I recently moved to Hawaii because I married a Marine. I most likely would never have lived here otherwise. I was born and raised in Alabama, and Hawaii is NOT Alabama. I could probably write a very large book about the differences between the two, but I decided I would keep it simple and just give you 12.
1. The Roads
Hawaii has all of, like, three roads. I'm not kidding. Their main road names are extremely weird on top of that. Alabama has lovely backroads to avoid traffic, Hawaii does not.
2. The Weather
Hawaii has fantastic weather. It's always 75-80 and I love it. Alabama is the most moody state around when it comes to weather.
3. The Ocean
Savannah Lawrence
Yes, Alabama has Gulf Shores. No, it is nothing compared to Hawaii. The water is crystal clear here.
4. The Politics
I'm Republican. Hawaii is... not. That's something I have to adjust to, and it's extremely hard coming from Alabama.
5. The Pet Laws
Hawaii claims to be a "rabies free" state, so your poor pets have to go through a bunch of crap to actually get here. Alabama doesn't care. Hawaii does have random chickens walking around everywhere though.
6. The Size
The island I live on is basically the size of my hand. I can get from one side to the other in about 25 minutes. It's unreal. It took me a good two hours to get to my grand parents' house in Alabama.
7. The Prices
Yeah, I'll be honest, I hate how expensive Hawaii is. Most everything I buy is on base because it's a little cheaper. Hawaii has incredibly ridiculous prices. I came from Alabama, where everything's fairly cheap. I miss that.
8. The Houses
Two things on this. One, Hawaii's houses are all extremely close to one another. Two, Hawaii's houses are almost all a million dollars or more. Alabama is polar opposite of both of those.
9. The Accents
Guys, I came from a state where "y'all" is a very used word. I get looks like I'm an idiot for saying that here. It's extremely weird!
10. The Language
Yeah, Hawaii is part of America, but they still have their own language. Nearly every word you say here, all the vowels have to be pronounced. I'm terrible at it, considering I came from Alabama.
11. The Traffic
Savannah Lawrence
I'm used to close-to-nothing traffic. Hawaii is almost worse than Atlanta because they have zero roads to use. I hate traffic by the way. It's awful.
12. The Wildlife
Alabama has like two kinds of birds, and they all sound the same. I kid you not you might think you're being robbed when you hear some of the birds in Hawaii. They sound terrifying. I am also used to all of Alabama's wildlife in general. Hawaii has these weird fish, and little animals running around that look like nothing I've seen before.
