Aloha! Part 1

Wow! My hubby and I are home from a wonderful week in the islands of Hawaii! Here are some highlights from our trip. I really wanted to be able to post while we were in Hawaii, but, since we don't have a lap top, I had to wait to share our adventures until we came home.

Day 1, Sunday, March 22
The morning started off a little rough. Our itinerary was supposed to go from SLC to LA, then from LA to Kona, Hawaii. When we arrived at the SLC airport, we were surprised to find out that our flight from LA to Kona was cancelled and we had been rescheduled to fly out of LA the next day, that just couldn't happen! I commend the Delta employees, because they did everything they could to get us on a different itinerary that meant arriving a little later in Kona, but at least getting us there that day instead of a day late. So we flew from SLC to Maui, had a 4 hour layover then on to Kona arriving at our splendid hotel around 10:30 pm. Long day, but wow was it worth it. We were greeted at the Kona Airport with lots of friendly smiles and signs, and were presented with beautiful purple fresh flower leis.















We did miss the welcome reception at our hotel, the Hilton Waikola Village. (You can learn more about that by clicking on the Hawaii logo on the right hand column) but, our room was beautiful! We stayed in the Palace Tower. The rooms were VERY comfortable, although we didn't stay in the room much.

Day 2, Monday March 23
We started the day out with a fabulous breakfast buffet on one of the resort patios. It included french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, croissants, yummy fresh fruit, pastries, and fresh juices. The tables all had white table cloths and real silver silverware. Following this wonderful breakfast, were greeted by Shelli Gardner in a brief Welcome General Session. We learned that there were over 400 demonstrators who had qualified to earn this trip. Each demonstrator could also bring along a first guest for free (My husband for me naturally). We also had the option of "buying on" other guests such as children. Although we didn't bring our children, many demonstrators did, all total Stampin'Up! had over 900 guests in attendance on this trip! During this morning welcome session, there were also some fabulous stamping demonstrations showcasing some fun products too.

After the Welcome Session, My husband and I met up with a demo friend of mine, Melanie and her husband Randy. We rented a car and took a fun tour of the island. Our first stop was for lunch at this fun little place. Paniolo means cowboy in Hawaiian.

Then we stopped in the next little town (I don't recall the name right now). It was a cute little town with lots of little shops. We got some ice cream and did some souvenir shopping. One shop had crystals in it. The shop keeper was very gracious and gave us all a short back rub with her special healing stones she makes. I took this picture mostly for the HUGE crystal to show my son, that is why my hubbys hat is a bit cut off.

Next stop was Waipio Lookout. The Waipio Valley below us is so beautiful to look at. There are cliffs all around the valley. There are people who live in the valley below, but there is now electricity. The views from where we were were spectacular.

Next stop was to see some BEAUTIFUL waterfalls. We had to walk a little bit to see these falls, but it was SO worth it! I have never seen anything like it in my life. The first one we saw was this smaller one, it is surrounded by this beautiful rain forest vegetation. The leaves on some of these plants were taller than me! I kept trying to picture in my head what it would have been like for the very first person who discovered this place, trying to get through the thick vegetation and then coming to the abrupt cliff and seeing this spectacular waterfall across the way.















We stopped in the city of Hilo for some dinner and some light grocery shopping. Then it on to Saddle Road which is a very steep road that would take us up Mouna Kea. This is where they keep all the BIG telescopes and observatories for the universities These telescopes are so powerful, you can actually see stars being born hundreds of light years away! The summit of Mouna Kea is almost 14,000 feet above sea level. If you were to measure this mountain from its base (which is how you measure a mountain) that starts at the bottom of the ocean, it would be taller than MT. Everest. Although it is possible to drive to the summit, we didn't. You need a 4 wheel drive vehicle to get there and it is a very bumpy ride. We only went as far as the visitors center that sits at 9,200 feet. They had several telescopes out for star gazing. It was chilly up there. The wind was pretty nippy. Many people were bundled up in parkas and heavy hats and mittens, we were in our jackets. It kinda felt like it does here at home in the middle of winter. It was so fascinating to star gaze from there. One interesting thing to note, besides the shear number of visible stars, is the fact that because our altitude was so high, and the atmosphere was thinner, the stars didn't "twinkle". They were solid dots there in the sky. Now, being from a small town where you can see the stars so much easier because of the reduced city lights, and having a father who loves astronomy, I have grown up looking through telescopes. But, this experience was phenomenal. I have never seen so many stars in my life! I have seen the Milkey Way, but never like this. It was all white with stars. Stunning. My favorite part was when I looked through the telescope and it was pointing toward Saturn. I have seen Saturn before (due to my childhood), but I loved the expression on Melanie's face as she looked through the telescope and saw Saturn for the first time. The way Saturn is positioned right now, we were able to see the depth of its rings. It is truly an awesome experience to feel so close to those other planets. I am so glad we were able to share that experience with Melanie and Randy.

