Eating Our Way Around the Island

Same lei, different day! Jordan and I were greatly excited to arrive in Hawaii yesterday; however, due to the exhaustion, the lack of personal car to explore with, and somewhat work-mode mindset Jordan had to snap into when being picked up by his sponsor,  we didn't truly experience the initial enthusiasm of HAWAII!!!!!! Plus, the weather was pretty overcast and rainy, which didn't allow us to see much during our flight or drive in. So, yesterday morning, we picked up our rental car, put our tourist leis back on, and set off to really experience Hawaii for the first time.

Waking up on an island in the Sea, with the Hawaiian newspaper hanging outside our door.

View from our room at the hotel lodge on base, definitely feels like an island

They also have a Hawaii Marine paper, that Jordan enjoyed scouring over with his morning coffee

Lush vegetation around the lodge

Ready to explore!

The view leaving base

The view from the road looking back at Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay

More sights from our drive 

Jordan and I are also on a mission to buy a car here in Hawaii in the next few days since we sold the Z before leaving California and the Audi won't be arriving for another two weeks by ship.  So, in attempt to kill two birds with one stone, we decided to drive around the island, experiencing the sites and views, as we drove between each of our car appointments that day. We ended up making a driving tour of almost the entire island yesterday,  from Honolulu and Waikiki Beach to North Shore and the famous Pipeline surf beach, and basically everything in between. Along the way, we sampled all sorts of yummy local fares and took in the most magnificent sights.

Our first car appointment was in the Honolulu/Waikiki area. After test-driving the first car, we headed down to check out the world famous beach. The beach and surrounding environment reminded us a little bit of a smaller, cleaner, and less crowded (at least for now) version of South Beach in Miami, with it's high rise buildings and hotels, the breathtaking and crystal teal-blue waters and the beautiful grassy parks that met right up with the sand. The scene was completed, although not always appealingly-so, with old men sitting on park benches and walking around proudly in thong-speedos, as well as both local beach bums and tourists alike sharing and enjoying the sun, sand and water, and lastly and perfectly, even a young kid playing the ukele, quite well I might add, sitting in the sand with his very tan, shirtless back, resting up against the base of a palm tree as he played. It will be the perfect place to explore more one day with our beach cruiser bikes when they finally arrive with the rest of our household goods shipment in 4-8 weeks. 

Sights around Waikiki beach area

After only briefly taking in the area, Jordan's tummy began to rumble, and we decided that we both would prefer to find some good, local Hawaiian food, as opposed to the tourist-ridden, Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory-type, chain places we came across in Honolulu. After hearing about delicious locals' food trucks up in the North Shore, we decided to make a drive up the coast to head that direction. Well as the saying goes, it not about the destination, but the journey, and our journey was absolutely gorgeous. I think I took nearly 100 pictures yesterday, trying to capture all the amazing sights! 

Going wikiwiki (quick) on the Likelike (pronounced leaky leaky) highway up to North Shore from Honolulu. Although the speed limit was only 45 in most places, we just liked saying the phrase.

Lush views from the Likelike highway

On our way up from Honolulu to North Shore, basically the southern most end of the island to the very northern, and 1.5 hour distance, we decided to pull over to the side of the road at what looked to be an authentic, local-type, food place. I need to find a better word than food place but it's not exactly what you would call a restaurant; however, it was exactly what we were hoping to find and experience along our drive. The Waiahole Poi Factory was a weather-worn, barn looking structure right on the side of the highway. There were a few picnic tables out front, with a few burly looking men chowing down (it must be good then, right?) , and quite a few chickens running freely. They boasted their specialities of Kalua Pig and Poi, so naturally that's what we had to try. We shared a plate of smoked Kalua pig, poi, and what appeared to be some form of a salsa fresca, which since we are no longer in California,  I guess would just be considered freshly and finely diced tomatoes. The combination was definitely unique and a new experience for both of us, especially the poi, which neither one of us had ever had heard of before. When given the option of rice or poi, we inquired as to what exactly poi was. The lady at the barn window searched for the equivalent word in English to describe this Hawaiian staple, and described it as their starch they used for many meals. After further research on our own, we found that Poi is made from an underground stem of a taro plant, or the Kalo in Hawaiian.

The Waiahole Poi Factory on the side of the highway

The beautiful backdrop. That's our rental car in the background, we literally pulled over on the highway and ran across the street. We park for Poi!

Chicken!

The brown stuff in the circular container in the back is the Poi. It was definitely interesting tasting on it's own, but when you combined the Kalua Pig, the Poi and the tomatoes, it was actually quite tasty. The white cube is a Hawaiian dessert known as Haupia. It's basically a coconut tasting gelatin, made from coconut milk and arrowroot and in modern recipes, sugar and salt is added as well. 

