No time for clean laundry

Once again we started our day with a run/walk on the beach. When we returned we were greeted by another new couple, luckily Karen had already set out yogurt, fruit and a croissant for them. It was fun to chat with Stan over breakfast as his son and daughter-in-law moved to Hawaii about 8 months ago and love it here. We swapped stories about packing pods and transporting pets to Hawaii. Unfortunately the daughter-in-law had a set date to be in Hawaii for work. Therefore his son had to stay behind in Texas to wait for the dogs to be able to be transported to Hawaii with only a minimal quarantine time of 90 days. Hitch and Marbles (our cats) would not be happy with any quarantine time and they are also not looking forward to the plane ride in cargo.

We had a lot of tasks to complete today since tomorrow we leave for the Philippines for a month and will not have access to phones. This meant it was time to put a call in to Pod headquarters and give them the green light on shipping our worldly possessions across the big blue ocean. Which led to a fun game of what did we pack in the pod again?? Many of these items have been in boxes for several months at this point which makes the inventory list they asked for a little challenging to create. We had several other errands to tend to, one of which was laundry. It was not feasible to pack enough sets of clothes to last 48 days. We had a debate about whether we ask Karen if we can do some laundry or just do it since the machines are in our room anyway. Jeff ended up asking Karen if it was ok to do 1 load of laundry before we left. Much to our surprise she responded with an abrupt NO, it costs too much. We were left with the decision to go to a laundry mat before we leave or wait and see what kind of clothes washing the Philippines will bring. Decision was made we are going to roll the dice and hope Malapascua island has more than the ocean to wash your clothes in.

We then once again headed over to Hawaii Kai, this time to look at Frances' townhouse. From the outside it already had us quite intrigued. Frances showed up to give us a tour of the inside and it is hard to get past the open wood floor living/dinning room that looks through a wall of glass doors onto a large deck. The view of the pond, palm trees, and mountains is just what we ordered. The kitchen and bathrooms are somewhat outdated but definitely mangeable and far better than others we have seen. I already see the potential to make this a welcoming Hawaii Oasis. The views in the spare rooms also look out in the same direction as the deck, there is an excellent view of Koko Crater for our guests to partake in light to moderate stair climbing. There is a water entrance from the deck to jump into a kayak and head to the ocean. Marbles and Hitch will surely enjoy there own views, also cat proofing will be necessary so that they don't scurry onto the deck and kayak away. Now with less than 24 hours until we fly out, we need to procure the necessary documents to ensure this place is ours (credit scores, letter from Jeff's employer, lease application, etc). Good thing we got a start on our to do list this morning since the items are stacking up. I guess we definitely will not be doing laundry.

While we were over in Hawaii Kai we stopped at one of the local dive shops and had a very interesting discussion with them about their dive club. It seems we would get all kinds of discounts on dive trips as well as gear rental and purchases. They also have some really exciting dive trips on their big boat that they take to other islands, such as a 3 day trip to Maui and Molokai. On top of this they also have several events throughout the year, Shelia told us about their Thanksgiving event where they had 13 deep fried turkeys last year (down from 16 turkeys the previous year- gobble gobble). Sounds like they also have a 4th of July party and even costume parties throughout the year (good thing the Halloween costumes are in the pod). This should keep us busy on the holidays.

The first phase of this adventure is coming to a close, let's check how we did...
Job: Jeff has a job, Bonnie has a possible lead
House: Location picked and application in process
Moving: Pod ready to ship 5/11 and will reach Hawaii 6/7. Jeff also will get $5,000 relocation money
Money: We managed to only go out to eat for 5 meals in the 8 days, use 2 tanks of gas, and swap soda for water

Overall: Jeff and I have really enjoyed Hawaii so far. For being an island there are still very diverse areas to explore. Some areas have all the normal shops and restaurants like the mainland while other areas have fewer, yet it leaves little to want. I still have not seen cheesecurds on any menu yet, I imagine they may be somewhere in Oahu (there was cheese on a stick in the mall but I don't think that counts)