I snuck away from work for the sunrise today, big surprise no one missed me. I just got back for a walk around 4pm to pick up trash and made a mistake before leaving. Rule 1 of Hawaii: Always wear sunscreen Rule 2: If you think you don’t need sunscreen because it’s past 3pm, see Rule 1. Hopefully I have enough of a base layer that it won’t be too bad tomorrow.
I saw this lovely Sandcastle, the biggest I’ve seen yet.
And tried to grab a selfie with my full trash bag and plumeria tree to redeem the mood. Have you ever tried to take a selfie with a full trash bag and a plumeria tree in the background? If you haven’t because you would think it a crazy idea, you’re correct.
I get a few thank you’s and thumbs up when I’m doing this. Today, a lady said “It is both sad and heartwarming that I see you do that” and that’s a pretty good summation.
Dad had his hip surgery today and all went well. He was able to call me after surgery. Tomorrow he needs to be able to walk and walk up a step to go home. I am pretty confident with his ego will he will.
Last night I dreamt that I had another sub family visit us and as soon as they settled in I started balling to the wife about how hard it is to be a subwife and she basically said “Yup, suck it up”. Which is NOT her personality at all. It really truly isn’t all that awful right now, but still funny I dreamt it.
Sunrise walks are taking a hiatus while I am on backup to the backup to the backup for this manufacturing run. If they end early they’ll hopefully tell us. Otherwise, see you next week sunrise.
I brought my new lens with me for my sunrise walk, which zooms in really far, which is great but not for landscapes. I wanted to switch things up and I haven’t really had an opportunity to try it yet. It didn’t come out terrible, but I certainly can’t get the framing that I love.
However, I was able to zoom in to show you the amount of people you can expect at the top of the pillbox hike taking in this view. Apparently I need to work on my focus.
I will attempt the hike soon. I’ve had more trouble breathing the last few days than normal, I’m not sure why… but that’s kinda how it goes with this.
When I got to the end of the beach today and observed the shoreline I noticed patches of gray that were distinctly not clouds. They looked like they could be other islands in the distance… weirdly I haven’t ever noticed them before. I mustered up the confidence to chat with one of the regulars I see, and they were kind enough to point out what I was looking at.
Apparently on clear days you can see to other islands! Maybe I’ve always assumed they were clouds.
I distinctly remember visiting Catalina island and my sister-in-law saying “This is going to be you guys soon, living on an island!” and a quick wave of panic flooded through me as I realized the implications of that statement. However, at the time we were on a tiny island that took twenty minutes to drive to the other side. There were more golf carts than cars. Oahu is certainly a lot bigger and more populous. That being said, sometimes, like when I can see ocean for days and distant small islands, I come to the very clear realization that I am on a tiny plot of land in the middle of a giant ocean and get kinda claustrophobic (that’s the best way I can think to describe it, maybe there’s another word? Like I’m stuck in a small area in the middle of nowhere?). But then I ground myself and bring my thoughts to what my tiny little bubble actually is and that it isn’t entirely different from my old tiny bubble. Gym, work, church, grocery store, husband, friends, even the beach. Some moments it feels really far from things, but most of the time it’s not much different than anywhere else I’ve lived. I don’t think the feeling will ever go away; I more assume it’ll become normal and fleeting.
Brian is working late again tonight, so I’m on my own for dinner. Ice cream?
Megan has been a great companion to have for the last couple weeks. She’s as adventurous as I am and willing to do just about anything. We had free time one afternoon so we adventured to Byodo-In Temple.
The Byodo-In Temple is located at the foot of the Ko’olau Mountains in Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. It was established on June 7, 1968, to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. The Byodo-In Temple in O’ahu is a smaller-scale replica of the over 950-year-old Byodo-in Temple, a United Nations World Heritage Site in Uji, Japan.
It’s really really beautiful. It also acts as burial grounds and accepts all walks of faith; there was a specific area for Catholics. It was really crowded for a Friday afternoon at 2pm. It was $5 to get in. The first thing you do is walk the bridge over the coy pond, which had HUGE coy. Like, could feed a man for a week huge. Didn’t get a picture I guess.
Then you get to a gong. Ringing it is supposed to bring you inner peace and clear your mind before you go into the temple. About 25 ft away was a meditation gazebo. I can tell you not much meditating was happening there.
You then get to walk inside, but have to remove your shoes and carry them through. Amida Budda is inside, and you can light a small stick of incense to place inside an offering pot I guess? This made me uncomfortable in the “thou shalt not have other Gods before me” way so I passed.
On the back side the coy pond continues and there’s more to the temple. There’s a small garden and places to sit. I was trying to get a good picture of a black swan and this budda, but it was in a high traffic area so I couldn’t get the framing right.
Then you wrap around the front and get a gorgeous view of the whole thing.
We spent maybe a half hour there? And went to visit this very pretty garden with ocean view they were advertising, but it was basically just more cemetery plot space.
For $5 it was ok to experience one time. I’ll probably go back with Brian because he has been to Japan and might find it interesting. I generally thought it was over crowded. Very beautiful.
This sunrise was very unique for a lot of reasons. First, my house keys are in Brian’s car which is at the Navy base… not helpful but at least not totally lost.
