriots fan!” And three or four people raised their hands. The family that was my point of contact for the group spent 12 years in Worcester as part of the Marines… go figure!
I don’t feel like I contributed much to be honest… Toward the end they decided it more efficient to use a wood chipper and come back later with one. There were axes and chopping and my cheeks got rosy from the sun. Glad I went, will probably go again!
That is the face of determination! For our last session of golf, we played four holes. I had one spectacular drive, and the rest were terrible. Really I’m here to post the view from hole 13.
OK just kidding. I mean that is really a view from hole 13, but this is what you’re looking for:
Thought Sunday was over? Think again! After the airport, I came home, answered some TED emails, then got myself back out to go watch the friend I picked up from the airport play kickball with other Marine Corps wives. Apparently, this is a thing they do as team building with fellow wives in the same command. Let me tell you, it’s so intense and so crazy!
In the second inning, they have to play the whole offense holding a cup of water, yes, even while kicking. They have to reach home base with water left in the cup, or their run doesn’t count. See that girl sitting in the lawn chair? If the ball lands and hits inside the white box, it’s extra points.
They are very, very intense about this, and I don’t think I was even allowed to talk to my friend… but we texted. Ha. The ref yelled at the side lines not to coach. What fun it was to watch!
They won 15-8. Ok, now Sunday is over… well I went home and edited all the photos first, of course.
I’m really trying to stay *purposefully* busy and make time go by fast for Brian to come home. What I mean is, I’m trying to pick activities with purpose. Things that’ll fill my cup (social, adventure, good will, creativity, learning a new skill). I’m really working on figuring out what I want to do instead of doing things just to do them. I think there was a period of my life I was filling my time without really asking why, and I’m trying to be better at that. I don’t want to fill time as an excuse to make it go faster to get Brian home, I want to enjoy it. I think I’m doing pretty well so far. I don’t know if any of this made sense, I’m getting pretty tired (I think this is my sixth post today), but I kinda wanted to reflect on all the activities I’m doing.
All beaches in Hawaii are public beaches. However, the Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) has 5 beaches that you can only access if you have base access. #workperks However, you can apply for base access even if you’re a civilian and it’s good for one year. The pictures don’t have the best lighting, it was cloudy, but I was tired of waiting for the perfect day to photograph, so you’ll just have to pretend or come see for yourself.
There are five beaches on the MCBH. This post will talk about three of them, and I’ll get to the other two eventually. First up is Fort Hase Beach (pronounced Hah-see). It’s probably the most convenient to the gym/main part of base. It overlooks Kailua and Lanikai, the area where I live.
Then looking left you can see base housing.
There is a lot of reef and rocks sticking up out of the water, which makes it difficult to swim. The surf is also really high. According to my friend, during low tide it creates a lot of fun tide pools for kiddos to use, but I haven’t been at low tide so I haven’t been able to verified that. Lots of sea glass opportunities. There is some open area for swimming without reef. And as you can see, I currently have the entire beach to myself (4pm on a Friday, though).
Convenience: A+
Parking: A+ (paved option and designated)
Swimmable: C-
Lifeguards: No
Bathroom: Port-o-potty
Sea glass: B+
Up next is North Beach. This is the beach that Brian and I ran (trotted) during the surf and turf 5k. It’s a little further away than Ft. Hase. There isn’t any real parking lot for it, just street parking. You have to take stairs down to get to it. More rocks on the shoreline, but I think more room without rocks.
Toward the right side of the first picture you’ll see a pyramid shaped rock. That’s by the third beach I’ll talk about next. North Beach is a popular beach for surfers. (I need to work on remembering to up my shutter speed during action photos, this is a little blurry).
All beaches have a lot of signs about who to call if you see wildlife in danger or nesting. There were a couple of these roped off nesting spots on North Beach. I wonder if the turtles approve of the imposed redecoration. Unfortunately, no actual turtle sighting.
This had more people on the beach, I think because it has more swimming space. It can be rough surf.
Convenience: B
Parking: C (street)
Swimmable: B
Lifeguards: Yes
Bathroom: No?
Sea glass: D
The third and final beach for this post is Pyramid Rock beach, which is essentially adjacent to North Beach. This first picture will look very similar to the one from North beach in the same direction.
This is the picture of its namesake, that Pyramid rock I mentioned earlier. (Tangent about photography. To create this picture I actually stitched together three different exposed pictures. Having the setting sun reflect bright in the clouds would wash out the sky, but then exposing for the sky would make the “rock” a dark blob. Will write a post about this later).
There weren’t any lifeguards at the time, but I believe there can be on certain days with certain currents. To get to this beach you have to cross the airfield, so it’s a bit far. Crossing the airfield is normally easy, but if they’re doing training exercises you’ll get stuck behind a gate (think railroad crossing except for planes).
Convenience: C
Parking: B (dirt patch)
Swimmable: B+
Lifeguards: Sometimes?
Bathroom: No?
Sea glass: D
Another #workperk is some of the recreational activities available to us. Here is a beach cottage you can rent out on the MCBH (there are a few on this side of base). Civilians can’t be unaccompanied without applying for access first, but if you came and visited we could rent one out and get you a pass. They supposedly book quickly though.
Moral of the story, MCBH has quite a few beaches if you’re looking for a quiet respite from the tourists, or for a quick walk on a different beach after the gym. I’ll recap the last two when I get pictures of them. Three beaches in one day is a lot!
The Marine corps base near us, which I am pretty obsessed with, has started hosting 5k (3 mile) runs again. The first in the series was a Surf N Turf, so some parts running on the beach and some on normal path. I almost didn’t do it, I didn’t feel ready and hadn’t run since a really bad episode when my breathing was tough a week or two prior. But, we had money invested, it was a fun opportunity, and I went with the goal of completing. And we’re off!
Running (in reality trodding) on the beach was really tough, but I did what I set out to do, which was complete it!
What you can’t see is that my feet are completely wet because I ran too close to the water line. Thankfully things dry. The sand, however, is forever. After the sand portion Brian left me to my own devices…
But he came back for me. I was very comforted by the fact there was a Marine Corps member every ten feet or so… should something have happened I was covered.
My time was atrocious, but it’s a starting point. Can only go up (down) from here. The next one we signed up for is the runway 5k. We get to run on the base’s landing strip! Going to be ridiculously hot but normally this area is off limits to running so I’m in.
