So long, farewell, aloha and goodbye

I suspect this will be my last blog post from Hawaii. (At least THIS time around - knock on wood).

It's a little bittersweet. We do look forward to going back to the east coast, but we will miss the friends and cherish the memories we've created here in Hawaii.

Let me backtrack a moment to share a couple of pictures from this week.

Tuesday, we went to our neighbor, Big M's promotion ceremony at the COMPACFLT Boat House. It was a really nicely done ceremony, and we were honored to sit right up front as if we were family.

Blunoz Family in the COMPACFLT Boat House

As I mentioned before, we went to our Cub Scout Pack field day / olympics on Saturday morning, and ES received his patch for completing the Historic Honolulu Hike.

(There is another historic hike you can do over on the Big Island to get another rocker that fills in the gap next to the Honolulu rocker.)

Then we went to the Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park with our awesome neighbors and friends, Big M, B, J & M. One of the water park employees took this picture.

Me and ES on the Waianai Coaster

It's not the best quality picture, especially with all the water washed out in the foreground. Still, I thought it was a pretty cool action shot with us up at an angle on the wall. (You can go to my previous post about the water park to see pics and videos of us going down the slides).

Tonight we had our farewell dinner with our same awesome neighbors. The kids chose the foreign residence of tasty flatbreads. Not what the adults would have chosen for our last dinner on the island, but the kids were kind of emotional and we didn't want to cause any more trauma.

M and ES were two peas in a pod as usual.

YB and J enjoy their pancakes.*
(*This photo is rather UNusual in that they're both sitting quitely and eating.)

We stopped by their house (across the street from our use-ta-house) to use their printer and print out our boarding passes. Both our boys LOVE dogs and wish they could have a dog, but my wife is allergic to dogs. The boys have both loved playing with Copper across the street.

ES giving Copper a hug goodbye.

Farewell Photo

I tried to get them to give each other a hug for the photo like they did for our last best-friends-farewell, but they wouldn't have anything of it.

We've been really blessed to have such wonderful neighbors in each of our duty stations. Each duty station, when the time has come for us to leave, we've had wonderful neighbors to lend us a hand with preparations for moving out. This was no exception. I wish we could be here to help them with their move out here in a few months, because they really bent over backwards to help us with our move. THANK YOU GUYS! I don't know how we would have made it through our movers, check-out inspection, and trip to the airport without you.

I'm not sure how much time I'll have to blog while we're on the road, but I'll try to post periodic updates en route to DC.

Welcome Home Steve!

My very close personal friend Steve just returned home from 380 days in Iraq.

Basically, this past year that I've been living in Hawaii, snorkeling, scuba diving, hiking, visiting Maui, visiting the Big Island, complaining about Hawaii drivers, complaining about having to wear PANTS to dinner (instead of shorts), and complaining about my detailer, Steve's been "over there" doing important work helping the Iraqi people rebuild their country.

BEFORE
Steve in Training

DURING
Steve in Diyala, Iraq

Steve understandably didn't have a lot of time to write on his travel blog while he was gone. For a good taste of Steve's awesome sense of humor, read this post (Nov 18, 2007) about his trip to Al Asad. His best post that sorta summed up what he did over there was this one (Jan 8, 2008) about his trip to Diyala, helping to build new forward operating bases near hotbeds of insurgent activity.

DURING
Steve under the crossed swords

AFTER!
Welcome Home Steve!!!

I think Kim's smile is precious. Can you tell the boys were excited to see him? God bless you guys, and thank you for the many sacrifices (and tropical storms) you have endured since Steve left.


Also, welcome home to fellow bubblehead Craig from his deployment to Afghanistan, and thanks to Amy for sharing the awesome pictures of their reunion in the airport.

Preparing for Departure

We're homeless again. Well... sort of. Homeless in Hawaii anyway. That's a good thing. We officially checked out of Navy Housing yesterday and are living in the Navy Lodge until we fly out.

Warning: This post got kind of long, so get yourself a cup of coffee and pull up a chair. Even if you aren't moving off the island of Oahu like we are, you may find some amusement in our experiences.

CHECKING OUT OF HOUSING

Forest City (housing management company) gives you a long list if things they expect you to clean before your checkout inspection, to include things like the insides of the globes of the ceiling light fixtures and the tracks of the sliding glass doors. If you don't clean it to their standards, then they can assess you a $315 cleaning fee. OR, you can opt in advance to tell them that you're just going to pay them the $315 to have them clean it for you.

