Oahu, Hawaii

Our trip to Hawaii was ultimately a business trip, but of course we had to mix a bit of pleasure in. We arrived Saturday night, September 13th, after a 5 hour flight from LA. Shaun, a friend of Jacques’ from Atlanta, picked us up at the airport in his big Dodge truck and we went for a bite on the waterfront outside of Waikiki beach before heading to Ewa Beach where he and his family have been living for the past year. Unfortunately, Shaun’s wife, Sue, and their kids were out of town for the week and wouldn’t be joining us for our visit. On the other hand, Sue lent us her car for the week so we didn’t have to rent for our tour and exploration of Oahu.

We woke early Sunday morning for our first tour of the island. Shaun drove us to the East side of the island to Kailua, his favorite beach. The beach had soft sand, minimal tourists and calm waves. The beach was hot in the early afternoon and we enjoyed a dip in the greenish blue Hawaiian waters while discussing all that Hawaii has to offer. From here, we drove up along the coast through the North Shore towns and stopped for a delicious lunch of garlic and shrimp out of a stationary “roach coach” – a little local flare. We drove back to the southwestern side of the island and Ewa Beach for some groceries for the week. This was one of our first research items for the cost of living in Hawaii and we found some things to be outrageously priced (peanut butter was one of the most expensive items in our cart that day)!

We spent most of Monday on the computer researching and comparing jobs and housing in the Honolulu area as well as our other future option of Bend, Oregon. After going stir crazy from being inside all day and sitting in front of the computer, we left the house and went to the local beach for a little downtime and to clear our heads from information overload. We watched the local surfers ride pristine waves and walked along the sandy coast before gaining the energy for more computer time. After 4 months of holiday, our first day of “work” was very tiring. We enjoyed a braai with Shaun under a full Hawaiian moon and warm night.

On Tuesday, we decided to split the day between getting our lives back together and discovering what the island had to offer. We spent the morning researching and applying for jobs in both destinations then took off in the afternoon to the Pearl Harbor memorial, USS Arizona. This holds special meaning for our family as my grandparents were stationed in Pearl Harbor during this historic event and thankfully were both survivors. We took in everything the memorial had to offer and spent our entire afternoon roaming the grounds and exploring the museum. We took the boat to the sacred graveyard of the USS Arizona, sunk in Pearl Harbor by the Japanese entombing over 1,000 soldiers. We marveled at the fact that within a week we experienced the sites and memorials of the three biggest attacks on US soil – World Trade Center, the Pentagon and now Pearl Harbor. On our way back to the house, both of us received a call in response to our job search on the island. I was asked to come for an interview in downtown Honolulu the following morning. We were both excited and a little overwhelmed with the sudden results.













The interview on Wednesday morning was for 9am, so we left in what we thought was plenty of time to drive the 22 miles into Honolulu. Finally after 1 hour and 45 minutes sitting in Honolulu rush hour and feeling a tad of discouragement, we made it 15 minutes late to the office for my interview. The interview was ultimately a success and I was told they would be in touch. After my first time back in a professional environment in over 4 months, I changed from my interview clothes (of jeans) into the true Hawaiian attire of a swimming suit and we hit the touristy Waikiki Beach. Our batteries were a bit recharged and even after experiencing the heavy traffic, we felt moving to Hawaii was still an option. We sweated it out on the beach, took in the scene, dipped in the blue waves and ate our picnic lunch on the beach. We had our fill of the sun after about 2 hours and left a little on the burned side. Again, we sat on the freeway back to Ewa Beach.



We woke even earlier on Thursday to drive to the other side of Honolulu for a different 9am appointment – our Hawaiian scuba adventure. This time we allowed 2 hours to get there and made it in plenty of time. We requested 2 dives, a wreck – either an old WWII fighter jet or a sunk barge – and the other a lava tube. As a sign of the day to come, neither of these worked out due to strong currents caused by the full moon which made for bad conditions. Instead, we did 2 coral dives in the bay and saw many sea turtles and eels among the beautiful fish and coral.




































Back on land, we drove further East to a rough but recommended local spot, Sandy Beach. I had visited here 17 years prior and remembered a body bag on the beach from a swimmer who encountered the surf and rocky shore. We stopped in for what was supposed to be an hour or two for some sun and our lunch. We watched the locals and tourists alike brave the crashing waves as they body surfed. Of course, Jacques had to join the fun and decided he wanted to first dive over a wave before he tried out the body surfing and I was to take an action picture. He checked the waves out for some time before making a run for it and leaping into his dive. After the wave passed, he surfaced holding his head and blood was literally gushing down his face. He looked at me and we both started running toward the lifeguard station. I was frantic as the gash was major and so deep it looked like parts of his brain were exposed. As soon as we reached the lifeguards, they strapped him to a straight board to secure his neck and I held gauze against his head while they called an ambulance. I was frightened and Jacques, the injured one, was very calm and with the situation as he answered all of the questions and thankfully wiggled his toes as a sign he wasn’t paralyzed. The wave he dove into forced him head first into the loose coral and rocky ocean bottom which caused head trauma in addition to the deep gash on his head. We knew that we were due to renew our travel insurance policies any day now (it was on our to-do list for the week) and weren’t sure if we were still even covered which made the situation even more stressful. As the ambulance arrived, I was on the phone with Brian back in LA looking for help to find our insurance policy information. Luckily, Jacques was deemed stable enough so the ambulance driver didn’t race down the 10 miles of winding ocean side roads with the lights on to the hospital and I could follow in the car while on the phone figuring out the insurance. With luck (and maybe even help from a guardian angel), we were on our last day of the policy and it was set to expire at midnight that night. At the hospital, Jacques passed all of the spinal tests and was released of a CAT scan, but received 13 stitches in the head and x-rays for his neck, which turned out fine as well. The doctors and nurses were amazed at his “minimal” injuries as they refer to Sandy Beach as “broke neck beach” because nearly 80% of all incidents from the beach result in paralysis. Well, this was our sign - vacation is over and Hawaii is not for us. We were told by several people familiar with the mysterious land that the islands will either accept you or they will chew you up and spit you out, which is literally what happened. On our way home from the hospital that night, a miracle phone call came (from my miracle maker friend, Jenn) with an excellent job opportunity for me based out of Bend. We went home, said our prayers, counted our lucky stars and called the airline to change our flight out of Hawaii from Monday to Saturday – it is time to settle down.











We spent our final night with Shaun over a huge braai, a lot of laughs, sharing pictures and stories from our trip and enjoying the company of a good friend. Shaun was so good to us over the week and we really appreciated the opportunity to get to know Hawaii which gave us the final answer to the looming question we had of where to go upon our return. The week, however, provided us with a good start in getting back to reality and life in the US. We are back in LA now and heading for our next destination on Tuesday! Jacques is slowly recovering from his incident. His face swelled up like a balloon and the cut on his head will take some time to heal. We are very blessed in so many ways.