Just as a warning, I am not adding more pictures to this blog, but HAVE added them to facebook, so if you are friends with me you can go check them out there! It's a lot easier for me to gather and edit photos at home, which I will do then, but for now it is late and I'm tired and don't have the energy to do it on my mom's computer. :-)
Early Tuesday morning my mom and I got up and drove to the airport in Lihue for a quick night's stay on Oahu. My mom has a good friend she has been in contact with for a couple of years who is interested in some religious text she has been studying, but has yet to meet her. They had arranged for a rendevous on this trip and I decided to come along for the ride so I could visit the Lai'e temple with them. When we got to Honolulu, we drove up to Ruth's house to pick her up. We visited with her in her modest apartment where we ate yummy cooked vegetables in a room surrounded with her incredible art. She is also a painter and has some amazing paintings of her late husband and other Hawaiin flowers and scenes- she is really very talented. Then we packed up our things and had a pleasant drive to the other side of the island to Lai'e- which means "gathering place". Did you know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints bought over I think 600 acres of land (maybe less than that, I can't remember) in the 1800's to accommodate the over 5,000 members that had come into the church in a few short years after missionaries were sent to Hawaii? They paid $14,000 for the land. Can you imagine how much that land would be worth now? Incredible. When we got to Lai'e, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center first for some wonderful presentations, DELICIOUS dinner, and breath-taking show into the evening. Ruth's son lives in Lai'e and had arranged for us to stay at their home for the night. Her son was instrumental in helping to construct the rededication of the Lai'e temple (there is a picture of him and his wife in the rededication book they made for the temple). They were so kind to us and very accommodating, we felt like one of the family. The next morning we went to a beautiful session at the temple- seriously, that made my whole trip. I felt so calm and at peace there and it reaffirmed the necessity we have for temples on this earth!! And I also felt some strong answers to concerns I'd been having and it was just a beautiful session. Afterwards my Mom and Ruth visited in the temple while I went out and skyped with my kids and took pictures of the temple. Then we all piled back into the car and grabbed some lunch at the snackbar at BYU Hawaii, then came back and went through the visitor's center at the temple again, before heading back to Honolulu to drop Ruth off. On the way home we stopped at a beautiful Buddhist temple up in the hills to take pictures and walk around. When we got back to the airport we were exHAUSTED! Good night sleep then for sure.
The next morning we had to pack up our things and move to the south side of the island, where we are going to stay until we leave on Monday night. We stopped in Lihue for a helicopter tour of the island. There were fantastic views and certainly a thrilling ride....maybe a little too thrilling. If I had thought for a moment that it would have been as tipsy topsy turvey as it was up there I would have taken some motion sickness pills beforehand, but I don't get airsick so somehow I didn't think I would get helicopter sick. Well I did. Let's just say it's a really good thing they put barf bags on the helicopters, they came in handy. But even with the sickness, it was worth the trip, the views were incredible!! We toured the whole island and saw some of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen in my life, as well as a quick view of Kalalau beach where Addison and Rose stayed on their hike. After the helicopter trip we headed to Poipu where we found the condo we are staying in. A lot more tourists where we are...not like the northside at all, but it is beautiful here too. When we got to the condo, I skyped with Craig on my phone for a bit and realized I was seeing some weird things in my eyes. I used to get really bad migraines when I was a teenager, but I had like two total (I remember them both they were such a terrible experience) and the last one I had I was maybe 13 or 14. Well I reckognized the blurriness and spots as soon as I saw them and thought I better go lie down for a while. Within a half an hour I had a full blown migraine. I was nauseated extremely so and couldn't really down any water I felt so awful, even though I knew that was probably why I was having the migraine. I layed still in my bed and tried not to think about how the room felt like it was spinning with a pillow over my eyes. Eventually the nausea subsided enough that I was able to drink some more water and take an advil and that helped and it only lasted all of about 4 hours, which could have been much worse. Thank goodness it wasn't, it was awful.
This morning we woke up early and I was feeling much better and went for a kayak ride/hike up to a beautiful waterfall that is only accessible by kayak and hike. It was calming, slow, and beautiful. Our tour guide was very animated and friendly and even made me a bracelet with a chicken feather in it on the trail. We ate lunch at the falls, then hiked back and kayaked home. We checked out the geyser nearby (really just waves hitting rocks that have a big hole in it where it shot out), then walked to the beach for a bit. Then we drove 30 minutes to the most amazing Thai food restaurant we've ever been to that our tour guide had recommended. We were going to go to an art show nearby, but after a long day we were pretty much unanimously pooped and came home.
I am now ready to crash.
Goodnight!!
PS- 4 more days until I get to see my kids and hubby again!!!
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