Flashback: My wife and I had a bad experience with this type of situation many years ago back in Groton. After living through a harsh winter, we spent the first nice weekend of the season, and a spectacularly beautiful weekend at that, feverishly cleaning out the house I was renting in Mystic.

Then the landlord charged us to have the place professionally cleaned after we moved out.

If we had known he was going to do that anyway, then we would have gone out and ENJOYED the beautiful weekend outdoors and just paid the money for the cleaning.

With that experience under our belts, we opted to just pay for the cleaning. There was still a LOT of stuff on our plates this week. We had no shortage of things to do before our move-out inspection and not a lot of spare time.

If we were going to do the cleaning, I probably would have scheduled the check-out inspection for Monday and we would have spent the weekend cleaning. Instead, we go to participate in our Cub Scout Pack Olympics this morning, had an awesome lunch at Diego's and went to the Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park (waterslide park) with our awesome neighbors this afternoon. We plan on playing mini-golf and maybe going to the pool tomorrow. So we chalked up the $315 as a moving expense and took it out of the Dislocation Allowance (DLA) the Navy pays us to help with moving expenses.

SHIPPING YOUR POV

Wednesday we shipped my car off the island via the Honolulu Vehicle Processing Center (VPC). You may recall, we already paid out of pocket and shipped my wife's car off a few weeks ago so it would be waiting for us on the west coast. This time, we shipped my car to Baltimore on the Navy's dime.

Man, what a pain in the butt.

When we took my wife's car in, since we were paying them to ship it, it went really fast and easy. Not so much when the Navy is paying for it.

For any other military servicemembers living in Hawaii / getting ready to PCS off Hawaii, take heed:

RANT / Lesson Learned the Hard Way #1: Pre-Shipping Interview

Before you can try to ship your car at the VPC, you must first go to a pre-shipping interview / counseling session on the second floor of the Aloha Center (across the street from PSD and Ruby Tuesday).

When you go to the Aloha Center, you have to give them three copies of your orders (why?**) and fill out a form with your vehicle's info and your info. Someone in that office reviews your form and reads the shipping rules to you (thanks, I can read). Then you have to sign something saying you understand the shipping rules - things like you can't have more than 1/4 tank of gas, the car has to be clean, you can't leave any plants, fruits, vegetables, seeds, fungi, soil, farm equipment, firearms, explosives, pyrotechnics, combustibles, acids, bases, oxidants, corrosive materials, hazmat, radioactive material, drugs, black sand, volcanic rock, precious stones, tropical fish, sea turtles, mongooses, pets, rodents, animals, insects, small children, or other valuables in your car.

**Aside: Why do we still have to provide every bureaucrat seventeen copies of our orders when we PCS? I could understand back in the days when they gave you ONE set of "original" hard copy orders that had all the official stamps on it and everything, and it's not like they could be looked up anywhere quickly and easily. NOW, in the age of the internet, I can call up my orders on any computer with internet access. Why are we continuing to kill trees with umpteen bajillion copies of our orders floating all over the place. Just look at them on the darn computer screen! End of tirade.

Basically, the ONLY purpose of the pre-shipping interview is so that if you show up at the VPC with a small child in a sleeping bag and a week's supply of coconuts, mangos, pineapple, star fruit, oranges, and bananas that you want to leave in the trunk (oh, and some fireworks and gasoline for entertainment in transit), then they can say, "No, no! We told you so!"

Okay, I'm exaggerating. You got me.

Really all it comes down to is so when you show up with more than a 1/4 tank of gas and they tell you they won't ship your car until you take a scenic drive around the island with the air conditioning cranked up and the windows rolled down to burn off the gas (don't forget to stop for some garlic shrimp at the Giovanni's Shrimp Truck).

I was a little annoyed that I found out about this pre-appointment thing purely by chance in a casual conversation and was able to get mine done last minute the day before we shipped the car. A couple of weeks ahead of time, I called the VPC to ask about setting up an appointment. (a) They told me, "Oh, you don't need an appointment, just bring it on in!" (Famous last words). (b) Did they ask me, "Oh, by the way, did you already go to the Aloha Center for your pre-shipping interview?" Nope. Not a word.

