Aloha!  I'm Sarah.

I was born and mostly raised in Baltimore, Maryland. When I was little I was home schooled and traveled across the country with my parents. Maybe it was this time spent traveling that made me wish for greener pastures (and cleaner oceans). All I knew is that I never quite felt like I was meant to live in Maryland forever.

I bounced around trying to find something I loved about Baltimore- trying out job after job and going back to school for a certification on top of my already expensive degree. I pondered relocating down south to warmer weather- and had a move to Charleston, South Carolina all plotted out …when I met Nick.

Nick wasn’t who I ever thought I would end up with- a military man I met at a party? Yeah, right. I used to wonder what military wives were thinking when they got into military life. I rapidly realized that no girl ever chooses military life- it chooses you. When you find that person you’re meant to be with, you take them as they are. Even if it means coming in second to the military.

If I was a firm believer in “Things always happen for a reason” before, Nick was only further proof of that. After nearly a year of dating, Nick was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina of all places and we moved in together in a little apartment in Mount Pleasant.

We spent one year in Charleston- I worked at an amazing little café and on the set of Army Wives as an extra- then found out the amazing news: We were going to be stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Visiting the 50th state had been number two on my life goals list since I was six years old- I couldn't believe I'd soon become  a resident of the rainbow state. Little did I know how different it would be to actually live in Hawaii.

I began my Beach Blog, which rapidly became therapy to me I tried planning my life to relocate more than 5,000 miles away on an island.

We bought a house before even seeing it and began making plans for the move. It took five months of preparation to complete a three page checklist so our dog Maggie wouldn’t be quarantined upon arrival. I rapidly realized that there were no Bank of America’s on the island, and my account was initially frozen due to suspicious activity- I guess because we were so far away. My year old GPS was no use here- it didn’t even contain maps of Hawaii.

I also came to discover that Hawaii was the land of “prices and participation may vary”: $5 Footlongs are $6 on island. Three Dominos pizzas for $5 each on the mainland are $7.50 each here. Plus a delivery charge. And the shipping prices? Oh, the shipping prices. Even with free shipping from Victoria’s Secret, Hawaii residents still must pay an additional $4.99. Amazon.com has been my only hope. (Whoever invented that Super Saver Shipping deserves a Nobel Prize.) And thank GOD they had just built the island’s first Target store only months before we arrived.

Other than the crazy street names, the local dialect ("pidgin"), tsunami warnings, and 4am phonecalls when my family and friends forget about the time difference (sorry again for hanging up on you, Grandma!) there are also the amazing sides of living in paradise.

The beaches make you never want to go anywhere else. The weather puts a smile on your face every day. I've never seen so many rainbows in my whole life. Plus the idea of spending Christmas on the beach with a Mai Tai in your hand doesn’t exactly sound like a sacrifice.

Nick and I were married on the beach in Hawaii in March 2010 and officially started our lives together. Through deployments and beach days, every day is an adventure.