Aloha Friends,

Yesterday was such a nice day here on Kauai. The weather was a warm 80F with a light breeze and cotton ball clouds filled a blue sky. As soon as my husband got off work we packed a cooler, slathered on some sunscreen and walked to the beach.

It was great spending time together, enjoying a cold beer and talking about how much we love living here. We've been here 3 months now and I gotta say that I can't imagine living anywhere else. It took a lot of courage to make the move but, I'm so glad we did. Kauai has been good to us.

Someone asked me if I feel like I'm on vacation all the time. No, it's not like being on vacation. I do pretty much the same things I did before back in San Diego. I make breakfast and lunches, get the keikis to school, do laundry, bake bread, shop, prepare dinner. My life is much like it was before except for one huge difference... it is absolutely beautiful here. Oh, and one tiny difference, we live in a much smaller home. So, it doesn't feel like I'm forever on vacation but, I sure do love getting out for a few ours at the beach.

Well, our lovely afternoon weather began to change. We noticed dark clouds approaching from the north. Rain was threatening. Just as we were thinking we should gather our belongings and head home a huge rainbow appeared on the horizon! It was so pretty! I wanted to share it with you.

​Thanks for reading my diary!

Aloha Friends!

So, we've been living here on Kauai just over a week. It still feels like a dream and I can't say that it's totally sunk in yet. It just seems amazing to me that we're actually living here.

This past week has been mostly spent trying to get organized in our little home, buying food and supplies and getting the kiddos enrolled in school. We're staying in our condo which is just under 650 square feet until we buy a home. It's cozy but, we're making it work. Nobody has flipped out and lost their aloha yet.

My husband is back to work. He works from home. His schedule is 5am to 1pm. He really likes the hours and doesn't mind waking up early. It's been great to have the rest of the day to enjoy together.

Yesterday we got to see my husband's cousins and auntie who are visiting from the Mainland. They timed their vacation perfectly. Any sooner and we would've missed them. We hung out at the beach for awhile then invited them to our house for pupus and dinner. Pupus (appetizers) was cut up papaya, poi and poke. We kept dinner super simple....ordered take out from L&L Hawaiian. We got chicken katsu and stir fried vegetables with tofu. It was delicious and an incredible value. We got enough food to generously feed 11 people for $45! And we have left overs!

The farmer's market  here on Kauai have a wonderful variety of fresh fruit and veggies at prices comparable and sometimes cheaper than what we used to pay in San Diego. One of our favorite venders has everything for $2 each. Basil, okra, papaya, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, water spinach and more. It's easy to eat healthy here.

Thanks for reading my diary!

Aloha Friends!

We made it! We moved to Kauai! Even though the last week in San Diego was a little crazy and exhausting, I really feel that the move went as smoothly as it possibly could.

Our 20 foot Matson container was completely full. My husband did an amazing job utilizing every inch of space. And with the help of our son with the heavy lifting they got it done. Building a ramp really helped. I can't imagine how they would've got the fridge and other large items in there otherwise. I'll do a post in the future explaining how they built the ramp and loaded the container. Here's a funny photo taken when it was nearly full....

Our good friends came by the day before we left and helped us finish packing and cleaning the house. The home would not have been cleared out in time with out them. They even brought food as our fridge and kitchen items were in the container that left the day before. We will be forever grateful for their kindness and hard work.

We ended up packing 13 checked plastic storage containers and boxes! I'm sure the other travelers at the airport thought we were nuts! But, the airline staff said they could tell we were moving. The guy even gave us a break on the baggage fees. The flight was pleasant and everything arrived intact on Kauai. Two stuffed taxi vans drove us to our condo. We've spent the last couple days unpacking and organizing.

It's pretty amazing to us to finally be living here after so may years of dreaming. We're so thankful.

Aloha friends,

I wanted to do a quick post and let you know that our Matson shipping container was dropped off yesterday morning! It was nice to meet the driver and watch how the container is removed from the truck. We'll see Ray again early Monday morning. I have to say that everyone I've been in contact with Matson has been professional and super patient with all my questions. And it really is 4 feet off the ground...no ramp. So, for the next 6 days we're going to be packing our container old school video game TETRIS style!

Aloha Friends,

Oh my goodness, we have been busy! We all took a break the other day and drove up to Long Beach to drop off one of our cars for shipping. We chose Matson. It's a pretty simple process but, does require some patience at the port. Think DMV office...lots of waiting.

Here's how it goes... you complete the online booking form and make payment. You then drop off your car to Long Beach. Matson will load the car onto a huge boat for a slow cruise to Hawaii. It will take 17 to 21 days for the car to actually reach Kauai. We're hoping that it's waiting for us when we arrive. The cost for us to ship the car to Kauai was $1073. Matson requires that the car be clean and completely empty of personal items. So, you can't pack your car full of your stuff. They even want your gas tank 3/4 empty.

The port was interesting, so many containers and trucks! After dropping off the car we had lunch at the pier and enjoyed a nice afternoon in Long Beach. We even got to see the Queen Mary ship. It was a fun day for all of us!

Aloha friends,

Sometimes 7 lanes in each direction just isn't enough. This past weekend all six of us went on a marathon road trip up to northern California,This was the 405 on our way home. We were so happy to get out of the car in San Diego!

It was a quick trip, we spent less than 20 hours at our destination. But, we had a great visit and checked a few items off our California "bucket list".

Dinner at one of my husband's favorite restaurants....he has happy memories from this place. The fried chicken was awesome, tasty and crisp, not greasy. It was really good Chinese food. Needless to say the kids loved it. Check!

We brought home two bottles of the very best chocolate milk in California. Check!

A few items checked off the list and a nice visit to nor cal...weekend well spent!

Aloha and thanks for reading my diary!

Aloha friends,

We're moving! After years of dreaming we decided now is the time to make the leap. It's about to get a little crazy around here....

The lease on our home here in San Diego is up at the end of July. Between now and then we need to do a lot of purging! Then a ton of packing. All of our belongings will need to fit in a 20 foot Matson shipping container similar to the one in the photo above. But, hopefully ours will stay on the ship! The thought of packing our house up can be anxiety provoking. We're a family of 6 and have a bit of stuff. When we moved to San Diego I packed over 160 boxes!

We have a little condo on Kauai. It's usually rented out to guests to help cover the mortgage. I blocked off the entire month of August for us to stay there. It'll be a nice familiar place to call home until we find the right house to purchase.

There's still a lot of planning to do. It's scary but, also very exciting! I'll keep you all posted on how it's going.

Thanks for reading my diary!