New friend!

The night before we left for Hawaii, Mike sobbed his eyes out for his old buddy Connery. The other day he met Evan, an Air Force child whose family is also living at the Hale Koa while they wait for their housing on Hickam AFB. How nice to see Mike laughing it up with a new friend:





And how nice that they don't seem to mind (much) when Annabelle tags along:

Don't hassle the Hoff

That artistic masterpiece Baywatch is filming in Hawaii. We got to watch some of the action from a distance on the beach right outside our hotel. Note David Hasselhoff in the middle:

What's up, Doc?

Close encounter in a Waikiki shop:

Water bugs

In the Hale Koa pool:



And at the beach:

Field trip

Fred had some in-processing to do at work, so the kids and I set out on our own for a day of exploring. First stop, the Waikiki Aquarium! We got to see the official State Mammal, the Hawaiian monk seal:



After the aquarium, we headed over to the Honolulu Zoo:



We got to see an elephant engaging in a little creative expression:



Who knew that elephants were so artistic?! The zoo even asks for donations of "painting supplies for elephants" on their wish list.

Mike on the beach

New friend?

Mike met this furry fellow in a Waikiki shop:

Beach fun

The kids love our hotel's wonderful Waikiki location:

Blue Hawaii?

Sweet treat

Annabelle enjoyed a little (nonalcoholic) refreshment at the Hale Koa pool bar:





Later she and Mike took a dip in the ocean:

Movin' on up

The Inn at Schofield Barracks is a perfectly nice facility, but it's no Waikiki hotel, and I was determined to make our transition to Hawaii as luxurious as possible. After several missions of polite yet determined sniveling at the front desk, I was rewarded on our first full day in Hawaii with a statement of nonavailability. This official documentation that there was indeed No Room At The Inn was our ticket to relocating to the Hale Koa where the view from our balcony looked like this in one direction:



and like this in the other:

Aloha, Hawaii!

After 2 years at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, we moved our family courtesy of the US Army to the island of Oahu:



Our friends Tim and Susan met us at the airport with leis (of flowers for the grownups and candy for the kids) and took us to The Inn at Schofield Barracks where I immediately began plotting for a statement of nonavailability, which would entitle us to move to the Hale Koa, the Armed Forces Recreation Center right on Waikiki.