Well, here I am, back in Tucson. Wow. It seems like I just woke up from a dream. I'm really sad that my trip is over.
Here's a recap of my last week in Hawaii. Summer left on Sunday July 22. I spent Monday cleaning, doing laundry typical housekeeping. I also had to pack for my trip to the big island, oh yeah - I have an airline ticket and hotel room for one night. Thought I'd see the other islands since they are so close. So I just rested.
Tuesday, July 24 - I head to the airport and head to the island "Hawaii" aka "The BIG Island". I met this cute guy - Summers age - and he was visiting friends in Oahu and going home. He told me of all these neat places to visit and eat. He was really nice, and cute and very gay. I'm having a great time looking out the window, taking pictures of the other islands then before I knew it - we were landing. Quick plane ride. When I looked out the window - there was a landing strip in a field of rocks known as lava. Jason told me that this was the old side of the island and that Mt. Kilauea had just erupted on July 21 - last Sunday - and was having lava flows. Hmmmm, this sounds expensive.....um I mean interesting. So we get off the plane - now this is an old fashioned airport. Remember way back when you would walk out on to the tarmac and climb a set of stairs to get into the aircraft? Well, that’s the way this works too. AND you can exit out of the back of the plane. KEWL! I go and get my car and me and my trusty GPS - now named Betty - because she is equally as irritating...lol (Betty is my late step dad’s recent wife). I find my hotel and check in. Not anything fancy but I'm just there to sleep. I hop in the car and start driving around. I found this cute little town with lots of shops and restaurants. Then I see it - Bubba Gumps. I gotta try this place. I go to park - holy cow! $12 dollars to park for 2 hours! Ok - I park. The restaurant was ok - nothing great to say - service was lousy and the waiter reminded me of some hippie I saw once in San Francisco in the early 70's. Then to the shops. They had this one shop with all sorts of jewelry and carvings and shells. I spotted a necklace made of Peridot (Summer's birthstone which she doesn't care for) The necklace was only $8 bucks, then another made of Volcanic Rhidorite, $8, and amethyst $10 and another of Volcanic Obsidian $8 bucks. I had to have them - just had to. Apparently there is a place where these rocks are easily available to the natives and they hunt for them and clean them up, put them in tumbler and make these for almost nothing. Then they sell them to the tourists. If you want to see them - let me know and I'll show you. I was just walking around when I spotted this lovely Hawaiian lady wearing a jewel studded shirt saying Blue Hawaii Helicopters. So I stopped her and asked her about the volcano activity on this island. We talked and walked and she told me about the volcano - history of volcanoes on this island, the last eruption and so much, come to find out she's part owner of the company. So needless to say I found myself buying a ticket for the next day to see the volcano. And yes - it was expensive, but a chance in a life time. That afternoon I went and visited the Mormon-Laie Hawaii Temple. This place was so beautiful and the workers were so kind. In fact everyone was nice. I met the Temple Matron and since my ankle was still bothering me and very swollen, I asked her if she knew of any available Elders or priesthood holders. She directed me next door to their Stake Center. I didn't even see the Stake Center amongst all the plants and flowers and the Temple is so beautiful I didn't see anything else. But there it was. I had a meeting with the Bishop and another priesthood holder and the words given were so applicable to me, things I really needed to hear and close to my heart. I felt like this Bishop knew my heart and my needs and he expressed the prayer so wonderfully. Thank you Bishop. They invited me to hang around and have pizza. The kids were having Mutual and they were playing that game with the sticks that the Tongan children were teaching them. It was fun and I was tired and ready to sleep - big day tomorrow!
Wednesday - July 25 - Did I mention Summer bought me newest the Harry Potter book? Well I spent the morning reading this fantastic book! Time for me to go to the Helicopter Port. I'm all ready and raring to go - thanks to Dramabeans. I get to the location and get ready to go - we get the safety video and instructions on what to do in case of an emergency. OK already - lets go. We get on the aircraft, me, a couple from Utah (Yes, Mormons!) a couple from Australia and the pilot, Toshi. Yahoo!! This is pretty cool. I get my camera out and - - the battery died. Shock - Horror - this can't be happening, but it is. But as things have it - my new friends from Utah, Terry and Lori do have a camera, and she said she would send me some photos. Thank goodness! Moving along, this was FANTASTIC! I could see the sulphur venting out of the volcano - we flew over the red hot lava flows and could see it spurting red lava into the air, there was one place where you could see how fast the lava was moving. It cooled and turned black-then it dawned on me, we were witnessing the island growing. Did God feel as overwhelmed as I did at this fantastic miracle? The world was growing in this small part of the world and he got to do all of this from the beginning. Watching creation. I had a baby and that was the best - and this rated right up there - creation. Heavenly Father is always amazing and here's proof and I was looking at this with my own eyes. Then we had to fly over other things like the black beach and waterfalls, the rainforest and more beaches and then we got to go over the lava again. This was definitely a highlight of my trip. After this - I was off to the airport and on my way back to Honolulu.