Before I called them to attempt to make an appointment, I checked their website, too. The Where Is My POV? website tells you what documents you need to bring with you, but nothing about a pre-shipping interview at the Aloha Center. It does, however, tell you to "Check "VPC Locations" for country-specific requirements." Okay, so I clicked on that and went to the Honolulu VPC page. Again, no mention of a pre-shipping interview. Although it does say, "IN AN EFFORT TO EXPEDITE YOUR PROCESSING TIME, THE HONOLULU VPC OFFERS AND RECOMMENDS APPOINTMENTS." (emphasis THEIRS, NOT MINE!!!)

Self, there seems to be a disconnect between the person who writes this web page and the people who work the counter at the VPC.


When I got to the VPC, one of my Sailors was at the counter looking rather exasperated as the lady at the counter explained to him he had to go back to the Aloha Center and get his pre-shipping interview signed for first.

I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous!

Okay, so you'd rather the guy did the pre-shipping interview before he came to the VPC to avoid hassles, got it! But now that he's STANDING THERE in front of you, why don't you just ASK him if he's got a 1/4 tank of gas or less? If he meets the requirements, then why make him drive across town just to get someone to sign a stupid piece of paper???

To that shipmate*** and to the rest of my crew, I offer my sincerest apology that we did not get this information out at our pre-crew release information night. I hope you all didn't suffer the same fate as the MM2 I saw at the VPC and have to backtrack to the Aloha Center.

***Aside: See there? I'm using shipmate NOT as a derogatory term!

RANT / Lesson Learned the Hard Way #2: Expect to be insulted by requests to violate your integrity, and don't give in.

At a couple of points during the process, both inside at the counter and outside at the vehicle inspection, the VPC employees asked me to sign for things that weren't done.

It's easy to guess why these things are required to be signed for. Somewhere in Matson's past, the company got burned by some frivolous lawsuit because they didn't do something (like TELL the vehicle owner that he can't ship any plants, animals, or hazardous materials in the car). Unfortunately for the Matson management, the employees are meeting the letter of the company policies by having people check the blocks, but they aren't actually doing what was intended by the Matson management who wrote the policies.

Example #1: The lady at the counter wanted me to sign for having received a copy of the claims policies and procedures. She hadn't given the claims policies and procedures to me yet, so I told her I would sign it as soon as she gave it to me.

She looked at me like I had three heads and just couldn't comprehend why I wouldn't sign.

In her world, the sequence of events is (1) the customer signs the forms, (2) she hands them the paperwork, and the fact that I was challenging that process just caused the gears in her noggin to come to a screaching halt.

Example #2: The lady at the counter gave me a checklist for cleaning out my car. She wanted me to initial each line item (under the seats - check, between the seats - check, in the seatbacks - check, in the glove box - check, in the center console - check...), and then to sign the bottom.

Common now, lady... I'm a nuke.

You don't REALLY expect me to just blaze off this page full of initials and then sign the bottom without actually CHECKING those things, do you??? You should either (a) give us this form at the pre-shipping interview and tell us to use it in cleaning out our car before going to the VPC, sign it and bring it with us, or (b) let us take the form out to the vehicle inspection, conduct the checklist, and sign for it.

Example #3: Outside, I pull my car into the inspection carport, and I am directed to sit on a picnic bench until someone calls my name.

I sit.

The inspector comes over to me and asks me to fill out a comment card, sign it, and turn it in to the comment card box, and then we will get started on the inspection.

...Huh???

I don't think they're going to like my response on the comment card.

It asked a bunch of things like "did we do this?" and "did we do that?" In about half the cases I marked "no." Such as, did a vehicle inspector conduct an inspection of your vehicle with you? No. Well... not yet anyway. I wrote that I was directed to fill out and sign the card before the process was complete, so I could not say whether or not those things had been done.

I ran out of room in the limited space for comments at the bottom of the card, but I put my name and email address on it so the Matson management could contact me if they want to follow-up.

Backtrack to the Moving Out of Housing Section: Much to my surprise, when our movers came Thursday morning to take our final shipment (Unaccompanied Baggage), a QA inspector was with them and asked me to fill out and sign a comment card showing that he was there during our move.

