Dad and Jordan were so kind to take us to the airport. Then it started...Jordan got out of his car, to help us with our luggage and "Helga" gave him a ticket and we ALL let her know we were not happy, we almost needed boxing gloves!! I called her a few choice words, and followed her around! Mom almost had a heart attack, the lady almost wrote Conner up for calling her names!! The curb side guy stuck up for us, but he couldn't do anything about it, Jordan was still stuck paying a $30 ticket. Of Course we paid it, but it was ridiculous.
We then checked our luggage and had to go to the bathroom, but the one we went to was closed..YEAH CLOSED! We went to the cafe for breakfast at 10:25, we were all craving breakfast, but of course as we got seated and ordered they said breakfast was over at 10:30 well it wasn't even 10:30 yet so did we get breakfast..No! Not off to a good start. Then we got a drink for the plane, down went grandma's, and then down went Kaylie's. We were then known for spilling drinks, but met some actors who helped us clean it up. Later in the trip some people on the ship came up and asked us if we were the people who spilled our drinks in SLC. haha yeah people remembered, how embarrassing.
We were then off to get a magazine and about left our carry on in the store if it wasn't for the nice lady catching our attention. We refilled out drinks, mom got a cinnabon, and boarded the plane. Then the things I had to do started I had to keep mom's cinnabon from smashing! Bryan promised to sit by mom half way there, but he didn't keep that promise, Kaylie wouldn't let him.
We started off in Hilo, it was raining, but we did a little shopping, and also had an Aloha party but we weren't there very long before heading to Maui for two days. Aloha Maui! We rented a mini van and drove to Mana Kai Maui Beach. We went snorkeling on a little island called Molakini, wow it was bluer than a swimming pool!! We saw lots of beautiful fish and they took us around the back side of molakini which is a crescent shape. We saw an eel, and then it was off to the turtle arches and we swam with the turtles, they were HUGE! The kids loved it!! We had lunch on the excursion which was wonderful, even if we booked an excursion with tree huggers. Great memories and experiences. Grandma has had a blast too! She stayed on the boat, but saw everything we did from the boat. She said it has been a 10.5 on a scale from 1-10. She is a trooper! Lots of great food, steak, chicken, and lobster tail..not for me and Grandma of course and not the steak for Kaylie. Bryan has made us laugh the whole time, Grandma has said she has never seen this side of him. He is so funny!! We had a blast today- an experience we will all never forget.
Aloha and off to Kona today. We snorkeled again and swam with the dolphins, the most AMAZING experience ever, there were about 100 dolphins. We swam with them for about 3 hours, it was AMAZING! We got a taxi to the pier, and we couldn't believe what happened. the driver asked us where we were from so when we said Utah his next question was the usual, are you Mormon? of course we said yes, well that must of set him off because he started yelling at me and telling me that he made Mormon people walk to the temple instead of driving them, which was about a mile from where we were. He then said he has read the book of Mormon, and he said don't try to tell him it was true. This whole time none of us has said anything to him.. we were all in shock. He said that you just need love and grace..then I started in and said well our religion is all about love, then he said he wanted to slap me. We all couldn't believe what was happening..we just sat there, it was crazy! He wanted to drop us off where we were and not even take the money and I said do it and he did but we were only a few feet away anyways.. no tip for him, he was a pig!
Then off to the comedian we go.. we were all apart of the shows, it was way fun and we met so many people from all over the world. We were then of to Kauai, I think this is my favorite it is beautiful. We went to the Marriott resort, where Conner surfed, we got some drinks, and of course shopped at del sol, ABC Hawaii and some other neat shops. Kauai is such a green Island. We also saw some beautiful botanical gardens. After leaving Kauai the ship took us to the northern shore, the Na pali coast you can only get to it by boat or helicopter. You can't even get there until after that you hike 13 miles in. It was beautiful though! It was almost unbelievable.. Clint Eastwood filmed a movie there as well as the James bond movies, it was incredible. We also dressed up for dinner that night, we were all extremely tired, so we rested then went to the shows. They sang songs from Phantom of the Opera, Mom really enjoyed this. We packed our bags, and then were ready for bed. We had to say goodbye..but didn't want to. We thought about hiding under the bed so we could go another week, but I think they would of found us. The crew also did a great goodbye show that night too, so it was a day of goodbyes bitter sweet of course.
We said Aloha, and are hoping to return again soon. We had an amazing experience filled with treasured memories, my kids were amazing with grandma, and helped almost too much. LOL. They helped her with every step. Now the part I hate. Waiting in the airport for our plane. It doesn't leave until 10:00 tonight. and we are in for a wait of 12 hours! We are all so grateful for an amazing cruise to Hawaii, we will never forget this time together!
ALOHA!!
