Everything is Awesome... except, you know, the parts that aren't.

 In case you haven't heard, we moved to Hawaii.  Honolulu, Oahu to be exact.  We found out that we had orders to this duty station in July and have clung to the Dream of Hawaii ever since.  The Dream of Hawaii got me through Cliff's deployment and a seriously stressful move, (is there any other kind?!)  Mostly this dream became a reality when we arrived on the island on November 24th, but you know how the military is.  They prefer "challenges" to dreams so we started off our tour with some (yay!) fun "challenges."  We spent just over 6 weeks in a very small hotel room and were taken on a ride by the Housing office, but... that's ok and it's all behind us now.  Despite the challenges, we've had a lot of silver linings too and we are starting to settle in.  So far Hawaii has fallen short of, met, and totally exceeded expectations and I will attempt to give a quick breakdown:

Fallen a bit short:
- So.... Hawaii has a bit of a crime problem.  This was totally UNexpectedby me.  Maybe the rest of you out there are watching Hawaii Five-O, but I sadly was out of the loop.  When we first moved here there were a couple of murders locally.  One of them was a military spouse in her home.  Car break-ins are a thing.  Everyone locks all of their doors and turns down blinds when they leave the house for any amount of time and garage doors are always closed.  Another military spouse was the victim of an attempted car-jacking at the Target that I shop at.  It was in the afternoon and she had her children with her.  Not so awesome.   I guess it comes with a big city? 

- It's hard to feel like you are in paradise when you are confronted with the reality of poverty in Hawaii.  I'll admit it.  I was terribly ignorant of the extreme poverty here and it's sad.  Really sad.  I'm glad that I am aware of it now, because we hope to do some serious volunteering here, but it's also been a wake-up call.  I wonder how many Americans on the Mainland have ANY idea?  There are homeless tent cities here that the tourists will never see.

- SHIPPING.  Shipping anything to Hawaii is EXPENSIVE.  I became an independent consultant for UBAM this summer and enjoyed my relatively inexpensive standard shipping for my products very very much.  I have also thoroughly enjoyed our Amazon Prime membership for the past couple of years.  Not anymore!  Amazon Prime is still free... but you wait and wait and wait for it.  UBAM?  Arm, leg, and future children.

-  THE TRAFFIC.  I grew up just north of Atlanta and Cliff and I have made multiple trips to DC via the Beltway.  Nope.  Not even close.

- For some reason I thought there would be beaches everywhere I looked a people dropping out of palm trees with drinks in pineapples and ukulele music.  You have to DRIVE through said traffic to get to the good beaches.  We are slowly but surely learning where and when to go, but it was a bit of a surprise.  I also thought that every inch of Oahu would look like the lush wet jungle of "Jurassic Park" or the show "Lost."   Some parts of Hawaii definitely look like that.  A lot of parts look like concrete jungle Japan only more dilapidated and more potted palms and hibiscus.  There are a TON of chain-link fences.  

- Military families are are lot less friendly than I was expecting.  When we moved to Japan we were instantly taken in and I made some of the best friends of my life very quickly.  For some reason I thought that moving to another OCONUS station would be similar, but it's not.  It's very much "fend for yourself" out here.  Fortunately I have learned to be outgoing and less sensitive, but this definitely came as a surprise.  I am very thankful to have a church network wherever we go or I would probably be pretty lonely.  I have also found a great mom's group that meets on Mondays, but you definitely have to be willing to put yourself out there more than any other place that I have lived! 

-  No Michael's Craft Store and no Chic-Fil-A.  Yeah, yeah, I'll quit whining now.  But seriously.    

 Expectations met and absolutely exceeded:  When you do get to the beaches they are gorgeous.  GORGEOUS.  Postcard travel channel gorgeous.  Idyllic.  So we try to go to the beach whenever we can.

- The hiking is varied and fabulous views are often less than a mile away on many hikes.  Quite a few are keiki friendly. 

- I will say that my expectations were exceeded in the bug department, but not in the way that you think.  The bug situation is a million times BETTER than I thought it would be.  I have yet to see a spider of any kind and the only roach I have seen was a tiny german cockroach and it was in the Navy Lodge.  I have yet to see a large centipede, but I know they are out there.  Cliff saw one while he was on his bike to work.  I am grateful for the lack of big crawlies in our home. 

- We've found a lot of good food and although we don't have Trader Joe's here, we DO have Costco and have been able to cook and eat the way we want to.  We even had our traditional "Bethlehem" dinner in the hotel room thanks to an awesome Israeli restaurant that provided both the pita bread and hummus.  We have also found excellent food at the local farmers' market.  There are a TON of Japanese restaurants and that has been super fun for us too.  The girls love their mochi ice cream too. 

 - I don't have a ton of experience with commissaries since I really only shopped at one when we lived in Japan, but I have to say the commissaries here have exceeded my expectations.  They really do save us money and if you skip the Pearl store and head to Hickam, it makes for a less crowded and more peaceful experience as well.   We love being able to buy organic chicken for so much less. 

 - My expectations were also FANTASTICALLY exceeded by the weather.  There is nothing on Earth better than the weather in Hawaii.  It is just so darn PLEASANT.  Never too hot and never too too cold.  I sometimes where a light open cardigan, but I have yet to be freezing or miserably hot.  I will have to check back in this summer, but it looks like the temps are mostly pretty consistent the year round. 

 I will try to check in again soon, but until then... ALOHA!