Hawaii-Part 1 Base life

Grades: 3-4

Hello all. Base life as a kid was alot of fun. There are plenty of things to do. Although there are probably alot of other adult activities. And by adult activities, I mean like Bingo and what not. But to an 3-4 Grader, those things don't count. So, with that said.
Here is Nina's Top 3 Life's Happenings of an army brat:

PX-Particularly the Toyland section
Beaches
Schools

PX

If your wondering what an PX is. Just picture a mini mall, but cooler. It has tons of items you can buy. Anywhere from cloths, laundry stuff, shoes, photos, etc. When you walk in to an PX, each one contains a food court, flower shop, barber shop, laundry shop(ie: dry cleaners), and of course the PX itself (which is like a mini Target).
There are alot of benefits to the PX...like no tax. Another added benefit is that you can get stuff way cheaper at PX then other "civilian stores". This is where we go school shoppping and get our daily household needs.
Now, this paricular PX had it's OWN Toyland. I mean..it's own HUGE WING dedicated to toys. Come on peoples. This is HUGE DEAL! Any 9 or 10 year old would agree with me here!! Not just some scrawny little section..but one HUGE wing section of the store. It put Walleyworlds lawn and garden section to shame! This my fellow Americans is any boy's and girl's living the ultimate dream. Rows and rows of toys. It would put any child in a coma just thinking about it. And this my friends, is the greatest highlight at PX.

Beaches

So, beaches aren't bad either. My parental decided that we could go every other weekend. If it was up to me, I lived there. Oh, but they don't have a toyland you might be saying?? It's ok. I'll personally moved the base's toyland to the beach. That's right. :) Ok, Ok, sand and toys probably won't mix; but hey..a girl can dream right? There is this one beach in Hawaiian called Hanauma Bay. You can stand in an foot of water and watch all fish swim around your legs. It's really neat. It also makes for great snorkeling. My favorite fish to watch for is the Hawaiian state fish. It had the most beautiful coloring of any fish I seen. The fish was called the Humuhumunukunukuapua. When our family moved to another state, I used to tease my other base friends (who parents never been station in Hawaii) that they couldn't say this name 5x fast (you can image what they were saying). Another one of my favorite beaches was called Sunset beach. What is it famous for you ask (I bet you can figured it out)? ;)

School

One of the thing that set apart from my other schools was that my elementary school was close enough for us to walk to school. This was a BIG deal. All the other schools we attended were alot further off base and would require us to take an 20-30 minute bus ride one way to go to school. Since our school was close enough, we got to ride our bikes to school. It was pretty sweet! But before we could ride our bikes to school there was a catch. Well, apparently, the base was know for high risk of thiefs of bikes (who knew right?). You had to get your bike register on base (the only base I remember having to do this). I figured that if anyone wanted my hot pink/purple bike with pom pom and a basket they can have it; but my dad wasn't too thrill with my idea. So, we registered my bike.
At school, we didn't learn about American history. I remember only taking Hawaiian. We learn how to speak, sing, and dance in hawaiian (I can even do the hula for you next time we see each other or if that is your hearts desire, maybe you would like me to sing a Hawaiian song??). We also learned the Hawaiian culture. It was pretty interesting.