If you have ever lived in Hawaii and then left for one reason or another, you cannot believe how much you miss what you probably took for granted every single day! Things like fresh produce, humidity, daylight hours, the warmth and the best part, the Aloha. I left the island for one year in 2016 and lived in Lake Tahoe so my kids could go to school in a competitive environment (that was a mess) and so we could go snowboarding and skiing (that was amazing), but by the sixth month of snow and cold, we not only had had enough, we realized everything we had taken for granted!
So, I originally wrote this post while I was still begging Pele to let us come home and I would never be ungrateful again. And you know what? We got back to the island in 2017, and through the volcanic eruption in 2018, the heatwave of 2019 and the pandemic of 2020, I still find the gratitude for living here each day!
Here are the 6 things to be grateful for when you live in Hawaii-On ANY island in Hawaii!
1. Humidity
The moisture in the air acts like a continual Fountain of Youth! You look five years younger when all those ions and moisture droplets are plumping up your fine lines and wrinkles. This is especially evident when you leave the island. Pele’s magical mist starts to wear off in the plane about two hours out of Hawaiian air space. Look in the mirror in the airline bathroom and tell me I’m wrong. The youthful remnants deteriorate even faster if you get off the plane in Arizona and Nevada. Truth. Hawaii is the magic youth holding bubble that Ponce de Leon missed!
2. Tropical fruit off the tree, vine and stalk.
Have you ever eaten an apple off of a tree? Does it taste any different from a bag in a store two months later? Nope. Have you tried a mango or papaya in a Trader Joe’s on the mainland? It’s simply disheartening after you have had fresh fruit in Hawaii. You can’t hold that moist, sweet, luscious flavor in shipping. And don’t think you’re coming close with frozen chunks at Costco, either! You
literally have to be on the island to enjoy an apple banana or ice cream banana because they don’t ship those to the mainland in any quantity. You have to have a mango right out of the tree in the summer to know where the word exquisite came from. And lychee, rombutan and lilikoi? Good lord, if you haven’t enjoyed these tropical treats fresh from a road side stand, you haven’t tasted heaven.
3. The time swing.
Hawaii, being located so close to the Equator, has a time swing of only a few hours, year round. (Hawaii is so wonderful that it even has its own time zone!)
Also, Hawaii does not observe daylight savings time. As Californian’s, Alaskan’s, heck, even Icelanders are playing outdoors until after 9 pm during the summer, Hawaii residents are enjoying dinner with a sunset around 7 pm and getting their kids to bed on time each night. Then during the winter, while folks on the mainland are calling it a day by 4 pm, guess what? Hawaii residents are yet again enjoying dinner at sunset around 5:30 pm! Is that paradise or what?
4. The temperature swing
Unless you’re huddling under a fleece at the top of Haleakala at sunrise or shivering at the observatories on Mauna Kea, you’re pretty much going to be warm all year long in Hawaii. And even if you’re snow boarding down Mauna Loa after a good snow storm (yes, we did this) you won’t have to wake up the next morning and shovel snow out of your driveway. If you have found yourself on a hot day at South Point, you could be sweating in 89 degree heat, but that’s a beautiful day to our friends in Phoenix, Palm Springs, and Texas during the summer. And you can pretty much bet it’s never going to be that hot in Kauai or Oahu who have the trade winds blowing. Each evening, year round in th+6e Silicon Valley, you have to take a sweater with you because the temperature dips 15-20 degrees from afternoon to evening.
The same for mountain climates around the country. Not in Hawaii! Leave those wraps in your air conditioned hotel rooms or conference rooms and movie theaters, you’re going to be sleeveless and happy as a little crab out enjoying your evening sunsets and moonlit beach strolls, Year round! There is about a ten degree swing between 75-85 degrees. People in Hawaii never have to know what “misters” or “gaiters” are! (Fact: Temperatures at sea level in Hawaii range from highs of 85-90°F (29-32°C) in the summer to 79-83°F (26-28°C) in the winter. The temperature rarely rises above 90°F (32°C) or drops below 60°F (16°C).
5. You pretty much get the same weather report every day!
Stop waiting for the news people to get to the local weather report in Hawaii because it the same newscast on the radio or TV each day! Sunny with a chance of rain and clouds! Somewhere on the island it’s going to be raining, or cloudy or sunny throughout the day. Unless a hurricane is approaching the islands, you’re having an 82 degree day with mostly light winds, unless you’re in Waikoloa near Kona, or dealing with a passing rain shower. On the Big Island, you can be laying on the beach at Kua Bay and your friends are telling you their gardens are being happily watered by a quick rain shower in Holualoa ten minutes south. Then in the afternoon, you pack up your beach bags and 
head out as clouds approach. But you didn’t hear that on the news. You just know the weather patterns..which are the same almost everyday. Who needs a meteorologist? What other state has such amazing predictability of almost perfection as Hawaii?
6. The Aloha Spirit
This one is very important as it flavors your experience with the people you encounter every day. People who live and work in Hawaii know they are lucky. In fact, they are very happy, according to a Gallup Poll for 2019, that shows Hawaii residents are the happiest of any state in America! Because of this, you are surrounded with a happy energy and people treat each other with respect and share of themselves with a smile or kindness. You start to take this for granted after you live in Hawaii for awhile. IT’S SPECIAL! From letting people cut in from side roads without honking, to offering extra time to tell you how to get somewhere and what you should see, to just saying Aloha and striking up a conversation with a stranger, the Aloha spirit is everywhere in Hawaii. And the best part? You take it with you.
The added 7th bonus one is from that cover photo of when I got to do a quick island hop over to Maui to stay at Travaasa Resort. Island hopping is definitely a fun bonus and I can’t wait to get to it again after COVID Days are behind us.
If you want to experience these moments of sheer happiness due to a crazy amount of gratitude each day, contact me today and let’s get you connected with a mortgage pro or Realtor on any of the Hawaiian Islands or join our 365 Ohana and be part of resource filled treasure trove of coaching to make the move a reality.
