Connecting to My Country

When 9/11 happened, ten years ago, I was pregnant with Kealia, and trying to sleep in the early morning.  Darel came running into our bedroom just before he left for work at 5 am or earlier.  He said I had to turn on the tv and couldn't believe what was happening.  Of course, nobody could believe it!  It was so horrible.  I was so scared and devastated for all the families losing loved ones and for our country.  While living in Hawaii can be somewhat isolating and separate from the American experience we all felt united by this horrific attack on our citizens.  It's still so difficult to believe that it even happened.
Life in Hawaii is different than the mainland.  There are so many examples I could name.  A couple of weeks ago, the girls and I watched the movie, "The Help."  I asked Mike afterwards what it was like during the Civil Rights movement, in Hawaii.  He said, it was nothing.  They hardly even knew it was going on.  Everybody in Hawaii was all different races all coexisting as one.  I didn't believe him, because it was so amazing to imagine such an idea.  I asked my friend, Cindy, if he was right, and she said the same.  Again, life in Hawaii is different.
One of the goals of our trip, is to connect with our country.  The U.S.A. has so many proud accomplishments and so many challenges it has and will continue to overcome.  I want my girls to connect with their country.  They are island girls, through and through.  They love Hawaii, its culture, its people, and lifestyle.  But, we belong to more than our state, and as we travel around, I want them to see the beauty of their country as well.  We look forward to going to the memorial for 9/11.  We want to see the amazing strong spirit that is the foundation of our great country.  We want to pay our respects and honor those that were lost.  We want to connect with the others who love the U.S.A.  We want to connect to our country that we are so proud of.  Can't wait.

Coffee Cup Of Coins

So, our friend Lisa, from New York, who was living in Hawaii and teaching for two years, left behind her Starbucks Ceramic Travel Coffee Mug, when she moved home in June.  It fits perfectly in my van's drink holder and so we decided to make it a secret savings weapon.  We no longer try to come up with the exact change for purchases and we also try to always pay with cash.  So, if we drive through McDonald's and the order is $3.18, we pay with $4.00 and the .82 cents, is deposited into the opening of the coffee mug.  It's great because we think of Lisa each time, it's not obvious to potential thiefs, and we love planning for our trip.  We promised not to count the coins til the cup was full.  Finally, today we were able to cash in the coins.  We all made bets on how much there would be...I guessed $72 (overly optimistic), Kealia guessed $29, and Hana Girl guessed $50.  The winner would get $1.00.  Our credit union has a machine that counts the coins for free.  Hana Girl was closest as our total was $49.28.  We deposited the money directly into our trip account and now we are already filling up our coffee cup again.  Hope it fills up soon, and we also hope Lisa will join us for part of our trip.

Getting Carded

Today was a Kona day.  For all of you who live more than 45 minutes from a, "Town," you know that when you go to town, it's a day long affair.  So, after Kealia's soccer game, we headed to Kona.  We did the usual...Costco, A Mart Type Store (Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or Target), Sport's Authority (we only do that if Mike's with us) Food, and We Even Had a quick jaunt to Macy's.  While in K-Mart, I got an idea!  They have a wide selection of Gift Cards there, and it's kind of strange because most of the businesses associated with the gift cards are not even located on our island.  Anyway, I decided we should buy some gift cards for our road trip to give our daily budget while on the trip, a bit of a break.  I bought cards for The Olive Garden, On the Border, IHOP, Cracker Barrel, Jack In the Box, and Subway.  Next time we see a gift card, we'll buy just one, but this was our "Getting Carded Kickoff."  We won't really feel $25 here and there, but on the road trip with our daily budget, I'm thinking that  a $25 lunch at Olive Garden, that we don't have to pay for, will be a great relief.  We also have our National Park Pass which is a "card," and a $250 gift card to Costco we earned with rebates.  Even our Passports are the new Passport, "Cards."  Kealia has built up quite a collection of hotel key cards.  She has over 250.  It's pretty amazing and reminds us of great memories.  I think she'll love adding in our empty gift cards to her mix.  So, we plan to get, "Carded," many more times...at least every time we see them for sale at WalMart, KMart, or Target.
That's all for now,
Alana