We visited the beach for sunrise (always a fan favorite)
And I took her to my favorite Botanical Garden, Ho’omoluhia. I have plenty of pictures from that scenery, so I’ll add a few personal ones.
And that night we went to my favorite Luau on island, Nutridge. Always a pleasure joining them for the night! They are my favorite because the scenery is unbeat, the food is authentic and really good, the drinks are really good, and their max capacity is something like 70 people. There’s a great overlook of Waikiki on your drive up.
I have been neglecting sunrise posts on here, sorry! You can always find them on my instagram account, @lanikai_Sunrise_96734, or visit this web page on this blog. This lady was trying to get her dog more comfortable in the water and was carrying him in only for him to swim straight back to shore.
I also found a new washed up creature. Squid Ink pasta anyone?
There was a lot of commotion around the pillbox, turns out 100s of army soldiers were dropped off and did an exercise up it. God bless them doing that in that heat with those packs on. Phew! I just missed the tail end of them, so I’m bummed I didn’t get better framing or pictures. But these turned out ok.
You could see the other Hawaiian islands really well to the right of the second Mokulua island
I had to run some errands today out in town (actually I really wanted to check out a store, my only errand was to pick up an onion for a salad). The store is called twin islands, and if you don’t know why you haven’t been paying attention.
It’s mostly clothing with a few knick knacky type things. I bought another rash guard shirt (something to protect me from the sun) and a bumper sticker that is the symbol you see at the top of the store entrance. Everyone who is anyone has one.
Then I treated myself to Kono’s. Atmosphere was pretty cool.
But… I bought the basic BBQ pork plate (Kailua pork, BBQ sauce, white rice, mixed lettuce greens with fruit dressing) and thought it was just ok. I keep picking “local favorite” plates and should probably try meals that I actually know I’ll like. Just trying to be open to new possibilities! I’d go back and try something different and ask if they sell the dressing. Not super impressed. My friend warned me it’s hard to be super impressed by food here and I’m wondering if she’s right. The drink was guava limeade. It wasn’t mixed well, so at first I was like “Where’s the limeade?” and then about halfway through I was like “where’s the guava?”
After eating, I went back out again to buy some gifts at a local kids store. One is for someone’s kid on the boat who turned 5 today and is coming to our family readiness group meeting tonight. And a couple others are for the Captain’s wife’s kids (2 months, 4 and 5). She just had a baby, two months prior to her husband leaving, so she has her hands full. I bought a floor puzzle and a book of games. Hopefully it’ll help keep them busy!
I’m off to my first ever in-person FRG meeting. Going to meet all the wardroom wives. Wish me luck!
I’ve been meaning to try this place for a while, but their hours are odd and Brian says it’s not a dinner place. I finally treated myself for lunch to get me out of the apartment for a bit.
They make bowls with soft serve fruit. I chose to get the “Locals Only” in a bowl. I should’ve changed to Acai flavor because banana can overwhelm me… next time.
It was really quiet and the service was quick. Overall I thought the bowl was good, not great, but I’d go back. It wasn’t overly sweet even with the honey. The mac nut honey butter, however, was DELICIOUS and I will go back to buy a jar.
I think it a nice treat, good but not great. Could’ve been my mistake in flavor choice. I’ll definitely also bring my own bowl next time. Love that restaurants are doing this.
(This is post published, written end of last week)
It’s been a week to say the least. I feel like it can be really easy to look at the situation I’m in- living in Hawaii on military orders- and be really jealous. And to be honest, I probably would be too. But I was warned, and will not sugarcoat the fact, that military life is hard.
Brian found out that he is changing boat assignments due to a staffing issue. The good news is, the boat’s homeport is Hawaii and staying that way for the indefinite future and this is incredibly good for Brian’s career. The bad news is, he joins the boat on deployment sometime in the next month (I have to stay vague, because, you know, the Russians are listening).
There is a whole lot of backstory that I can’t share here, but essentially it’s a really good thing for Brian’s career and for a lot of other things. But it also means that I am without Brian, my husband and best friend, for the next 2-5mths (again, can’t give specifics). Before it was official, Brian’s bosses asked his opinion on it, and Brian said that he’d agree but would have to consult with me because we’re a team and I’d be the one that needs to be convinced. If any of you are single reading this, THAT is a quality in a husband you should have on your list. Brian’s bosses offered to meet with me and that meeting happened and, as much as him being gone will suck, I am a lot more ok with the move.
Brian’s bosses keep reminding me that deployment was going to have to happen at some point, and that’s fair. I am also truly in a best of the best situation where his bosses will even talk to me about this and ease my concerns. But if I told you your husband was going to be gone tomorrow for months vice a year from now for months, how would you feel? I, for one, feel wholly unprepared.
There’s a lot that was supposed to happen before he deploys; I get to meet the boat spouses, attend Family Readiness Group meetings, fill out a bunch of paperwork, he’d finish hanging pictures… As with the year that was “supposed to be” and all the “supposed to happens” of 2020, we’ll just stack these on top.
