Aloha!

Alright, now that I'm finally onto giving you all the details of my trip to Hawaii, I have to say I'm glad I went, but I'm glad to be back! Thankfully, I've made a video of most of the pictures that I took so you can get a glimpse of what I saw. I'll note about some of the pictures while telling you about it, so be prepared. So, to start, our flight was early in the morning on Friday, so my parents wanted us all to get up at five (Eden and I thought "We'll just pretend we're getting ready for seminary!"), right? Well, it turns out that somehow Eden and I missed our alarm and got up at 5:30. Thankfully that wasn't a problem. So then we went to out cousins house, my aunt took us to the airport and then drove our car home, and we fly over to Los Angeles because my grandpa could only get us tickets that included a couple layovers. We had a six hour layover, so my parents decided we'd go out for lunch. Let me tell you that traveling on a bus in LA is TAXING! I'll tell you that it took us 2 hours to travel 7 miles to the pier. But we enjoyed our time eating at Bubba Gump Restaurant. Yummy shrimp!!! On our way back to the airport, we rode in a taxi...all seven of us. The only people who didn't have anyone sitting on their laps were the driver and my dad. Funny thing, our driver was from Armenia. He had a cool accent. It took us twenty minutes to get back to the airport. Yeah, buses don't really work.
So then we flew overnight to Kona (we got there at 10:00 there, but like midnight in Washington). We met our grandparents, drove to the condo we were staying in, unpacked a few things, and then bushed. We spent the day going to beaches and just planning out what we wanted to do on Hawaii. And the first thing that happens at the last beach we go to, my sister Reagan gets bitten by an eel. We'd been at the beach for 10 minutes and he gets bitten by a moray eel! Their called puhi in Hawaiian. So that night she gets to the condo and all these medical people come in and look at it, tell my parents she should go to the hospital, she could possibly get stitches, and blah blah blah. Just Reagan, my parents, and my grandpa went, while the rest of us stayed at the condo watching Shrek The Third (HECK YES!). She came back fine, and no stitches.
So then we went shopping in Kona and I got this really pretty necklace at a market and a pair of sunglasses that actually work for me! Oh, funny story: There are fruit stands at a market right? Well, my grandpa gets a bag of seven papayas because my mom didn't want anymore than that. But on the other side of the market, my grandma gets 14 papayas. That's 21 papayas! and we had to finish those in less than 5 days before we went to Oahu! so every morning my grandparents would try to stuff two of three papayas in all of our faces so they'd disappear. Oh! we went to the temple too and got some pretty shots!
On Sunday, it happened to be regional conference, which included ALL of the Polynesian islands. So we went to a ward and watched half of it and then left to go on a hike down to a black sand beach (and I got an amazing picture there!) where it was really warm. For the rest of the day we enjoyed beaching and taking pictures.
Monday we went to Hilo, the only real city on Hawaii, and we just took a good look at the gardens on the beach and then looked at the waterfalls. Tuesday we went snorkeling on a catamaran. It was awesome!!! On the way back we came across a hunting pod of dolphins and they started to swim along with the boat as if they were getting a free ride. It was SO COOL! And one of the guys on the crew of the boat actually came from Lakewood. Small world. On Wednesday we went to this ice cream social that included all the people staying in the condos (They were Hiltons, you know) and they had a band playing outside. Thursday we just window shopped at the small outlet and then flew to Oahu.
And Oahu had all the interesting things! I'll tell you, you heard someplace playing Brown-Eyed Girl every day. We basically stayed in a small apartment in Waikiki (7 people in an apartment! I know, isn't that crazy?) because even though my mom had asked for two rooms, the lady running the place didn't give it to us for some reason (the place was basically empty except for us) but she still charged us for the same price of getting both rooms. Rip off! Both of my parents were ticked and the lady got a talk before we left.
For dinner we at at Duke's, which was really good, and then we to this big market that sells everything! Reagan got this coupon from these guys who sold pearl jewelery that basically got her whatever came out of the clam for $5! And what does she get? Two pink pearls out of one clamshell. Call that LUCKY! I would have gotten this pretty pair of earrings that looked like it had a nice Celtic design, but I learned that it was embeded with blue coral and it was $70! I only had $30, so no, it didn't work. It was funny when people asked us how long we'd been there. When we said that we'd just gotten there that day everyone would say "Oh, cool! Welcome! Happy Thanksgiving!" That night there was a holiday parade that we all watched (it was less than half a block from our "hotel room") and it was really cool. It had bands, Pearl Harbor survivors, dance groups, military vehicles, and Santa Claus!
The next day my parents took us to a free continental breakfast buffet before they had this big talk thing with this really nice lady about hotel rooms in this really awesome place (we got a mini-tour of it) that had hotel rooms that had up to four bedrooms! Hecka exspensive! But most of the time, all us kids did homework and watched Happy Feet :D Then we went shopping for groceries and I got the pair of earrings my mom had been begging me to find throughout the whole trip.
Saturday was the best part. Saturday we went to watch a surfing competition and the Polynesian Cultural Center. We watched the Canoe Pageant, went to all of the 'islands' and saw all of the different cultures. The dancing was awesome! And those drummer guys were really funny, especially the Japanese guy. And the belt that this one lady had on was awesome. I'm jealous! You'll see it on a lady talking into a microphone in the video. At this one place, this guy was demonstrating how to use different parts of a palm tree, and he made toys, a dish (which we got to keep), a headband (which I got to keep. He even smoothed my hair out when he stuck it on my head), and he had some ready-made baskests to show us, and tons of other things that can be made out of just a palm tree. We ate dinner at the restaurant that is there, where they showed a luau. They had cooked this pig, and it was huge! I didn't get the best picture of it because even with the flash my camera was too far away to get it clearly, and it was pointless to take a picture after it had been cut up. Then we went to the temple on that island, but I didn't take any pictures (i don't know why, it looked really cool at night) before we saw the dance show at the PCC called Horizons. Oh, it was just amazing!
Sunday was half laze-around and do homework day and half visit Pearl Harbor day. It was really laid back, but we were happy to rest. Monday we prepared to to leave, my mom gave away all of our bus passes to people while we waited for our shuttle to come. So at the airport (and this is funny) I happened to notice this family with a kid that looked like someone in my band class, but they were in a different part of the terminal. But as we're boarding, I see them getting on the plane, so apparently they had been waiting in the wrong area. In the morning we land in LA again, but we only have a 2 hour layover this time. So while waiting for our flight, who happens to be continuing onto Seattle? This guy and his family are going to Seattle, just like us. I just thought it was crazy that they were going from Hawaii to Seattle just my family, so I had to get a picture. The kid in the green jacket looks like the person in my band class.
So, we got home and spent Tuesday sleeping and finishing homework. And now I'm back at school, everyone says I'm tan even though I don't think I am, and all of my friends enjoyed a souvenir of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. I hope you didn't fall asleep. I'll post the video later. But as for now, I'm finishing homework and getting to bed. Goodbye!