Eventful Weekend

Hello Family and friends!

This is a statue in downtown Waikiki. The man with the several leis is the "Duke". He is a native Hawaiian from the '50s that helped make surfing so popular. He is known to be one of the best surfers ever on the island as well as a prominent man in Hawaiian history due to all the famous people he met in his surfing career.

Daniel and I decided to walk in downtown Waikiki on Friday night so that I could get more acquainted with the downtown so I can take friends and family around when they visit. And I have Katy coming in 2 weeks...woohoo! I better know the island well enough to show her around.

We ended up parking near the main strip and walking up and down looking at all the shops and street performers. We had walked this strip once before but we were headed to a restaurants the first time and we were not walking slowly due to our hungry tummies. This time was leisurely and it was a beautiful night, of course.

Here is a quick pic of Daniel and I as we sat and listened to a band that was playing on a roof top of a restaurant. They were playing Beatles covers and they were good...
Daniel is wearing his Hawaiian shirt. I still can't get over how even natives wear them all the time. I had thought the entire time it was just a touristy thing to wear a Hawaiian shirt, but I was wrong. I am not so against buying the Hawaiian gear now. I thought it would make me look like such a tourist, and on our side of the island there are less tourists. I wanted to blend as much as I could, but I have Hawaiian print pants on in this pic... :) Ah well

Saturday we spent a good deal of our day in downtown Honolulu shopping for a mattress for our extra bedroom, yet another way to prepare for Katy's visit as well as Lolly and Kris when they come out. We did find some good furniture stores and ended up buying a mattress by the end of the day at the base furniture store. You can't beat their prices...lucky us. We enjoyed learning more of the Honolulu streets. It is so good to explore down there. We found a yummy bakery that we will have to check out again.

Saturday evening we had the joy of dining with a couple we met from Daniels work. Well, we met the wife at the Fourth of July party we went to and then met the hhusband afterward. We went to Hawaii Kai, a community east of Waikiki. It is on an amazing side of the island, right near a crater with amazing mountains surrounding it. Anyways, we went to this ritzy restau that they had a gift certificate to that they wanted to share. It was a phenomenal dinner and we really enjoyed their company. I found out that the wife and I have more in common than I realized and the husband is a lot of fun. By the end of the night we were all so comfortable with each other and we were laughing so much. Here is a pic of us outside the restaurant.

The wife and I were talking about how we can minister to wives coping with husbands on deployment. We have both been thinking there is such a need during that time. I really look forward to getting to know her better and exploring this ministry opportunity.

Well, Sunday we visited the base chapel. We enjoyed the visit but we plan on visiting the church we went to the week before that we were so encouraged by. Sunday was a relaxing day. We ended up watching a movie and making a budget, something on our to-do-list. It was nice to get that out of the way. We are slowly knocking the list down.

Today was an excellent day. I had the joy of a boat trip with the hostess of the Fourth of July party. She had her family visiting so we rented a pontoon boat and went out to the sandbar right near the base marina. It was a great day for boating, sunshine, light breeze and smooth water. I only got a little sun. I was applying sunscreen religiously.

Here is a picture of Kaneohe from the water. You can almost see where our apartment complex is from this picture. The clouds were low today. They usually cover the mountains, but they were really low today. Like I said it was a great day. Looking at this just makes you want to visit us now doesn't it...? Do I have to keep posting pictures like this to get you people to visit us? I hope not. ( I may still do it though.)

Here is a picture of a couple girls we were on the boat with. Their momma is not in the pic but she is a fellow Marine wife that was at the July 4th party. They girls are so much fun. The older one is as cute as a bug's ear and the little one is so smart and funny to chat with. Both have big blue eyes that are so cute...

Anyways, my man is out changing the oil on the Grand Prix. He is such a do-it-yourself type. He is renting a lift and going at it. Last time I remember him changing the oil was in the front driveway of my parent's house in MD. That was when he was at the Academy.

We should be getting the other car tomorrow night. The owner returned to the island yesterday afternoon but did not feel compelled to give us the title and care keys until tomorrow night. :( He obviously doesn't want to get rid of it that badly. Ah well. I need to be patient.

Tomorrow is a busy day. The furniture we have borrowed from base is being picked up tomorrow morning. We will be living without tables, lamps, and dressers for a few days. Our furniture is supposed to be coming this week sometime. It is odd that the company has not called to tell us when though...they said they would. Anyways, it will be a busy day tomorrow.

Thanks for reading all of this if you did. Thank you for your mail and loving comments. We love ya'll!!