Originally from upper Michigan, I moved to Hawaii in 1968. My intention was only to stay for only a year.
I loved the island lifestyle. Made lots of friends. Married in 1983. Bought a house in Hawaii Kai.
My husband, Doug, was born on Kauai and lived most of his life on Kauai and Oahu. He was a school teacher at St. Louis School for 31 years and I was a registered nurse.
Unfortunately, the older we got, the heat and humidity became more oppressive. Traffic was terrible. Everything so expensive.
We started making plans to move to Santa Cruz, California, after Doug’s father passed away in 2011 and we inherited property there. We wanted to retire there so that we could travel more. We sold our house and moved up here completely in March of 2012.
At first we went back to Hawaii every year, but we have no desire to do that now. It’s all about discovering new places and people. It was wonderful to spend part of my life there, but I would never move back.