Day two

Saturday morning we checked out of our hotel and headed to Waikiki Beach. We knew it would be full of people, but we had to go so we could say we did. The plan was to walk along the beach and then meet up with Craig's sister and visit Pearl Harbor before we caught our flight to the Big Island.

I was fascinated by the banyan (I think) trees with their roots hanging down and creating larger and larger network of trunks.

I got a few pictures of some.

In this picture you can see a root bundle reaching for the ground. In the back ground are successful roots already planted.

This would be such a fun tree to play in. I think it would make an awesome fort or tree house.

I didn't take pictures of the beach itself. Silly me. I was people watching. I have decided that there are some people that should never attempt a bikini. Seriously.

The beach was crowded. We came upon a beach volleyball tournament of college girls. It was fun to watch for a while. They were playing some serious volleyball.

We found a hygiene store (drug store) and bought me some aleve -- I had had a headache for two days. (The thing that really took care of that was some major stretching in Pilates.) I guess the stress of traveling was getting to me.

We didn't get the whole beach wandered. It was a long beach. But I did see this cute sculpture. I took a picture of it for Josh and Boaz. It is based on a children's story. I'm not familiar, but I think I should look it up. :)

I wanted to get a look at both faces. The boy and seal and catching the same wave and checking each other out.

The leis got my attention first, but I love the look on the seal's face. Totally willing to play with a kindred spirit.

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The visit to Pearl Harbor was awesome in some ways. We arrived after noon, and so all the tickets to the Arizona Memorial had been sold. We became a victim to the stupid sequester that dysfunctional Washington is punishing the country with.

So we chose to visit the USS Missouri. I have been on her before when she docked in Astoria the summer Craig and I started dating. In fact, I had invited him and Thea to come with me when I went, but his folks were in town and he hung with them instead. I went alone. :) But had three dates set up after the phone call. The beginning of an eternal thing right there.

Alan wanted to see her, and I love to tour naval ships. Something from my days in Portland.

It had been so long, my people wanted me to tell them everything, but I had forgotten a lot. We hooked up with a tour group on the main deck. We ended the guided tour on the surrender deck. I got a picture of the plaque.

This is where the Pacific Theature of World War II was ended. In Tokyo Harbor. I didn't get a picture of the Instruments of Surrender. I should have. But I read the signature of General MacArthur. My dad would have loved touring that ship.

We didn't have time to wander the whole ship that was open. We chose to go up. We saw the bridge and all the instruments in the command center. We crossed the Tomahawk Deck. Off the bow, on Battleship Row we could see the Arizona Memorial.

I took some pictures.

We learned these huge guns were always fired broadside. So as not to damage the Missouri, herself. And with all the force of the blast -- six bags of gunpowder weighing about 50 lbs each (I think) the ship absorbed the recoil and wasn't moved in the water. But the shock waves were visible after the shot. She could fire a projectile that weighed the same as a small car over 20 miles (over the horizon) with accuracy. The decks were cleared of all hands when she was firing. And it took about 90 men to work the guns.

A different view .

The white pylons are where the ships were moored that Sunday in 1941. The current ships were in a different part of the harbor. I saw them when we were on the plane headed to the Big Island. I was amazed at the size of the harbor. Pearl is huge!

We crowded on the bus to go back and I ended up next to the driver in the aisle. I asked questions, of course. We talked about the huge radar ball. He said it could track a base ball with pin point accuracy for over 300 miles. (I am pulling these figures out of my head, so I hope they are correct.) But they have something better, so they are selling it. Simply amazing.

Looking back at the Mighty Mo with her honor guards of the stars and stripes. She is so big that I couldn't fit her in the picture and still see details.

We returned to the airport and settled in for the wait for our flight to the Big Island. I was much more relaxed knowing that we had confirmed seats. :)

Friday was a big day and we were on to the next phase of our adventure.

first day in Hawaii continued

After the temple, we turned our attention to getting to the PCC. It is right by the BYU-Hawaii campus. I applied there after high school, but was afraid of the plane tickets and getting home again. So I didn't go. But both Craig and I were interested in looking at the campus.

I love the way BYU keeps its grounds. It was beautiful.

This is the main building. I think it was the McKay building. The mural was a flag ceremony with the Pledge of Allegiance bordering it.

Closer up. I thought it was really cool.

Some of the flowers on the main quad. There are flags that surround the main drive. A bit like the United Nations.

