It’s great to finally have a “real life” here. In just 7 weeks, we’ve already seen plenty of changes from the lifestyle we knew in Virginia and wanted to make note of them while they’re fresh and I can still remember the “newness” of them.
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A spontaneous jump into the fountain
We have nowhere to be
This is especially pronounced because we moved here in the summer. Apart from my work schedule, we have no commitments. The kids weren’t in school or enrolled in any sports, we don’t have any friends to make plans with, and we don’t feel like we have go do something whenever we get a nice day, because the next one will be nice, too.It feels like it should get boring, but after years of rushing around, it is incredibly nice to “just be”. We’ve even had tentative plans to do stuff and bailed just to sit around outside and be lazy. Yesterday we went into town in the afternoon and found out the surf was up, so went to watch the surfers ride for an hour.
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Fruits from a local Farmer’s market
We’re eating differently
Our meal habits have changed a fair amount since moving here. Part of it comes from having several farmers markets around. They have all sorts of fruit I’ve never seen on the mainland, plus fresh produce that looks a lot more tempting than that from a grocery store.We also grill out a lot more now because of the nice weather and have gotten creative about what we can cook on there. Turns out bread, cherries, bok choy, pineapple, and peaches all grill up great!
- Working at home has changed my schedule and habits
Since my company is on the East coast, I wake up at 6:30 am and start work right away so I sync up with their afternoon. That also means I’m usually done for the day about 3 pm. No commute, no lunches out, and less chatting with folks in the office. I do miss the social part of being in the office and feel a little less “in the loop”, but I’m enjoying the change so far. - New relationships now take planning
This isn’t Hawaii-specific, but our neighborhood here is much different. In Virginia, virtually every house near us had kids near our kids’ ages, and the parents were generally from a similar walk of life, making it easy to have plenty of friends. Our new neighborhood has a little more space between houses, and is mostly inhabited by retirees. We’re having to plan a lot more out for how to meet people, make friends, and get involved in activities. -
Day trip to Kilauea Volcano
Lots more outdoor time
We figured the nice weather would lead to us being outdoors more often, and that’s turned out to be quite true. We eat virtually every meal outside on our lanai and sunset time is now an event instead of simply a time of day.It’s not the stereotype of spending every day at the beach, though we’ve been there several times. There are also nice parks to play at, walks to take, events to attend – virtually everything is oriented towards being outside.
