Happy Aloha Friday

[1Melanie]

For over 10 years I have always celebrated Aloha Friday by wearing an Aloha shirt to work. I still do that to this day and when I moved to Hawaii a couple years ago I started posting Aloha Friday pictures /memes on Facebook. My relatives like them and they often start conversations.

Recently I started taking my own pictures and putting the Happy Aloha Friday logo on them. You may see some places you recognize.

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Originally from Honolulu, I’ve lived in the Pacific NW for 45 yrs. Contemplating returning to HI next year to be somewhat near family but to the Big island. Just returned from beautiful Seaside OR today and felt so sad thinking about how much I’ll miss the gorgeous vistas on the west coast and our mountain ranges. I keep telling myself “I can trade my view of the Puget Sound for a view of the Pacific Ocean” but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. How did you uproot and leave your home behind to live in Hawaii? I’m already feeling Island fever even tho, intellectually, I know I can fly away anytime. My biggest fear is getting stuck there.

 

[AnnaS]

Happy Aloha Friday from Lexington, VA.

 

[slip]

Originally from Honolulu, I’ve lived in the Pacific NW for 45 yrs. Contemplating returning to HI next year to be somewhat near family but to the Big island. Just returned from beautiful Seaside OR today and felt so sad thinking about how much I’ll miss the gorgeous vistas on the west coast and our mountain ranges. I keep telling myself “I can trade my view of the Puget Sound for a view of the Pacific Ocean” but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. How did you uproot and leave your home behind to live in Hawaii? I’m already feeling Island fever even tho, intellectually, I know I can fly away anytime. My biggest fear is getting stuck there.

Aloha

Yep, that's a long story. I have been on TUG over 10 years and I had a couple threads on when I bought our condo on Molokai and when I transfered through work to Oahu.

Here's the thread of when I got the transfer from work.

I Got the Job and We’re Moving to Oahu

I had a thread about my last trip to Molokai and I put a post on there about applying for a job on Oahu that had opened up at the company I work for. The thread was getting very long and since I’ll be making this change I thought I would start a new thread. So, I got the call today and we...

tugbbs.com

And here's the link for when we bought our Molokai condo a year before we moved.

Molokai Trip

We’re leaving for our second Molokai trip this weekend. I didn’t post about the first one. We were checking for a possible retirement spot. We liked what we saw and checked out a few places on our own. We have been checking this out for about a year now and we have it narrowed down to a few...

tugbbs.com

Just a brief summary, I am originally from Chicago and moved to Wisconsin when I was 17. We got married in 1984 and stated going to Hawaii annually in 2009. That's when we knee we wanted to try to either snowbird or retire there.

In 2018, we bought our condo on Molokai with the intention of retiring there. Then in 2019, I put in for a transfer through work and got the job. My wife retired when we moved. My wife started having heath issues in late 2020 and then had to have brain surgery in December of 2021. She has Hydrocephalus and she had a shunt put in to drain the fluid in her skull into her stomach. I decided to retire early and we moved to Molokai in February of 2022.

She is doing excellent now and she is pretty much back to normal. We have 2 kids, daughter 41 and our son is 33. Daughter is in Denver and our son is in Wisconsin. Neither are married, have significant others or any kids. Our daughter moved out when she was 20 and our son moved out when he was 19. So they have both been gone a long time.

For us the move has been great. No issues. We talk to our family any time we need and we FaceTime and communicate over Facebook often. We have been here 4 years now and we have never gotten island fever. In fact we haven't been back to the mainland since we moved.

On Sunday we are meeting our son and daughter on Maui. First trip to Maui for both of them. Then in May we are meeting friends from Wisconsin on the Big Island for a week. They came to Hawaii a few times with us over the years. It's their first trip to the Big Island.

I used to have to travel to all the islands and Guam for work. That was nice but it wasn't convenient when my wife was having her health issues.

We do plan on a trip to Denver and Wisconsin in the summer of 2024. To see our son and daughter again but that will be 5 years since we have been back.

We are truly blessed and just love our life here on small quiet Molokai. Here's the view from our lanai this morning.

 

[easyrider]

I'm not feeling the Aloha here in Washington. It's been the worse spring that I can remember. Grey sky , rain and cold has been the norm so far. There was snow on the foothills today. I think I have developed a cold weather allergy.

Bill

 

[slip]

I'm not feeling the Aloha here in Washington. It's been the worse spring that I can remember. Grey sky , rain and cold has been the norm so far. There was snow on the foothills today. I think I have developed a cold weather allergy.

Bill

Don't you have a Mexico trip coming up.

