Aloha from Hawaii

We are having a lovely time here in beautiful Hawaii. Last night I fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing in this ocean. Last night I was so tired if the only sound I heard was the roosters crowing (they are everywhere here), I still would have fallen asleep quickly and slept soundly. But it really is wonderful to be here. It is such a unique experience. Let me see if I can explain.

Friday, our plane arrived in Lahue, Kauai around 3:00 p.m. We were on that plane nearly seven hours! And you know what? It was actually one of the most pleasant flights I have ever been on. I didn't try to sleep; I usually feel worse after sleeping on a plane, and I really didn't need to, anyway. The first picture here was taken when our plane was flying over the North Shore of the island of Oahu. I am looking forward to spending one day on that island before we leave Hawaii. I would like to see Pearl Harbor, the Polynesian Culture Center and maybe even the temple there.

When we arrived here, we were three hours ahead of the rest of our party, so we went ahead and picked up the rental car and went to dinner. The rental car company refused to honor the online reservation Jeff Nielson had made for us, so we ended up being charged $140 extra. It was kind of crazy the way they refused to budge.

But dinner was divine! Duke's was definitely a restaurant worth visiting. The view was fabulous and food was seriously tasty. I mean perfectly prepared fresh fish and a tasty salad bar, how could we go wrong?

Second dinner that night was good as well. We had fish tacos and curry chicken at a little stand called the Mermaid's Tail. We ate around 9:00 here, which you may know is midnight Utah time. The portions were huge, and the fish tacos were plenty spicy. Needless to say, we did not eat much. But it was delicious.

We arrived at the beach home where we are staying (Britt only got a little bit lost) a little before 10:00. Then, everyone hung out a while and visited. Everyone except me. I crashed big time. I didn't feel bad; just amazingly exhausted. But also, so happy to be here.

Today, Britt cooked us an excellent breakfast. He and some others in our crew left early this morning to buy groceries. Then, we headed back into town (Lihue--there are other towns around here, but Lihue is the big one). We spent a decent amount of time there, bought way more food than we will need for the week, and then made our way back here.

We stopped at a little flea market here and Jeff bought some barbeque chicken. Moist and flavorful. But the guy he bought it from was kind of a character, going on and on about how Hawaii is in a revolution, and they are fighting to get their land back, the kingdom of Hawaii, he called it. He was offended when Jeff asked if he could have the chicken for $5 instead of $6. Apparently, Hawaii is not like Mexico. I think they are offended there if you don't try to wheel and deal on the price.

Just now, we watched a crazy entertaining football game, and now some of us are napping, some are snorkeling in the cove right outside our back door, and I have been watching the whales jumping in the distance.

It is amazing here.