O'ahu Adventures Day 12: Our last day.

Alas, our vacation had finally reached it's ending.  Boo!  I spent the morning finishing up our packing.  We then went down to the drink machine one last time to get an iced tea and to return Parker's bracelet to the Aunty's Beach House Kids Club.  Sadly, I had totally forgot that we were supposed to keep the receipt that we got when we made our deposit for the bracelet that they use to check kids in, so Parker got to take his home.  He seemed pretty excited about it (although he hasn't wore it once since we've been back home!)  Greg and I made ourselves feel better joked by saying that probably half the parents forget to bring the stupid receipt back and that it's all just another way that the resort can gouge their guests for more money!

Afterward's we stopped by the towel rental cabana so that Parker could get his last and final arm band.  Granted, we had no plans to go swimming that day, and the arm bands are mainly just so the employees know who is allowed in the pools or not.  He had been collecting them each day, with the exception of maybe skipping a day or two.  He was quite proud of his arm bands, meanwhile, I just knew that when we were out in public that they absolutely made us look like tourists.  I never really worry that taking pictures while out and about will make me look like a tourist, especially in this world of social media that we live in.  But, I am always paranoid while on vacation that if I look like a tourist, that then I'm an easy target for something (like theft or a mugging).  Luckily, I never really felt unsafe in Hawaii!

We finally checked out of the resort and made our way towards our last Hawaiian activity:  exploring Pearl Harbor.  We only had a few hours before we knew we needed to be at the airport, so we chose to only visit and tour the U.S.S. Missouri, otherwise known as the Mighty Mo.  The Mighty Mo is a battleship that is now retired and used as a tourist destination.  While at Pearl Harbor one can also visit and tour a submarine (The U.S.S. Bowfin, I think is the name), the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial and an airplane museum.  Each activity costs admission, but the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial is free to go to.  We were advised that we would probably enjoy touring the Mighty Mo the most and since we were concerned about the possibility of missing our flight, we took the advice and did not visit the memorial (we could see it from The Mighty Mo though).  While aboard The Mighty Mo we went on a brief tour with a tour guide and after he was finished we were free to roam the ship.  It was so cool to see!  I especially liked the inside, which was basically like it's own city.  I usually pride myself with having a super good sense of direction, but once we were actually inside the boat, it was very easy to wonder if the sailors ever got confused about where to go!  Thankfully there were arrows leading visitors, or we probably would have made a few circles!!!  I was amazed by all the kitchens and Parker was surprised to see how little the bunks were.  There was even a post office inside!!!

One has to take a bus from the Pearl Harbor visitors center over to Ford Island to tour The Mighty Mo.  On the bus ride back, Parker excitedly said, "Look Mom!  A rainbow!!".  Earlier that day (and for probably several days before that) I began complaining about not seeing very many rainbows.  Do you ever just totally build something up in your head?  I do it ALL THE TIME!  So, in my mind, I just expected Hawaii to have a ton of rainbows!  On our way over to Ford Island it had begun pouring down rain and the sky was dark gray.  I began grumbling that I would definitely not be seeing any rainbows on my last day in Hawaii.  My wise little boy had a profound response to that though.  He said (in a cocky seven-year-old way), "Well, Mom, how often have you seen three rainbows within twelve days?  HUH???!!!)  Touche, son, touche!  Needless to say, he was more excited about getting to point the rainbow out to me than for the actual rainbow itself!  And yes, I was very pleased to get to see one last and final Hawaiian rainbow (even though it was only a small portion of a rainbow.  But hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?).

We got back in our car around 3:30.  Our plane didn't leave until 6:45, but we didn't want to chance missing it, so off to the air port to return our rental car we went.  Earlier that morning I had a slight panic about something.  I had purposely taken a Ziploc bag with us to Waikiki Beach so that I could put sand in it.  I have seen so many cute travel souvenir crafts that use the sand from beaches that one visits.  My sister and her family's flight left way earlier that day and she had texted me and said that all of our bags would have to go through an agricultural inspection.  This made me panic about the sand, shells, rocks and coral that we had collected during our trip.  After doing a  quick google search I finally decided that it would be best to not bring the sand.  I was so sad!  I was still going to take a chance on the shells and rocks, and I put a few pinches of sand in the Ziploc bag that contained these items.  Low and behold, once we did reach the agricultural inspection at the airport, they had a big sign that had a list of all the items that one CAN take with them, after it goes through the agricultural inspection (which works just like the carry-on inspection, it's like a big X-ray machine) and guess what one of the items was:  sand from a beach.  Ugh!!!!  So, if anyone plans on visiting Waikiki or the North Shore any time soon, can you bring me back just a little bit of sand?  Please!

Speaking of sand, the sand on O'ahu has huge granules!  They seemed to be slightly larger than table salt.  I am obviously spoiled by the sugar sand that is on my beloved Lake Texoma beaches.  It feels really gritty on your bare feet.

