Well, after making Eric suffer through the Fort Benning training environment for nine months, the Army has finally sent us to Hawaii. We got in to Honolulu at 10 pm on February 27. We were both extremely tired as it was 3 am in Georgia and Eric still had to check in and get us a ride to Schofield Barracks. We finally got to our room around midnight and were quickly sound asleep.
Eric woke up promptly at 5:15 am today and thought for some reason that I would enjoy getting up at 6. He succeeded in waking me up at 7, which is still much earlier than I had intended when we got in at midnight. Eric was looking out the window all morning and didn't like what he saw, rain!! Once the rain stopped, we headed out. However, for those of you familiar with Hawaii, just because it stopped raining doesn't mean it's not going to start again and it has been drizzling on and off in 5-10 minute spurts all day. We didn't have a rental car today, we're getting one tomorrow, so we spent the day exploring the base on foot. Most of the services buildings are within walking distance of our room, so it was nice to explore. We went to the exchange, commissary and furniture store, and then walked past the medical center, chapel, theater, outdoor recreation center, and gym. We also got to walk through the new housing area and really liked what we saw. Now we just hope we can get a house in there. The chances are high as Eric's entire brigade just got back from Iraq and most of them will be moving soon.
After we got done exploring we went back to our room to catch up on some much needed sleep. Eric just got back from a run. He decided to tackle the mountains to the west of the base and realized it was much steeper than he originally thought.
Tomorrow we'll get a rental car and explore some of the island highlights. Some places on the agenda: Haleiwa for some of Matsumoto's Shave Ice, a classic hawaiian plate lunch and to hopefully catch some surfing, the Dole Plantation for some Dole Whip and some fresh pineapple, a drive along the island on Kamehameha Hwy, a possible stop in waikiki to see some of the classic tourist traps, the Navy Exchange at Pearl Harbor which is supposed to be the largest exchange on the island, and finally Costco to get our membership going. If we have more time, we might also drive to the west side of the island to explore the beaches over there.
Well, that's all for now, just wanted to let you all know we made it and what we've been up to. Sorry we don't have any pictures, we're in the process of picking out a new camera and once that happens, I'll add photos to all of my descriptions so you have a better idea what I'm talking about.
