ALOHA!

Before I left for Hawaii I knew that I wanted to start a blog. I also knew I would name the blog something along the lines of "beach bums". Little did I know how appropriate that title would be.

I'm not sure what living in Hawaii is like- at least not yet- but I can tell you a little of what it is like to live on an air force base in Hawaii: it's pretty sweet.

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. First things first, the arrival.

DAY 1

If you have ever seen two guys in uniform walking through an airport terminal holding up a bright pink sign glued with heart shape pictures of your face, then you can imagine our reception at the Honolulu airport. If you haven't, then it looked something like this.

We found out later that this was the "rate G" version. The "PG-13" picture was taped in plain sight at Sam's shop. They cut and pasted a picture of Sam's face on that of a sexy looking man being hugged and smooched by another sexy looking man. Sam's face was a particularly nice shade of red with that one (sorry I don't have a picture!).

All ice broken, we began the long, drawn-out, and completely helter-skelter process of "in-processing" (or if you are cool "PCS-ing"). Imagine

processing with a government entity (think DMV) on Hawaiian island time and you'll get an idea for how efficient in-processing is. It's a little frustrating sometimes, but as my father so aptly reminded me "If that's the price you pay for living in Hawaii, then you can deal with it". Some more words of wisdom from the pops.

Sam and I are living in Temporary Housing until a home opens up. Thankfully our room is more like an apartment than a hotel, so we are doing

fine as far as that goes.

DAY 3

It became very apparent within the first few days that unless we had a bicycle or car that Sam and I wouldn't be able to do or see very much of anything. Our car should take anywhere between 2-4 weeks to arrive, so we started out by looking for bicycle rentals. NOTHING. Amazingly, Hickam AFB doesn't have any bicycle rental options, which really is silly in my humble opinion. We finally found out about a wonderful place called "the airman's attic" located on the exact opposite side of the base. Early Saturday morning Sam and I started the long trek across the base to the airman's attic, where we waited another hour for it to open. The waiting paid off because we found a free bike (!) and another for $45. We left feeling like champions on our new set of wheels. We aren't going to win the Tour de France anytime soon, but it gets us around.

Later that day we rode our new bicicletas to Mamala Bay, the on-base beach. It's beach access for military members only, so it's not crowded. The waves are gentle, so it's a great place to try out paddle boarding, kayaking, or to just swim around. We rented a paddle board for an hour and found that it's not too hard, but it takes some getting used to. You have to bend your knees and grip with your toes; it also requires upper body strength to propel yourself and to turn.

We left the beach exhausted after our long day of walking, biking, and swimming, not to mention a whole lot of sun...speaking of which, I got my first killer sunburn. Killer because it really hurt. I lathered sunscreen on my face, arms and shoulders but completely neglected my legs. Wa-wa-waaaa. Learned my lesson.

There's a lot more to write, but I want to avoid information overload.

Please, please, PLEASE, write and tell me the things you want to know about. What are you interested in reading?

Aloha and Mahalo for reading.