Had to pull over to take a picture of Chinaman's Hat Island. Apparently you can reach the Island by foot at low tide! Another adventure we will have to try!

More shots of the beautiful scenery we saw just driving around the island. 

Upon seeing this awesome road-side stand,  we decided we had to stop here as well and made a quick u-turn across the highway to pull in.

Our big purchase: one coconut! They took a small machete, shaved down a small section near the top, stabbed a hole in the coconut, and said grab two straws! It was that easy,  and soooooooo delicious! Much better than the coconut water you can buy in stores!

I love this picture because it's not posed at all. Jordan is SERIOUSLY so concerned by how much coconut water I was drinking during the taking of this picture! hahahahhaha, it was THAT good!

There's a coconut in our cup-holder! We must be in Hawaii!

An hour and half after leaving Honolulu, we discovered the infamous North Shore food trucks, that began to litter the side of the highway. There were a ton, and each smelled absolutely delish as we drove by. We had a hard time deciding which one to stop at. Finally we chose Kahuiki Shrimp, because it had rave reviews on yelp, and shared a plate of butter-garlic shrimp. We were not dissapointed.

  

This place too had chickens and roosters roaming free

Butter garlic, finger-lickin' good, shrimp!

North Shore Beach. Although it was nearly 80 degrees, the beach was almost completely empty! Apparently this is off-season!

As you can see, we had an absolute blast just driving around the island yesterday in search of our new Island mobile, which we may or may not have already found and be in the process of buying, but I will save that for another day. One of the most entertaining parts of the day was listening to Barb (aka Barbara, or in regular people's terminology, the GPS voice) try and pronounce all the Hawaiian street and highway names as she dictated the directions to us for our next destination. We often missed a turn because her pronunciation was so off that we didn't identify the street as the one she had just spoken even when we actually came up to it. For example, apparently Kailua (Kah-ee-l-oo-ah, this is my own personal phonetical breakdown) is pronounced Kyle in Barb's book. Although I shouldn't give Barb too hard of a time, as Jordan and I too had difficulty trying to pronounce all the words we came across throughout the day. I quickly decided that since we were going to be living here for the next 3-4 for years, we should start familiarizing ourselves with the pronunciation of the Hawaiian language so as to not look completely ridiculous and befuddled all the time. Upon doing a quick google search, here is what I learned:

1. There are 5 vowels in the Hawaiian language (a,e, i, o, and u) and only 7 consonants (h, k, l , m, n, p, and w). That's it. That's the entire alphabet. Consonants are pronounced as you would do so pretty much anyway in the English language, while vowels are said to be closer to how they are pronounced in Spanish:

a – ah, as in father: aloha
e – a, as in may: nene
i – ee, as in bee: honi
o – oh, as in so: mahalo
u – oo, as in spoon: kapu

2. It's easiest to pronounce the word when you break it down into single syllable chunks, as Jordan's sponsor explained to us on the first day.

4. Sometimes the W is pronounced like a V, which is why traditionally, Hawai'i is pronounced huh-vi-ee instead of huh-why-ee.

5. A symbol directly over a vowel called a kahakō indicates that the vowel sound is to be elongated. A apostrophe like symbol called an `okina indicates a quick break in the word, like in English when we say “oh-oh”. So, for the Hawaiian word ka‘a, which is the word for “car” it would be pronounced: “Kah-ah”

This cliff-notes version of the Hawaiian language that I found on Hawaiian-words.com (literally! Could it be any easier to google?), definitely helped us to not sound like complete ignorant haoles (slang for someone of caucasian descent or a non-local to the island), or at least slightly less so! The locals are pretty interesting when giving directions as well. Upon driving to a couple of the car destinations, to locations that Barb was unable to locate, we got verbal directions from the sellers.  One guy asked Jordan if he knew where North Shore Tacos was, granted we told him we had just arrived last night, and lived a full 45 minutes from his area. So no, we don't know where North Shore Tacos is! Another guy, mentioned his car was parked at the Safeway parking lot...uhhhh, is there only one Safeway on the Island? Apparently so. And our absolute favorite went something like this, from where you are in Waialua, you're going to head south on the Kamehameha Hwy and merge right once you pass The Dole Pineapple Plantation on your right. Did you try and say that out-loud? And have you ever heard that one before...turn right after the pineapple plantation? We absolutely couldn't get enough of it, and are cherishing and giggling at these new "firsts" of our time here in Hawaii. 