I signed it to show he had been there, but I also dated it and wrote what TIME I signed it so anyone who checked could see that it was the same time that the movers showed up. He said I'd have an opportunity to submit any comments later, but he never came back and I never saw that form again.

Just another example of "checking the block." Yep! The inspector was here. I wonder if he gets a bonus if he visits a certain percentage of the active move sights in one day?

The Point

Okay, so why am I writing all this on my blog?

1. It's been a long week. I'm venting.

2. For the benefit of anybody else getting ready to move off the island, I'm sharing my experiences so hopefully you don't have the same problems.

3. For the amusement of anybody not getting ready to move off the island, I'm impressed if you've read this far. Thanks for your time. You should play some Civilization or something.


Random Thought: I really hope they remembered to turn off my car after they drove it onto the ship. If you're going really slow or just sitting still, the engine turns off and the car is silent, so you get the false impression the car isn't "on." If the air conditioning is left on though, periodically the engine will start to recharge the battery that's being drained to run the AC.


To Matson Management: In case there are any Matson managers reading this, here's a quick summary of recommendations that I hope you will use as constructive criticism.

1. Put information on the website that says you have to go to the Aloha Center for a pre-shipping interview.

2. Tell your employees not to tell people, "Oh, you don't need an appointment, just bring it on in." Since appointments can only be made on the website, direct them to the website to make an appointment.

3. Delete the line on the website that says you can make appointments by phone.

4. If someone shows up at the counter without the pre-shipping interview, don't send them back across town to get the signature.

5. If you're going to give people forms to sign, don't expect them to sign unless the items on the form have been completed.

Sarah Palin Facts

There's a lot of blog traffic on the net about Sarah Palin. I don't have any new earth-shattering revelations to offer you, but I do want to share a good laugh with you.

Two bloggers that I read have made reference to the same site. First I read this post from Girl on the Right and laughed pretty hard. Then I read this post from CDR Salamander and laughed even harder. After reading the second one, I decided to go ahead and click on the link to Sarah Palin facts. I will add to GotR and CDR S's favorites a few of my own:

- Jesus has a bracelet that says, “WWSPD?”
- Death once had a near-Sarah Palin experience
- Sarah Palin can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves!
- in the original version, He-Man had the power of Sarah Palin, but the writers felt this would make him way too powerful
- When Sarah Palin booked a flight to Europe, the French immediately surrendered.
- Sarah Palin plays Whack-a-Mole with her forehead, and always gets a perfect score.
- Sarah Palin is actually Kaiser Sose.

And my all-time favorite so far:

- (SPOILER ALERT): Ted Moseby marries Sarah Palin. (I’m a big How I Met Your
Mother fan)

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.

Wiliwilinui Ridge Hike

Ow, my feet.


The Wiliwilinui Ridge Hike has been on my to-do list for almost as long as we've been on the island, because I wanted to go find this geocache. In spite of raw and blistered feet from going to the pool the past two days in a row, I really wanted to do this one before we left.

ES and I headed out this morning and we were both really glad we went. When I said to him, "This is the best cache I've found in Hawaii," ES said, "No! It's the best cache EVER!"

The trail was mostly hard-packed dirt, with some moderately steep slopes and lots of up and down and up and down again.

Altitude Profile for our Hike
X-Axis is Elapsed Mileage in 0.2 mile increments
Y-Axis is Elevation in 50 foot increments

This was probably the steepest hill we've climbed out hiking. It's hard to say if this one or the Twisted Kitty cache was steeper. That would require math, and I'm too tired to do math right now. Today's hike was definitely the longer of the two.

Aside: Two-thumbs up to ES on the hike today. I was sure breathing hard and really worked up a sweat. He was a trooper and never complained a single time over our 3.6 mile trek.

Today was one of those days where I got to have a lot of awesome, meaningful one-on-one conversation with ES. We started off talking about the Revolution and the War of 1812 - why the wars were fought, when they were fought, how and where they were fought. Then we talked about the House of Representatives and the Senate, the differences between them and why we have both of them. We talked about how a bill goes through the House and Senate and goes to the President to become a law. Because of playing Civ II, he's been asking a lot of questions about different types of governments like democracy versus communism, and he keeps picking random names of countries out of his head and asking me what type of government they have. I'm going to have to start studying the CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia more so I can answer his questions.

My little camera could never do justice to the spectacular views we had at various spots along the trail. In this image, you can see the top of Koko Head poking up on the left, and the ridge over Hanauma Bay on the right.

