The Big Island, Furniture, Car Saga

This past weekend we flew to Hilo, which is on the Big Island. This was our first experience with Go! airlines. This is a discount airline, which only flies between the islands. The flight only cost $43 one way, but then again the flight was only 37 minutes long! Anyway, our flight on Friday night was 1 hour late and then our flight back to Honolulu was cancelled so they put us on a later flight Sunday night. This was fine with us as it gave us more time in Hilo, however it was 30 minutes late too. I guess "you get what you paid for" is appropriate in this case. On to the juicy details....

First, Chris had Friday afternoon off so we decided we should get Hawaii drivers' licenses. We get a "kama'aina" discount. Kama'aina in Hawaiian means local. We had to take a written test to get our licenses and could only miss 6 out of the 30 questions. Well, we both passed. Chris missed 2 and I just barely passed...I missed 6.

On to Hilo......
We woke up early on Saturday morning and drove to Volcano National Park. (See pictures below) We were one of the first ones there for the day and it was free admission this weekend! :) We drove around the whole park and took many good pictures. It was amazing to see how the lava once flowed and the formations it made. After the park we drove all over the island. We went to the Mauna Loa macadamia factory, the southernmost winery in the US, South Point (the most southern point in the US), black sands beach, etc. You'd think there would be a huge sign or marker at the southernmost point of the US, but in fact there was simply a small plaque on a stone; slightly disappointing! While at South Point we watched a few people jump off a 25-foot cliff into the ocean. Chris thought this looked really cool and contemplated doing it. He realized though that he had no swim trunks or any change of clothes in the car. Wait, no problem--he had boxers on. All he had to do was take his shorts off. Yes, I encouraged him. He stood on the edge in only his boxers deciding if he should jump. I quickly reminded him that he was standing there in his underwear and that he needed to jump. So......

Here he is climbing the ladder back up to the top. He said it was worth it!

This is a lava tube at Volcano National ParkThis is where the road used to be, but lava has covered the road and thus the road is closed!
Here is the volcano during the day.

Here is the volcano at night...see the orange lava?!

After South Point we went to the Black Sands Beach and then we went to see the "live" lava from the viewing point. We took a little hike out to the viewing area and then waited until dark to see the red/orange lava. It was very cool to see!

Us at Black Sands Beach.

Sunday we spent all day driving around the island on scenic routes. We saw many waterfalls and went on a botanical garden tour. We also did some local shopping. It was a great trip! AND our new nephew was born while we were out and about. Austin Thomas Mulder was born to Brian and Jodi (Chris' brother and his wife) on Sunday afternoon! Congrats and we can't wait to see baby Austin in person!

The beautiful waterfalls!

Our new nephew and the new parents!

Furniture~ Our furniture was delivered today! Yay! It definitely filled up our living room! We can't wait until our other things arrive so we can finally move in! We bought paint today and plan to paint our bedroom and bathroom on Thursday.

Car Saga~ This is a very short recap of what happened. The first car we bought here in Hawaii had a salvage title, which we found out after the fact and we didn't think it would be wise to keep the car. After many headaches, discussions, money lost, lessons learned etc. we finally were able to "sell back" the car to the previous owner. This is such a relief to us! We decided to look for another car at a dealership and luckily we found a great car today! It is being detailed and we pick it up tomorrow! We will post pictures of it then!

That is it for now. We are on the downward slide. The REAL thing starts next Wednesday...Chris begins residency and I begin work!

Our "new" home!

Week 2 of our Hawaii adventure begins....

It's official...we signed a lease on Tuesday night for our new townhome! It's too bad we can't officially move in, ok, we could but we don't have anything to move in until our stuff arrives from IA!

This week has been filled with buying lots of new things! Chris had Wednesday off so we headed to the NEX (Navy Exchange) and went on a shopping spree! We started the day by getting my haircut. After that, we bought a bedspread and pillow for your room (yes, you, our guests!) We also bought a bunch of miscellaneous things since we got 10% off all our day's purchases. Chris thought of this as a great opportunity to buy a surfboard! He bought a 9 foot long board, complete with a sock cover and leash. He was so proud walking around the store with it! We had lunch at the NEX and then headed to the NEX furniture store. Chris strapped the surfboard onto the top of our car and off we went! We again used the 10% discount to our advantage! We bought a sectional couch, chair, ottomon, coffee table, 2 end tables, an entertainment center with hutch, area rug, and 2 glass vases! WOW, that is a lot of stuff! It will be delivered to our townhome on Tuesday. I hope it all fits!

Without further ado.....here are the pics of our townhome!

Ok, this is not our townhome (thankfully!). This is our very messy hotel room. Notice our business center on the desk (a computer and printer!) and Chris' surf board in the back right corner?! Just thought you should see how we're living right now!

This is our townhome! Actually, the picture is slightly misleading...the only thing that is ours in this picture is the garage behind the (rental) car and the door to the right of that in the background. Our townhome is just the bottom floor.

Here is our kitchen!

This is a partial picture of the living room. I took a good picture of the wall (as Chris says) and not a good picture of the room.

Here is the dining room!

This is 1/2 of the master bedroom! (Like the baby pink walls? Yeah, we don't either...we're hoping to repaint them if the owners approve of "Appalachian Trail," the green paint we picked out!)

This is the master bathroom! Notice the double sinks, a huge plus! Chris has already claimed the one on the left. (I don't know why, there's nothing different about it!)