The biggest challenge for me for his deployment will be to try to find friends and more company. I keep dipping my toe into events with spouses at the Marine Corps Base, but I need to work on developing relationships. That and I need to figure out how to kill cockroaches (we’ve only had one so far! But that’s not a roommate I would hope to gain)
Send good thoughts and prayers my way. And if there was ever a time you wanted to visit Hawaii and not see Brian… this might be a good one!
Here’s a second picture from the same sunrise for good measure. Unsure if I’ll still wake up so early with Brian gone.
Here’s me playing with some leading lines again. I still feel like for some reason I’m missing the “wow” factor. Maybe I’m just being too hard on myself. Anyway, I want to introduce you to the crew that I call the “puppy parade”
Apparently they more commonly found hiking the pillbox in the morning and she started an instagram called PillBoxPups. You can imagine what they’re all waiting for in this picture…
They’re such a fun crew and tag along behind their owner. Some of my furry sunrise friends!
We live next to one of the most popular hikes in Oahu. In fact, we commonly encounter droves of people walking up our road to climb it. Imagine the sunrise view I get except ~1200 ft higher.
We haven’t gone on that hike… until today. I’ve still been having various health issues, but there’s a special occasion that pushed me to get this hike done (more on that in a later post).
The hike honestly wasn’t terrible. It has been really dry, so the biggest challenge is to not slip on loose soil.
There’s definitely some scrambling and it can get steep; but you have to slow down to scramble so you don’t really feel overly cardiovascularly challenged (except my poor lungs). I was more afraid about having to go back down and slipping. They do have ropes available at some (not all) dicey spots.
We of course couldn’t find our head lamps this morning *face palm* but managed to use our iPhones until enough first light was available. I am always practicing “composition”, and one really important component is leading lines. Leading lines are, if not already obvious, leading lines that direct your eye deeper into the photograph so it adds depth. I was trying to experiment with leading lines and the path. I did ok, but not like, WOW.
Looking toward Marine Corps Base.
Here’s a photo dump.
Our condo is one of these.
“Three peaks” on the left (another popular hike) and enchanted lakes neighborhood in front. The wind was doing something to my hair!
Overall, will I do it on my own, I think probably no. Would I do it if friends were out here or groups were doing it? Probably yes.
I got pretty nervous because it started to sprinkle and get really windy, and I let fear win and didn’t get up on the actual pillbox and started to go back down and sat on a ledge for a bit. I didn’t even grab a picture of it… Brian got on it. I am a little disappointed in myself, but the next time we do it I’ll have a little more confidence and hopefully get on it. It’s right on the edge of the cliff… so don’t judge.
Those are our condos in the background of this next photo. I actually think the first scramble isn’t that bad, and when I got at the top of that I almost chickened out, but I couldn’t do that to Brian today. Maybe I’ll just get there and take pictures to mix up my beach sunrise walks. I think for now my doggo greets, sea glass hunts, and low pressure morning walk is perfect.
I feel like I didn’t NAIL the framing for this and I’m pretty annoyed. This is when a wide angle lens really comes in handy. I’ll share some additional framing tries and vies. Or the sun needed to be closer to the Mokes!! Nonetheless, it was absolutely spectacular to catch.
A few weeks ago I put a monetary hold on buying a paddle board from a very kind woman. I got the impression that this paddle board meant a lot to her so I offered to take pictures of her boarding with her dog before she moves. She took me up on that offer and came to Lanikai yesterday. Brian took his paddle board down with me (this was his second try, his first was way too windy).
It was still windy, but he managed to stand up momentarily and got some practice in. Shortly after the last picture he fell into the water. In fact that might be mid fall.
I then walked to find Megan and her dog. I captured some really great moments of them together, I’m really proud. It was dark and cloudy which was disappointing, it made for some high ISO settings (this makes images blurrier). I also used a lens that I LOVE but doesn’t have great zoom, so when I did edit and zoom in the photos get even blurrier. But I think the essence is captured and I’m still happy with how they turned out.
It was really challenging to get this next photo because the dog was very interested in a coconut and not very interest in posing. So I managed to get the coconut to Megan, which is behind her back, but the dog was not interested in looking at the camera… I’m also bummed about missing the framing by a bit and cropping the top of the board. Enough with the critiquing, though. She loved them, and in her generosity charged me $100 less for the board.
Glad to provide some memories and can’t wait to use the board myself. We went and picked it up later and she taught me how to get it on top of the car and strapped on.
This a picture of Brian using the straps we bought to help lighten the load. He found it very helpful. Hopefully I will, too.
This is the sunrise from Lanikai-As mentioned I’ll add sunrise pictures from days I talk about other stuff 12JUL21
We finally went to Kailua beach, the very popular beach right next to Lanikai. We technically live in Kailua, but Lanikai is the neighborhood we’re in. I was itching to get out of the house last night and neither of us had walked Kailua beach yet, so we went. It was getting dark and it was cloudy, so not a lot of great pictures, but it is generally beautiful during the day. This is looking toward Lanikai, you’ll see one of the islands I photograph (see above) just past the end of the coast.
Very long beach, crazy parking, I don’t see us going here too regularly unless off hours.
