Snowed In? Need something to read?

For any of you who are stuck at home due to snow (like me) or maybe bored at work and looking for something fun to read, grab a cub of coffee and get comfortable.

I've written before that one of my most favorite blog authors is Magazine Man over at Somewhere on the Masthead. MM has been MIA for a few months, ever since he got a new job and had to relocate his family across country (something we in the military are used to doing every couple of years, but not something the average civilian family has to deal with very often).

Now, after no posts since mid-October, MM's blog has come back to life, but with a new author. MM's dog Blaze has taken over the reigns and written a cliff-hanger tale of moving to their new home here. After you read the cliff-hanger, you'll want to read the sequel here. MM even updated the profile page for the blog's author, and it's pretty funny, too.

If you enjoyed reading that and don't remember my previous recommendations for MM, then you should go back and read this post about Blaze, too.

Thankful Thursday

First, many thanks to Hilary for recognizing my blog in her Posts of the Week this week.

Second, I've received two very nice emails from readers in the past month. They were both very kind to take the time to write and thank me for reviews I have written of one place or another.

If you want to know how to make a blogger's day, just send them an email to let them know you enjoy reading their blog or that you appreciated the effort they put into writing a review of something (restaurant, movie, tourist attraction, whatever).

Thanks to Hilary and to the readers who have emailed for the positive feedback! You each made my day.

Update from Bizarro World

Wow. Not sure what I did to deserve this, but I think it's pretty funny. (Scroll down and read the first comment.)

A tool of the forces of evil???

Reflections

Happy New Year everybody!

When I stopped to look back on 2009, I said to myself, "Self, where did the year go?" No PCS transfers, no trans-oceanic household goods shipments, no deployments. Just driving a desk, being a power-point warrior, and routing urgent memos around the Pentagon. The biggest thing that happened for us this year was my promotion in August. So I browsed back through my 2009 blog posts to remind myself what else happened.

Last New Year's Eve was fairly typical in that I was the only one awake at midnight. This year was the first year my entire family has been awake and watched the ball drop together. The five year old was especially wound-up and had trouble calming down to go to bed afterwards.

Last January, we celebrated my youngest son's birthday down at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg. It was a great time, but the happy memories were sadly overshadowed by our return home to news of a family tragedy. Rest in Peace Uncle Chris and Aunt Elaine.

I started the Pentagon Gouge Index to keep track of posts about life in the Pentagon, and I tried to start a routine of writing Pentagon Gouge posts on Mondays. Although I haven't managed to post every Monday, I have received positive feedback from readers who have appreciated the posts. Many thanks to those who have provided me feedback through blog comments, email, and face-to-face in the Pentagon.

I wrote several unsolicited Advice for Junior Officers posts. I thought I had posted an Index to keep track of those posts, but I just found it in the draft file never posted, so I'll post it now. If you have any suggestions for future topics you would like to see in this category, then please let me know.

I learned the difference between a nerd, a geek, and a dork. Although I didn't need to go back in my blog posts to remind me of this. My wonderful wife reminds me I'm a dork on a regular basis. :-)

We had a few visits by family and friends and went sight-seeing around the DC area (with S&C, with P&E), visited Luray Caverns and Monticello, and the International Spy Museum, and Mayne's Tree Farm.

My awesome wife bought me a kayak for Father's Day and I managed to get out on the water eight times over the summer (first 7 times summarized here then the last trip here).

We had an awesome summer vacation in New Hampshire (see the several blog posts from 8/14 to 8/22).

My friend B and I went on a couple of awesome bike rides along the C&O Canal Tow Path and the Great Allegheny Trail.

Looking Forward: What do I look forward to in 2010?

Here's what I'm looking forward to in 2010...

- Spending time with my family on shore duty while it lasts.
- Enjoying the changing seasons in Northern Virginia.
- Our church moving into our new permanent home.
- Our Spring Break family vacation in Orlando.
- More kayaking.
- More bike rides with my friend B.
- Another summer vacation in New Hampshire.
- More reading.

If I had to make one new year's resolution, then it would be to read more. Unfortunately, I'm a slow reader, and the list of books I want to read grows much faster than the rate I actually read the books I accumulate. I have been making more of an effort to read lately, and I will continue that as we move on into 2010.

With that, I bring my 2009 blog to a close and set out to find new things to experience and write about in 2010.

Happy New Year!

Two DC

For folks in the DC area, I'd like to give a shout-out for a new addition on my blog roll.

Two DC is written by a young married couple from southern California who recently moved to DC and started a blog to document their adventures around town.

I love the "Two" theme they've creatively woven into their blog. For example, you'll notice on the top right side of their blog they have links for "Food for Two," "Fun for Two," and "Life as Two." Below that you'll also see their "Two Do List" with places they want to visit (or revisit) in the future.

If you scroll back through their blog, you'll see a majority of their recent posts are about food and restaurants. I must admit that am envious that they are able to take photos of each course of their meal. Whenever we go to some new and interesting restaurant, I am always tempted to take pictures of the food to post on my blog, but it embarrasses my wife and kids, so I don't do it very often. :-)

In addition to their great posts about food and restaurants, they also have great reviews of attractions and things to do in the area, too. You can find most of those non-food-related posts by clicking on the "Fun for Two" link.