I love Birds of Paradise.

Bottle brush flower. I don't know if that is it's real name, but I still love it.

Then we headed to the PCC.

We only had time for two of the villages. We got there part way into the Tongan show. The drummer had people from the audience. The last guy was from China. The Tongan referred to his volunteers by their place of origin. So this guy's name was China. He was one of the biggest hams I have ever seen. He had no idea what he was doing, but he did it big. It was very funny.

Then we went to the Samoan village. This guy was amazing funny. It was all about coconuts and cooking. He came onto the stage and posed with a coconut like the Heisman Trophy. I'm not going to go over the whole thing, but he said some funny things that I will have to note. He told us all not to play on the trees, because this is America. The only place where if you climb a tree and fall it is not your fault. Funny as it was, it is also very sad. We are such a sue - happy people. He said in Samoa everything is your fault. Much better philosophy, if you ask me. He also said that in Samoa the men cook. They hunt, they clean, they do everything. The women make lists. They make lists with both hands. Now there are no more men in Samoa. Only women and lists. Craig thought that was hilarious. Whatever. But pretty funny too.

I didn't get any pictures of the PCC. I'll have to ask Craig to send me his from his phone.

The original plan was to meet Sandy and Alan and go to the temple and the PCC - spend the whole day together. We called them and they knew we were going to be late.

The luau was sold out, so I wandered a few shops while the dinners were going on. We had purchased the show. I heard it was amazing and wanted to see it. We wandered over to the stage area and waited for them to start admitting people. There was a huge crowd. Craig had been looking to see if he could spot his sister. I found some shell Christmas ornaments. I was very excited. I need new Christmas ornaments.

We were in the middle of a mass of people and I looked over and saw Alan. So crazy. And when we went in to sit, we found out that we were one row behind them on the aisle. They were on the aisle too. So we had close seats.

So fun.

The show was amazing. All different kinds of dancing. The performers were engaging. They ran up and down the aisles. I loved it. I was also very tired. It was a big, huge, long day.

We were happy to head back to Waikiki and find our hotel. At the hotel, I realized how spoiled I had become. I told Craig it was silly to spend $200 a night and we went for a "budget" hotel. I could tell by the bathroom and the bed. But still, we were in Hawaii, and the hotel was only for one night. It was really cool in the lobby. It was open. No doors. Just a desk and the elevators to the rooms marked the building. I should have gotten a picture.

I was amazed by the absence of bugs. There were no screens on the windows. The birds were the only thing flying around.

Pretty cool.

Some other pictures of flowers that I loved.

The yellow hibiscus. I fell in love with these. They were everywhere.

I'm not sure what this is. It was so red coming out of the ground. I thought it was beautiful.

We are back.

Craig and I went to Hawaii. We went met his sister and her husband and his brother and his wife. We left the boys. They thought we were mean, but we enjoyed a wonderful couple vacation. (We missed the boys terribly.)

So I will try and tell about our trip.

We left Wednesday (March 13) and headed to the airport. We took the boys to friends to get them to the bus and put our packed bags in the car and off we went.

We had been on the road for a little bit over an hour. I was talking to Debbie (my sister) when something I said panicked (just a bit) Craig. I hung up, looked at him and he told me he had forgotten his wallet. He needed his driver's license to get on the plane.

My reaction was one of relief. I was so glad it wasn't me. He was embarrassed and angry and frustrated, and . . . .

There was nothing to do, but turn around and go back and get the wallet.

We were almost to the Utah border.

We were traveling on buddy passes from Debbie. As we turned around, we knew we would miss the flight. I called Deb, and she found us another flight through Seattle.

At the beginning of the trip, I still was excited and happy and teased Craig out of the frustration.

After retrieving the wallet, we rushed back to Utah. We were in sight of the airport and ran into traffic on I-15. We saw the traffic zipping along on Legacy. We had chosen the wrong road. We were slowed to 15 miles an hour because of rubber necking. That insured that we missed our flight.

We got to the airport, printed the ticket to Seattle, met Deb, and went through our first trip of security.

We watched the plane fill and leave without us.

Craig talked about going to Mesquite and golfing. I was not too excited about that alternative.

We left the gates and talked to the Delta ticketing agent. She headed us toward Los Angeles. (Probably Craig's least favorite airport.) We went back through security. It didn't look good, but we got on the plane, even sitting together. First leg accomplished. We were in Los Angeles. Too late to get a flight out, we got a hotel.