Well I don't think I can end this post without mentioning the 4th member of our new Hawaiian family. No, I am not pregnant. Did I get ya there for a second though? I am referring to the fish we have eaten every night for dinner for our first three dinners here: Poke! Poke, poke, poke. We can't get enough of the Hawaiian Ahi Poke!  Although another day eating our way around the island, and I may fool a few more people on the pregnant joke! Yikes! Luckily, 90% of our diet here has thus far consisted soley of fish! But anyway, back to the Poke. The first night, without a car, we took a risk and grabbed some from the seafood department at the commissary, paired it with a little Ocean Salad, and we were totally impressed. So much so, we were craving it again the next night. Night two, off a Poke recommendation from the lady at the commissary, we went to Foodland in the nearby town of Kailua...did you pronounce that right? They had quite the selection, literally a whole poke case of different flavors and combinations. We went with a California Poke (which tasted similar to the flavoring of a Sushi California Roll) and a Spicy Thai Poke. We mixed it over a bed of spinach lettuce, threw in some fresh sliced avocado and drizzled with a balsamic vinagrette, and wa-lah, poke heaven once again. Still not quite poke-ed out, tonight we had Poke Fish Tacos, from North Shore Tacos (since we now know where that is) which boasts the Island's #1 fish tacos. They were definitely good as well, but I think tomorrow, we may give something else a try. Although, you do have to get creative when temporarily living in a hotel on base when it comes to meals, especially with only a microwave and mini-fridge at your disposale. So, for that reason, raw fish has been our go-to for the time being.

Blurry pic of our first night's dinner, commissary ocean salad and ahi poke! Delish!

Alrightly, well I am going to wrap this up so I can head back out to livin' Island life. Hopefully, I can update you all soon with details of our Island car, fingers crossed everything works out. 

Aloha from Oahu!

Aloha! We have arrived in Hawaii! Our last week in California was hectic, and a bit stressful in preparation for this move, but thankfully, amongst all of the craziness, we were able to find time to spend with a lot of our family and friends right before we left.

Last weekend, I attended my good friend Emily's wedding in Simi Valley. It could not have been a more beautiful day for a wedding. The weather was 75, sunny, and with an ever-so gentle breeze. The nervous excitement and overwhelming happiness the bride and groom had for eachother that day was adorable and so enchanting to see.

 In an attempt to keep this blog as up-to-date as possible during this transitional time, I may keep the writing to a minimum and let the pictures do the talking...

Emily, the bride, and us three bridesmaids getting beautified for the wedding!

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the ceremony itself, since my hands were occupied by a bouquet, but this was the setting. A beautiful, white-rose-lined aisle and gazebo, with a setting overlooking Wood Ramch Golf Club in Simi Valley.

Aren't the centerpieces at the reception just magnificent?

Jade was one of Emily's bridesmaids as well, and was my partner in party planning over these last few months. One of these days I'll have to upload pics of the beautiful (if I do say so myself) bridal shower we threw.

Jordan and I at the reception.

One of our favorite parts of the wedding, was the photo booth they had set up. They had all sorts of crazy costumes and accessories for you to use. And after your 4 quick shots were captured, the machine printed out two sets, one as a keepsake for the guest, and the second to be placed in the guest book! As you can see, we had so much fun!

Wedding cake smash, she got him pretty good!

The live band was great, and they really engaged the crowd! And yep, this is the groom, testing out his " Guitar Hero" skills in real life. It was awesome! Another of our favorite parts of the night. 

Last Sunday was Easter, and we drove down from the wedding in Simi Valley that morning to head to my parents' house. We first decided to make a couple of pit stops on the way down. First a quick visit to the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum, and then to attend Saddleback church services at their grand opening of their new LA location. They were located right in the heart of Hollywood, and knowing all the good Saddleback does in their existing communities, as well as across the world, we could SEE, just amongst our immediate surroundings in a square block, all the good they would have the potential to bring to the community and the people there that would be touched and would benefit from the type of love and service Saddleback is known for. It was a very moving service; however, the most awesome part was witnessed after the service itself came to an end. After preaching the service, Rick Warren offered to baptize all of those who decided to give their heart to The Lord that day, right there in a makeshift baptismal pool, in the parking lot of Hollywood High School. I was blown away and moved by the vast number of people who stood in line to be baptized after the service. It had to be 75-100 people! Nearly an hour later, when we passed by the location again, there was still a giant crowd supporting, participating in and waiting their turn to be baptized. It was truly a magical and beautiful moment to witness.

Piece of the Berlin Wall, and a gorgeous backdrop of the Simi Valley at the Ronald Reagan Library.