From reading through their blog, I feel like we have a bit in common - a rather obvious appreciation for food plus an affinity to getting out of the house and exploring the local trails and historic sites on foot or bike or paddle. Like me, it doesn't sound like they're experts in any of those categories, just looking to get out and have some fun, and they enjoy sharing their experiences with others via the blogosphere. For example, they did the Jack's Boathouse kayaking tour on the Potomac just a week before we did in August.

Aside from the fact that they are local, they are both very talented and creative writers. You'll note that both B and J write in every post. One of them will start and then somewhere in the middle of the post, they'll switch seats and the other one will offer counter-points or additional insights. It doesn't matter what they are writing about, I enjoy reading it just for the style of their writing and the funny quips contained therein. Going back to the same example as the previous paragraph, their write-up of their trip with Jack's Boathouse was fabulous, especially B's last paragraph about what they saw on Roosevelt Island (the last paragraph before turning over the keyboard to J - I don't want to spoil it here, so go read it.)

In addition to the talent of their writing, there's a certain aspect of their blog that's very different from many blogs I have read, and I have a hard time trying to name or clearly identify what it is that's different. Call it personal-yet-private if you will. They share beautiful photos of the places they've gone and details of their lives and experiences, yet don't reveal their true identity. They're not like postcard photos that anybody could have taken, they're somehow personal yet lack specifics. For example, the distant photo looking up the aisle at their wedding so you can see two people getting married, but not who they are or what they look like. Not that it matters what they look like. It just fascinates me how they craft their posts as if it could have been your best friends who went on that adventure and posted those pictures to their Facebook account. I suppose their photos and the way they tell their story make it so you can easily imagine yourself in their shoes.

If you have the time, I recommend clicking on the "Life as Two" link and scroll back to their engagement, wedding and honeymoon blog posts. I enjoyed B's commentary on the male perspective of wedding planning. I'm actually still working on catching up reading this section of their blog, but there are some real gems of new-to-DC wisdom in there.

To B & J - Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. You're doing a great job. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to continuing to compare notes with you about things to do in the DC area.

Quick Daily Funnies

In need of a laugh but don't have a lot of time? Check these out...

I've previously written about a couple of quick, funny blogs I read, and I have a couple of new ones to add to the list. These are daily reads of mine that each take like 10 seconds to read and get a quick laugh in the morning on my way to work.

It's Lovely I'll Take It is still one of my favorites. This blog posts funny and bizarre photos found in ACTUAL real estate MLS listings. Over the course of time, the author has become obsessed with "chair." The standard stackable cheap plastic patio chair appears in a remarkable number of odd photos on realty listings, and the author of ILITI has started writing the descriptions of the photos she posts as if "chair" is a dear friend or the main character in a story. See, for example, this one or this one... Also, she has adopted a practice of inserting a "modesty chair" to cover up anything she finds inappropriate on a realty listing, like this or this.

FAIL Blog. Words fail me. How does one explain failure? You'll just have to check it out. (H/T to LS).

Cake Wrecks. Photos of actual cakes either for sale in bakeries or the "this is what the bride asked for and this is what she got" style. (H/T to CC).

New additions to my list:

Awkward Family Photos - the name is self-explanatory. I tried to pick one out as an example for you, but it's just too hard to choose.

There, I Fixed It! posts some pretty funny pictures of bizarre, jury-rigged contraptions people build like this one or this one. (H/T to FAIL blog for introducing this one).

A few blog highlights

Alright, which one of my former crew-members put this idea in Jeff Bacon's head?

BT BT

THIS video that June Cleaver posted is pretty cool. If you like Dancing Matt, then you'll probably enjoy this one, too.

BT BT

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Magazine Man over at Somewhere on the Masthead is my favorite blog author. He is an absolutely masterful writer and story teller.

He has been blogging for several years, and I only discovered him a year or so ago. Every now and then, he will reference a previous post he has written and link back to it, and I'll click and go back and read an older post of his. He recently linked back to a couple of posts talking about how he defeated the competition of other boyfriends and won his wife's heart. For another example of his awesome story-telling ability, check out this post. For the romantics in the audience, you should go read this post on how he revealed to his wife that he liked her more than just as a friend.

Boundaries

Okay, so maybe I need to let my family agree to some boundaries on what I do and don't write about in my blog.

First, a week or so ago, my wife asked ES if he wanted to tell me about what happened at school. He vigorously shook his head and said "NO!" My wife asked him why not. His answer?

"Because I don't want Daddy to write about it on his blog."

Doh.

Ouch.

I told him I wouldn't write about things on my blog if he didn't want me to.

I like to think that I use SOME discretion in what I post in my blog.

Fast forward to last Saturday night we went to a party at our friends W&L's house. It was a social gathering for any military officers in Loudoun County ("LoCoMOs" - Loudoun County Military Officers).

After everyone had arrived and was settled in and enjoying the food and the drinks and the conversation, I pulled my camera out to take a few pictures of the party. My wife saw me pull the camera out, and she shouted,

"WATCH OUT, HE'S GOT A BLOG!!!"

She said it so seriously as if she were in combat and announcing, "Incoming!" or "Grenade!" or "Watch out, he's got a bomb!"

If I didn't know any better, I'd think these were warning signs that my family doesn't like my blog.

Kudos

I was honored and touched by Sam's compliments on her blog. Her compliments came with a tasking to say "something nice about 6 people on your friend’s list. (Any six, but just 6) It doesn’t matter if I know them or not. Just tell me something you like about them."