Thursday, July 26 - Just hung out on the beach at Waikiki - went to a movie "Ratatouille" cute movie - then I went and saw my friends at Coconut Willy's then back to the apartment.
Friday, July 27 - I rented a car and went back to the Polynesian Culture Center. There is so much to see and I wanted to visit this one more time before I left. This was a nice day - just like all the others in paradise.
Saturday, July 28 - I got up early so I could go snorkeling at Hamauna Bay - grrrr I had a car blocking me in. Finally around 8:30 the guy moved his car - so off to the bay. I get there around 10 am - the parking lot is full and they aren't letting any more people in. So I drive down the road and go to Sandy Beach. Man - the waves here are fierce. There is a very sharp drop off and the ocean makes these violent waves that crash into this drop off. There were locals swimming and body surfing. I watched this for about an hour and saw alot of tourists go in and now knowing what they were doing. The lifeguard would get on the PA every 15 minutes telling people if they were not familiar with this type of surf or were not expert swimmers to get out of the water you could drown. And he was right - I saw a couple people get knocked around and have their bell rung. Eventually I made it to the bay and went snorkeling.
Sunday - July 29 just hung out - did laundry - started packing. I leave for the mainland tomorrow. BUMMER
Monday - July 30 - My friend Greg is going to take me to the airport tonight, I can't believe it's time to go. The day is spent saying good-bye to the friends I've made - Gillian, Koyu, Dustin, Lana, the girls at the Food Pantry - and to Coconut Willy's. Greg picks me up and off we go. He was so nice and we had a very nice visit - all of a sudden the tears begin to flow, I don't want to leave - he had sung my favorite song - Honolulu City Lights. Then he presented me with a beautiful Leu with white trumpet roses and pink roses. The smell was the sweetest I had ever smelled. My trip was over. I had made some good friends and here was one who was making the end so special. He even bought a lei for me to take home to Summer. And then he drove away. I was on my way. The trip was uneventful, quiet, quick I couldn't sleep. I did see a fantastic sunrise. I made it to Summer's apartment on Tuesday around 4 pm. Time to dream of Hawaii.
Here's a recap of my last week in Hawaii. Summer left on Sunday July 22. I spent Monday cleaning, doing laundry typical housekeeping. I also had to pack for my trip to the big island, oh yeah - I have an airline ticket and hotel room for one night. Thought I'd see the other islands since they are so close. So I just rested.
Tuesday, July 24 - I head to the airport and head to the island "Hawaii" aka "The BIG Island". I met this cute guy - Summers age - and he was visiting friends in Oahu and going home. He told me of all these neat places to visit and eat. He was really nice, and cute and very gay. I'm having a great time looking out the window, taking pictures of the other islands then before I knew it - we were landing. Quick plane ride. When I looked out the window - there was a landing strip in a field of rocks known as lava. Jason told me that this was the old side of the island and that Mt. Kilauea had just erupted on July 21 - last Sunday - and was having lava flows. Hmmmm, this sounds expensive.....um I mean interesting. So we get off the plane - now this is an old fashioned airport. Remember way back when you would walk out on to the tarmac and climb a set of stairs to get into the aircraft? Well, that’s the way this works too. AND you can exit out of the back of the plane. KEWL! I go and get my car and me and my trusty GPS - now named Betty - because she is equally as irritating...lol (Betty is my late step dad’s recent wife). I find my hotel and check in. Not anything fancy but I'm just there to sleep. I hop in the car and start driving around. I found this cute little town with lots of shops and restaurants. Then I see it - Bubba Gumps. I gotta try this place. I go to park - holy cow! $12 dollars to park for 2 hours! Ok - I park. The restaurant was ok - nothing great to say - service was lousy and the waiter reminded me of some hippie I saw once in San Francisco in the early 70's. Then to the shops. They had this one shop with all sorts of jewelry and carvings and shells. I spotted a necklace made of Peridot (Summer's birthstone which she doesn't care for) The necklace was only $8 bucks, then another made of Volcanic Rhidorite, $8, and amethyst $10 and another of Volcanic Obsidian $8 bucks. I had to have them - just had to. Apparently there is a place where these rocks are easily available to the natives and they hunt for them and clean them up, put them in tumbler and make these for almost nothing. Then they sell them to the tourists. If you want to see them - let me know and I'll show you. I was just walking around when I spotted this lovely Hawaiian lady wearing a jewel studded shirt saying Blue Hawaii Helicopters. So I stopped her and asked her about the volcano activity on this island. We talked and walked and she told me about the volcano - history of volcanoes on this island, the last eruption and so much, come to find out she's part owner of the company. So needless to say I found myself buying a ticket for the next day to see the volcano. And yes - it was expensive, but a chance in a life time. That afternoon I went and visited the Mormon-Laie Hawaii Temple. This place was so beautiful and the workers were so kind. In fact everyone was nice. I met the Temple Matron and since my ankle was still bothering me and very swollen, I asked her if she knew of any available Elders or priesthood holders. She directed me next door to their Stake Center. I didn't even see the Stake Center amongst all the plants and flowers and the Temple is so beautiful I didn't see anything else. But there it was. I had a meeting with the Bishop and another priesthood holder and the words given were so applicable to me, things I really needed to hear and close to my heart. I felt like this Bishop knew my heart and my needs and he expressed the prayer so wonderfully. Thank you Bishop. They invited me to hang around and have pizza. The kids were having Mutual and they were playing that game with the sticks that the Tongan children were teaching them. It was fun and I was tired and ready to sleep - big day tomorrow!
