Saturday, May 9, 2009

Maui :)

Traveling to Maui with Pat was the best vacation weekend of our lives! We both agree it was great to get away before he deploys and treat it as a sort of late honeymoon since we never really got one. (Almost a year later, but it was worth the wait!)

Amanda and I found this incredible kennel that her dog, Kai, and Meka stayed at for the weekend! They have a huge facility that have big kennels for each dog, lots of outings each day with so much land for the dogs to play on, and the best part is that they are husky breeders…. So they loved Meks!!!! Kia and Meks stayed in the same kennel during the day to have lots of play time together and then went back to their own kennels at night so they would sleep without interrupting each other! When we picked Meks up she was happy to see us but not happy to leave her friend Kai… I’m watching her sleep on the floor because she’s so tuckered out… it’s awesome.

Pat and I arrived on Maui Friday morning and were pleasantly surprised by the great weather! (We were very nervous because bad weather was predicted for our entire stay on Maui.) We stayed at the Westin Maui Resort & Spa and couldn’t have loved it more! When we arrived they upgraded us to a room with a beach view on the Starwood preferred customer floor! We had an amazing view of the pools right below us, the mountains to the left, and the ocean to the right. We spent most of Friday just relaxing in the hotel room, had a few drinks by the pool and walked along the beach! That night we went to a restaurant down by Whaler’s Village and ate at Hula Grill. It was a really beautiful night out so it was perfect!

Saturday morning we woke up and had a wonderful buffet brunch outside by the pools. The Westin Maui has the most amazing scenery to take in so it was an especially nice breakfast. After we ate, we decided to have a few more drinks by the pool! We were only out for about an hour and it’s a good thing since Pat has been red like a lobster ever since! (I asked him if we should by sunscreen beforehand but he said “Nope!” Just fyi.) After that we randomly decided to rent a car for the next two days so we could drive around and experience more of Hawaii! We drove down to Old Lahaina Town and found Front Street which is where all of the cool shops and restaurants are. We walked around for a bit until we found Kimo’s. Kimo’s is like a brother restaurant to Hula Grill and Duke’s that we have on Oahu. It was really great food and you couldn’t beat the scenery. The restaurant is right along the Seawall so we were able to eat our food while the waves crashed right below us. After lunch we just drove around the island and then came back to the hotel to find somewhere to eat for dinner.

Sunday morning Pat and I made reservations for the Westin’s phenomenal Sunrise Champagne Breakfast. We woke up and headed down to the lobby to meet “our personal waiter” for the morning. We were escorted up to the private cabana located at the top of their pool locations and have a great view of the ocean. We went at 7am and it was just us, our waiter, and the ocean- it was fantastic! Our food was spectacular and you can’t beat drinking mimosas while looking at the ocean with your hubby! We spent the rest of the day in Old Lahaina Town and eventually ended up back at the hotel. We ordered in room service and packed for our trip home the next morning!

This was the best trip we could have asked for! I’m glad I could use the money I’ve earned to pay for our trip and treat Pat to a special weekend. He does so much for me that it feels really great to do something fun for him!!! Pat has worked everyday since his block leave but deploys Tuesday- it was nice to spend some quality time with him.
I love my husband--- and I love Maui!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Married Marines Pre-Deployment Information Brief

(I have written the blog about our trip to Maui and will post it soon!)

I wanted to inform everyone of the new information Pat and I received on Friday night. We had a pre-deployment meeting where the CO of the Battalion spoke to inform us wives of some of the precautions to take while our husbands are gone. This was the first meeting that I feel they were very honest about the danger our guys will be put in, talked to us about rumors, security info, etc. It was very informational and I'm really glad they had it!

Long story short, they briefed us wives to be very careful about the line of communication we keep with our loved ones while our husbands are in Afghanistan. They want us to keep from posting any information over lines of communication such as: Myspace, Facebook, and you guessed it... blogs. So, I will be resorting back to emails and phone calls since they are more secure! I apologize for any inconvenience but please don't hestitate to call or email me if you ever have any questions about Pat while he's gone! I will still be posting what general information I can about him and information about Meka, Katza, and I!

We were also warned that any mail we send to our Marines while in Afghanistan will take about a month to get there. Since Afghanistan only has one road that cirles the entire country, it's not suprising that they do not have a post office! So, it will take a bit for anything we send them to get to them at their FOBs. (Forward Operating Base) This also means phone calls or any type of internet communication will also be very limited during their deployment. Exciting, I know.

As far as rumors go, they say not to believe anything you read or hear unless you hear it from your Marine, yourself! So, I pass along this advice to you all, as well! They want to make sure no information about the Marines get in any newspapers, etc. while they're gone so no information gets skewed or leaked "into the wrong hands." Even their current location, pictures of them during their deployment, etc. could be dangerous to them while in Afghanistan!

As of right now we still do not have an exact deploy date... It looks as though it will still be between May 12-15!

That's all of the information I have at this time! Just wanted to update you all as soon as I could!

Love to you all from Pat and I both!

Followers

About Me

My photo
Kailua, HI, United States
Pat and I arrived at our first home in Hawaii back in October of 2008! Pat is with 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, Echo Company. He is an Infantryman and loves it! I am the Program Leader at Youth Activities here on Marine Corps Base Hawaii. We have a 10 month old puppy named Meka and our cat named Katza who are the coolest! Pat deployed back in May and will hopefully be home around Christmas time. Keep looking at our page to keep up with us islanders. :)