From the star gazing, we went down the mountain and traveled back to our hotel. We had put in a full day and were ready for some good sleep. But, look what we found on our bed when we arrived back....


A beautiful custom made bag for me, and a nice bag for my husband! Each has Hawaii Stampin' Up! 2009 printed on them. Kevan's is on the black pocket in front, and mine is on a metal tag attached to one of the handles. What a perfect way to end the day! I have to say I love pillow gifts!

Aloha....Part 2

Day 3, Tuesday, March 24
Our day today started with a 260 mile tour of the island. Our first stop was at a coffee place. Kona apparently grows the best coffee in the world. Since coffee doesn't interest us much, I spent the time at that stop trying to make travel arrangements for our snorkeling expedition the next day. Back on the bus and another stop we made was at the beautiful black sand beach of Punalou. This was a cool beach. You walked on the solid cooled lava. Check it out! You can see the ripples! Off to the side it was literally black sand, which makes sense because the whole island is created out of the lava. Basking in the sun on the beach was a sea turtle or two. They are protected here so you can't get too close, except for Sherri, she about walked on one because she didn't notice it there! It was incredibly windy at this beach, if you can't tell.












We were able to take a stroll through the Thurston Lava Tube. That was amazing. It was so big! Hard to imagine lava running through there.

We ate lunch at the Volcano House in Volcano National Park. The views were really neat. We didn't get to spend much time at lunch because we were headed to Jagger Museum and to view the smoking crater....no lava though so don't worry, we just had to be careful not to breathe the gasses since that could be hazardous to our health! Also, we learned a story about the Ohi'a tree. This tree only grows on the lava beds. It is a very strong tree, hard to kill. Some can even withstand the flowing lava. The story goes that Pele, the fire goddess who lives in the volcano, fell in love with a young warrior, Ohi'a. Ohi'a was in love with and planned to marry Lehua. Pele fell very jealous that Ohi'a wouldn't leave Lehua for her, so she turned him into a tree. A tree that would only grow on the lava beds- near her. Here is where the legend can differ. One story goes that Lehua went to the Kahunas and begged them to turn Ohi'a back, but they were unable to undo Pele's curse, but they were able to turn her into the flower. Another story says that Pele felt bad afterward because Lehua was so sad to be separated from her love that Pele turned her into the flower so she could be with him. At any rate, to this day, Hawaiians believe that if you pick the flower from the tree, it will rain. These are the tears of Lehua for being separated from her love, Ohi'a again. Here is a flower from this tree.













We finally returned to the hotel around 5:00. Just in time to stop by the Stampin' Up! hospitality desk for a spin on the wheel for free products, and to get ready to go to dinner. After we spin the wheel and get our freebies, we put our ticket into a drawing for an i pod. Every night SU! gave away 5 red I Pods engraved with the SU! Logo. I got my freebies (the picture shows all the freebies collected from the wheel during the whole trip) and entered the drawing and shortly after we got back to our room, I got a phone call, I won an I Pod!!! Yippee!! Oh, and I dropped by the Make and Take hall to pick up my supply packet. I didn't have time to stamp my projects while we were in Hawaii, but the supplies (ink pads, stamp set, and such) were packaged in this cute box. I took a picture of the contents, but forgot to remove the stamps. I can't show you the stamps because they are not yet released, cute set though, you'll just have to trust me.



























We were invited to have dinner with Brent Steele. He is the Vice President of Creative Services at Stampin' Up!. It was a fabulous dinner. As a thank you for inviting us, I made a little smores kit for him. I used a Fusion Flowers tin to hold it all.













Our pillow gift that night was this adorable pouch made from tea leaves. I didn't want to open it, but curiosity just kills me, and it was filled with all sorts of yummy island snacks!













Well, that was a busy day, and so you'll have to stay tuned for our snorkeling adventure tomorrow!