We managed to get on the first plane to Honolulu, again sitting together. Another miracle.

Our new plan was to get a car, drive to the temple in Laie and go to the Polynesian Cultural Center afterward and maybe meet up with Sandy and Alan.

This is the rental car. The license plates have rainbows. This was the first picture of our trip, in the airport anxious to get to the temple.

We found the freeway, the tunnel under the mountain and the road that led north. I loved the landscape, but we were intent on getting to the temple.

We found it. It was amazing. I have been looking at pictures of this temple for my whole life thinking I would love to go, but also thinking it was impossible. But here we were at the street lined with palm trees leading to the temple.

We changed in the visitor's center and headed to the entrance. We were not paying attention to the time. We arrived at 2, they were ready to start the 2:00 session. They waited for us and another couple -- so nice. The temple is small. It is like the Idaho Falls temple. We moved from room to room and listened to the film. We were only 10 people in the session, but it was wonderful to share in their spirit.

Afterwards we took some pictures. Good thing we waited until after. :)

The water fountain.

The temple with it's frame of palm trees.

The palm trees.

I love this picture.

The sign saying Laie, Hawaii Temple.

The palm lined street that leads from the temple. It was so green. So refreshing after a winter in Idaho.

The picture

I had a hard time loading this on the computer. Don't ask me why. Here is the picture that Josh drew for me. It is green, my favorite color. He drew a tulip. When he was in kindergarten, he told me I was as pretty as a tulip. One of my favorite memories. Sweet boy, even at twelve.

47!

Craig had my boys write me birthday notes this morning. :)

Since this is my journal, I've decided to keep them here -- so I can have them forever.

Happy birthday Mom!

Thanks for being such a grat mom. I hope you have a great brthday.

Love Boaz

I kept his original spelling. I love that he spells the same word two different ways.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Happy Birthday!

I'm so glad that you are my mom. 

Thank you for everything that you do for me.

I can't wait till you get back from Hawii and I'm sad to see you go.

Thank you for all the help that you give me.

Thank you for all the knowlege you bring.

Thank you for taking good care of me.

And know that with your birthday there always comes Spring!

The flowers will rise to meet you.

The wind will grow warm

And I hope you always know

That whatever happens

I will always love you.

               -- Your Loving Son
                           Josh

This will be a good year.

Happy birthday Relief Society

We had our Relief Society birthday party on Thursday.

We are on a healthy kick, so our dinner was this amazing salad. We learned a lot about doing a salad bar. We had barely enough lettuce -- 6 heads, 3 iceburg and 3 romanine.

We had twice as much toppings as needed.

I like salads with a lot of different colors. So I took pictures of our beautiful toppings.

Along with our lettuce, we had grilled chicken; tomatoes; cauliflower; bean salad; . . .

shredded carrots; shredded cheese; sliced red, yellow and orange peppers; cucumbers, chopped purple cabbage; cottage cheese; hard boiled eggs; . . .

strawberries; pineapple; broccoli; diced apples; spinach; . . .

pickled beets; sunflower seeds; slivered almonds; crasins; croutons; and salad dressings.

I'm sure I didn't capture some of our toppings. I was beautiful and delicious.

I was trying out my kitchen ninja (food processor) and the purple cabbage, cauliflower  and broccoli were chopped to surprising fineness. I made different bowls of broccoli and cauliflower florets, but the processed bowl seemed to be a bigger hit.

We also had rolls and butter.

For dessert, we had a cream puff bar: vanilla and chocolate puddings, fudge sauce and whipped cream.

We did a short program based on the talk from Women's Conference: The Lord Has Not Forgotten You, by Linda S Reeves, 2nd Counselor in the RS General Pres.

We recorded five of our sisters telling how they knew they were not forgotten. In between the segments was an amazing song that I had never heard. I'm not sure how that happened. It is called "Ninety and Nine" by Micheal McLean. I came home that night and bought it. Now I have it and can listen to it when I want to. :)

I thought about all the ways that I have felt remembered by the Lord in my life. Sometimes it is so easy to feel small and insignificant -- forgotten. But I have had moments when I am certain that He knows my name, He knows my pain, and that He loves me in my struggles.

I think that is the reason for our struggles -- we need those times when we need Him so desperately that we actually find Him. In those times we seek and we find.