Wednesday - July 25 - Did I mention Summer bought me newest the Harry Potter book? Well I spent the morning reading this fantastic book! Time for me to go to the Helicopter Port. I'm all ready and raring to go - thanks to Dramabeans. I get to the location and get ready to go - we get the safety video and instructions on what to do in case of an emergency. OK already - lets go. We get on the aircraft, me, a couple from Utah (Yes, Mormons!) a couple from Australia and the pilot, Toshi. Yahoo!! This is pretty cool. I get my camera out and - - the battery died. Shock - Horror - this can't be happening, but it is. But as things have it - my new friends from Utah, Terry and Lori do have a camera, and she said she would send me some photos. Thank goodness! Moving along, this was FANTASTIC! I could see the sulphur venting out of the volcano - we flew over the red hot lava flows and could see it spurting red lava into the air, there was one place where you could see how fast the lava was moving. It cooled and turned black-then it dawned on me, we were witnessing the island growing. Did God feel as overwhelmed as I did at this fantastic miracle? The world was growing in this small part of the world and he got to do all of this from the beginning. Watching creation. I had a baby and that was the best - and this rated right up there - creation. Heavenly Father is always amazing and here's proof and I was looking at this with my own eyes. Then we had to fly over other things like the black beach and waterfalls, the rainforest and more beaches and then we got to go over the lava again. This was definitely a highlight of my trip. After this - I was off to the airport and on my way back to Honolulu.
Thursday, July 26 - Just hung out on the beach at Waikiki - went to a movie "Ratatouille" cute movie - then I went and saw my friends at Coconut Willy's then back to the apartment.
Friday, July 27 - I rented a car and went back to the Polynesian Culture Center. There is so much to see and I wanted to visit this one more time before I left. This was a nice day - just like all the others in paradise.
Saturday, July 28 - I got up early so I could go snorkeling at Hamauna Bay - grrrr I had a car blocking me in. Finally around 8:30 the guy moved his car - so off to the bay. I get there around 10 am - the parking lot is full and they aren't letting any more people in. So I drive down the road and go to Sandy Beach. Man - the waves here are fierce. There is a very sharp drop off and the ocean makes these violent waves that crash into this drop off. There were locals swimming and body surfing. I watched this for about an hour and saw alot of tourists go in and now knowing what they were doing. The lifeguard would get on the PA every 15 minutes telling people if they were not familiar with this type of surf or were not expert swimmers to get out of the water you could drown. And he was right - I saw a couple people get knocked around and have their bell rung. Eventually I made it to the bay and went snorkeling.
Sunday - July 29 just hung out - did laundry - started packing. I leave for the mainland tomorrow. BUMMER
Monday - July 30 - My friend Greg is going to take me to the airport tonight, I can't believe it's time to go. The day is spent saying good-bye to the friends I've made - Gillian, Koyu, Dustin, Lana, the girls at the Food Pantry - and to Coconut Willy's. Greg picks me up and off we go. He was so nice and we had a very nice visit - all of a sudden the tears begin to flow, I don't want to leave - he had sung my favorite song - Honolulu City Lights. Then he presented me with a beautiful Leu with white trumpet roses and pink roses. The smell was the sweetest I had ever smelled. My trip was over. I had made some good friends and here was one who was making the end so special. He even bought a lei for me to take home to Summer. And then he drove away. I was on my way. The trip was uneventful, quiet, quick I couldn't sleep. I did see a fantastic sunrise. I made it to Summer's apartment on Tuesday around 4 pm. Time to dream of Hawaii.
