Aloooooooha-I've added things I forgot!

Aloha, friends! I'm back in Arizona after a great week in Hawaii. My best friend, Rachel, and I took a 7-day island hopper cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines. Our ship was the Pride of America. Traveling with your best friend who always knows how to find the fun is the best. We saw all kinds of wild life, and I don't just mean the drunk people. We went to a comedy show, a magic show, a luau (a native pulled me into the aisles to hula with him), went to the beach, rode a catamaran at sunset, saw dolphins and whales, opened oyesters and got pearls (I got pink twins!), made friends with people from around the world (hi Marion, Andy, Gabby, Shannon, Justina, Mariya, and Dale and Barb!), went snorkeling, saw a volcano emptying into the ocean, walked across a "frozen" lava field, saw a black sand beach, saw beautiful waterfalls (including one of the highest in the world) and giggled until it hurt. We danced until after midnight more than once, went to Pearl Harbor and met a survivor who volunteers there, learned how to make 3 kinds of lei's, ate at Duke's (thanks for the suggestion, Leslie!), toured the Kona coast in a raft (so fun! if you go to Kona you have to take the Captain Zodiac raft tours), snorkeled along a coral reef, visited the beach at the Grand Wailea hotel, and found pretty shells. {The whole time we were in Kona I thought of Ken because we went right where they start the Ironman World Championships every year. I'm not anxious for him to do it because the swimmers swim exactly where we saw the pilot whales. While they may not bite humans, they are apparently sloppy eaters and sharks follow them to eat their leftovers...} We won a scavenger hunt on the pool deck, dove for oyster shells to win a pearl, and drove a convertible around Oahu. We saw BYU Hawaii's campus, the LDS Hawaiian temple, the Polynesian Cultural Center, the Dole Pineapple plantation, the Napali coast, and the famous Hawaiian North Shore beaches (Shark Cove is UNBELIEVABLE). Pictures and videos will be posted later. The first day on the ship we went into the exercise area and saw a sign that said the average person gains 5-10 lbs on a 7 day cruise. Determined NOT to do that, we took the stairs all over the ship. We only took the elevator the day we left because we took our own luggage (our carry-ons each weighed almost 50 lbs, there's no way we were doing the stairs with those). We ate mostly healthy foods (there was the occasional indescretion), and walked and walked and walked and walked everywhere.

We took a red-eye from Honolulu home and the plane was like a refrigerator...soooo cold. We're both suffering from an awful case of jet lag but something tells me nobody will feel bad for us?? As I sit here, the computer and desk seem to be swaying from side to side, I feel like I'm still on the ship. All in all, it was one of the best weeks of my life. I'm ready to go again!!