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Also went to local PD and registered my guns... and when I say "register", I mean it. Photograph, fingerprints, $42, RAPBACK entry, backgroud check, medical check, and a visual inspection of each gun by the clerk. WTF? Every gun that comes into the state must be registered... being military does not exempt me from this requirement. I also have to register my guns on the base to keep them in housing, but no biggie there.
If I want to buy a gun while I'm here, I can apply for a long-gun permit that's basically good for life and unlimited purchases. If I want to buy a handgun, I have to go to a store and buy the gun. Then take the serial number to the police department and apply for a permit to purchase the gun. Apparently it takes up to 2 weeks to get the permit. One permit per pistol. 'Merika. Guess how many guns I won't be buying while here. I only brought 3 with me... one pistol, one rifle, one shotgun... left all the rest with a buddy back in VA. The one gun-store I visited actually had my ammo... Hornady 120sst in 6.8spc, so that's awesome. Hunting culture here on island is pretty strong, the majority of the interior of Kauai is public hunting land... a bunch of it is inaccessible, but a lot of it easy to reach.
Location: Detroit (the part with no rules or laws)
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When i was a child, my parents bought me a t shirt that was dyed with the local coffee bean. I still have that shirt to this day and i refuse to wash it because i'm afraid of it losing it's smell. That smell reminds me so much of Hawaii and my experience there. We only did Kawaii and Maui but i would of loved to visit Kaui. A part of me also wants to ride dirt bikes around on Lanai for some reason.
I'm interested to see how you feel about the island long term. I've been twice for a week each time (spent mostly on the north side) and found it to be one of the most wonderful places in the world (that I've been to), but I wonder if the island would start to feel small after a while. Bay area housing cost about the same as hanalei last I checked, maybe in another 29 years I can retire and move there...
On one of my waterfall hikes, came across some locals packing out a boar and a dog that had been gored. Bloody spectacle. They were machete and dog hunting for the boars. Nice, friendly people that were happy to talk. Wife and daughter were a bit intimidated by a dude covered in blood sporting a machete though.
On one of my waterfall hikes, came across some locals packing out a boar and a dog that had been gored. Bloody spectacle. They were machete and dog hunting for the boars. Nice, friendly people that were happy to talk. Wife and daughter were a bit intimidated by a dude covered in blood sporting a machete though.
One of the base cops has promised to take me out on a dog&knife hunt. There are pigs and deer aplenty here on the base. It's bow-only and there are periodic eradication hunts. I also have access to a couple other facilities on the island that will make access into more remote hunting areas easier where I can use my rifle. Surprisingly, there are no assault-weapon laws in Hawaii, so my AR makes a great island hog&goat&deer gun.
Not surprisingly, most of the dogs down at the Humane Society are obviously hunting dogs that didn't work out or got away. Whippet/hound/pit mixes that all basically look alike... strong prey drive and go all day in the heat. We're crossing our fingers on finding something a little less likely to kill all the local chickens if it gets out.
And you're correct about the people here... they embrace Aloha very deeply and it shows.
All the flooding was on the North side of the island. Down here on the south/west side, we got a sprinkle... that's not to say it doesn't rain here, just that this side is normally spared the majority of the wrath of big storms. In fact, during the summer/fall, this side of the island is more desert-like than tropical... it can get dry and hot. We've had some good rain this winter/spring already, but nothing like the record-breaking stuff the North got.
The base has taken up some donation causes, and as the only local military, we stand by to support, but our means and equipment are limited. There are only 80 military personnel on this whole base. We have an LCM "Landing Craft Mechanized" that the Navy owns, but leases to the family that own Niihau island. We're using that to ferry people and supplies to the north side beyond where the roads have washed out. The local NatGuard guys have been doing their best. The coasties have been out doing stuff too.
This past weekend, the local Catholic Church (not Catholic, but our kids go to school there) had their big spring fair... huge fun, I have about 20 volunteer hours I logged. This place is big on community.
You're here and didn't call me!!! My house is in the thick strand of trees on the right. A bunch of us in the neighborhood are doing a Captain Andy's snorkel trip today, but back early afternoon. Where are you guys staying? You here for the week? I'm sure you owe me at least one beer.
Flying out today, sadly. Been here since Tuesday with the wife. Stayed in Po'ipu but got around as far northwest as you can get, plus the boat out to Na Pali yesterday evening. Did Waimea and all the other touristy **** on Thursday but mostly just sat at the pool with a cocktail.
