Little to zero baggage...

There is something freeing about leaving 99% of your belongings across the world and living from the contents of two suitcases each (and our fur babies of course)! When we look back in March and April as we were packing away 98% of our belongings away to be stored, it was ridiculously hard to decide what few things we needed to bring with us on this journey. Two months later we are sitting in our tiny studio apartment with hardly any material objects and it feels honestly quite freeing. But we would like to thank our parents for holding on to all of our stuff because we are not ready to part ways for good, haha! We both kind of talked that we wouldn't get a TV or cable for that matter because it seemed to take up to much of our free time as we stared aimlessly into the TV after a long day. There are nights I miss the background noise of having it playing or a few pointless reality shows, but it's hardly been missed from either of us. For the first time in 25 and 27 years we don't have a TV for entertainment, but instead spend every second of our free time outside and reading. Plus having one less bill to be handcuffed to is quite wonderful! We've been watching occasional movies and TV shows on netflix and hulu from our laptop which works just as well! :) By the end of the day we are ready for bed and relaxing after spending a majority of our time outside!

Last week the library of Hawaii held a huge week long book sale with every single kind of books imaginable! We spent $25 and found some really awesome reads.. which must retail for over $150 at least! There is something about having books in the apartment that really make it feel like home finally. As wonderful it feels to not be defined by things, and to instead spend our money traveling and making memories, there is something comforting about going to another place and world when reading a really good book. (Is it weird we get this excited about a good deal on books, lol).

WI representing!

There are times we miss sitting on our comfy, expensive couch surrounded by all kinds of furniture in a condo filled with possessions, but being able to exchange all of that for moments and experiences is so much more rewarding. Plus we are trying to not collect to much stuff in case our journey continues somewhere other than Oahu. Our studio has just the basics; a poker table and chairs in our 'living room' and a double high (very comfy!) air mattress that serves as our couch hang out and bed to sleep in. We also have a few patio chairs on our lanai that we eat most of our dinners. At this point it only makes sense to have the bare minimum.. but we are only a few blocks away from the luxurious resorts of Waikiki beach if we ever crave more standard living!  Our goal when coming to Hawaii was to work less, make more money and spend more time with one another to not only grow our marriage, but grow as individuals as well...and so far that is definitely the case! After spending years in a 9-5 (not that anything is wrong with that at all) I'm so happy to get away from that routine at least for a little bit at this time in our lives and able to in some ways not have a schedule or a ritual to live by.

$25.. what a deal!

One thing that makes us feel like a tourist still is we both get so excited every single time we see a rainbow, let alone a double rainbow. Locals walk by them on the streets, not even looking twice at them, almost taking them for granted. I don't think we will ever get to the point that we don't get excited to see a rainbow in the sky! This past week we were spending the morning at the beach when we noticed something strange... a rainbow literally around the sun. The call it a sun halo, but it looks like any rainbow you could imagine but hugging the sun. Some native people say that this can be a sign from the Creator indicating that it is a time of great change or transition of something on Earth (hopefully positive). It was a beautiful sight.

Ready to watch our weekly Aloha Friday fireworks!

Rainbow selfie!

Our go to sunset spot..Ala Moana park

 

 

 

It's crazy to think how fast time goes, and how much of life people spend unhappy. It's important to find time for yourself and the things that make life living even with a crazy hectic schedule.


Hang loose...

Jen & Mark