I think summer solstice was technically yesterday, but this morning some native Hawaiians were celebrating it with a path of flowers on the beach and some chanting. I didn’t take a picture out of respect, but it was neat to see.
The tide was really low, the lowest I’ve seen walking on the beach. This gave a huge opportunity for sea glass collecting. My biggest haul yet!
I was also able to get around a corner where the beach isn’t usually exposed. It still wasn’t, but it was shallow enough for me to try. I could see down the shoreline. I walked quickly for fear of being trapped, but I’d like to go back with Brian.
Here’s a picture from a different day of the reefs sticking out of the water during low tide.
I also saw a new creature. Not sure what it is. Sea snake? ETA- Undulated Moray Eel
And I found a big ish jellyfish. Usually they’re a lot smaller and I almost mistake them for seaglass. These guys do sting and can hurt pretty good. We think Brian experienced it, but not totally sure, and he’s fine now. I haven’t yet and been in maybe a half dozen times? I saw a lot more of them because it’s low tide, but you’ll also see a lot if there has been a storm.
I’m writing to you from our new table top. It’s very pretty particularly when the sun hits it. There are little sea shells and turtles and sand in the epoxy and it looks like the sea.
I had quite the adventure going to the DMV today. First, it’s really hard to get appointments, but I stalked the site like my friend suggested and was bumped from June 29th to today. I had to first get a failed safety inspection for my registration. Well, it also failed for “Tail lamps” except they didn’t tell me. I only saw it when reviewing paperwork. I figured I could get it registered and then go fix it… but nope. So I started crying at the DMV… It’s just so frustrating getting the run around, and in the military we experience it so much more often than most. I went back to the auto place and turns out it was a mistake and I passed… some good news, no repairs needed. The lady at the DMV was nice enough to give me a ticket to come back tomorrow. I filled out a registration application I found online… turns out it’s the application for the Big Island and not Oahu. Now I have to have Brian sign that, even though our title says “OR”, and I should be able to do everything. I tried to use a power of attorney, but turns out you need a specific one for cars, and I don’t have that one. Finally, the transportation service that received our car gave us a Bill of Lading, but didn’t put the date on it… so there’s another form for that and trying to figure out the date. There’s one more form I wanted her to look over before I left, but when I offered it, she said “Oh, you don’t need that”. I DEFINITELY need that form. So here’s to hoping it’s correct tomorrow. What’s more is there is still paperwork for Connecticut we need to deal with. What a circus.
I called a friend really upset and crying after the DMV. She’s a subspouse too, and it’s nice to be able to commiserate with someone who gets the circus we get put through trying to accomplish things. We have to bear the burden because God forbid Brian get anytime off to help.
On the bright side, I received my new camera lens today and can’t wait to start posting zoomed in pictures.
This is one of the photos I snapped of the couple watching the sunrise together. I grabbed their email and sent them the pictures, they were grateful! I hope they actually print it out.
I’ll tack on the sunrise pictures from the morning of the adventures of the day of blog post topic moving forward.
Brian’s friend Ty from when he served on the USS San Fransisco is in the Navy Reserves and had orders for a couple weeks in Hawaii. He and his girlfriend, Megan, arrived on Sunday and we gave them a proper hello by decorating their necks with a Lei and ate dinner at Waikiki brewing in Waikiki. Megan came to us before Ty, they came on separate flights, and I admired her self confidence enough to come meet people she’s never met before.
With all things Navy, she’s winging her scheduled according to what Ty can accomodate (which has changed… and changed… and changed again in the short time they’ve been here) On Monday she headed our way for the afternoon, and I didn’t have a lot of work going on so I played hooky. In the morning I had a stress test appointment for my heart. I haven’t been quite the same since having COVID, so it’s more reassurance that nothing is wrong organ wise. I passed with flying colors.
After, we met for lunch at Kapalawai market, a pretty famous local Hawaiian deli/convenience store. The food is really good beach food. We took our sandwiches and made our way to Lanikai so she could see the beach. We went for a quick swim, walk, and then went to the Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden. It is a beautiful hidden gem, and free! Although I intend to donate.
It’s a very big park so it’s organized such that you drive to different parking locations and walk to explore a section of the park. We started at the first section to visit the lake. It’s a huge coy pond with tons of coy.
I’ll jump forward to our third spot, which was the “seasonings” path, we think. It had a really great view of the lake, and the only “Seasoning” we recognized was a tree that smelt like popcorn. As we were walking toward it, Megan was wondering if someone was eating popcorn.
We went to another section (this was our second stop) that has a great view of the mountains and the ocean. Here, there’s a plaque explaining you’re in the center (Caldera) of what once was a volcano. The volcano geography is what gives Hawaii the unique ridges on the mountain sides. We could see the view of the bay. The walk up to the viewpoint is awkwardly steep, so the lady told us to walk backwards, also so we could see the view. The mountains make up the Ko’olau Range.koʻolau means “windward” in Hawaiian
The park closes relatively early, at 4pm, so we left and explored the Marine Corps Base (I wanted to show her more private, quieter beach options). I’ll make a post about how in love I am with that base later. We tried to go to the commissary, the military grocery store, but it’s closed on Mondays… so went to Target instead. Then she went back to Waikiki.
That was my hooky half day. Definitely going back to the gardens with Brian and to see other parts.