The first services were held at Hollywood High School that Easter Sunday; however, they have now moved to their permanent home at the Hollywood Palladium, fancy huh?!?

Look who attended, Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey, the producers of the new blockbuster, Son of God.

Attending Saddleback in person will be one of the things we will miss greatly about living back in California, which is why after Sunday's service Jordan went up to Kay Warren and teasingly suggested she tell her husband that Saddleback Honolulu should be the next Saddleback location to launch. Can't you just see it now, the worship band with ukeleles? Rick in a Hawaiian shirt? Well, we think it would be absolutely awesome!

During our time in Carlsbad, we looked forward to our weekly Sunday drive up to the Saddleback San Clemente location and loved rocking out with the awesome worship band there. We absolutely were in love with the lead singers amazing voice, and loved to joke that Jordan had a "man crush" on his vocals. Our good friends, Abby and Charles, even started to join us on Sundays in San Clemente, and I will definitely miss that time shared together and the deeper bond it helped to develop amongst the 4 of us friends.

Easter Sunday was absolutely perfect in my book. It was so great to have the majority of the family together, enjoying the gift of one another, and celebrating the blessed day. As we have grown older, life and new family dynamics have made getting so many of us together in one spot harder and harder, so last Sunday was such a special treat. I especially enjoyed the next generation of little ones playing and giggling with eachother. What could be more precious than the innocence and pure joy of a child's laughter. Wish I would have taken more pics! If anyone did, please share them with me!

The rest of the week was quite a blur, but we managed to see Jordan's mom, his dad, most of our friends, and spend one last day in Carlsbad and trip to The Compass (a fav little restaurant) with my parents and Troy, before the big move.

Said goodbye to the Reeds (again). We have been together since Virginia, Florida, and Florida again the second time. We have shared holidays, heartache, and so much happiness! And no, we didn't plan on matching our spouses, weird. Jordan and I drove separately and found that we were both wearing obnoxious neon yellow hahaha. Who does that?

I am going to miss this girl beyond words. We have seen each other through so much as we have adjusted to our new lives as military spouses from the very beginning, see: The Sisterhood of the Marine Corps

Abby and Me, at Pizza Port in Carlsbad. I'll miss this girl, she has become my workout partner, church friend, and partner-in-crime over these last 6 months.

Our good friends, the Trujillos. We first met them way back before we left California, when we all lived in Irvine together. It has been exciting to see the guys' military careers grow over the years, with new adventures and challenges, and of course their family grow, with the addition of little Noah, who is now nearly 15 months old, and running all over the place, hence the blurry face in the pic. That boy is going to be an athlete!

One last day together in Carlsbad Village.

I don't know how we managed to do it all, amongst all the visiting and festivities, but somehow we did. I also don't know how we managed to fit 7 suitcases, 3 carry ons, a dog kennel, 3 people and a dog in one car to the airport, but we did that also. I am so thankful to have lived near my family during this time, not only of course because of the time spent together over these last 6 months, but I honestly don't know how we would have gotten through this last move without them. From borrowing a car so we could ship and sell ours ahead of time, to spending the night (on the floor!) to help us load up the car and take us to the airport bright and early yesterday morning,  to all the other simple acts of generosity like storing and re-delivering furniture, puppy sitting their grand-dog on numerous occasions, etc etc etc, we could not have done it without them. We were definitely spoiled by having the support of family so near to us!

Saying bye to my dad at the airport.

Checking Gunns in at the airport, poor little guy!

So excited for our next adventure to begin!

We loved that even the flight attendants on the plane had little flowers behind their ears! Starting to get excited for Island life!

We arrived!!!!! Jordan had a sponsor from his squadron that picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel. They also gave us a quick tour of the base. The absolute best part of their Hawaiian hospitality, was that they also greeted us with leis! I have been looking forward to getting a Hawaiian lei all week, and was so bummed when we found out the airlines no longer offered them. So I couldn't have been more excited by their thoughtful gesture!

Jordan was starvinnnngggggg when we finally got to our hotel, so we made a quick stop at the grocery store for some Hawaiian food staples: poke tuna, Hawaiian ocean salad and macadamia nuts.

Super exhausted, but so excited for my Hawaiian lei. I sent this pic to my parents and they thought I was crying, so when I also didn't respond to my texts for an extended period of time, they began to worry that Gunnar didn't make it... 

Well here is your proof-of-life picture, we all made it safe, happy and tired as can be. 

After taking this picture, stuffing our bellies with poke, all 3 of us fell asleep at 7pm with the sun still shining, which is why at 4 am I was wide awake and ready to blog!

Looking forward to exploring the island today, so stay tuned!

Aloha!