This is your room (yes, the guest bedroom)! Sorry about the bad picture, the room is actually much larger!

This is your bathroom (the guest bathroom)!

And...here is our backyard! Yes, this is the WHOLE backyard! There is a little patio part where I'm standing to take the picture.

I will attempt to get better pictures (ok, Chris will take them) of our place with all our stuff! Give us a few weeks though it's still traveling here!

Next on the agenda: Friday--Take a written test to get Hawaii driver's licenses! Yes, a written test! Hopefully we'll pass. Then.....we're flying to Hilo, the BIG island for the weekend! We plan to go to Hawaii Volcano National Park, to the black sand beach, etc.

Watch for a blog post on Monday or Tuesday with details of our trip!

We've Arrived!

ALOHA!!!!!! We have arrived in Hawaii! Actually, we arrived one week ago today! And as promised, I will begin a blog of our Hawaiian adventure for all of our mainland family and friends to stay updated!

We had a wonderful aloha before we left DM. 2 of our friends and my co-workers, Diane and Sheryl, were at the DM airport to see us off. They had authentic Iowa leis for us to wear--complete with farm animals and tractors! It was so nice of them to remember us and send us off! (see pics below!) We got to the hotel and unloaded our 5 suitcases and 2 rubbermaid containers and walked down to the mall for "supper." It was supper time in Hawaii and bedtime in Iowa, but we had to try to stay up as late as we could to get on Hawaii's schedule. We made it until 2am Iowa time, which was 9pm Hawaii time.

Our first week was very busy...here is a short recap:

Monday--(We wake up at 4am Hawaii time) Chris reports to day 1 of orientation at Tripler Army Medical Center. (See Cpt. Mulder's pic below!) This was a day of inprocessing and general "orientation" things. I went to the Waikiki Health Center and met with my supervising physician and the other PAs I will be working with. Oh yeah, I officially accpeted the position and start on July 1! It is a community health center so I will be doing primary care for adults who are homeless, under-insured, or have no health insurance. It will be an interesting job!

Tuesday--Chris reports again to Tripler. I again report to the beach! I also report to WalMart at 10am to stand in line for 77 cent plate lunch and 10 cent Pepsi at the local L&L. Plate lunches are very popular in Hawaii--I had chicken katsu which was breaded chicken with sticky rice and macaroni salad (see picture below). (I waited for 1 hr. 45 min, but anyone who knows me well knows I love deals; and I am not working yet, so what else did I have to do?!) Tuesday night we searched for houses...this has been quite the adventure. You can't get too much for your money here! (A yard? What is that? Central air-conditioning? What is that--we have tradewinds here, just open windows! Washer and dryer--they'll fit real well on your front "lawn" or in your garage. What a garage? Maybe you'll have a one stall, if you're lucky!) Needless to say, after looking at a few places we weren't impressed and went to bed feeling discouraged.

Wednesday--Chris has the day off so we plan more house searching and getting my military id. Another adventure! I waited for my military id for 2 1/2 hours! Eventually I got it and we went on our merry way to search for housing. We were much more successful today! The last "house" we looked at turned out to be the one! We were hesitant to look at it because it only had 2 bedrooms and we really wanted 3, but decided to give it a try. It turned out to be just perfect for us! It's a townhome in Hawaii Kai (apparently. per Hawaiians a VERY nice place to live) with 2 large bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a small "yard," ok, not yard, but small green space just right for a grill and maybe a table with chairs. YAY, success!

Thursday--Chris reports to Tripler again for computer training. A long, boring day for him. He did get done early though! I worked on paperwork for my new job and sat by the pool. Thursday evening we went to Chris' program director's house for a BBQ with all the new interns and their families as well as attending physicians. Chris got his first lei tonight! It was great to meet everyone and eat some real homemade food! (Eating at restaurants all the time does get old!)

Friday--Chris has the day off again! An easy residency so far, right?! Actually, he went golfing with one of his fellow interns. It was a great sunny day! I sat by the pool and thought I applied sunscreen, but missed a few spots! My first Hawaiian sunburn! I also paid for my Hawaiian PA license and dropped off all the paperwork. In 12 days I will hopefully be a licensed PA in Hawaii!

Saturday--We decide we need some furniture for our new house! We head out to the Navy exchange, which is the largest post exchange in the world. It's a mall, grocery store, barber shop, beauty salon, furniture store, etc, etc..... Needless to say, I loved the place! We found some furniture we liked, a TV we liked, Chris found a surf board he liked, etc, etc..... We will be headed back on Wednesday to buy our furniture since it goes on sale then!

Today--We went to church this morning. It was the same church I went to when I was here in 2006. After church, we headed to the beach. Chris went out in the HUGE waves and body boarded while I layed peacefully on the beach! It was a perfect Sunday afternoon! We also went to the $1.25 movie, Sunshine Cleaning. There is one cheap theatre here--movies during the week and weekend matinees are $1.25 and $1.50 on the weekend evenings. It's almost Iowa prices! Sadly, they are closing the theatre in August. We'll have to get in a few good movies before that!

That's a wrap for our first week. I'm not sure about this blogging thing. Hopefully I didn't reveal too many boring details and hopefully you'll enjoy reading future posts. Thanks for all the well wishes and we'd love to have each and every one of you come visit us!

**Stay tuned for pictures of our "new" car and townhome!!