Our adventure to a new life started with an emotional separation from the life that I had made in Omaha and the temporary good bye to the friends that I wasn’t sure I could live without. I very quickly realized that I wasn’t going to have to. Hundreds of miles away and we still chat like we are down the road from each other.
We boarded the plane in St. Louis and prepared for the 8-hour fun to begin. Two movies, my Spotify playlist and 3 healthy prepackaged meals later we were about to land in the place that we will call home for the next 4 years. Flying west we flew with the sun and landed in Honolulu at 7p.m. HST. This was literally the longest day of my life. When I stepped off the jet bridge and took a look around the airport I was so thrilled to see exactly what I imagined. I saw beautiful ladies in floral dresses passing out leis and heard reggae music playing. From shivering and cold to comfortable and warm. Even as the sunset, the warmth felt amazing on my skin.
The next few weeks brought so much craziness and busy days. The hunt for a place to call home was on! We settled into the Navy Lodge on Ford Island and started getting all of our in-processing done. It was a solid 2 weeks before I even set foot on a beach or stuck my toes in the sand. For anyone who has ever moved you know how much work goes into restarting your life in a new location. As a military wife it is something that I am getting to know a lot about. It is exciting and fun but also scary and stressful.
One of the first things that we have learned on the Island is that no matter where you are or where you want to go, you will definitely be running into traffic. There are so many fitness facilities here and so many places that look like a great place to train and teach classes. The big question is, where will it be? This just depends on where we are going to live. It makes no sense for me to drive an hour to a gym when there could be one 15 minutes away, right? The saying, “Hurry up and wait.” Could not be any truer than in the middle of a P.C.S. (Permanent change of station). The atmosphere here is exactly what you think about when you think of Hawaii. It is paradise and people here seem so at ease and so happy. The kindness we have seen has been such a wonderful thing. People here have made us feel welcome and accepted.
We boarded the plane in St. Louis and prepared for the 8-hour fun to begin. Two movies, my Spotify playlist and 3 healthy prepackaged meals later we were about to land in the place that we will call home for the next 4 years. Flying west we flew with the sun and landed in Honolulu at 7p.m. HST. This was literally the longest day of my life. When I stepped off the jet bridge and took a look around the airport I was so thrilled to see exactly what I imagined. I saw beautiful ladies in floral dresses passing out leis and heard reggae music playing. From shivering and cold to comfortable and warm. Even as the sunset, the warmth felt amazing on my skin.
The next few weeks brought so much craziness and busy days. The hunt for a place to call home was on! We settled into the Navy Lodge on Ford Island and started getting all of our in-processing done. It was a solid 2 weeks before I even set foot on a beach or stuck my toes in the sand. For anyone who has ever moved you know how much work goes into restarting your life in a new location. As a military wife it is something that I am getting to know a lot about. It is exciting and fun but also scary and stressful.
One of the first things that we have learned on the Island is that no matter where you are or where you want to go, you will definitely be running into traffic. There are so many fitness facilities here and so many places that look like a great place to train and teach classes. The big question is, where will it be? This just depends on where we are going to live. It makes no sense for me to drive an hour to a gym when there could be one 15 minutes away, right? The saying, “Hurry up and wait.” Could not be any truer than in the middle of a P.C.S. (Permanent change of station). The atmosphere here is exactly what you think about when you think of Hawaii. It is paradise and people here seem so at ease and so happy. The kindness we have seen has been such a wonderful thing. People here have made us feel welcome and accepted.