Moving to Kauai
		Well, I hadn't ever visited Kauai or Hawaii even.  My mom decided to move to Kauai because she thought it would be similar to the Philippines without the Political Turbulance and because it was the most lush and green of the islands.  Shortly after she moved, my then fiance and I visited and fell in love with the place.  We loved the lush green plants and the wonderfully friendly people we encountered.  About a year later Julie and I got married and shortly after that we moved.  Actually, I moved and Julie stayed behind for 3 months.  It was very difficult being apart that long...I guess a little less difficult for me since I was in Kauai and Julie was still in Stockton.  If you know anything about Stockton, you understand.  Anyway, I stayed with my mom and found a job.  Julie and I are both in the  Healthcare field so we knew it would be fairly easy to get jobs.  As it worked out, I didn't have a job for about a month but I enjoyed going to the beach and finding cool shells to send back to Julie.  I discovered "Niihau Shells" at the Kauai Products Fair in Kapaa.  These are tiny shells that people make jewelry out of.  The guy there told us how to punch holes in the shells and also some tips on how to find them.  My sister, who was visiting, and I went to "Anini Beach" and found plenty.  Apparently they aren't quite considered Niihau Shells because they didn't come from Niihau but they're the same shells. Anyway, it's quite a task to find enough of these to make any type of necklace or bracelet.  We spent about 5 hours and had about a quarter of a tic tac box full between the 2 of us. Best to use tweezers because if you use your fingers, you'll push others shells into the sand. I eventually got enough to make a small necklace. Finding a Place: This was no easy task.  Start with a sellers market in Real Estate and add in the fact that most rentals are vacation rentals for tourists that will pay more and not mess up the place (usually).  Then add in the fact that we have 2 cats.  I finally found a place that would work...it was a 1 bedroom/ 1 bath, 400 sq. ft. cottage.  The roof leaked and I wondered when (not if) the floor would break and I would fall thru.  But the landlord didn't mind cats and basically I was desperate!  The first couple weeks I was there (before my wife arrived) I discovered some interesting insects.  I was cleaning the bathroom  and looked up and saw 1/2 inch ants coming out of the ceiling...after wetting myself, I ran out of the bathroom and returned with some Raid spray and started spraying them...THEN, they started flying!!  I had to close the door and spray the Raid thru the doorknob hole.  Well, my next trip was to wal-mart to stock up on caulking and I caulked every inch of every opening there was in that house. This wonderful place had a bright yellow floor and lavender exterior for a mere 650 dollars a month.  Apparently after we moved, it rented for 900 dollars a month...they did paint the floor different but I think the added value was from my caulking job. Julie Arrives: A couple weeks before Julie arrived, she shipped the car to Kauai thru "Island Vehicle Transport" which allowed us to pack the car with stuff except for the drivers seat.  Julie did quite a good job packing the car too and apparently needed to push the drivers seat all the way up to fit stuff in the back seat. Now that was some fun driving when I received the car in Kauai.  I unpacked the car and tried to make the new place presentable and flew back to California and had a lovely reunion with my wife. Met with all the family and had a good-bye party, gathered up the cats and the luggage and we were Island-bound.  The cats were only allowed to ride as cargo and not with us as passengers and they needed to stay 2 days on Oahu before they came to Kauai.  This was a bummer but we dealt with it.  Kauai Humane society (a few months earlier) had  qualified to keep quarantined animals and that eased our minds quite a bit.  The quarantine lasted 30 days including their stay on Oahu and we got to visit them everyday in Kauai and I don't think they sustained any permanent mental or physical damage from it.  The people at Kauai Humane Society were fantastic and treated the cats like royalty when we weren't able to.  Anyway, I took Julie to our new abode and surprisingly she liked it....at least that was she told me...apparently when I went to work the next day, she sat on the floor (no couch yet) and asked herself "what have I done?"  She was nice enough to not tell me that story for another few months.  After we got some furniture, we enjoyed living in our little plantation cottage with our 2 cats.