I picked six people off my Google Reader list, and I will list them in alphabetical order.

Bubblehead at The Stupid Shall Be Punished. As a fellow submarine officer, Joel has had to overcome many challenges in harsh climates in the darkest depths of the ocean. He is now in the midst of overcoming an entirely new challenge in dealing with the radiation and chemo treatment for cancer. God bless you Joel, I'm praying for you. Joel is the first submarine blogger I found on the 'net and a daily read of mine.

Caffienated Cowgirl at But Do They Have Coffee. CC (I don't know if I'm allowed to write her real name here - I won't since she doesn't mention it on her blog) and her HE (husband extraordinaire) are very dear friends of ours. It's been... oh gosh... seven YEARS since we saw CC face-to-face??? I'm thankful for the wonders of the internet and how it has enabled us to stay close friends half way around the world from each other. Even if we didn't have the internet though, CC and HE are the type of friends that no matter how much time has gone by, when our paths cross again, it will be like we were never apart - we would pick up right where we left off. I'm not sure if I started reading CC's blog first or Bubblehead's blog. They were pretty much the first two blogs I started reading, before I even knew what the "blogosphere" was. CC is both a very talented writer and a very talented photographer. It brightens my day when I open my Google Reader and see there is a new post from CC, because I know that it will have either (a) a funny story that'll make me laugh or (b) an awesome picture that'll make me say, "wow," or (c) both of the above.

Cris at June Cleaver After a Six Pack. Back when I was just periodically checking out Bubblehead and CC's blogs, I would periodically hear my wife off in her corner giggling while reading something on the computer screen. Eventually she forwarded me the link to enough posts of June Cleaver After a Six pack that I just started reading her blog myself. Cris is an amazing story teller and she is just downright hillarious. In addition, she's also a military wife who just got done uprooting her family, moving several states across country, and getting resettled in a new house just in time to see her husband leave on a long deployment. God bless you, Cris. I appreciate that you continue to make me laugh even while you handle the challenges of life with your husband on deployment. I am praying for you and your family.

Hilary at The Smitten Image. Hilary is a new favorite of mine. She's also an amazing photographer, and I've enjoyed watching the seasons transition from autumn into winter in Canada through her camera lens. She's also a very talented story teller, and I appreciate her insights into having two sons who have grown into fine young men.

Magazine Man at Somewhere on the Masthead. I have to give a shout-out of thanks to our friend Corey for introducing me to MM's blog. There are a lot of talented writers in the blogosphere, and I don't mean any slight to any of my other favorite bloggers when I say this, but MM is absolutely the best writer and story teller on my blog roll. For one of my favorite posts of his, read this one. If you have a few spare minutes to read, I recommend grabbing yourself a cup of coffee and start reading at his Monday, 17 November post and work your way forward through the next three posts that describe his weekend taking care of the kids.

Samantha at Boat Drinks and Dreams. No, I'm not writing this simply because she complimented me on her blog. My compliments go to Sam because she is always providing support and encouragement to her family and friends. She regularly gives a shout-out of praise for friends who achieve important milestones in running or cooking or their career. She and her husband are doing a great job raising two awesome little boys and dealing with the stress of moving their family half way around the globe to Guam. God bless you guys in this big move and in the next few years of sea duty on the pointy-end of the spear. I'm praying for you guys, too.

Another QUICK and really funny blog

If you liked my recommendation to check out the It's Lovely, I'll Take It! blog, then you're gonna like this one, too. It's kind of hard to explain, so just go check it out. I tried picking out one example to paste here for you, but it's just too hard to choose.

I like both blogs for the fact that they're a quick laugh and don't require a lot of reading (unlike most of the other blogs on my blog roll).

(H/T to Loping Squid)

It's Lovely! I'll Take It!

A couple of funny blogs to share with you tonight.

First, read Wendy Said It Best. (H/T to CDR Salamander and my good friend Loping Squid).

Second, you're gonna want to add this one to your Google Reader subscription list (or whatever other program you use for your RSS feeds) because they're really quick and good for a laugh.

I've had a few pretty good laughs from the It's Lovely! I'll Take It! website in the past several days. (H/T to our friend Corey.) It's a blog with

photos from actual real estate listings.

Like this one for example:


It's not just the pictures though. The author does a spectacular job of writing captions for the pictures. For example, check out "Cousin Itt, Dressed for Summer" and "Plaster Falling on an Open Fire." Her commentary on the photos and the comments from her readers are hilarious.

Favorite Posts

BHJ recently asked for everyone to "pimp their own blogs" and leave comments with the favorite blog posts from their own blogs. I think he got a little more than he bargained for in the 146 (at last count) replies he got.

I browsed back through my blog posts, and I think my favorite top three were:

1. This one about the first time we hiked Makapuu Ridge, and more specifically, the boys' verbal remarks toward the end of the hike.

2. This one about our boys' reaction on the maiden voyage of our scooba vacuum robot.

5. This one about little boys' toilet aim and poop descriptions. Funny how toilet aim seems to be a recurring topic in other parental blogs. For examples, see Sarah and the Goon Squad and Mike Adamick.

Broadside Blog

I've been a big fan of the Broadside cartoons in Navy Times for a long time. Whenever I pick up a copy of Navy Times, the first thing I do is flip to the back and read the Broadside cartoon. I actually got to meet the artist, Jeff Bacon, while I was in Monterey back in 1999-2001.

