Back to Maui - our dog, not the Island

We had a cottage right on the beach at Bellows Air Force Station. There was a constant sea breeze and and some of the most soothing views of light blue water out of the four islands we went to. Throughout our trip we never had a room where we couldn't hear the surf, and we saw all shades from intense striking deep blues to powder blues. The beach at Bellows is very sandy and consistently is a pleasing light shade of blue as you can see in the photos below. When the clouds would pass by and create bands of multiple hues, it was really beautiful. There was very little traffic and plenty of room to have a section of beach all by ourselves. A large portion of the beach is for military use only and a public section is frequently closed during week days for military training. It is a great place to go for seclusion.

We made good use of the volleyball court, the frisbee golf, and put put golf within walking distance of the cottages. With plenty of ice cream and snacks picked up from the commissary, we were totally self contained and had everything we needed right there. The wind blew constantly and keep it just comfortably cool and pleasing to sleep with the white noise of surf and winds. The only detractor was the foot long centipede that wiggled under the door late one night. They can deliver a nasty bite similar to a wasp and they are thoroughly creepy. After shooing him away didn't work, he was given an application of shoe praise until he properly stuck to a paper towel for disposal out the back door. That thing had a surprising amount of mass and was quite a beast to sling out into the darkness.

After spending several days soaking in the beautiful view from the cottage right on the beach, we moved over to the Navy Lodge at Pearl Harbor for the start of Memorial Day weekend. We thought it was fitting to be there right beside the USS Arizona, USS Missouri, and USS Utah memorials.

We thought about heading to Australia, but the one flight scheduled that week kept getting rescheduled a day later each day. With little confidence we would get on the flight, and room reservations running out in Oahu, we seriously considered going to Guam. After considering our options and deciding we had done enough beach activities for now, we decided it was time to head back to see our dog Maui.

We hopped on a plane early on the 28th of May. After a month in Hawaii, we had the highest space on the roster for Space available travel back in our category, so we easily got aboard. There about 80 people trying to get one of the 50 seats, so about 30 people were left waiting for the next plane. We had a comfortable ride on a C-17 with a full load of pallets. We found room to stretch out on the floor and get some sleep. Everyone seemed to be pretty adept at stepping over whomever was sprawled out at the time. When the C-17 landed back in California at Travis AFB, it was cold and rainy. After 33 days in tropical paradise it was back to reality.

The view from the back door of our cottage on Bellows Air Force Station. Take a look at the color of the water!

Just before the boogie boarding commenced.

Planning the attack.  Rabbit Island is in the background.

The view looking North as Michael and John catch a wave.

One of the many waves caught in the two days there.

Both John and Michael became good at getting up on the boogie boards.

Sand art.

Even though we were in Hawaii for just over month, we didn't just sit still much. This was nice.

Shelli and John building a wall to protect John's sand dolphin from the waves.

Mission accomplished. The dolphin was still there when we left the next day. This is the view looking South. We saw a lot of turtles around the end of the jetty in the background.

Turtle protection wall completed.

I found a couple of coo coo nuts on the beach.

A forced moment of togetherness. Pose. Smile. Click. Arms back down.

Jim - Patterned after the real turtle Michael and John named Jim and hung out with on the Big Island.

Masterpiece.

We went back to Pearl Harbor for our last night at the start of Memorial Day Weekend. It seemed fitting to go by the Arizona memorial again.

Beside the USS Missouri (Mighty MO). The unconditional surrender of WWII by Japan was signed aboard this ship.

From Michael:
The whole RV/Homeschooling thing is really great because of all the fun things we get to do. When we were in Hawaii the bad thing was we never had wifi, but we got to skip a lot of work. After we homescho... I mean hotelschooled for about a hour, we would go to the beach or go get really good shaved ice. Obviously, that was awesome. Our last month of school was in Hawaii! Fortunately, it was the perfect amount of time, most people only stay for 7 days, to me that would be way too “week.” This perfect, paradise was great but it had to end. The thing I definitely won’t miss from Hawaii is the radio, all they had was reggae and disco junk, no popular music and not even much authentic Hawaiian. When we left it was a little saddening, but everyone was ready to see our dog, Maui. I was ready to see my dog too, and Bessie... (My Xbox)

From John:
Hawaiian homeschooling
School in Hawaii is fun, ya? I loved schooling in Hawaii because it was extremely flexible. We had no real schedule at all, sometimes we would boogie board all day and do work at night or the other way around. Some of the activities we did were thrilling and we learned something during every activity we did. Some of the things we learned about were volcanoes, manta rays, Pearl Harbor, and Captain Cook. The USS Missouri is actually bigger than the Titanic was, and the Titanic was huge in its day! Though all of this was fun, I still missed my dog, Maui very much. He was what I miss the most about being away for so long. Homeschooling in Hawaii was great, but I am excited to get back to see Maui.

From Shelli:
Now that our family has been on the road for over two months, I’ve finally realized there wasn’t so much to stress about. I know....Joey and many others tried to tell me to relax but now I can say from experience that it is working! Schooling has gone well. The boys are finishing their ‘school’ assignments this week. We have met all of the official school requirements and were able to add many real life experiences along the way. We have made numerous memories that I will cherish forever. Luckily, we are all learning a little about the rewards of a less materialistic and simpler way of life. It is amazing to see how many “things” we don’t really need on a daily basis. Our quality time with one another is increasing and this opportunity is a true blessing!


We plan to visit Yosemite National Park and then Lake Tahoe as we work our way back to Maui in Boise.