We had arrived at the airport with enough time to enjoy an over-priced meal at a restaurant to kill time before our flight.  We arrived at our gate and within less than two minutes we were on the airplane that would take us back home.  We purposely booked a one-way evening flight back to DFW with hopes of sleeping the entire way.  No can do.  I was surprised to see that at least 95% of the passengers were awake the whole time.  I will say that I was very impressed with all of our flights with American Airlines.  I hadn't been on a plane in a few years, but we each had our own TV with literally tons of movies or TV shows or games to play, all for free!!!!  So that was pretty cool.  We had a safe and un-eventful flight (Thank God!) back to Dallas.  Once we landed though we were exhausted!!!  We had planned on going back home to Little Axe, but our tired minds and bodies told us to go to our lake house, which was closer, instead.  We called one of our awesome neighbor friends and he went over and turned our heat on for us.  We arrived there around 9:00 in the morning and then we all went back to bed until around noon.  It took us several days to get over being jet lagged, but I would say it was totally worth it!!!  We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the island of O'ahu and are so thankful that my sister and brother-in-law invited us and provided us with free lodging at Aulani!  Ma halo!

Daily Rainbow Count:  1 

Aloha!

Never Mind

So in case any of you reading have every wondered what it would be like to live with or be a contractor, let me just give you a tiny glimpse into my world! We choose to live in a Fifth Wheel which is basically like an RV because on any given day, at any given time, a contractor can be told they need to be in a different location within a few days. So, a Fifth Wheel beats living out of a hotel, and I feel like we aren't just "throwing our money away".

Right now we are in Lamar, CO and I think we will be here until March but we could also be here until June, or they can tell my husband he needs to be somewhere different next week. We just never know. This was the main reason I quit my job and we sold our house and put basically everything we own in storage. Some people would probably be a little stressed out if they knew their world could turn upside down within a matter of a few days. But since we live full time on the road, I really would welcome the opportunity to travel more.

However, this is where I will also put my foot in my mouth. One of the main guys that my husband is working with right now is moving to Hawaii in February to become a site lead for GE. Greg has told him several times that if he needed anyone over there to please let Greg know. This was supposed to mean that we would like to come over there for a month or two. Well, this is how it apparently was interpreted: My husband calls me yesterday morning and all he says is this, "Do you still want to go to Hawaii?" Well, yeah! But he doesn't tell me the whole story until after I say "yes". After which he proceeds to tell me that there is a position open with GE (he is a contractor now and is not employed by GE) that the guy here thinks he can get Greg hired on. And, since it would technically be less money, there was also a job opening for me as a data entry person. Basically we would both be working in HI making the same amount of money that we do now but minus the whole traveling part. But here was the kicker. We would be LIVING in Hawaii until at least 2014. Now, I know it's probably easy for someone to say they would move to Hawaii in a heartbeat, but to actually do it is another thing.

So yesterday I spent all day stressing about this huge life change and looking up information about Maui online. Housing is so expensive. One can literally spend $250,000 on a "house" and all they will get is maybe a stand alone home that is 500 square feet or more than likely a condo that may go up to 750 sq. ft. That didn't appeal to me at all. Then, we have a dog, and Hawaii does not have rabies, so they make incoming animals from the mainland be quarantined. Which not only made me feel so sorry for our precious Shady, but we would have had to get a microchip implanted in her prior to moving, and then all the necessary forms/paperwork. Another thing was that my husband said we would sell our truck AND our fifth wheel. Which made me sad because we had talked about turning it into a lake place one day, but whatever. Do you want me to keep going? OK. We would have had to ship my car to HI which from OK would have probably been a few thousand dollars. Then, since everything we own is in storage, we would have had to probably spend a good week going through everything, re-packing them into pre-sized boxes that would actually fit into a crate to be shipped. We would have literally had to either sell or give away probably half of our belongings.

Along with the reality of the impact this move would have on our lives, I had other worries as well. We wouldn't be able to just drive to Oklahoma if we wanted to so we wouldn't see our family and friends except maybe once a year. I was afraid we would be working so much that we wouldn't even get to enjoy the island anyway. I'm scared of tsunami's and earthquakes. What if the two volcanoes on the island suddenly decided to erupt? The cost of living is higher. Etc, Etc, Etc.

Last night we talked it over ALL NIGHT LONG and still went to bed not knowing what would be best to do. This morning my husband texted me from work and said that with GE he would be sent to more schooling and he would be more qualified which could advance his career in the future. So, I told him if he thought we should move, then let's do it. And then I cried. I knew that I had a lot on my plate prior to moving and that I would be super stressed out until we lived in Hawaii for probably a month.

I decided to go to the library and load up on some books on Hawaii. I have all the books in my arms ready to be checked out when my cell phone rings. It's Greg. Calling to tell me that they had already filled the position and that we weren't moving.

That's the life as a contractor.