I would rather private message my questions, so please let me know who you are and if you are open to questioning :) Thanks
*cough* Nords bat signal *cough*
No problem, I'm happy to brag on our island paradise! I saw your PM before I plowed through all the new threads on the forum, so check your PMs.
For everyone else who's curious about the subject, we live on Oahu and we've been here for most of the last 25 years. For us Oahu is the perfect combination of everything we enjoy about Hawaii as well as big-box stores, military bases, hospitals, and easy access to airports for travel. Most of the other islands have those amenities, too, but in smaller and more limited formats. Every time we talk about moving to a neighbor island we're mildly concerned about the possibility of needing to use Tripler Army Medical Center (on Oahu) or having to fly to Oahu just to get on a plane to Asia or the Mainland.
The neighbor islands are getting better about direct flights to the continents without going through Honolulu first, but they're still limited.
I'd suggest searching The-Military-Guide.com for the "Hawaii" keyword (
http://the-military-guide.com/?s=Hawaii) and scrolling through those posts. I've also written a summary at:
http://the-military-guide.com/2011/10/13/lifestyles-in-military-retirement-living-in-hawaii/with a recommended book & blog at the end, as well as:
http://the-military-guide.com/2012/08/27/good-reasons-not-to-live-in-hawaii/with more local media links in the "Related articles" at the end.
I'm not sure what island-specific issues there are with the other subject you mentioned in your PM. If you start with those posts above, though, and search for that topic (or post about it), then one of the other sites or forums may lead you to people who know more about the subject.