 

[1Melanie]

Aloha

Yep, that's a long story. I have been on TUG over 10 years and I had a couple threads on when I bought our condo on Molokai and when I transfered through work to Oahu.

Here's the thread of when I got the transfer from work.

I Got the Job and We’re Moving to Oahu

I had a thread about my last trip to Molokai and I put a post on there about applying for a job on Oahu that had opened up at the company I work for. The thread was getting very long and since I’ll be making this change I thought I would start a new thread. So, I got the call today and we...

tugbbs.com

And here's the link for when we bought our Molokai condo a year before we moved.

Molokai Trip

We’re leaving for our second Molokai trip this weekend. I didn’t post about the first one. We were checking for a possible retirement spot. We liked what we saw and checked out a few places on our own. We have been checking this out for about a year now and we have it narrowed down to a few...

tugbbs.com

Just a brief summary, I am originally from Chicago and moved to Wisconsin when I was 17. We got married in 1984 and stated going to Hawaii annually in 2009. That's when we knee we wanted to try to either snowbird or retire there.

In 2018, we bought our condo on Molokai with the intention of retiring there. Then in 2019, I put in for a transfer through work and got the job. My wife retired when we moved. My wife started having heath issues in late 2020 and then had to have brain surgery in December of 2021. She has Hydrocephalus and she had a shunt put in to drain the fluid in her skull into her stomach. I decided to retire early and we moved to Molokai in February of 2022.

She is doing excellent now and she is pretty much back to normal. We have 2 kids, daughter 41 and our son is 33. Daughter is in Denver and our son is in Wisconsin. Neither are married, have significant others or any kids. Our daughter moved out when she was 20 and our son moved out when he was 19. So they have both been gone a long time.

For us the move has been great. No issues. We talk to our family any time we need and we FaceTime and communicate over Facebook often. We have been here 4 years now and we have never gotten island fever. In fact we haven't been back to the mainland since we moved.

On Sunday we are meeting our son and daughter on Maui. First trip to Maui for both of them. Then in May we are meeting friends from Wisconsin on the Big Island for a week. They came to Hawaii a few times with us over the years. It's their first trip to the Big Island.

I used to have to travel to all the islands and Guam for work. That was nice but it wasn't convenient when my wife was having her health issues.

We do plan on a trip to Denver and Wisconsin in the summer of 2024. To see our son and daughter again but that will be 5 years since we have been back.

We are truly blessed and just love our life here on small quiet Molokai. Here's the view from our lanai this morning.

View attachment 75725

That’s what I call courage! Sounds like you’ve had some major challenges to overcome and have found peace at last. In my 60s now. I want to be close to family but for peace of mind, need to be near good health care. Seattle on the cutting edge. Honolulu not too far behind. Was told BI not so good, would have to go to Honolulu for anything major. Honolulu, even when only there for a short time, gives me anxiety, hence decision to go to BI. As a child I remember my mom (who hailed from California) telling dad, who loved driving, that if she had to go around the island one more time, she was going to scream! I get it now. BI is near but far enough from Honolulu. Oddly enough, I’ve never been to Molokai. Your view looks amazing! Looking at the area on the hillside near Kona Intl. Nice views up there.
The Pacific NW is beautiful. I’ve been pretty happy here. When I was still working, the long stretches of constant drizzle, gray skies and cold didn’t bother me so much. Now that I’m retired, I notice it more and feel compelled to go somewhere warm. The last few years, we time shared it to the Southeast for 6 weeks at a time to get out of the weather but, due to a building project gone crazy , we just couldn’t get away that long this year. (We had a quick trip during race week to Daytona and barely eked out our few days to Oregon.) I like the Southern states and even thought about moving to Tennessee or Texas (want to stay tax free) but that would only take me further from home and family. For tax purposes, we don’t want to give up our WA residency so will have to straddle both states until we are forced to surrender!
Relocating was so much easier to do when I was younger and had nothing. Now we are anchored with all kinds of stuff. Trying to figure out what to do with everything is exhausting! I give you credit for taking the plunge!

 

[Rolltydr]

Aloha

Yep, that's a long story. I have been on TUG over 10 years and I had a couple threads on when I bought our condo on Molokai and when I transfered through work to Oahu.

Here's the thread of when I got the transfer from work.

I Got the Job and We’re Moving to Oahu

I had a thread about my last trip to Molokai and I put a post on there about applying for a job on Oahu that had opened up at the company I work for. The thread was getting very long and since I’ll be making this change I thought I would start a new thread. So, I got the call today and we...

tugbbs.com

And here's the link for when we bought our Molokai condo a year before we moved.