Aloha......Part 3

Day 4, March 25, Wednesday
Our day started early again. We headed out to Kona to catch our snorkeling tour. I was a little nervous about snorkeling. See, I have a few issues with water. #1 I don't like to get wet, #2 I DON'T put my face in water (duh, that is how you drown!) #3 I prefer beaches to oceans. There are no sharks or jelly fish or other things that eat you or poop in the water, on the beach, and I know where the bottom is on the beach. So needless to say Deborah had a bit of anxiety about snorkeling for the first time.

Our boat was named the Hula Kai. It was large enough to hold 42 passengers, but there were only 15 on our tour. We headed down the coast and on the way got to do some whale watching. We detoured out deeper and were able to watch a momma and baby Hawaiian Humpback pair. So beautiful to see that!

After our whale detour, we made it to our first snorkeling cove. We got a private lesson on what to do and some good tips. Kevan jumped right into the water and took to it quickly. Deborah on the other hand, well lets just say the anxiety finally showed its head. I had to sit on the ladder and practice putting my face in and practice breathing through that thing! I was so tense. My breathing was so short and shallow, and I never realized how much of a "nose breather" I am! I finally got control and started feeling more comfortable as we were in the water. It really was beautiful. I wish that film could capture exactly what the eye sees, but, alas, it doesn't.

So we started to head on to the next snorkel spot, saw lots of whale spouts a bit further out, so we the Captain head on out deep to check it out. Turns out we had found a whole pod of sperm whales. This was a real treat. Apparently it is very uncommon for these whales to be this close to the land. Our tour guide said he had been doing this for 15 years and had never seen one of these whales. He didn't know much about them, but had a book that gave us a little info. They are a predator whale which means the have teeth. They are also really cool because they can dive down 9,000 feet!! Can you even imagine the pressure at that depth?! Anyway, there were about 8 or so in the group. We got fairly close but my digi camera batteries died so the pics are with the underwater camera and not that great.

After that fun detour, we went back to the coast and docked the boat for our second snorkel dip. There were sea caves to explore here while the captain and crew cooked a fabulous hamburger lunch. The water near the caves was very cold, so I didn't venture in too far. The fish here were beautiful too, and I was much more comfortable in the water this time. I really enjoyed it!

After lunch, we headed back to the main docking area, but stopped along the way to see the Captain Cook Memorial. Cpt. Cook was the British explorer who "discovered" the Hawaiian islands. The memorial is built where he was killed. Again, there are multiple stories as to how he died. One is that he had accidentally broken a "Kapu" which is a rule. This story says that a chair broke and he accidentally touched the king, which was against the rules. The penalty for breaking a Kapu was immediate death. So the kings men chased him till he was knee deep in the ocean when he realized he couldn't swim and that was that. The other story I think has something to do with him being killed in a battle with the Hawaiians over his long boat being stolen or something.











While we were in the bay at the Cpt. Cook memorial we were treated to seeing a pod of dolphins that were "sleeping". Dolphins have to swim while they are sleeping. Their brain has two hemispheres and since they have to think about breathing, only half of their brain works at a time while the other half sleeps. Crazy huh?

That evening our group went out to dinner. There were 9 couples at this dinner. So much fun. We got back just in time to catch the last little bit of Stampin' Share where demos had some fun projects out on display. We visited with Shelli Gardner a little bit and went back to our rooms.

Our pillow gift that night was a hand made sarong. A sarong is used for a few things from a skirt, to a table cloth. I chose to use it as a skirt.

Aloha.....Part 4

Day 4, Thursday, March 26

So this was our last full day on the Big Island. We chose to spend this day kinda kicking back. No really big plans. Just relaxing. We slept in that morning and after we ate a bit of breakfast, we decided to walk around the resort, since we really hadn't seen that much of it. We followed one of the pathways down to the private resort lagoon.













We stopped and watched the dolphins at the Dolphin Quest. They are so cute!






The little pathway takes you under the waterfall and as we came out the other side, we saw the sea turtles.










We decided to go back to our room and change into our swim suits and then rented some snorkel gear and snorkeled in the Lagoon. There were some neat fish, but the highlight was being near the waterfall because that is where the sea turtles hung out. They were kinda hard to see under the water unless you were right next to them.

We rode the trolley into Queens Market and grabbed some lunch and then came back and got ready for the Luau Stampin' Up! was throwing. Kevan wore his newly acquired Hawaiian shirt with turtles on it and I decided to wear my new sarong that I got the night before.




The food was fantastic! Kevan was excited to be able to try Poi it is made from tarot root. There were a few little booths around with demonstrations of Lei making, coconut husking and such.

