PCC, Mark Eubank, and Snorkeling

Kerri is sound asleep in beautiful Hawaii, so I'm writing a "guest post". If it displays as a big mess, well...I'm a rookie.

We're here for nine days and when I talk to people who are only here for four days I'm not sure how they are going to have any time to relax. We have so many plans to see and do things that we'll have to sneak some R&R time in from 3-4am.

We started yesterday morning at around 5:30am with a five mile run. I love running listening to ocean waves. It was so beautiful and the air actually has oxygen in it!!

Yesterday we went to the Dole Plantation, the North Shore, the PCC, and the Temple Visitor's center.

The Dole Plantation was first. The tour was interesting, but the highlight was definitely the pineapple at the end. It was so fresh!! I had no idea there were so many types of pineapple.

After our taste of pineapple we were famished, so had to make a quick roadside stop at a shrimp shack for lunch. We had steak and HUGE prawns for $11. Worth every penny and a whole lot cheaper than the $9/gallon milk. The shack doesn't do justice to the food. If you've ever eaten a burger from Brand X in Springville, you understand.

After lunch we drove over to the LDS Temple Visitor's Center. The temple was in really bad shape and was missing the angel Moroni. At first we were shocked then when we got close we realized it was under construction. We went into the visitor's center anyway and had a tour from our favorite weatherman, Mark Eubank. He is as friendly and bubbly in person as he is on TV. When he walked across the room Kerri and I both looked at each other and said, "Is that Mark Eubank?" You'd have thought we were a couple of groupees following Sheryl Crow (the hottest 40+ woman on the planet).

After the visitor's center we hit the PCC for a few hours. The PCC is incredible. I didn't realize that all of the Polynesian cultures believe they migrated from Hawaii to the other islands.

I just realized how long this update has gotten, so won't bore you with many details. Suffice it to say, the PCC is incredible. Coming to Hawaii and not seeing it would be like going to Yellowstone and not seeing wildlife.

I'm such a bad-ass with my tat! Kerri said it made me almost as manly as the Somoans who slapped themselves in the face so hard it made me hurt.

This kid was a rookie tree climber. He went up about 10 feet, but the other guys were at the top of the coconut trees.

After seeing all of the manly things the Polys did while were there I think Kerri was thinking about taking this guy home in my place.

After the PCC we went snorkeling in Turtle Bay. We didn't think the PCC would be topped, but the snorkeling was incredible. It took us a minute to stop hyperventilating, but once we did the fish were beautiful. We didn't see any turtles this time, but we're told they're there most of the time. We'll head back later in the week to see if we can swim with the turtles. We're snorkeling most of this afternoon on a cruise where we're supposed to get to swim with dolphins.

And last, but not least...I had to share a couple of flower pictures. They're everywhere and they're beautiful.