Molokai Trip

We’re leaving for our second Molokai trip this weekend. I didn’t post about the first one. We were checking for a possible retirement spot. We liked what we saw and checked out a few places on our own. We have been checking this out for about a year now and we have it narrowed down to a few...

tugbbs.com

Just a brief summary, I am originally from Chicago and moved to Wisconsin when I was 17. We got married in 1984 and stated going to Hawaii annually in 2009. That's when we knee we wanted to try to either snowbird or retire there.

In 2018, we bought our condo on Molokai with the intention of retiring there. Then in 2019, I put in for a transfer through work and got the job. My wife retired when we moved. My wife started having heath issues in late 2020 and then had to have brain surgery in December of 2021. She has Hydrocephalus and she had a shunt put in to drain the fluid in her skull into her stomach. I decided to retire early and we moved to Molokai in February of 2022.

She is doing excellent now and she is pretty much back to normal. We have 2 kids, daughter 41 and our son is 33. Daughter is in Denver and our son is in Wisconsin. Neither are married, have significant others or any kids. Our daughter moved out when she was 20 and our son moved out when he was 19. So they have both been gone a long time.

For us the move has been great. No issues. We talk to our family any time we need and we FaceTime and communicate over Facebook often. We have been here 4 years now and we have never gotten island fever. In fact we haven't been back to the mainland since we moved.

On Sunday we are meeting our son and daughter on Maui. First trip to Maui for both of them. Then in May we are meeting friends from Wisconsin on the Big Island for a week. They came to Hawaii a few times with us over the years. It's their first trip to the Big Island.

I used to have to travel to all the islands and Guam for work. That was nice but it wasn't convenient when my wife was having her health issues.

We do plan on a trip to Denver and Wisconsin in the summer of 2024. To see our son and daughter again but that will be 5 years since we have been back.

We are truly blessed and just love our life here on small quiet Molokai. Here's the view from our lanai this morning.

View attachment 75725

WOW! That view is killer! I see why you wouldn’t want to leave.

 

[slip]

That’s what I call courage! Sounds like you’ve had some major challenges to overcome and have found peace at last. In my 60s now. I want to be close to family but for peace of mind, need to be near good health care. Seattle on the cutting edge. Honolulu not too far behind. Was told BI not so good, would have to go to Honolulu for anything major. Honolulu, even when only there for a short time, gives me anxiety, hence decision to go to BI. As a child I remember my mom (who hailed from California) telling dad, who loved driving, that if she had to go around the island one more time, she was going to scream! I get it now. BI is near but far enough from Honolulu. Oddly enough, I’ve never been to Molokai. Your view looks amazing! Looking at the area on the hillside near Kona Intl. Nice views up there.
The Pacific NW is beautiful. I’ve been pretty happy here. When I was still working, the long stretches of constant drizzle, gray skies and cold didn’t bother me so much. Now that I’m retired, I notice it more and feel compelled to go somewhere warm. The last few years, we time shared it to the Southeast for 6 weeks at a time to get out of the weather but, due to a building project gone crazy , we just couldn’t get away that long this year. (We had a quick trip during race week to Daytona and barely eked out our few days to Oregon.) I like the Southern states and even thought about moving to Tennessee or Texas (want to stay tax free) but that would only take me further from home and family. For tax purposes, we don’t want to give up our WA residency so will have to straddle both states until we are forced to surrender!
Relocating was so much easier to do when I was younger and had nothing. Now we are anchored with all kinds of stuff. Trying to figure out what to do with everything is exhausting! I give you credit for taking the plunge!

We had some doubts about the transfer to Oahu. We lived in rural Wisconsin so Honolulu was a huge city for us and I hate traffic. But after a short time, we both agreed that we liked our 3 years on Oahu much more than we thought we would. The city conveniences are great and that doesn't even count all the great places to eat.

The Healthcare on Oahu is great. We are doing well here on Molokai and it is similar to rural Wisconsin. To have anything serious done you have to travel. My wife had to go to Oahu for a Colonoscopy and she has to go back on May 1st to get a lense fixed in her eye. Nothing we didn't know about going in. The Big Island would be similar.

We certainly don't miss the weather in Wisconsin. We have our lanai door open most of the year and we don't even need air conditioning here. We don't miss the snow or even the change of seasons at all.

My wife turns 64 in May and I turn 60 in June. Things are definitely more expensive here but we actually live pretty cheaply here. We got lucky when we bought our condo. We shipped our car from Wisconsin and the island is small so we don't spend much on gas at all.