Anyway, I discovered Jeff has started a Broadside Blog. He puts up new cartoons and has caption contests, but he has some other more thought provoking good content like this one about Success in Iraq and this one with the Hero of the Week. Check it out.

Blog round-up odds and ends

Seriously:

Congratulations to Nereus on his retirement after completing 20 years of service in the Navy!

Thanks to fastnav for pointing this Navy SEAL Memorial service out. I got pretty choked up watching it.

Not-so-serious stuff:

DadGoneMad has been on vacation this week, but he invited several guest bloggers to post in his absence. Most have been pretty funny, but this one was my favorite and had me in stitches. Here's an excerpt:

The first time I tried to teach Emmeline to use the toilet by herself, she insisted on using mine -- not the fancy blue bucket with a shiny white seat but the big standard adult kind that could have swallowed her whole with its gaping porcelain maw. But I figured if she was eventually going to graduate to a real toilet anyway, she might as well start as soon as she can. And this way seemed to involve less cleaning. With my back turned as I arranged her pile of clothes on the floor, I heard her mumble something about "pee like daddy," and I assumed she just excited about using my big toilet. I turned around to see her standing up proudly, hands on her hips, spraying the base with a wild fountain of urine.

She shouted gleefully, "Emme's peeing like daddy!"

"Well, kinda," my wife shrugged later, "But her aim is better."

If you thought that was funny, then keep reading because it gets better from there. The little girl's explanation of anatomy to the grocery store cashier is priceless.

If you're a fan of Dancing Matt, you should check out his blog. Scroll down to his July 5th entry and check out the spoof video someone made of his Dancing Matt videos. WARNING: It's not suitable for children due to sexual content (no nudity) - hence I'm not actually posting the video directly into my blog here.

Another Teleportation Song came to mind recently. I forget where I heard it, but it was just in the past couple of days that Dancing Queen by ABBA broached the threshold of my consciousness. Suddenly, my mind flashed back to the Hard Rock Cafe in Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates. It was during our 1998 deployment before Usama Bin Laden's terrorist threats started severely imposing on our port call liberty. We used to all go to the Hard Rock all the time. Back then it was the closest thing outside the confines of the port facility that didn't require driving all the way to Dubai, but I hear they've really built up the area a lot since I was there over 10 years ago. Anyway, there was this Canadian band that called themselves Cinema and played a lot of cover songs. One of their favorites was Dancing Queen, and the two female vocalists in the band sang it with such a resonance in their voices, it was just mesmerizing.

Speaking of that 1998 deployment, thanks to RM1 for bringing back not-so-fond memories of that halfway night.

Saturday morning odds and ends

I hate being sick. LW hates me being sick. She'll get the same bug and she'll have a managable cold for a couple of days and be over it. LW says I'm pathetic and I look like I'm on my death bed. For me, it always takes like two weeks of coughing and hacking my brains out. I really hate being up until 2 a.m. coughing and then being dead to the world when my alarm goes off at 5:30. LW also hates it when I sleep through my alarms. She doesn't fall asleep as easily as I do. I'm ready for this head cold to go away.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In browsing the blogosphere last night and this morning, I found a couple of really good writers sharing stories of their parenting adventures. I found I could relate to both Dad Gone Mad and Sarah and the Goon Squad. They're both very talented writers and fun to read, although Dad Gone Mad is a little foul-mouthed. I found Dad Gone Mad because it was recommended to me by my Google Reader, and then I found Sarah and the Goon Squad off a link from Dad Gone Mad's t-shirt sales. Anyway, if you need a laugh or two, check them out.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Chances are we'll be heading to the East Coast again in the fall. The detailer sent me a list of five jobs to consider.

First choice is in Norfolk:
Pros:
- Close to many navy friends who are also stationed there.
- Closer to family in New England.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Great cost of living - we can afford a nice house with a basement and have SPACE to put all our STUFF.
- It's a very career-enhancing job, too, but as a result I'm one of four guys applying for the job.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Good church with friends of ours from church in San Diego.
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...

Cons:
- Long work hours and traffic.
- No Jamba Juice or Robeks.

Second choice is in DC:
Pros:
- Close to friends from our last shore duty there.
- Closer to family in New England.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Manageable cost of living - size of house we can afford is dependent on how far outside the beltway we live.
- It's a very really cool job, too. The detailer said if I don't get selected for my first choice, then I'm his top candidate for this job.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Good church. "Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came..."
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...

Cons:
- DC traffic.


Third choice is in Groton:
Pros:
- Closer to friends in NY.
- MUCH closer to family in New England. LW says my MIL would kiss my feet if we went there. LW is from Boston and I was stationed in Groton when we first met. We haven't been back to Groton since then.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Great cost of living - we can afford a nice house with a basement and have SPACE to put all our STUFF.
- The job would certainly help prepare me for my next sea tour if I go back to sea again.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...
- Non-existent traffic / easy commute.

Cons:
- This job would involve sea time, riding lots of other boats and spending time away from my family. Again - good for my professional development, but not so good for my family.

Fourth choice is here in Pearl Harbor: See previous post for pros and cons of staying in Pearl Harbor.

Best of Oahu ...so far

UPDATED 9/01/2008. As we find new favorites or cool things around the island, I will keep coming back and adding them to this post. There is a link on the upper right corner of my blog to come back to this post for quick reference.

