Endless Summer Tiny World

Since I’ve left Hawaii with my mom I have been very busy visiting family and friends! I went from Hawaii to Denver where I met up with 8 other friends and headed to a condo we rented in breckenridge! Highlights from the weekend were being able to snowboard, making a nutcrackers arm fall off, our superbowl party, the packers winning the superbowl and of course being able to spend all that time with my friends even though it may have been too brief for the visiting the girls who live in Colorado!

I went from Colorado to september’s in Appleton and spent the week visiting with high school friends and preparing for september’s bridal shower! The bridal shower was a great success with about 20 – 25 attendees! I think I kept it unusual with non-traditional bridal shower games! From there I went down to Illinois to spend a couple days at greg’s and then head to my dad’s for awhile. September also came down to my dad’s for the weekend as well which was great! We had a good week visiting grandparents, a huge euchre tournament and of course karaoke! Last Sunday I headed from my dad’s up to Minneapolis, this may not have been the best idea ever as there was a terrible snow storm in Minneapolis, so the trip went from a 7 hour drive to an 8 hour drive with some terrible driving conditions! But I made it safe and sound thankfully! And also made it to lots of white snow that I have been missing from my life for awhile! I was able to stay with my friend bear for awhile and I am now at my bff’s house trying to recover as I have been feeling a little under the weather! Overall it’s been great! We’re headed to bar bingo tonight and I’m sure we’ll have lots planned for the weekend, maybe some cross country skiing in that white stuff!! Next Sunday I’ll be headed up to Duluth for about a week before heading back to Appleton to repack for my first leg of my adventure! I will also spend a couple days in Chicago to meet up with friends from the ship and then fly out of o’hare!

I have a lot to do before I leave, but mostly thinking of packing is the most overwhelming thing for now! Hopefully I won’t get too out of hand and everything I want to bring will fit nicely in my pack!

It was a beautiful day to visit Pearl Harbor today, the sun was shining and the breeze was blowing off the ocean, probably much like the morning of December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor is very interesting to go to, extremely sad and definitely a must see for a trip to Hawaii, but so sad and I am not sure I could do it more than once. The most heart wrenching stories were of the men who saved the soldiers trapped in the sunken battleships. I had a hard time getting through the videos of the men who served and survived to tell the stories. 

Going out to the USS Arizona was very emotional as well. I loved how they ran the whole thing, making it a place of silence. It is terrible to see the wall of  names of all the soldiers who went down with the Arizona. I think the whole place is great, very interesting and as they say something we should never forget and should learn from.  I got a couple of great quotes and think they are things we should all learn from. One is: “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men died to win them” by FDR and also ” Dear Lord lest I continue my complacent way help me to remember somehow out there a man died for me today. As long as there be war I then must ask and answer Am I worth Dying for?” which is a poem Eleanor Roosevelt kept in her wallet during world war II.

I think these both put people in a reality check as does the whole memorial. Definitely something I suggest every person visiting Oahu does once, and I am happy I finally got to go!

So it’s a little strange thinking that tomorrow I am leaving the state I have kinda come to know as my home. But I am not that sad, the hard part is over – saying bye to all my friends on ship. I will head to Colorado tomorrow, and I hope eveyone makes it. There is going to be about 9 of us and one is stuck in Texas tonight, where the snow may hinder them, and another has gotten sick! So hopefully all works out fine and we will have a great weekend in Colorado!!

We have been having a great time in Oahu. We have hiked to the makapu'u lighthouse, pali highway look out, driven the whole island and we have been joined by my ... [Continue reading this entry]