When we moved we only brought 2 suitcases each. We told our kids to take anything they wanted and then we had an auction for the rest. We already owned the condo before we moved so we didn't need much there and we new Oahu was only going to be 6 years max so we just rented while we were there. Our apartment on Oahu was only 400sqft so we couldn't accumulate much. When we moved to our condo it seemed huge to us after living in that small apartment for 3 years and rhe condo is only 800sqft.

My wife and I were both in agreement on all of our decisions so that made things easy. As far as friends and family, most of them are still working so we would only see them every so often. We probably talk more online now than we saw them when we lived back in Wisconsin. It will be the same when we go visit next year. They will all be working so we won't see them much. Plus, we have met many great new friends.

We really didn't have much doubt about our move but we always said we could always go back if it doesn't work out. If things don't work out, it's not a failure. It something you tried.

 

[slip]

WOW! That view is killer! I see why you wouldn’t want to leave.

Molokai is a beautiful island. It is often overlooked too. I consider Halawa Bay to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Our pool cabana has a pretty nice view too.

 

[easyrider]

Don't you have a Mexico trip coming up.

Next winter is Mexico.

My grand daughter sent me this to cheer me up. Her family is visiting other family near Lanikai. Lani took the picture. Her son Kai is my great grandson. Kai is sitting on the beach at the far right. My great grand daughter Aura is in the arms of my grand son in law Kilika or Chris. They are staying with their Aunt Noelani's family. I finally figured out where Lani and Kai's name came from.

Bill

 

[slip]

Awesome, great picture and story.

 

[pedro47]

I love your story and all your island, food & condo photos. Also, Thanks for sharing that awesome family photo .

Happy Aloha to all your family members.

 

[artringwald]

I thought y'all might enjoy a Happy Aloha Thursday from Facebook.

 

[slip]

Happy Aloha Friday!! It's the last Aloha Friday in April and now we move on to May. Today we head up to Lahaina to take a walk on Famous Front Street.

This week's picture takes us to Maui and to the Summit of Haleakala. It soars to 10,023 feet and the drive is awesome going in and out of the clouds. Parking passes are necessary to be at the summit for Sunrise.

Enjoy and have an awesome Aloha Friday and a great weekend!!!

 

[AnnaS]

Happy Aloha Friday!!!

 

[pedro47]

Happy Aloha Friday from Coastal Virginia.
Yesterday was the big one The Commander in Chief and I celebrated fifty five (55) years of marriage. What a Wonderful Blessing!!!!

 

[Sugarcubesea]

Happy Aloha Friday!! I have been travelling non stop for my company and I'm finally back in Michigan. I'm looking forward to my vacation in December to Naples, FL.

 

[geist1223]

Happy Aloha Friday. It is suppose to be in the mid 80's today in Salem Oregon. That is a 30° increase in less than a week.

 

[slip]

Happy Aloha Friday. It is suppose to be in the mid 80's today in Salem Oregon. That is a 30° increase in less than a week.

Awesome, Spring/summer has arrived.

 

[slip]

Happy Aloha Friday from Coastal Virginia.
Yesterday was the big one The Commander in Chief and I celebrated fifty five (55) years of marriage. What a Wonderful Blessing!!!!

Wow, that's a biggie for sure!!! Congratulations to you both.

 

[AnnaS]

Happy Aloha Friday from Coastal Virginia.
Yesterday was the big one The Commander in Chief and I celebrated fifty five (55) years of marriage. What a Wonderful Blessing!!!!

Congratulations!!!

 

[artringwald]

Commander in Chief

Congrats! I'm sure acknowledging the Commander in Chief's authority helped keep you together for 55 years. My secret to our 52 years has been to answer any request with "as you wish".

 

[pedro47]

Thanks everyone for your congrats. It has been great. Truly that was a fast 55 years. I have learned to be the Senior Advisor.

 

[slip]

It's Aloha Friday!! We had a busy week after getting back from Maui so we are going to relax a little and enjoy the weekend.

This week's picture takes us to Lanai, home of the famous Shipwreck Beach. Thanks to my son I have this picture to share. He walked about an extra mile for some pictures.

Strong trade winds and strong channel swells along the north shore of Lanai have made the area hazardous for navigation. There are at least a dozen ships that have been grounded there. Some intentionally. The wreck in the picture is the YOGN-42. It is a WWII era Navy fueling barge made of steel and concrete. It was grounded intentionally after the war as an economical way of disposal.

Enjoy and have a great Aloha Friday and an awesome weekend.

 

[pedro47]

Happy Aloha Friday Everyone.