Well, the Mister made it back safely and I’m proud to say he was an honor grad from his course at ALC. He worked his butt off and it was rewarded. He has also been put back on the gun line at work, so he’s back to getting the days off his unit gets instead of just battalion.

It’s still been a whirlwind week since he came back. He jumped right back in to work and then it was Thanksgiving. We took on Black Friday again and managed to pick up most of what we wanted without having to wait in ungodly lines or wrestle people for that one last thing. We got 90% of what we were after online and paying that surcharge not to deal with the stress was worth it. So Christmas shopping for everyone is almost completely done and it’s not even December.

Today, we crossed a few more things off of our Oahu list.  We stayed within 10 miles of home and enjoyed the cooler weather. It was nice not to be sweating constantly. If the 75 degree weather would stick around, that would be excellent.

Our first stop was the Wahiawa Botanical Garden. A nice walk through the local flora for nothing but a drive up the road.

Then we went to another sacred Hawaiian site: the Kukaniloko Birthing Stones. Here it’s said that chiefs and chieftesses brought the next generation into the world to ensure their high status later in life. The mana (spiritual energy) was so different there. You could feel the change even from the parking lot.

Our final stop of the day was Dole Plantation for a more touristy stop. We took a ride on the train, toured the garden, and took on the pineapple maze, We got to enjoy the world famous Dole Whip and I picked up a few post cards for my collection.  It was cheesy, but a good time!

All in all, it was a good day.  We’ll probably figure out something else to do next weekend.

I have to take miss Taz to the vet Tuesday for boosters and an interview in Honolulu Wednesday. Busy week in the works!

Excited to see where it ends up.

Until next time.

Cheers!

-A. xoxo