The Moekins in Hawaii

 So here we are as we fly to Hawaii on Saturday, March 30, after which we rented two jeeps for our group and drove to a Marriot Resort named the Lagoons at Kalanipu'u.

Here we are ready for church on Sunday morning.  Tami, Randy's sister, bought some leis for a picture moment on the balcony.

Here we are at the charming old church, this building housed just the chapel.  There were also buildings with classrooms and a gym.

When the Elder Quorum President spoke, he started with "There was a Japanese, a Hawaiian and a Filipino, No brothers and sisters, that is not a joke, its our bishopric."  The first man is the Hawaiian, the middle is the Japanese, and the final, and Bishop, is the Filipino.  It got a great laugh.  The reason two of them have facial hair is that the church is going to be doing some Book of Mormon filming soon, and the brethren in the ward have been asked to grow facial hair, so they can be extras.  The meeting was full of the spirit, the members were very kind and we loved having the breezes blowing through the wall which opened into the courtyard for additional seating.

We were sad to hear that day that Hannah's brother Shane had passed away.  We knew how difficult that was for her, and found ourselves praying more often than usual throughout the week for her to be comforted.  We hope that you are all continuing to remember her with positive thoughts and prayers.  We love you Hannah.

 After the meeting we went back and some of us changed clothing, then we drove around the island a bit for site seeing.  Tami loved having the top off the Jeep.

We saw this fun waterfall through the middle of a red dirt area ... Randy was jumping the stream, I am amazed at how youthful he is ... not bad for a man who is also greying at the temples.

Here we are in front of Hawaii's version of the Grand Canyon.  I just wish it had not been overcast, because it was so colorful and beautiful, but you just couldn't capture it. 

We also went to the wettest place on earth, but it was socked in with low clouds, and we couldn't actually see it.

The next day Dad and I walked a couple of miles to see this light house.

Here I am sitting on a cement pad, looking out to a black rock beach.

Then we all loaded in the Jeeps and headed to the beach.

Afterward it was the famous Hawaiian shaved ice and icecream for everyone else.  But I had a couple of lovely, sweet tangerines.

We went to the grocery store that night, after having dinner at a Zagat rated Italian restaurant, yum.  I love the edamame, shades of Ben, as the first time I ever  had any was in Hawaii with the family, when Ben bought and shared them for snacking.

The next morning we had a rainbow light up the cloudy sky as we prepared to go kayaking.

Here we are with Barb behind the camera.

I was glad that Barb convinced me that I would love Kayaking, since I had missed going when we were in Tahoe last summer.

Tami took our a single kayak.

After paddling the kayaks up river for a couple of miles, we got out and hiked another mile or so ... a very very muddy mile or so ...

 up to a wonderful waterfall.

After Kayaking we went back to the condo, where Dad crashed ... my feet were itchy from the mud, which kept me from falling asleep, so I went with the Moes and Gearhearts to a farmers market and 

then to a pie place, where I bought a lovely frozen mushroom pie, that Dad and I shared for lunch later in the week.

That night it was our turn to make dinner, and we had Mexican food, including fish tacos.

On Wednesday we drove around checking out more high points from the tourist guide, including this blow hole, then we went to a beach with turtles, before settling in to swim further down that beach.

We all stopped for lunch, and we shared a taco salad and later some sugar free gelato.  

That night we went to a lovely restaurant, name Duke's, which is named for a famous Hawaiian swimmer and surfer, and multiple Olympic Gold medal winner.  The guidebook directed us to the lower priced (a very relative term)  'barefoot bar', on the lower level that is just off the beach.  The food was delightful, we had an amazing beet salad and fish and chips ...

Followed by a lovely sugar free pie, shown in front of the macadamia nut pie the others shared.

On Thursday we headed to the north side of the island, and went to three beaches.  This is secret beach, which had a gnarly trail down to it ... 

Here we are at secret beach, I'm just glad Dad didn't notice the topless sunbather we came across ... not quite as secret she was hoping.

When we started down to the Queen's Bath beach, I knew I was out of my league for an even more gnarly hike down.  I stayed in the car after a walk around the neighborhood, and read.  Dad said this pool was filled by the waterfall then flowed into the sea.

This is the Queen's bath, a tide pool lined with lava stone, that receives water with the waves splashing into it.  Dad had worn water shoes down the rough path, and had no desire to walk on the bottom of the rough pool, but Randy, Barb, Jerry and Tami all had a swim in swimming pool sized tide pool.

The third beach we visited was Hanalei beach, which was too rough to actually swim.  Barb and Donelle waded out to about waist depth, but Dad and I didn't go in, which means we didn't end up swimming at all that day.

We played tricks that night and Jerry won with a perfect game, his first time ever.

Dad and I stayed at the condo on Friday and did some reading, which was nice.  I thought I'd share some bird pictures taken by our group throughout the week.  These are wild Hawaiian birds ... I know, weird huh?  During a couple of Hurricanes, in different decades, domestic chickens escaped and became wild, so that the island of Kauai has them everywhere.  It was so funny for me to see chickens on the beach, and in garbage cans foraging.  They are along the road side, and walking into restaurants, its hilarious.

That night we all tried to eat up as many left overs as we could.  Then we played games, including telestrations.  The first picture in this sequence is Dad's, it was easy to guess... then it just went silly.  I laughed and laughed.

We were up early on Saturday to pack up and head out.  Here we are at the Honolulu airport on our way to the main land.

Trevor sent Dad a video to share his experience going to the Priesthood session with J. Scott and Spencer. Dad loved it, as the next best thing to being there. This is a collage of screen shots Dad took of the video of them heading to Costa Vida.

We flew into Las Vegas and spent the night at an airbnb, before driving, while listening to Conference, to St. George, where Barb's sister Cara fed us lunch.

Cara and her son Micheal and his wife have built a large home together, with a 2,000 sf apartment for Cara, and another apartment in the basement of the main house for Micheal's in-laws.  The new house is beautiful, they've been in since January.  I love the library.  Micheal's wife Ashley seems to have a similar taste in books to me ...

 While her husband prefers fantasies, I know Ben would have loved this collection.

 Especially the Eddings and Jordans...

Here they are, all three Burdett sisters, Cara, Barb and Donelle.

We headed home while listening to the afternoon session of conference, and got to give Randy's sister Tami a tour of the house when we got home ... I just kept thinking, I hope I actually got the bed made before we headed out ... and yeah, I did. 

So that was our week and a day.  Hawaii is always a good idea.