It's Saturday! Finally I'm back to my saturday ritual at Starbucks in Honolulu and it feels great to be here, I haven't been here for probably over a month.

WEEK14- This week was beautiful and flew by so fast!

Sunday after I finished blogging at Starbucks in Maui my new friend, Aaron, the navigation officer, had rented a car to go hiking that day so when he was done he picked me up from Starbucks and we headed to the beach on the other side of the island to watch the sunset, since I had never been to any other beach in Maui besides the one near the ship. We met up with one of Aaron's friends, Matt, who lives on Maui and Jen, who is a girl from Germany who is vacationing and couch surfing at Matt's place. We also ran into one of the performers on the ship and his girlfriend and spent the rest of the time there with them. While watching the sunset there were quite a few whales swimming around in the distance. After the beach Aaron and I went to grab some dinner before heading back to the ship since we were still in "Silver Service" (I'll explain to you what that is if you really want to know) We ended up going to a local restaurant called Da Kitchen which was actually really good, I had a simple Taro burger. I love Taro!

The next morning Aaron didn't have to return the car till about 11am so Gina, Aaron and myself got up at 6:30am to hike to a waterfall before we had to be at work. It was my first time hiking in Maui and my first waterfall in Hawaii and my first time swimming in a waterfall! The waterfall a secret place that Aaron's friend showed him, it was a pretty short hike but so much fun. The water was freezing cold! After the hike we had some time to kill before work so we went grocery shopping in Paia at Mana, which I really really like, possibly better than Wholefoods.

Tuesday in Hilo we had our weekly safety drill in the morning and after drill Katia, Gina, Amber, Silvia and myself took a walk to get some lunch because we were still in Silver Service and didn't want to eat in crew mess. Silvia and I went to Ken's while the other girls went to get thai. Ken's is amazing! I ordered the banana nut french toast and thought I had died and gone to heaven it was soooo good and I don't know why no one told us of that place before! I would be there every tuesday if I could, I dream of it.

Wednesday we had a girls night because it's my roomie, Katia's, aloha week. After work we dressed up and went to Little Italy which is the italian restaurant on the ship and the food was really good. After Little Italy we went to the Goldrush saloon where they have karaoke, none of us had been there and I really wanted to check it out. When we got there I put my name in to sing and was the first one up from our group, Gina and Amber went up and it was hilarious to watch them. Then the five of us ended with singing "Wanna be" by the Spice girls. After karaoke we went to the White Hot party in Mardigras because Katia had never been before and she absolutely loves to dance, we were the life of the dance floor because there was hardly anyone out there. After Mardigras we headed to crew bar for a bit where you will rarely find us unless it's someones aloha. I didn't stay too long because I had to open the next day but it was a fun night we all really enjoyed being together, things wont be the same without Katia.

The next morning Silvia and I had a couple getting pedicures together and they asked us if we were at the White Hot party the night before and we laughed and said yeah and they went on saying their daughter was the one who lead us in dancing to gangnam style, and was coming in for a manicure and pedicure next. hahhaha we thought it was hilarious. During their daughter's service I got a chance to talk with her and she told me about how she saved all her money and backpacked around the world for an entire year by herself when she turned 25. I think that is soooo awesome and would love to have a chance to do that someday, but I don't know if I would be able to do it alone.

That evening my friends Brendan and Aaron from excursions got Gina and myself tickets to the Luau. We dressed up in our hawaiian dresses and hopped on the bus to the Luau at the Kilohana Plantation. The food was great traditional hawaiian food and I finally tried Poi for the first time and it is umm, interesting. Our bus driver kept saying it tastes like warm wallpaper paste. The show was so awesome the entire time I kept thinking about how my parents would love this. Gina and I decided we need to take hula lessons one of these days. While we were waiting in line for the restroom we met a little 8yr old girl named Tayla, from Australia. I complimented her on her beautiful blue eyes and she asked if I had sung at Karaoke the night before and I said yes. Apparently she was there and she remembered me, she had gone up to sing before we got to the saloon and she sang Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and I told her I wish I was there, Adele is my best friend's favorite! Seems like everyone remembers the spa girls, we're celebrities:P After the Luau Aaron texted us so we could get on the bus first and beat the traffic because we had about 700 people there from the ship. The tickets are originally $100 and we were completely grateful to get to go for free, Aaron and Brendan are awesome for letting us go.

When we got back to the ship Gina and I changed into our swimsuits and walked down to the Marriott to sit in the hot tub before it closed, it was so nice, super relaxing. The pool was so warm it felt so good to go for a night swim. The Marriott is a beautiful place, it was so crazy to think I'm in Hawaii, on my favorite island, only a few feet from the ocean and relaxing in a pool, floating watching the stars and looking at a gorgeous full moon. Such a gorgeous place to be. The pool closed and Aaron (from excursions) and Brendan met up with us, the four of us just sat on the beach, listened to the ocean and enjoyed the night sky. While we sat there we saw a huge shooting star! I had never seen anything like it before, it went slow enough for all of us to see it was so cool, it literally looked like a fire ball from the luau show that night that someone had just thrown in the night sky. Honestly such an incredibly gorgeous place to be! God is incredible. We talked about how we love the ocean and how crazy it is to be controlled by the moon. I can't get enough of this beauty that surrounds me!

Friday, Katia's Last day at the spa, after work the spa team went to Teppanyaki on the ship which is a great restaurant where they put on a show grilling your food and throw eggs in your mouth and all that fun stuff. It was my first time there and the food was delicious, the fried rice is the best. After dinner Katia and I went back to our cabin to finish packing her stuff, she had been there for a year and collected SO MUCH, I couldn't believe she had that much. Amber is my new roommate so she started moving in this morning.

Katia is cruising for a week on the ship and she is staying with her Boyfriend, Patrick, so even though she wont be working at the spa I'm sure she'll be in getting some services and relaxing just enjoying the islands before she goes home. Charmaine, the new stylist who has been working on the ship for years, should be arriving today but she missed her flight this morning so I'm not sure what is going on at the moment but lets hope she gets here soon. It's been a long week, it's going to be an even longer 6 months. I'm so sad to see Katia go, she's been such a blessing, but she'll be back in 3 months and that time will fly by! Just like the past three months did. I'm so excited to be home in 59 days<3 I feel so disconnected from everyone, I never have enough time to just sit at chat. Hope you're doing well, Miss you all!

"There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory."

-1 Corinthinans 15:41