Scott and Natalie's Wedding

January 8, 2011 Saturday

Today, Scott and Natalie got married for time and all eternity in the Albuquerque, New Mexico Temple. The sealing was at 1:00 p.m. During the wedding, I cried like a baby. It was beautiful. After the wedding, we went to the church for lunch and then stayed for the reception. The Stokes had decorated the cultural hall beautifully!

Hawaii

December 28, 2010 Tuesday Honolulu, Oahu

This morning we got ready and checked out of our hotel. We drove north to the Dole Plantation. While we were there, we took a little train ride and then we walked around in a garden tour. We ate lunch at a restaurant they had there. Barbara and both got chili cheese dogs with pineapple on top. It was so yummers! It was beautiful at Dole.

Then we drove back to the Pearl Harbor Historical Place. We only had thirty minutes to look around because it was closing, so we quickly looked around. I would like to go back there someday to be able to see more of it.

The rest of the day, we did some shopping. I looked around some for a dress I could wear at the wedding. No luck Rocky! We got dinner at KFC, got gas and them turned in the rental car and got the shuttle to the airport. We flew out of Honolulu at 10:55 p.m. I slept some on the plane. I finally got the most comfortable when I laid down in the two middle seats between Mom and Barbara. On the plane, we got a snack of a croissant and potato chip and a chocolate macadamia nut cluster.We arrived in Las Vegas at 6:40 a.m. I left my mom and sister and caught a plane to El Paso. What a wonderful vacation! Next time I go to Hawaii, I want to take Brad.

Hawaii

December 27th, 2010 Monday Honolulu and Lai'i, Ohau

We woke up this morning, ate donuts and yogurt we had bought at the store yesterday. At 10:30 a.m. we were on a charted bus. The ride to the Polynesian Cultural Center took 1 1/2 hours. In the bus we had a Samoan guide that talked about Hawaii all the way to the PCC. He told us his name was cousin Dennis and our driver was cousin Barry. Then he began calling us cousin and continued the entire trip to the PCC. He said that the three top ways of bringing money to Hawaii are: tourism, military and agriculture. He also told us that the ABC stores that we see everywhere stands for Aloha Brings Customers. He showed us places along the way where the show Gilligan's Island was filmed, and where Don Ho lived. He told us that there are are only 3 highways in Hawaii. Highway 3 took 37 years to complete and a lot of the locals think it is cursed because it is built on sacred grounds. He also told us that the ph leader Ferdinand Marcus was buried there for 4 years and then his wife Emelda took him back to the Philippines. We also saw where Karate Kid, Tears of the Sun with Bruce Willis, Fifty First Dates, Lost, Fantasy Island, Jurassic Park.

He told us that there are are three secrets to survival in Hawaii. First-Ohana(family), second-Gratuities, and third-a second job.

He told us some Hawaiian words:

like like

komaniuma

wahine-woman

kane-men

aloha-hello and goodbye

mahalo-thank you

humuhumanukunukuahawapa-state fish

Kaaawa

Then we got to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was established in 1963. We had our own tour guide. He was from Fiji. His name was Bongo or Pogo. First he took us to a place for a buffet lunch, then we went to visit the different islands like Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii. Our Fiji guide called us cousin all day also. I think it was there way of helping us feel like we really are Ohana and helping us feel comfortable and happy to be there.

In Fiji, we went into a Kings house. I learned that the more important you are, the higher your bed is. The King always has the highest bed. Also, the King has a special door that only he can go in and out of. If anyone comes in or goes out of that door, it is considered very disrespectful and they are put to death. We also heard some musicians play while we pounded long bamboo sticks in rhythm.

In Hawaii we learned some hula dances.

In Tonga we played a bamboo stick tossing game. It made me think of when I was a youth and my mom got bamboo sticks and we played them for a dance festival or something. We also got a funny show with some Tongan drummers. They were very entertaining.