Someone in our housing area asked for our inputs for a "Best of..." thing she wants to put together for new people who move here to the island. I told her I would compose a list of my inputs for her, but I figured it'd do just as well to post it here for anyone else looking for our list of favorite things on Oahu.

So here we go in no particular order. In most cases, I have written a blog post (or two) about it, and I've linked to my previous blog post that described that place. In those cases where I haven't already written a blog post, I wrote a paragraph about it below. Note that this is derived from our vast experience of 15 months on the island.

Restaurants: (Sorted by geographic location)
Pearl Ridge / Kam Hwy area closest to the Naval Station:
- Firehouse Restaurant on Ford Island. Right across the street from the Pacific Aviation Museum and the old air traffic control tower (you know - the one where Ben Affleck valiantly charges up it and tries to single-handedly stop the attacking Japanese planes with a shotgun). Looks can be deceiving. This place is pretty old and not fancy, but it's clean and the food and service are excellent. There are a variety of things on the menu, but there's a heavy Mexican food influence. I had the New Mexico Pork Burrito and it was AWESOME.
- Boston Pizza. Make sure you print out the coupon from the ValPak website (they periodically expire and change the link, so if the link for the coupon is bad, just do a Google Maps search for "Boston Pizza, Aiea, HI" and click on "coupons" and it will come up). For our neighbors - it's just about as fast to walk there as drive. It took me exactly five minutes to walk there, including waiting for the traffic light to change color to cross the street.
- Moe's in the Pearl Ridge Mall. Like a Mexican version of the Subway sandwich assembly line. On Wednesday nights, kids eat free and there's a guy making balloon animals for the kids.
- CPK is also at the Pearl Ridge Mall.
- Bravo's in Aiea (across the parking lot from Circuit City, under Anna Miller's). I wrote about it in my previous post here.
- Diego's Taco Shop on Kam Hwy in Waipahu for REAL carne asada burritos.
- Sam Snead's at the Navy Marine Corps golf course over behind the NEX. I'm surprised to find that I haven't written any actual blog posts about this one. I've mentioned it in passing a couple of times. It's a great place - good service, reasonable prices, and the grapefruit vinaigrette dressing is FABULOUS! (Note, you don't have to show any ID to get into this place, so I think anyone can dine there even if you're not in the military).
- Thursday Mongolian Barbecue at the Hickam AFB O'Club. You scoop up whatever raw ingredients you want into your bowl and pay the cashier by the weight of your bowl. Then hand your bowl to the guy at the grill and he'll grill up your stuff and hand it back to you on a plate. There's as much rice, lo mein noodles, soup, soft drinks, and fortune cookies as you want after you have your stuff grilled. Note: Unlike a lot of commercial Mongolian barbecue places where they provide some recommended sauce recipes (X scoops of olive oil, X scoops of shoyu, X scoops of sugar water... ginger.... garlic... hot pepper oil...), there are no suggested recipes posted here. I recommend googling it or having something in mind the first time you go, and keep notes on the way YOU like it so you remember what to do next time.
- Wright Brothers Cafe on Hickam AFB. Right next to the Hickam AFB O'Club, and right on the water overlooking the channel into Pearl Harbor. Our wives normally go out here to watch the boat pulling in or going out to sea. The cafe serves decent breakfast and lunch stuff for very low prices.
- Sea Breeze restaurant on the beach at Hickam AFB. WARNING: They had a bad kitchen fire at the Sea Breeze in late June 2008, and they had a very limited menu (hot dogs and hamburgers on an outdoor barbecue) at the Sand Bar outside while rebuilding the kitchen.
- Buzz's Steakhouse. We've been there three times now. The salad bar is fantastic - fresh avocado, pineapple, and other fresh and delicious veggies. The food is superb. Two out of three times we've had really good service there, too. It's a little pricey, but certainly good for special occasions. Reservations recommended on the weekends. They have another one over in Kailua. Our Oahu guidebooks said they don't take credit cards, but that isn't true anymore. At least the one here in Waipahu takes credit cards.

Honolulu / Waikiki:
- Ryan's in Ward Center. My first rave review is here. We went back again here. We've been back a couple more times, and always enjoyed the delicious food, the excellent service, and the very reasonable prices.
- Azteca in East Honolulu for mole poblano and the best Mexican food on the island.
- Islands in Ala Moana Shopping Center. Another post here.
- Duke's in Waikiki.
- KoKo's at the Hale Koa in Waikiki. (Military ID card required here).
- Compadres in Ward Center (next door to Ryan's).
- Orchid's in Waikiki is the fanciest place we've been on the island. The sign in front of the place said "appropriate evening resort attire required." I'm not exactly sure what that meant, but I wore khaki pants and an aloha shirt with close-toed shoes. The food and service were extraordinary, but you get what you pay for.
- House without a Key in Waikiki is next door to Orchid's an a little less fancy. I have not eaten there myself, but my wife went there with some other wardroom wives and said it was really good.

Windward Side:
- Zia's in Kaneohe (there's another one in Kailua that is also excellent).
- Haleiwa Joe's at the Haiku Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe has the best Sunday brunch on the island.
- El Mariachi in Kaneohe
- Sunday brunch at the MCBH O'Club.

North Shore:
- Breakers in Haleiwa. Good food, good service, reasonable prices, no long lines like the other super popular places (Chollo's is NOT worth the wait!).
- Giovanni Shrimp Truck. Legendary. There's at least one in Haleiwa and one way up by Turtle Bay.
- Jameson's in Haleiwa. A little pricey, but excellent food. I LOVE their chicken curry salad served in a papaya.

