Well, I have been waiting to put pics on here of our trip, because I took so many, I had to delete some to make more room on my card. I downloaded them to my brother-in law's computer and have had trouble getting them back on my own to make a slide show. Enough about my troubles! I am still missing a bunch in the slide show, but this will have to do. Hawaii was wonderful. Nelson and I went with Spencer (his brother)and his wife Trina, Jackie (Nelson's sister), and Benson (the youngest brother of the clan). We arrived on Wed night, after a full day of travel. We were all starving from the long trip. We flew out of Vegas, so we left our houses at 6am, drove to Vegas, then flew from there at 3pm...arrived in Hawaii at 7:30 there time...too dark to see anything :( On an educational note: if you ever fly to Hawaii....eat before and take lots of food on the flight. They don't even give you pretzels or nuts. Only drinks...then you can buy a box of snacks or a mini can of pringles....not very satisfying for a 6 hour flight!!! Apparently after 9pm the city of Kehei, Maui closes down. Well the restaurants anyways.(Nelson and I thought we were in Park city for a second!) The only thing to do there at night is go to clubs. (Or so we quickly found out!) So after a quick stop at the grocery store, we had sandwiches for dinner, and went to bed! Thursday we went and hung out at the beach. We attempted to body surf the waves...haha...and we hung out at the beach most of the day. That night we went on a dinner cruise in Lahaina. It was fun to sit on the top of a boat, be served, and watch the sunset. Oh, and everywhere you go in Maui includes unlimited drinks. We took advantage of that and drank a million and one Mai Tai's. (Virgin of course!) But they were yummy. It was very fun! The first couple of days it was hard for me to feel like I was suppose to be doing something. A little wierd feeling to overcome. I felt like I should have been seeing what my kids were doing...or where they were! So Friday morning, we got up, bought some boogie boards and rented some snorkeling geer and headed for a beach. The Boogie boards were fun....if you didn't get pummeled by the millions of waves, which I did...one too many times. After eating it a few times....I had to take a break. But catching the right ones...that was fun. You ride it all the way to the beach and it is fun, until you stop at the shore and all the sand in the water goes EVERYWHERE...and I mean..EVERYWHERE! We tried to snorkel...which...being the non-swimmer that I am..was difficult. Everyone else loved it, but it was a little terrifying to me. It wasn't the calm clear blue waters I pictured snorkeling in. It was the rough waves of the sandy ocean water, by a coral reef. It was not being able to see too far in front of yourself and feel in control of where I was....(again...I am not the best swimmer...probably why I was so nervous!) Besides, I stuck that thing in my mouth....not good for me...I had to try not to gag and breate at the same time! Well, it must be a sport that needs to be acquired. I would love to try it in a controlled environment. I know, I am a baby! Oh well! So after we had enough of the beach, sand, being thrown on the ocean floor by the waves...and even a little too much sun, we called it a day and went home. Of course we found an Ice Cream Parlor that had the best icecream (Coconut/Pineapple was my fav)...so we went there too....everyday we went there!!! :) (And can you believe I didn't gain any weight while on vacation....I can't!) Although I did still excericse most of the time I was there! :) Ok, if you are still with me on this novel...we are on to Saturday. Saturday we went to Lahaina again and went whale watching. Very fun actually. When you see one from 500 yards away, it is exciting and everyone on the boat "oohs and aahs!" Then when you see one from 100 yards away, all you can say is "Holy Crap!" It was fun...and a little unbelievable. After the whale watching, we were hungry, so we ate at Bubba Gumps! That was a fun place to eat. Sunday we planned to enjoy the sabbath out in nature. We went on a zipline tour (5 ziplines) and to the waterfalls to swim. :) The zipline tour was fun. There were 5 ziplines, each progresively longer and over a deeper crevice than the others. It was very fun, but of our entire group, including kids...I was the biggest baby. What can I say? But I did it and it was fun. :) We drove over the the Twin Falls Waterfalls and the first one was came to, we loved! We jumped off the rocks, and swang from vines like hoodlems! No one was beating their chest, well, actually, Spencer did at the top of the waterfall :), but we all did jumped off and swang on the vine...Even Trina. The water was freezing cold, but it was really fun. We went home after that and ate the best dinner we had while on the island. We cooked for ourselves! Steak, salad, cheesy potatoes, and strawberry/banana daquiris. :) It was delicious! Monday we to the Maui Tropical Plantation, took a tram around the platation, watch them shuck a coconut, ate even better coconut/pineapple ice cream, and then headed back to Lahaina for a submarine ride. The submarine ride was fun. We rode under the ocean and saw a lot of fish, and coral reefs. We even listened to the Titanic song at the lowest level of the ocean....150ft! Our guide was hilarious! After the sub, we went to a Luau, where were treated ourselves to be VIPs...again, all the drinks you can have....and we did....beautiful lei's (we had to buy of course), unlimited food, and a show of course. Trina and I even got on the stage and learned to hula! It was fun. Tuesday we decided to relax and enjoy our last day so we hung out at the beach, swam in the pool at our hotel and ate at the Outback. Then swam again at the hotel. We had so much fun and all spent way too much money. Nelson and I were the only ones who didn't buy a suitcase to bring home all we bought! (We brought one half empty when we came!) So after lots of sun, sand, icecream, fish, whales, mai tai's, hawain chocolates, swimming in the pool late at night and playing phase 10 before bed, we came home! It was really exciting and fun. We were happy to come home to warmer weather...at least until the snow came again! I came home 1/2 african american, and know I shall be pasty white again soon. But Bring on summmer we say! I also would like some more coconut/pineapple icecream....maybe I can make it!
(sorry the blurry pics are the best I can do for now....when I get my pics off Benson's computer, I will fix them!)