I don't want to put too much spoiler info here in case anyone else goes searching for this cache, but it ends up taking you through a WWII era bunker with two 8-inch gun turrets.

The cache is down there somewhere.

Lost GPS satellite reception. ...now what???

If you plan to hunt for this cache, make sure you take the HINTS with you on the hike. (Yes, I took the hints with us, and yes we found the cache.)

Of course, to polish of an AWESOME morning of hiking, we stopped for tacos for lunch on the way home. How do you like that mortified look on ES's face? Yes, I embarrassed ES by taking a self portrait in the restaurant. When I went back to the table, he just dropped his head and slowly shook it back and forth in shame for his geek father.

WILIWILINUI RIDGE HIKE (PARTIAL) SUMMARY: I know when I'm trying to decide on a new hike location, I search for an overview about the hike that will help me judge if it's doable with two little boys. For anyone else looking to do this hike, here's a quick summary:
Note this summary is more for the hike to this particular geocache and back, not all the way out to the end of the trail and back.
Map: There's sort of a map at this website. When I get my Stuart Ball book back, I'll tell you what chapter this one is.
Mileage: For the geocache we were seeking, it was 3.6 miles total including a side trip to get the geocache. I think if you go all the way to the end of the trail, this website says it's 3 miles out.
Elevation Gain: The parking lot at the trailhead was full, so we parked down the street a little ways at 1183 feet, the top of the trail for the geocache was about 1812 feet, so total elevation gain was approximately 629 feet of elevation gain.
Terrain: Mostly hard-pack dirt with some moderately steep slopes. Lots of ups and downs. It looks like it gets pretty muddy when it rains, but it's also on the top of a ridge exposed to sunlight, so it dries pretty quick.
Time: It took us 2 hours 38 minutes, including stops at each of the four stages of the geocache.
Facilities: None. There are several spots with little side trails where you could step off the trail to water a bush and not be in eyesight of people on the trail.

There was a good amount of foot traffic on the trail. Like I said, the parking lot was full (only like 10 parking spots). We passed several individuals, couples, families and large groups of all variations of age and gender walking in both directions on the trail.

Twice in One Weekend

I really love weekends.

Especially holiday weekends.

Even more so when I wake up to the sound of Star Wars laser blasters at 6:45.

(Just a wee bit of sarcasm there.)

My wife and I always dread the morning after we've had some reason to keep the boys up late. It doesn't matter what time we put them to bed at night, they always wake up before 7 a.m. If they were up late the night before, then that equates to tired and cranky boys crying and whining and fighting in the morning.

Friday night, my CO and his wife took us out for a very nice dinner at Orchid's to celebrate the end of decom. That was the fanciest restaurant we've been to on the island. I actually had to dig khaki pants and closed toed shoes out of my closet. I don't think I've worn pants since we moved to Hawaii, with the exception of my uniform at work. Even then, I normally wear shorts and a t-shirt in to work and then change into my uniform at work, so I'm never NOT in shorts outside of work. Anyway, Orchid's was truly extraordinary. We really enjoyed both the food and the good company. (Thanks W & L!)

LW and me outside Orchid's

The four of us enjoying Mai Tais at Orchid's.
(No, I'm not really THAT pasty white, I think it just
looks that way because of the white wall behind me).

While we were off at dinner, we left the boys with their best friends J & M across the street. We got back home around 9:30 and they were still up watching movies. By the time we got the boys to bed it was around 10 p.m. Saturday morning was a lovely cacophony of whining and fighting and general crankiness. I had both boys in time-outs for fighting by 8 a.m.

My former XO and Weps from my previous boat are both stationed here in Hawaii now, too. Last night we all got together for a barbecue to say farewell to LW and me as we head off to DC. They all live right here in the same housing area we do, so we went over to their house and took the kids with us. Once again, great food and good company, but we didn't put the boys to bed until like 9:30 again.

Alright, I need to go. We just had a fight over Lego Star Wars and the X-Box that ended in ES stomping upstairs screaming "I HATE YOU!" and slamming his door. Besides waking up to the sound of Star Wars laser blasters, there's nothing like a temper tantrum before 8 a.m. to really make my morning.

I need coffee.

...and maybe some ear plugs.

...or some duct tape.