In Tahiti, we watched beautiful hula dancers.

We took a canoe ride through the park and it started raining on us. We were provided with rain coats.

In Samoa, we saw a man make fire and peel coconuts. He was very funny and entertaining. He was pretending like he was all sexy and kept doing these silly poses. He had us in stitches.

It rained on us off and on all day. It was miserable. I got overheated, wearing a raincoat, having it rain, getting soaking wet anyway and feeling ill from the 100% humidity. I started feeling nauseated close to the end of the presentations and I thought I was going to puke. I still felt horrible when it was time for our luau dinner. They roasted a pig, had poi and taro rolls which were purple. I only took one rook, some salad and some pineapple. I know the church is true at the Polynesian Cultural Center, because they served Pepsi products. I found another sea sickness patch in my purse, so I put it on and in about 30 minutes started to feel well enough to eat my food. During dinner, we were entertained with music and dancing- lots of hula dancers. They had children dancing. That was really cute! After dinner we took the trolley ride to see the Lai'i Temple and BYU Hawaii. We went into the visitors center and got to watch a short movie about the history of the church and temple coming to Hawaii. It was beautiful. I tried taking some pictures of the Temple, but it was dark and very wet and I only got a few inside the visitors center. We then went back to the PCC and went to a show called Ha-The Breath of Life. It was a beautiful program with dozens of dancers and singers in many many different beautiful costumes. Part way through the program, during intermission, we got hawaiian ice cream with local fruit in the bottom. It was yummy! We got back on the bus after the program and got back to our hotel about 11:00 p.m. What a wonderful day!

Hawaii

December 26th, 2010 Sunday

With the help of an LDS lady named Donna that worked at our hotel, we were able to find a close church to go to. We went to the Manoa Ward at 1560 S. Beretania St. at 11:00 a.m. It turned out to be a beautiful Tabernacle church. I know the church is true in Honolulu, because after Sacrament meeting, they told everyone to go home. That was nice! After church we walked next door to a grocery store called Foodland and got some food for our hotel room. I napped while Mom and Barbara watched a movie. Then for dinner Barbara and I walked around and finally ate at restaurant called Fatty Chinese Kitchen.

Hawaii

December 25th, 2010 Saturday Honolulu, Oahu.

Melakinikiaka--Merry Christmas in Hawaiian!

I woke up to a Christmas package from Santa Babs. She got me a set of children's story books on DVD. We ate breakfast and then we got our suitcases to get off the ship. It was hard getting all of our suitcases outside to the taxi line. Mom kept dropping her luggage and people were helping her get along. We had to stand in a long, hot line to wait for a taxi. We finally got one and he drove us to Enterprise Rental Cars by the airport. We drove to our hotel called Waikiki Ahona(family) West. We had to wait 3 hours to check in, so we left our luggage, went shopping and then ate lunch at Chili's which is connected to the hotel. After we checked in, Barbara and I got in our swimming suits and walked a few blocks to the Waikiki Beach, were we joined hundreds of others swimming in the Pacific Ocean. We started walking out in the water. Someone told us we could walk out 1/2 mile and the water would still be waist deep. So, we started walking out, just to be deterred by lots and lots of big lava rocks. I kept stubbing my toes, so I stopped walking and went back to the shore to sit. Barbara walked out quite a way before she was turned back by the rocks. The rest of the day, we walked around in downtown Waikiki. Every place we went was open. We went to lots of gift shops. We even found a marketplace across from our hotel that had tons of little stands selling lei's, jewelry, sarongs, clothing and lots of different souvenirs. We had dinner at Burger King, showered and went to bed.

Hawaii

December 24th, 2010 Friday Nawiliwilli, Kaua'i. This morning we got up at 6:45 a.m. to go on a tour called The Directors Cut Tour. We were on a tour bus with a t.v. screen at the front. The bus driver would drive to different locations and then show us clips from different movies and show the exact pier or mountain or rock or place that the movie was shot. We also had a sing-a-long of different songs from the movie "South Pacific". Among the songs we sang were Bali Ha'i, I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair, and There Ain't Nothing Like a Dane, Happy Talk, A Wonderful Guy, Rocka Hula Baby, Moonlight Swim.

