the space-time continuum

With any travel comes the greatly feared and much talked about jet-lag. Mark and I were hoping with the stop over on the west coast the transition would be easy. It didn't. Now we're just stuck on pacific time. The first couple mornings we were here we were waking up at about 3am. I usually went back to sleep but Mark was not as lucky. Added to this problem is sunset here happens at about 6:30pm, right about the time we would be going to bed in Oregon. Oh and it goes down fast. By 6:45pm it's totally dark. Forget about twilight here. Tonight after dinner I picked up a few remaining items that still don't have a home in our new place and then settled down on bed at which point Mark reminded me that it was only 7pm. Talk about disappointment.

Water Sports

Spearfishing. Mark has been talking about wanting to learn how to spearfish since we first decided to move to Honolulu. As luck would have it Zak's (we're staying at his house until we get our own place) son loves to go spearfishing. We met Jimmy on Sunday and he invited us to go with him on Monday. I had not anticipated going myself but somehow I ended up in the water with a snorkel on and a 3 pronged spear in my hand. First off, before Monday I had never been snorkeling. When I first put on the snorkel and tried breathing I had a mini panic attack. I wasn't really sure how to breath. I came up out of the water for a minute or so until I figured out how to breath solely through my mouth.

Once we got going to was incredible. We went just off Waikiki along the coral. There were so many different kinds of fish, they were so beautiful. I just didn't have it in me to spear any of them. I did try a couple of times but I couldn't do it. We were out for about 2 hours and the time passed so quickly. I took a picture of Mark in is slightly too small wet suit but we can't find the cord to connect the camera to the computer so that will have to wait.

My view

Yesterday we met up with Mark's uncle who was in town for the day to go surfing. Well Mark went surfing. I sat myself down on the beach, slathered myself with sunscreen and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Mark had a blast. I took another picture of him but like I said before, no cord. We were down at Waikiki again and while it's a nice beach I don't think I'll make it a habit to go there often. There were so many tourists. All the big hotels are right there. By the time we left a little after 10:30am it was packed.

Today we signed our lease and moved into our new apartment. We went with the 2 bedroom basement apartment. We really love it. We're not sure what to do with the space yet but as soon as we have furniture we'll play around with it and make it work. Maybe once we have more stuff in our place I'll post some pictures.

So they really don't have sidewalks here. Especially in the residential areas. I took this picture as we were walking to the bus yesterday. There is grass all the way up to the curb and you just walk on it. Coming from New York it's more than a little weird.

Gone Fishing?

We're going spearfishing tomorrow...well Mark is going spearfishing. I'm going to snorkel. Earlier I saw this video. I think I'll stick to snorkeling.

Day One

Our first full day in Hawaii is coming to a close and it has been a great day. We tried sleeping in this morning but Mark and I were both wide awake at 5am. I was able to doze back to sleep but Mark was up for good. We had an appointment this morning to see an apartment. It was...small...and kinda dirty. We didn't like it. We had another appointment to see another apartment later in the morning and we were really hoping it was nice. We had our doubts after the first one.

The second place was really nice. It's a 2 bedroom basement unit with a full kitchen (no dishwasher :/ ) shared laundry with the nice lady who lives upstairs and all utilities included. We really liked it. It's a little more than we were thinking we wanted to pay but with all the utilities included (electricity runs $125-$150) we're ok with it. They are doing a bit more work on the place over the weekend (new tile in the shower) and we're going to go back on Tuesday and make a decision.

We saw a third apartment this afternoon that was nicer than the first one but not as nice as the second. It's pretty unlikely that we'll take it.

Ala Moana

For lunch we walked around Honolulu a bit. We went to a hot dog place called Hank's Haute Dogs. It was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Here is a link to the segment on you tube). It was really good. I got a chicken dog with mango relish and Mark got a bacon wrapped, deep fried hot dog. After lunch we walked down to the beach. We went to Ala Moana State Park. It was so nice. It wasn't crowded and the sand was nice without a lot of pebbles. We walked along the water for a bit and then found a shaded bench where we could relax.

In the early evening Zak (he's the guy we're staying with. We knew two of his grandsons in New York) drove us up to Makiki Round Top to see the view of the city. It was beautiful. You can see all of Honolulu. The picture included is looking out over Manoa Valley. University of Hawaii is in the middle ground and Diamond Head is the crater in the background.

A few differences I've noticed so far. There is an actual parking attendant to take your money as you leave the airport parking lot. There is actually a Hawaiian accent

For the most part it was a good day. I am still coming to terms with the fact that we've actually moved to Honolulu but I'm getting there.

On to the next adventure

Well we did it. We left New York. All of last week I was extremely nervous and apprehensive about leaving. I think most of it came from the stress of packing and knowing I was going to have to say goodbye to our lives in New York. We left early on Saturday and got into Seattle right about lunch time. We spent a lovely afternoon with Mark's family and then drove down to Salem that evening. About 20 hours after leaving New York we finally went to bed, completely exhausted.

Now that the actually leaving of New York is over I am feeling so much better. I am so excited to get to Honolulu on Friday. We might have two apartments to look at on Saturday already! The joys of having people in Honolulu that are so willing to help us. We aren't even there yet and we have met some really amazing people. We still really want to spend Saturday at the beach. We still will try but we really want to find a place to live.

Honolulu is going to be really fantastic. We are both so excited to start this new chapter of our lives. I am going to try and post on here more so we can share all the fun and new experiences.