Beaches and Navy hangers

Today was the last day of the conference, so Monica and I made the most of the afternoon by exploring the western and southeastern shores of Oahu. Before I launch into today, though, let me catch you up on the luau we went to last night. We went out to Paradise Cove for the luau that I had been to probably 5 or 6 times over the years I was stationed here. The show is still great, although a bit more commercialized than I remembered it. You can never go wrong with hula girls and fire dancing men though, so it was a fun evening spent on the beach.

Today we drove all the way up to the northern-most tip on the Western coast. If we had a 4-wheel drive, we could drive all the way around the island, but since we don't we couldn't drive around Kaena Point to connect to the North Shore. It's quite striking the differences between the areas of the island. There were tons of tent cities on the western coast. I certainly don't want to get into politics on this blog, but some of the election signs for this weekend's elections read "Homelessness isn't just a leeward problem." I seemed to remember people living in tents on the beach over a decade ago, but obviously it has become a much bigger issue. It's quite a contrast between the swanky hotels and resorts of Waikiki and the homeless in tents in Wai' Anae and Makaha.

On the way up the western coast, we stopped by the old NAS Barbers Point base (thanks to Rob's directions!). It was so sad to see the old Rainbow Hanger in such disrepair. It looks like it's mostly used for storage now. It was good to see most of the base housing being used as a community development district. The older housing that I lived in for a while is all torn down now, but the "newer" housing looks pretty good and kept up. We drove out to the Coast Guard base and hung out at White Plains Beach which used to be part of the Naval Air Station. There was still a military gear rental area there, but it was also open to the public. Still a beautiful beach.

Although it was only four years of my life, quite a few significant life events occured during my tour of duty on Oahu. I got married, I got divorced, did 2 six-month deployments including Desert Storm, went skydiving, learned to scuba dive, took my first college course, got my belly button pierced, and advanced to a petty officer in the Navy. Those years really shaped my personality and view of life for the years to come. It was uncomfortable to have all those old memories flooding my head at every turn we made on the island, but it was also very comfortable in that I have lots of great memories here and have come such a long way from the woman I was back then. Man am I feeling old today!

OK, enough philosophical crap. . . we headed out west where Monica saw some of the most breathtaking views of the island yet. A good bit of the road hugs the hills overlooking the ocean, so it was a great sightseeing afternoon. We ended up with a nice meal at Jameson's Beach Restaurant back on the North Shore. The dolphins are in a fountain in the front of the restaurant overlooking the beach.

Tomorrow is our last day on the island, but I've got tons more to catch everyone up on, so I'll post from Colorado.