Aloha Mai (Welcome)!

Here it is. My first post on my new (and first) blog. I decided to create this blog because my mind is always racing with all the little things that make living in Hawaii so different than living in Idaho...or anywhere else on the mainland for that matter.

Yesterday was the 3-month anniversary of us landing in the Honolulu airport. When we arrived on Oahu on June 18, 2007, we were ready to embrace Hawaii and all it had to offer. We were excited to start our adventure. We were going to be living in paradise. Bring on the beaches! Bring on the sunscreen, baby!

Ah, how quickly the honeymoon phase ended. Now we are in reality mode and getting the real taste of what it is like to live in Hawaii.

Going from Idaho to Hawaii is like making a U-turn on the interstate at full speed. Well, except they don't move that fast here. It's just that you go from one of the most, if not the very most, white-bred states in the country to one where whites make up about 20% of the population. No one race is in the majority in Hawaii. On the surface, that sounds like that would be a good thing, not having a majority or a minority. But, think of it this way...some of those slices of pie on the "race" pie chart join together to build a noticeable dislike for haoles (whites).

Then there is the climate change. Leaving a dry, hot and smokey (we left Boise during the fire season) area to an island of heat and humidity is like giving your nose a colonic. The constant tradewinds push out any traces of pollution. The air is so pure it almost has a sweetness to it. Your sinuses thank you for the relief. All that nasal discharge and crud that lodged its way up your nose is miraculously gone. Tom and I never blow our nose here. Now, that in itself is living in paradise!!

These are a couple of the obvious differences between living in Hawaii versus living in Idaho. As this blog progresses, I'll highlight more of the funny nuances that make it so interesting here.

Well, it's a late afternoon on a Friday. Noah is taking a nap after falling on the sidewalk at school. We were planning to go to the mall to hang out since he got off school early today, but once he fell he said he wanted to go home and take a nap. Gotta love it when a kids says he wants to take a nap.

Thanks for reading my first post! Make sure to check back as I plan to post often (daily, I hope!). Once I get the hang of it, I'll be uploading pictures, too! Oh, yeah...make sure to insert some of your own comments, too. We want to hear from you!