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We adventured to a Waianae beach today called Ohiki-lolo, which is Hawaiian for either "prying your brains out" or "crazy sand crab." We saw some hermit crabs, but they seemed perfectly sane to us. The beach was completely deserted, as you can see from the pictures, and the water was super warm and calm because it was separated from the ocean by a barrier of volcano rock. So we had our nice little
bathtub-temperature private beach for a few hours today; it was definitely worth the drive!
Labor Day was a while back, but we're slack and these are the most recent pictures we have. We were able to fix the camera electronically, but the LCD is out of commission, so we're doing a mandatory upgrade. Look for pictures from the new camera soon!
the ticket lady told us the quickest time on the maze was seven minutes. That was pretty hard to imagine.
6,000 mile move - decluttering, figuring out where we're going and how we're getting there, what to sell and what to keep, and all of that fun stuff. But we did get up to Haleiwa to have the famous Matsumoto shave ice. The verdict that it was fantastic, but the best North Shore treat is definitely the pineapple juice!
For those of you who didn't hear, Jeff and I had a tragic load of laundry this weekend that included the camera, my cell phone, and my wallet, which happened to be purple so it dyed some of the clothes. But due to Jeff being the awesome genius that he is, my phone was saved and he's still working on the camera (which worked electronically, but there was water behind the lens so the view was messed up). I tested my phone by emailing myself the cute picture (left) I'd recently taken of Zeke. For those of you who were wondering how on earth he got a phone that was completely submerged in warm soapy water to work again, the answer is taking the battery out ASAP, taking the phone apart as much as you can and burying it in kitty litter (the crystal kind) to dry it out.
It's been over a week since we went to Kauai, and we really haven't had a chance to stop and write about what we've done. We flew into Lihue on Tuesday afternoon, checked into our quiet little country inn, and then went for a wander on the beach and dinner at a Mexican restaurant; I still think I was spoiled by the fantastic Mexican food in San Diego to the point that most anything else is sub-par, however Jessica had a fantastic chicken mole.
of the trails, regardless of difficulty. Our final stop before returning to Lihue was Shipwreck beach, which is a deceiving name, because there definitely isn't a shipwreck on the beach that we saw. We did get this cute shot of Jessica (all the pictures of me were squinty and bad and showed my crazy sunburn (which looked as if Jess had punched me in the eye)). We flew back to Oahu that evening; it's really nice to be back after even such a short trip. I think we could imagine living on Kauai, despite all the chickens, based on how nice and easy the lifestyle is. The one thing we missed out on during our trip was Ziplining, which we'll need to go back for. 
So, I'm back from deployment. I've listed the majority of the places we stopped, but haven't really listed what we accomplished along the way. We left, of course, the first time, in January, with the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group, but come back home after only a couple of days. JCSCSG continued to the Arabian Gulf where they conducted operations for several months. My ship, USS PAUL HAMILTON, joined the Ronald Reagan CSG for about three months conducting operations in the Western Pacific, where we made the multiple stops, including Hong Kong, Mokpo, Wakayama, et al, as well as participating the Exercise Foal Eagle 2007 with the ROK Navy. Eventually, the RRCSG finished her deployment and returned to the mainland, while we joined up with the Kitty Hawk CSG, which is based out of Yokosuka, Japan. We conducted our operations and sailed south off the coast of Australia, where we joined up with the USS ESSEX and conducted Exercise Talisman Saber 2007. We also made our stops in Australia (Townsville and Mackay) and the Vanuatu. Finally, we followed the Kitty Hawk north toward Guam and met up with the Nimitz CSG and the JCSCSG returned from operations and we conducted Exercise Valiant Shield 2007. Upon completion of Valiant Shield (picture top left), we started our way home and arrived pierside in Pearl Harbor last Monday.
All finished with the second half of anatomy and physiology! Summer's been as productive it possibly could have been without Jeff here; I am coming out of three months of classes with two As, applications finished up, and some really good friends who live closer to the house.
I know I've disappeared off the face of the blog the past few weeks and not put up a picture of me with very short hair, but I've been really busy! So the picture to the left is the only picture that's been taken of me since I cut my hair, unless you include pictures I snapped of myself to send to Jeff, and it's already grown out quite a bit (which is perfect argument not to have short hair in Hawaii - it grows ridiculously fast, just like everything that is in the ground). I know I look tremendously nerdy. "Free" time's pretty much been getting things together for Jeff's return, fall semester, and graduate school applications - it's been nice not working because I am able to accomplish what I need to without exhausting myself. I'm signed up for microbiology and biochemistry in the fall (I will get a week off between the end of summer classes and the beginning of fall classes) and will finish just in time for Jeff, Zeke and me to pack up and move again! We do have a date of return for Jeff; it is very soon, and we're both looking forward to it!!