I have no idea how your retirement will top this. Pretty cool place.
Cloudy since Sat, but barely a sprinkle up here on the west side of Kauai. East side got some rain, but no more than any normal rainy day. We had mostly calm seas too. I went spearfishing on Sat, no prob.
You can see in the news that the southern Islands got slammed... big island is hurtin bad... like epic Houston-style flooding. We were watching it all pretty close though... just everyday it leaned further and further west, and then it made a 90* turn left and lost all it's nutz. It was almost glassy on Sat, I went spearfishing.
In other news, the Pathfinder is till rocking strong... another couple thousand miles and a quart of oil ain't nothing.
We're just wrapping up our bi-annual trip. We usually spend almost the whole time on the north side, but we decided to spend a few days out near you and while it's not exactly the same vibe as up north, the people are just as awesome. Spent the evening at the saddle room tonight with Kenan and Bobby, live music, good food, drinks, don't want to go home...
I'm still interested in your thoughts/feelings on long term living here. Plans for after 2020?
Bro, you should have PM'd so we could hook up... I'd give you a tour of the base (super fun, I know).
Long term here is on the table. I already have job offers from several of the contractors on base at an acceptable salary, and my wife can upgrade from part-time to full-time at either of the local hospitals whenever. The biggest rub is the schools. Kauai public schools have drawbacks. We've been here a full year now, and the curriculum has almost caught up with where they were in Virginia. So far, it's been very easy for them, but the ease has made them lazy and their expectations have fallen. The challenge just isn't there, and our supplementing at home isn't having the effect we want. Moving stateside again is going to be tough on them for the first year... not that I mind that, but staying here doesn't do them any solids when it comes to life-prep. We think that the incoming XO homeschools his 3 kids that are same age. We've done a bit of homework on homeschooling, but so far haven't jumped in.
The other rub is housing. What the average American would consider a standard "middle-class 3br/2.5ba, 2car garage, small yard" doesn't really exist here. Once you make the jump up past $800k, and you can kinda get into that type of place, but there aren't any "developments" south of $1mil that you would recognize. What you get for $700k here is a 1500sqft 3/2 A-frame with a carport, no A/C, small yard, septic, and likely no fence. Housing is stupid expensive, and the market doesn't take a lot into account for "fixer-upper" because everybody has a cousin or uncle who does contracting on the side. That being said, your first-world problems really fly out the window in the first couple weeks. You just accept that everything is going to rust, the chickens are everywhere, it's expensive, there isn't any fun that you don't make yourself, it's expensive, it's a 40+ minute drive everywhere, it's a hard-left state although it doesn't really show on Kauai, it's expensive, there is very little crime that involves haoles, schools suck, it's expensive, plane tickets to other islands aren't cheap, lots of power outages, lots of infrastructure worries (roads, bridges, slides), Costco/Walmart/HomeDepot are a plus, restaurants are limited and STUPID EXPENSIVE and the good ones are scarce, Prime takes a week, Target takes 2 days usually, local fruit is amazeballs, making friends is easy is you're not a douchebag, tshirts/boardshoarts/slippers year-round, wicked night skies, constant breeze, everything is wet all the time, between Dec-July your car is tinted with brown clay that is a bitch to clean, if you ain't Toyota-Proud you ain't ****, food of all kinds everywhere is STUPID ******* EXPENSIVE... could do this all day...
If you have any lifestyle expectations, $150k/yr for a couple is in the ballpark if you rent (I'm talking about a 1br tiny cottage). You can live cheap and easy for far less but accepting that your only recourse if any "life problems" pop up is to go back to the mainland. If you're haole's and have kids, don't even think about moving here if your combined income is less than $200k/yr and you intend to buy a house. Renting in that case is just throwing money down the drain. Again, you can work with less, rent cheap and downgrade to "lower class" for all tangible metrics (kids won't know or care), but it's gonna be impossible to save. You just don't know how expensive everything combined is.
All that being said, we like it here. We can't upgrade to "love it" because we live on base in a bubble that shields us from a lot of reality. If we decide to stay and move out in town, we may find out we hate it... doubtful because it'll be 2.5yrs at that point and we'll know what we're getting into. We'll also be puling in about $250k/yr combined and be able to afford private school and a solid neighborhood.
01-08-2018, 08:54 PM
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