We were treated to a 2 1/2 hour program full of island dancing everything from the Hawaiian Hula, to Samoan Fire dancing to Ashley, Candice, and Mindy's hubbys learning the hula!










When we got back to our room the parting pillow gift was on the bed. In a cute little box, was a beautiful hand made silver necklace stamped with "Aloha". Simply beautiful.












Our little group met afterward and played games for a while then we all decided it was time to get some rest. A few were leaving the next day for home, but Kevan and I along with the Barnard's, Robinson's, Williams, Anderson's, and the Bywater's would be going onto the island of Oahu, - Honolulu.

Honolulu ...... Aloha part 5

Day 5, Friday March 27
Well, today we left the beautiful Hilton Wiakoloa Resort and flew to Honolulu on the Island of Oahu. Honolulu definitely has a different feel from the Big Island. I guess that is what you get when you go from country living to the city. After getting our car, we took Candice and her hubby Mark to their hotel to drop off their stuff then we all went to our hotel to change and go to Waikiki beach so the guys could try their hand at surfing. Check out the sunset view from our balcony!
An old surfer dude, Sam, taught Kevan and Mark to surf on land and then they headed out to the water. Both of them got up on their first time! Candice and I sat on the beach and took video and pics and visited while the guys surfed.












After surfing, we headed back to our room to change. We watched the sunset from our balcony. Mindy and her hubby Brett came to meet up with Candice and Mark and they headed off to dinner. Kevan and I went to go meet a friend who lives there on Oahu, Karen and her husband Alex, for dinner. Karen is my sisters best friend so she is like a little sister to me. Kevan and Alex had much in common since Alex has just recently returned from a tour in Iraq, so Army stories were shared. After dinner we took a stroll down the sidewalk along the beach and watched several of the street performers there was Elmo, artists, drummers, break dancers, preachers, you name it. Every ten feet or so was some one new performing hoping for tips. It was starting to get late so we said our farewells and headed back to our room for the night. I was a little sad to walk in the room and not find a pillow gift. I really got used to that! Stampin' Up! sure did spoil us.

Day 6, Saturday March 28
Our day started early again. We headed off to our first stop for the day Punch Bowl National Cemetery. However, the map we had was not very helpful and unfortunately there aren't a lot of signs directing visitors, so we missed an exit and made an unplanned stop at Pali Lookout. It was windy there, but the view was fantastic! I am kinda glad we made a detour.












We finally made it to Punch Bowl. What an awesome experience. We parked the car and walked around the whole thing. We looked at graves, some had names and dates, others didn't and were simply marked "Unknown". All of the stones with names were engraved with a religious symbol, a cross for the majority of Christian faiths, a Star for Jewish, a wheel for Buddhist, and an angel Moroni for the Latter Day Saints.
The memorial building was beautiful. There are tall pillars that line the stairs to the top. All the names along with rank, unit, and home state are engraved in the stone. We counted 23 names that were colored in gold and marked with a star. We found out that these men (or their families if they were killed in action) were recipients of the Medal of Honor.








At the top, there are beautiful maps made from colored stones in a mosaic fashion depicting the events of WWII, based on each area. We only took pictures of a few.













We paid our respects in the little chapel area. It still brings a tear to my eye, as I reflect on standing there thinking of the list of names of those killed in Pearl Harbor. How great their sacrifice for our freedoms. There were very few visitors here. Maybe 12 including ourselves. It is off the beaten path therefore not a common place to visit for most tourists I imagine. But, with the military as big a part in our lives as it was, Punch Bowl was a very important stop for us to make. I am so glad we did and I would recommend you visit if you ever get the opportunity.











After leaving Punch Bowl, we headed back into the city to grab some lunch and catch a tour of Queen Liliuokalani's palace. We learned much about Hawaiian History. This palace was among the first to have indoor plumbing and electricity, even before the White House. Fabulous tour. It was very beautiful. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, I wish I could show you, but I understand why they want to keep things preserved.
From the palace, we took a drive up to the North Shore. We stopped in the little town of Haleiwa. Apparently this is a favored spot for surfing during the winter. The waves are much bigger on this side of the island. We ate dinner at Breakers, then grabbed a famous shave ice. These are different than the snow cones we are used to. First, they put some small beans at the bottom. These are a really sweet bean. Then a scoop of vanilla ice cream and top it off with the shaved ice. It was REALLY yummy.










We continued to drive around the northern part of the island. Stopping to take a picture of the temple and then it grew dark so we headed home again. Once back at the hotel, we packed our bags since the morning would come early and we had much to do before heading to the airport.