A few more sights

So its been a while since our last post and our "adventures" have slowed a bit due to complications with regard to "lack of employment".... that's not to say that we haven't done anything.

Here's a synopsis of our last 2 weeks or so...

Couchsurfing continued to blow our minds. Carly was looking on the site at "nearby travellers" and saw a name she recognized. It turned out that a guy she went to grade school with was in the Navy and stationed temporarily at the Marine base (the one our apartment overlooks). His name is Tom.

She also decided to email other CouchSurfers who live nearby in an attempt to get to know new people in the area. So she wrote to a guy named Pete who does Paragliding.

We linked up with Tom and decided to go to a place that we found out paragliders launch from near the lighthouse that we hiked to previously. We saw a guy climbing up the hillside with a big pack, so we followed him to the launch site. If the world wasn't small enough, it turned out we were following PETE! So we hiked up and watched some launches and enjoyed the view.

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(YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY PICTURE IN OUR BLOG TO SEE A FULL SIZED PHOTO)

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Tom was nice enough to show us around on the Marine Base. Security is high since 9/11 and you have to get a pass and be accompanied by military personell to see it so we are very lucky to have the opportunity to see this particular section of our neighborhood.

There's a radio tower with a great 360 degree panoramic view, a beach with some wild surf for only experienced surfers, a nice mall, beautiful homes and a double olympic length pool that we relaxed in... THANKS TOM!

Thanksgiving was unique. Unfortunately, Carly had to work, so she was busy serving holiday cocktails to the members of Mid-Pacific Country Club. Kevin, on the other hand, was invited back to the home where we first stayed when we landed... the Therriens. Tom and Donna and their two daughters, Maile and Kalei, and their grandmother, Carol hosted him as well as another family from Israel that they are close with.

The day started by relaxing on the beach in the afternoon then moved to the house for a relatively traditional thanksgiving dinner. (Kev was bad at remembering to take pictures).

Carly worked most of the weekend after Thanksgiving, but on monday we did an adventure that we've been looking forward to for a while--GOAT ISLAND!

Just off the shore at a beach part about 40 minutes north of us, is a little island with three beaches and a bird sanctuary. The beauty of this island is that--depending on the tides-- you have to either walk/wade or swim/boogie about 300 yards to get to it. Once there, you can walk all the way around it and see three beaches--two very rocky but unique and one that's so well protected by an arm of reef that it's just about the most perfect beach we've come across. The water is very calm and clear and the day we were there, there was virtually no one else on the entire island. It's an amazingly tranquil and private feeling to be alone on your own island!

This is an arial photo of Laie point and Goat island. We went to both... Goat island is at the very TOP RIGHT of the picture.

The longer island off of Laie point is a wall of reef that a tsunami punched a hole in about 50 years ago.

G0at islands beaches....

The rest of Goat island is rocky coral and a footpath around a bird santuary in the center...

23 days until we come home for the holidays!!!