Sept 26th-29th

For my dad- This is the Port of Honolulu.


This is a TERRIBLE belt buckle and I wanted you all to know about it.


The tennis crew.


The dreaded boat drill.


Went for a run in Hilo and it began to pour!!


Soaking wet head to toe!

What's doing

It's official, I'll be spending Christmas in Chicago! I bought my ticket yesterday.


Lauren is always so great about sending me mail. :)


This pic is for my dad. He is an owner/operator of big rigs and ironically he works out of a place called Aloha where he sends containers full of goods to the ports in Hawaii. I've decided to post pics of these ports so that he can see where his containers are going. Well pops, this is the Kahului port in Maui.


This week Brett turned 27!


With Robyn's financial support I made this shirt for Brett. This is just one of his many nicknames.


And here's a pic of Lauren in the 8th grade. :)

Wrapping up the 10th week

What I look like lately...

This couple almost didn't make it back onto the ship. I, personally, had to tell an officer that there were two passengers about to be left behind. They opened some door on the side of the ship. Here the passenger is handing a crew member a swimming noodle.

For some reason they had to climb across an aluminum A-frame ladder to board the ship.

We went to a water park!! I wish I had pics of the slides and stuff but I was in water all day, not a good place for a camera.

I found these two pics of slides we actually went on! (I found them on Jeannie's blog: http://jeanniesobsessions.blogspot.com/)

A heart or a butt?

9 more weeks to go!

September 5th-13th

September 5th- Proof that Hawaii is really progressing. This was hanging in the window of a diner.


September 6th- Lauren turns 24!!! Here she is with some friends she went on a boat ride with. Her top? Yeah, one of my gifts to her. :)


September 9th- We went on a crew-only snorkeling excursion.


September 9th continued- This is always a sad moment. This is the moment when the excursion is over, the ship comes into view, and you know that means 'back to work'. You can feel the energy of the crew just drop as soon as the ship comes into sight.

September 8th- Today is my 9 month anniversary of being smoke-free! To celebrate I ran 4 miles in 29 minutes and 42 seconds. The best I've ever done!

September 12th- Upon finishing "Guru" and "My Lobotomy" I picked this up. So far it's been great!


September 13th- Maui- This guy was parked behind us.


September 13th- The cast gathers to support the Bears!! They lost.

I realize I've been slacking on my posts. I'll do better. Promise.

Na Pali Coast mile 1-2

The sweet ride!



There were a lot of chicken and rooster.


Here's a chicken with her chicks going through someone's stuff!


The hike begins.






Our view while hiking.


And when we got to the beach we saw this sign. Yikes!

I really love this photo. It's the end of the trail and the beginning of the beach.


Brett spotted these two beauties.


The moment where the fresh water meets with the salt water. I loved it here. It felt like you were at the edge of the planet.

We were all alone on this beautiful beach!

That's Robyn!

I did some climbing and took this pic from pretty high up. How high?


This high!

The water was great!!!

So Brett, Robyn, and I rented a car this morning and headed to the Na Pali coast in Kauai! The Na Pali coast has always been a favorite view of mine from the ship so it was such a blast being able to hike through it. Our hike consisted of two parts: The first was a two mile hike to a beautiful beach area and the second was another two mile hike to a beautiful waterfall. Not bad huh? Well it was amazing! Some of the most beautiful sights i've seen yet. A favorite moment of mine was when we walked up the beach for a while to an area where there were absolutely no people and we jumped into the ocean and swam and played for almost an hour!!

Na Pali Coast mile 3-4

The first sight we saw as we entered the woods (jungle? I don't know what it's called). It was the only restroom we saw on our hike. Notice the vent.

Look at the bottom right corner of this pic. He was long and leggy.


Bunches of bamboo!


Rock wall of water.


See the waterfall in the distance? That was our destination.


We did it! This is the biggest waterfall I've seen yet.


We swam out to it and sat on a ledge behind the fall. The day was definitely worth it.

The hike to the beach was pretty easy compared to the two mile hike to the waterfall. We would run into other hikers who were coming back from the waterfall and most of them would give us words of encouragement. Two different hikers, however, described the hike ahead of us as "treacherous" and honestly it was. Our shoes and legs were covered in mud and we were constantly climbing over rocks or crossing slippery streams or squeezing between trees. After the refreshing and awarding swim in the waterfall a big realization hit us. We now had to hike back!! Four consecutive miles of mud, dirt, and sand!!! Needless to say, we were BEAT at the end of it all. Driving back to the ship we stopped by a delicious burger stand. We inhaled our food and each topped our meals off with a milkshake. Whew!