Snorkeling / Beach:
- Ko Olina. First post. Second Post. We've been back more times than those two, but I didn't see the need to write more of the same.
- Hanauma Bay. We have only been to H-Bay once just to be able to say we did it, but we actually prefer Ko Olina.

Scuba Diving:
- Ocean Concepts has several shops around the island, including one by the ARIZONA memorial / Rainbow Marina and one on Schoffield Barracks. They have two positive recommendations on www.tripadvisor.com. I am going to try them out next and will post what I find here.
- DiveOahu runs a sort of mini-dive shop in the NEX, and they periodically have tent sales on the sidewalk in front of the NEX. I thought their prices were pretty reasonable. I also went on a boat dive with them out to the YO-257 wreck and had a pretty good time.
- Do NOT use Island Divers. They run the shop on Hickam AFB. They are terribly disorganized and unprofessional in both their charter boat operations and their equipment repair. I later found other complaints on tripadvisor about them.


Hikes we've done with our kids: There are a LOT of great hikes around the island. I recommend picking up Stuart Ball's Hiker's Guide to Oahu. You will hear other hikers refer to "Ball Chapter 20" - they're making references to this book.
- Aiea Loop Trail (leeward side overlooking Pearl Harbor) - Probably the closest place to our housing area. The whole loop is like 4.5 miles, and I hear the last mile or so is pretty tough, steep ups and downs. I took my boys and just went out a mile and a half (clockwise, leave from the upper parking lot) then turned around and came back again, and we had a good time.
- Kaneohe Waterfall (windward side / Kaneohe) - I'm not sure what the real name of this waterfall is. Park in the parking lot for the First Presbyterian Church in Kaneohe. To get there, take H-3 to Exit 11. Turn left off the exit onto Kam Hwy. After going under the freeway, take the next left, follow the road back over the freeway and just keep following the road all the way back to the end. Park in the back left corner of the parking lot where the trailhead starts. At the big water tank, turn left up the hill. Less than a mile up the hill, make a sharp right turn onto a side trail that you have to make about a 2 foot step down to leave the main trail and get onto the side trail. This will lead you to the waterfall. You'll probably see a lot of Hawaii guided tour vans parked in the corner of the parking lot, and you'll see a good number of people on the trail going back and forth to the waterfall, so just ask someone for help if you can't find it / aren't sure where you're going.
- Diamond Head - 1.75 miles round trip, but a lot of stairs. All paved, but the trail is a little bumpy and not conducive to strollers. Great views. Please note! Before you drive out there, have a contingency Plan B ready to implement if you get there and either (a) they're closed for renovations or (b) the parking lot is full and they're turning people away. You COULD park WAY outside Diamond Head and walk all the way in, but that's a LONG walk that I wouldn't want to do. See this post for our aborted attempt, and see this post for our second successful trip to Diamond Head.
- Friendship Garden (windward side / Kaneohe) - The first time we went, we just did the shorter lower loop that doesn't go all the way to the top - see this post. The second time we went, we did the upper loop - see this post. The upper loop trail was only 1 mile, easy trails, great views.
- Makapu'u Ridge (eastern tip of the island, not far from Hanuama Bay) - About 5 miles round trip, but paved pathway most of the way to the top with spectacular views and potential whale sightings. Lots of people on the path with babies in strollers. We went back a second time and then again a third time.
- Waimano Valley (leeward side overlooking Pearl Harbor) - First aborted attempt post here. Poorly planned second attempt post here. It would have been a fun hike if (a) we had started earlier in the day so it wouldn't have gotten dark, and (b) it hadn't started torrentially raining and turning the trail to mud.
- Waimea Falls (North Shore) - About 2 miles round trip, but paved pathway the entire way and very gentle slope. If it hasn't been raining, then you are allowed to swim in the pool below the falls. We went back again, and again.
- Manoa Falls (Honolulu) - About 1.5 miles round trip, expect a muddy trail through a rainforest (i.e. you're gonna get wet, even if it's not really "raining").
- Wiliwilinui Ridge (East Honolulu/Hawaii Kai) - All the way to the end of the trail is 6 miles, but we just went out 1.8 miles to an awesome geocache and came back again for a 3.6 mile round trip. It's on top of a ridge, so the sun and wind tend to dry out the trail.

Kayaking
- Chinaman's Hat (Windward side) - Not sure whether to list this one as a hike or a snorkel or a beach or a scuba dive, but you could do them all here. There were several scuba divers and snorkelers in the water around Chinaman's Hat when we kayaked out there and hiked around the island.
- Pearl Harbor from the Rainbow Marina.

