North Shore and a Bloggie Meet Up

Well, we had one heck of a weekend! It was great! Except for the fact that I got fried in the Hawaiian sun. Someone should have warned me. One hour (ish) in the sun and I looked something akin to a lobster. *sigh*

On Friday, we took a trip to North Shore via The Bus. No, I'm not kidding, that's the actual name of the bus system here. Very creative... First of all, the public transportation experience was - for lack of a better word - interesting. We had no clue where we were going or how to get there. Our only source of information was one of Joe's friends. He was mostly helpful, but I don't think he really understood the fact that neither of us has done the public transportation thing before. We ended up figuring out which buses to take thanks to the bus driver that comes on base. He was nice and very helpful. Then we had to switch buses. In the middle of the ghetto. I'm in a new place, trying out a new way to get places, and we have to switch buses in the freaking ghetto. Awesome. I should have taken a picture, but I was afraid of getting killed or something. Then, we didn't know where to get off because there's beach everywhere. Luckily, there was a very nice lady behind us who noticed we were completely lost. She told us the best places to go, thank God.

So, we finally made it to a North Shore beach near Hale`iwa. We saw like 10 sea turtles and it was a.maz.ing!!!!

I sent a picture similar to this one to our family with the message, "Hey, guess what?! We live here!!! Well, close enough..." That wasn't mean at all was it? Lol!

This guy was chillin' on the beach when we got there. It was soooo cool! I'd never seen one before, so I was thrilled. =) There were about 3 or 4 more in the water near him, and then several down from him. It was so awesome to see them swimming, coming up for a bit of air, and just relaxin' on the beach. =)

Friday night, I had my first bloggie meet up!!!! Mrs. C and I met through my blog a couple months ago. She found my blog and noticed we were moving to Hawaii; and guess what?! She and her Army hubby were already in Hawaii! They helped us with our huge paperwork issues and were very sweet. After a week holed up in this hotel, I texted her on Friday afternoon to see what they were up to. Because we have no car, they came and picked us up for dinner. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures on Friday but we ended up spending the whole weekend together so I had more opportunities. =)

We had lunch at Margaritaville in Honolulu. Yum!

{I hate that I look like a dork in this picture because it's the only one of us. Oh well.}

This is the Joes. (Both of them are named Joe)

Mrs. C kept telling her Joe to "smile nice," lol!!

Sometimes, it's a little hard to tell who outranks who...hahaha! =)

 These appetizer nachos were a.maz.ing! 

I wanna go back and get more!!

This was my margarita. I was seriously upset that it was so small. $7 for that? Grrrr.

All 4 of us! =) We had a fantabulous weekend!

And last but not least, I have to show you pictures that seriously prove my weight loss journey.

Me at my biggest in June 2009 on our beach trip for our anniversary.

A little less than a year later....the new [and seriously improved] me!!

I'm not exactly where I want to be, but I'm definitely happy with the results thus far!

Happy Monday! 

{I'm off to do laundry...yay.}