Aloha everyone! Time for another update on what’s going on in my life!
I’ve still been flying, locally and internationally, visited another island, had some visitors, went home to surprise the family, continually being a tourist, and celebrated the holidays! The past few months since my last post have been quite busy!
Flying
Flying around the islands have been AMAZING! From doing VFR (Visual Flight Rules) legs around the Big Island, to practicing approaches, and now on “whale watch duty” for the winter, it has been nothing short from great!
I even got the opportunity to see some Airdrop, go sit out the back of the plane with the door open, and show some high schoolers the best job in the world!
On one of our trips, I finally got to try Air Refueling on an Austrailian KC-30 (it was AMAZING), got to have some beautiful, fall weather, and saw quite a few friends (who I missed like crazy)!
We went to the mainland quite a few times, I saw the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan (thanks to some awesome friends there as well!), went down range, visited Europe (please take me back), and we were approved to fly the bay tour over the Golden Gate Bridge heading back home!
Another trip taught me how to bake cookies in the oven (and not burn them), we got to see NASA’s Guppy, and went to Wake Island (just an atoll sitting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean).
A lot of these missions were extra amazing because of the people I got to go with and the approaches I got to try (meaning…no…I didn’t just do an ILS every single time). And for those of you that don’t know what an ILS is, its just a pretty simple instrument approach to do after a very long day.
I’ve been to Alaska a few times (probably a couple more than I want since its so cold — at least for me) and pretty much went to the North Pole!
Then, for my last trip, just mainly revolved around Alaska (yep…still cold…) and back to San Diego! It was a super great and short trip!!
Now, i’m looking forward to the next ones that I get to do!!
Kauai
A couple months ago, I got the chance to go visit Kauai (another island in the Hawaii Islands chain) with some friends during a long weekend! It was an amazing trip and if you want to read about that trip, you can view the post I made here.
Visitors to the Island
Around the end of August, my old “roommates” from Columbus and Altus decided to pay a visit for one of our friend’s wedding! It was so great to spend some much needed time and to find out I was going to be an Auntx2! 🙂 Love you Bilbos!
My girl, Rachael, FINALLY got on a trip that ended her up here to go out and party with the crew and we got some much needed girl time!
Sunny, one of my friends from ERAU, ended up coming in for the weekend and we got to get dinner! I hadn’t seen him in FOREVER, so it was super nice catching up to one of the newest airline pilots!!!
For my birthday, my best friend, Sammy, and her boyfriend, Jared, came to visit for the weekend! It was so great having them here to help celebrate and just have some fun being a tourist!
James, Mike, and Eric are three friends that have passed through on missions as well! It’s always so great catching up with all my friends who I haven’t seen in a while!
Surprising the Family
I got the chance to take leave before the holidays started and decided to go home and surprise my parents and my sister. IT WAS PERFECT!
My dad didn’t expect ANYTHING, my mom on the other hand started to get worried (I told her I was going on a mission and hadn’t heard from me in a while) and so she used her magic and saw I was in Atlanta, and my sister didn’t expect anything either!
I got to sleep in, hang out, see a lot of family friends, eat food that I’ve missed (#chickfila), and just get some time to spend with my family. It was a great trip!
Check out the video I made for the surprise here!
Tourist Life
In the past few months, I’ve also gotten the chance to catch up on being a tourist on this beautiful island I get to call home.
Some of the places I got the chance to go to are:
- Dole Plantation
- Bellows AFB (a super quiet, beautiful beach — has camping available so i’ll be there SOON!)
- Lanikai Pillbox Hike for the Sunrise
- Experienced First Friday in Chinatown
- Hiked Koko Head (the OG Stairmaster)
- Kayaked to Popoia Island & Snorkeled (saw 3 Turtles!)
- Tailgated & Attended the AF vs UH Football Game
- BACKSTREET BOYS CONCERT!!!
Celebrating the Holidays
Halloween – went out dressed up to the bars, went to a pumpkin patch/sunflower field, carved a pineapple, had zero trick or treaters (so I had to eat all the candy…darn)
Thanksgiving – ran my own Turkey Trot 5k, had a Thanksgiving brunch, then went and joined my friends for a big dinner that left us STUFFED, and of course facetimed with the fam
Christmas – our squadron had our Christmas party at the Hilton downtown, had Christmas eve dinner with a group of friends downtown and played some games, facetimed my family at 5am here to open presents, went to another friend’s house for Christmas to have some drinks and play games
New Years – had dinner with some friends, then went downtown to another friend’s place to watch the AMAZING fireworks light up the whole island (no that’s not an exaggeration either — check out this video from youtube if you don’t believe me), ran into the ocean later that day to get my New Year’s “Polar Plunge”
I can’t stress how grateful I am for the second family that I have here on the island. I know I couldn’t have gotten through the holidays without them, since this was the first one I’ve ever had without my family.
If you read through this whole post, I applaud you (I know its long). But, thank you so much for your support! Hopefully, it won’t be as long between posts next time! 🙂
Aloha!!