Other favorite places or things to see:
- Sea Life Park.
- Hale Koa pool.
- Paradise Cove Luau.
- COMPACFLT Remembrance Tour.
- Atlantis Submarine Tour. If you're military, then be sure to buy discounted tickets at ITT by the NEX (link to the price list is down lower on this page). We've done this twice now and really enjoyed it both times.
- Dolphins at the Kahala Resort. Parking costs $4, but otherwise it's free to stand by the pool and watch the dolphins jumping and splashing and swimming with the people who pay extraordinary amounts of money to get IN the water with the dolphins.
- Hawaiian Adventures Water Park. Second post about it here.
- Swap Meet at the Aloha Stadium. Every Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday in the Aloha Stadium parking lot. Want Hawaiian souvenirs or gifts, this is where you need to go.
- Box Car Racing in Kunia. This would be a great place for a birthday party or any other large group activity.
- Tropical Farms - Macadamia Nut Farm tour on the windward side. For directions, look up directions to the Polynesian Cultural Center. As you're driving north on the windward side headed toward the Polynesian Cultural Center, Tropical Farms will be on the right side. The tour is great - a short bus ride through the farm with explanations of all sorts of local plants and their useful purposes. A show in a small amphitheater by the water where you'll learn how to shuck a coconut and try some fresh coconut, then watch some cool twirling fire stick stunts. This farm is where they have filmed a lot of movies and TV shows like Lost, Fantasy Island, Giligan's Island, 50 First Dates, Tears of the Sun... In the store they have tons of free samples of different flavors and varieties of macadamia nuts plus samples of Kona coffee. You could make a meal just eating all the free samples.
- Round Top Scenic Drive. If you don't do the whole drive up Round Top and down Tantalus, then at least go up to Puu Ualakaa State Park and admire the view.


Local Services:

- Aloha attire.

- Movies: Sharkey Theater is the base theater on the sub base. Active duty get in for FREE. I paid $1.50 for the boys to get in, and spent $6 on two popcorns, two bottles of water, and one medium soda. Can't beat those prices at any other big screen movie theater!

Sharkey Theater occasionally has sneak previews, too. Be alert and check the schedule. For more logistical details of how they orchestrate the sneak preview, see this post.

- Tickets: You can find military discounts on tickets to a lot of local attractions at Information Tickets and Tours (ITT). Here's the price list.

- Outdoor Recreation Rentals: At Bloch Arena (just inside the Nimitz Gate) there is an outdoor equipment rental place (bicycles, camping gear, kayaks, etc). Here's their price list. For kayaks, I find that Go Bananas has very similar prices, but much better service.

- Children's Dentist: LW got this recommendation from other people here in our housing area, so someone else probably already put this on the list.

- Birthday Cake: Commissary.

- Birthday Ideas for Kids: Box Car Racing. Magic show. Hawaiian Adventures Water Park. Jungle River Miniature Golf.

- Commissary Note: The Commissary over at MCB Kaneohe and the one on Hickam AFB are not as big as the Commissary here on the NAVSTA Pearl Harbor side, but they're significantly less crowded. The lines at the Commissary on this side can be outrageously long and wrapped all the way around the back of the store past the meat section. Since we go to church in Kaneohe, we will often go to the commissary while we're on that side of the island. Othewise, LW will frequently opt to go to Hickam instead of the Pearl Harbor NEX / Commissary.

- TV: Dish Network. We hated the Time Warner Cable and really missed our Dish Network service. We submitted the form with Forest City to get permission to put in a satellite dish and got approval within a week. There is a booth set up right in the foyer of the NEX, and they offer a pretty good deal on the installation.
Note that FCC rules say a HOA cannot prohibit you from putting up a satellite dish (as long as it's less than 1 meter in diameter). Here's an excerpt from the FCC website:

The rule prohibits restrictions that impair a person's ability to install, maintain, or use an antenna covered by the rule. The rule applies to state or local laws or regulations, including zoning, land-use or building regulations, private covenants, homeowners' association rules, condominium or cooperative association restrictions, lease restrictions, or similar restrictions on property within the exclusive use or control of the antenna user where the user has an ownership or leasehold interest in the property. A restriction impairs if it: (1)unreasonably delays or prevents use of; (2) unreasonably increases the cost of; or (3) precludes a person from receiving or transmitting an acceptable quality signal from an antenna covered under the rule. The rule does not prohibit legitimate safety restrictions or restrictions designed to preserve designated or eligible historic or prehistoric properties, provided the restriction is no more burdensome than necessary to accomplish the safety or preservation purpose. [Emphasis added is mine.]

Note that they are allowed to impose certain restrictions. For example, Forest City says you can't mount it to the house. What the local satellite dish installers do is put a cinder block base down in your yard and mount the satellite dish to the cinder block base. Reception is great.

Revision 9/8/2008: Okay, we have had occasional minor interference on the screen that we never experienced while we had Dish Network on the mainland, but it hasn't been bad. I started keeping a log of the outages in March 2008, and I only logged one outage in April and one in May. So it happened less than once per month.

Note the satellite is over the continental U.S., so the dish will need to aim to the EAST-southeast. Functionality is ten times better than Time Warner Cable.

I have anecdotal evidence from one of the other officers in my wardroom that DirectTV requires a larger satellite dish than what is allowed, and he was forced to take down his DirectTV satellite dish.

Visiting Other Islands:

I highly recommend hopping over to visit at least one of the other islands while you're stationed in Hawaii. On our first inter-island vacation, we went to Maui (blog posts part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 wrap-up). On our second trip, we went to the Big Island (blog posts part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 wrap-up). Next on our list was Kauai, but we ran out of time.

If I had the opportunity to make one more inter-island trip, and I could only choose between Maui and the Big Island, then I would go back to Maui (see the end of Big Island Part 5 Wrap-Up for a side-by-side summary of Maui versus the Big Island).

USMC Silent Drill Team

Photo from Marine Barracks Washington website.

