Murphy's Law

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. And boy, did it.

Evie had finally fallen asleep by the time we got to the hotel, so while Jay waited in line I kept pushing her around in the stroller. I really think it took 30 minutes to check-in; everything runs more slowly here. We finally get to our room which is on the top floor on the corner facing the sun. They left the curtains open so despite the fact that the A/C was cranking, the living room was SO HOT. Hot enough to wake Evie up, sweating and screaming. We were lucky to get a suite with two rooms, which has been so helpful with putting Evie to bed. The hotel is very dated but clean. The first night we didn't have a crib so the hotel let us rent their crib (i.e. a Pack and Play) for the reasonable fee of $25 a night.

Living room

We quickly found out that we have about 20 channels, 2 of which are in Korean and Japanese and another 1-2 that focus solely on Hawaiian travel. And tragically, Bravo is not one of these channels!! But Nickelodeon is, so we've been getting caught up on our Full House reruns at night.

Another problem we soon encountered was we had no internet. It clearly states that we get free internet with our stay, but the manager who gives the authorization codes was not in, so we had to purchase internet for the low rate of $7 a day until he was working again. Once we spoke with him, we got free internet access but you have to have a code for each device. Only a few of the codes actually work and they erase themselves at random times, so you could be in the middle of doing something and if the internet decides you need to re-enter the code, you have to exit your browser and start all over. We don't even bother with connecting our phones anymore.

Kitchen and entry

Bathroom with tiny, dark shower

In our kitchen we had a small number of dishes/silverware and some basic cookware. The shower (pictured above) is very tiny and dark, but the water pressure is great. There are also two separate bedrooms and a closet area. We have three separate balconies (two off living room, one off our bedroom) and although we're in the middle of a bunch of high rises, it's still nice to sit out there at night with a drink and feel the ocean breeze.

Sunset on our balcony

The next morning, we woke up to a very sick baby. At 3:30am. She was so congested and of course, the one thing I didn't pack was the bulb syringe. We were all up for the day, a day in which we anticipated getting our car and our express shipment. A few minutes and curses later, we found out that our car was here in Honolulu but would not be off-loaded from the cargo ship until the following week. Same for our express shipment. So "cha-ching, cha-ching" we had to go rent a car and buy lots of supplies that were supposed to be in our express shipment.

Morning coffee

We woke up the next morning (3:30am again) and all three of us are sick! I managed to not get sick for seven years, but have been sick twice in the last two months, WTH? Feeling like crap, we went to the beach to get out of the room and remember why people love coming to Hawaii. The beach was beautiful and the fresh air helped us all breath better. We did more shopping that day for things we should have had already and came home, just to watch Evie start crawling for the first time. Little stinker.



We had a few other incidents, like losing the computer power cord only to find it right in front of our face hours later after we assured ourselves we forgot it in MD and were going to have to pay over $100 to have a cord shipped here. Or finding out our old landlord does not want to return rent money we are owed (an ongoing issue, more on that later).

The next day we headed onto Schofield Barracks to find out what our housing options were. We had never lived on post and didn't really care to now, but we thought it didn't hurt to see what was available. I'm so glad we looked because the houses are beautiful here and have totally changed our minds about living on post! We put a hold on a house in a lovely neighborhood and are set to move into it tomorrow.

So after a bunch of small stresses that made the transition here even more difficult it seems we are getting back on track.I'll miss being in the heart of Honolulu and within walking distance to many cool shops/restaurants, but I won't miss the loud police sirens and construction noise at all hours. No idea when our big household shipment will come, but I'm looking forward to being in a house for good and getting settled in.