The movies that we saw clips while seeing the location in the movie and stop to take pictures. We saw so many movie locations, it was hard to keep track of. Among the movies we saw locations for were: Donavan's Reef, Dragonfly Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, 6 Days and 7 Nights, South Pacific, The Wackiest Ship in the Navy, Beach Head-Tony Curtis, Uncommon Valor-rice fields.

We also saw really cool landmarks like: Mt. Waliwali-the wettest mountain on earth, Puff the Magic Dragon Mountain in Hanalei, and Lydale State Park where Blue Hawaii with Elvis Presley was filmed. We stopped at a Pier where several movies were filmed and there was a man selling hats and bowls he had weaved from coconut leaves. I asked him how much the hat was. He said $7 so I went back to the bus to get money and when I came back to buy the hat, he was weaving a bird. He gave it to me for my hat. It made it so cute! It is on a long stick. It made us laugh and laugh. I was so happy all day wearing that silly hat.

We stopped at a Marriott Hotel for lunch. They fed us Mahi Mahi fish, Teryiaki beef, macaroni salad, white rice and coconut cream pie for dessert. After lunch we walked down to a beautiful beach and played a while. We got back to our cruise ship with just enough time for the last boarding at 1:15 p. m.

Barbara and I ran to the Mardi Gras Theatre to get in on the last Hula Lesson. Then we went to our room to change for our Hula performance at 3:00 p.m. We put on Sarongs and kukui nut necklaces. Then we went to the craft class and learned how to weave four strand lei's with four strands of grosgrain ribbon. At the performance we danced four hulas. They were: This is how you do the hula, Going to a Hukelau, The Little Grass Hut, and the Tahitian Roll. We got certificates of graduation after the performance.

At 5:15 p.m. we went out on deck as we passed the D'Nali coastline. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We saw lots of whale spouts and tails in the distance. We ate dinner at the Aloha Cafe and then we went to our room to pack. Mom went to a Christmas program.

One Hawaiian word I learned was:

opala-trash

Hawaii

December 23, 2010 Thursday Nawilliwili, Kaua'i. Nawillwili is the port and Kaua'i is the island. This is the purple island. Each island has it's own color. This morning we got on a shuttle bus at the pier to go to the Wailau River and Fern Grotto excursion. The bus driver 'Damian' learned everybody's name and where they were from. He used their names a lot. He reminded me of Brad in that aspect. We drove and took a big barge up the river to the fern grotto. Along the way we had Hawaiian musicians and dancers perform for us. They asked for any requests and I said the haukilau. We saw the beautiful fern and bamboo forest. We walked up a short path to the grotto. When we got there, the musicians sang the wedding song for us. They say it is a tradition for people to come to this place and get married, because it is so beautiful. On the bus ride back we stopped at a beautiful waterfall and our bus driver told us about the trees and animals we passed. We saw mango, kukui nut trees, papaya, guava and macadamia. When we got to the ship we lay down for a rest.

This evening we went to a Luaukalamaka. We went by bus. Only 650 people from our cruise ship went. It was a huge open air building. We got to see lots of different hula dances and some really cool fire dancers. The food was good. The pork tasted ok. The poi was purple paste made out of taro tasted yuck, mostly tasteless and bland. Kinda like wallpaper paste, potato salad, rolls chicken, salad, banana cream pie and rice pudding. We met a man, his mom and daughter at our table that are from Old Mesilla--crazy huh?

I learned that all Hawaiian words end in a vowel Some of the words I've learned are:

Aloha- hello, goodbye, and I love you

Mahalo-thank you

wahine-woman

kane-man

We got back to our stateroom and went straight to bed.