First, thanks to the shout-out from bothenook. He periodically does a round-up, brief summary of a whole bunch of bubblehead (submariner) blogs around the blogosphere. In reviewing his most recent roundup, I found some really good stuff. I won't recap his whole post, but his roundup led me to this very powerful and heart-wrenching photograph, and also to a really good USMC recruiting video.

The USMC recruiting video brought back a memory from my last shore duty in DC. The USMC Silent Drill Platoon performs a Sunset Parade at the Iwo Jima Memorial on Tuesday nights in the summertime. It's free and open to the public, and it's really amazing to watch. I was very glad I took the boys to see the Sunset Parade in the summer of 2006. Click here for Sunset Parade information (directions, parking, times, etc).

When I googled it to find the Marine Barracks Washington website with the info about the Sunset Parade, I came upon a whole slew of videos on YouTube.

Saturday morning odds and ends

LW: First, I've been remiss in saying what an AWESOME wife I have. I really do sincerely appreciate everything she does for me and the boys, to include making us AWESOME dinners. Two nights ago she made us that southwest chicken stoup again. Man I love that stuff! Last night she made some really good baked dijon salmon from a WW recipe.

Blog Wanderings: I ended up on one of those blog-wanderings this morning where clicking on one link took me to another link to me to another link. A couple of items of note:

- My Wonderful Life had this post on Dec. 7th. The first picture on that post is one I had seen before, but it all has new meaning to me now. That is the drydock where the MSP now resides. It's pretty weird looking at it and seeing a WWII battleship and two destroyers in it, and in shambles after the attack. I think RM1(SS) commented on this in my earlier post about the drydock, but it didn't really sink in until I saw the picture on MWL's blog.

- Have You Met Ted? I don't even remember what sequence of blog links led me here, but I found this blog on all things HIMYM. From there, I discovered a link to...

- Barney's Blog. This is pretty funny. If you're a HIMYM fan, you can just hear Barney saying these things he's written into his blog. If you're not a HIMYM fan... WHY THE HECK NOT?!?!

- Oh, I also found some pretty funny HIMYM t-shirts on this website.

Shipping Things to Hawaii: I do not wish to call out or chastise any particular member of my extended family (because it's been more than one person who's done it), but in the future, please consider asking me to pick up whatever you would like to buy as a gift for one of us here on the island. As the Christmas gift packages start to roll in, I am suffering from a case of "sticker shock" seeing the amount of money some of our family members have paid in shipping. It would have saved a lot of money to just buy it here on the island.

Movie Reviews: LW and I watched a couple of movies from Blockbuster this past week.

Last night we watched The Guardian (Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher movie about U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers). I had mixed feelings about it. I did enjoy watching it, but there were some elements that got on my nerves though.
- Alternative Title 1: Officer and a Gentleman II. Lou Gossett Jr. and Richard Gere weren't available to shoot this requel (note, it's not a sequel, it's a requel because it's just telling the same story over again in a slightly different setting, but with all the same plot elements), so they got Kevin Costner to take Gossett's place and Ashton Kutcher to take Gere's place.
- Alternative Title 2: Top Gun II. They took Richard Gere's character from O&aG and gave him the arrogance and "did you figure it out yet?" attitude of Tom Cruise from Top Gun.
- Blue on Blue: I did not like the way they portrayed the Navy. A couple of the coasties went into a "squid bar" where a bunch of Navy guys in wash khakis and utilities were hanging out, drinking beer, and shooting pool. They got a very, "we don't serve your kind here" response and got into a bar fight with some of the Navy guys, while some fat Navy captain sat at his table and watched. Are there REALLY places like that out there? I just don't see anything like that happening in today's Navy or Coast Guard.

The other movie we watched earlier in the week was Casanova. It was pretty funny and enjoyable to watch. From reading other reviews, I see complaints that it's not historically accurate... but what movies ARE historically accurate??? It's meant for entertainment. I really felt like I was watching a Shakespearean comedy. The plot was a very traditional theatrical comedy.

Catching up...

It took me a while to catch up on reading all my favorite blogs (plus one new one). Here are some of the highlights from while I was gone:


For those of you who have been to both California and Virginia, cast your vote on Loping Squid's blog for whether In-n-Out is better than 5 Guys or vice versa. It's a tough call, but I still think In-n-Out is better. I may be WEE bit biased since I grew up in SoCal though.


For those of you who know what "boat smell" is, cast your vote on the Wives On Edge blog about whether you do or don't like the boat smell. During my JO tour, my wife used to make me take off as much of my uniform as human decency would allow outside the door to our apartment before I came inside. I think she's an odd-ball though. I think most submarine wives associate the "boat smell" with their DH being home from sea, and therefore a good smell. I also really liked how C described her, "knight in amine-smelling khakis."

If you're in need of a laugh, OMG... I had tears streaming down my face and almost couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard from reading June Cleaver's posts over last weekend - and especially the one on 10 October about door-to-door salesmen.

I'd like to welcome Joe and Samantha to the blogosphere. Reading their oursublife blog brought back a few memories from my JO tour and being a newlywed in Groton.

Comments like these are why we're really glad to be back on a boat again with a great bunch of wardroom wives. I think my wife had to endure a lot more questions like that when I was a geobachelor in and out of Norfolk and she stayed with the boys in the DC suburbs. As much as I loved living in Northern Virginia, we really missed the camaraderie of a tight-knit wardroom. It's nice being back in a circle of friends who understand what submarine life is like and don't torment you with such questions.