This week oddly, went by incredibly fast, and pretty eventful.

WEEK 18 Saturday night was our crew's "We fell in love in a hopeless place" Valentine's party. Audrey, my boss, was one of the ladies putting it together. They had a photobooth, right when we walked in the Spa girls that attended the party took a photo. The officers volunteered to serve the crew drinks, I heard the crew was hesitant to order a drink from Captain Ron, I thought that was funny, I ordered a water from him and he looked at me funny because they didn't have any.

Sunday was my day off! Anjulia, Jess and myself had been planning on going hiking in Maui to the seven sacred pools since the last time we went hiking back in December on Anjulia's birthday. We rented a car and Gina joined us on our adventure. We left around 8am and it started raining and it looked to me as if it wasn't going to clear up, I asked if anyone had checked the weather, so we looked up the weather for the day and that side of the island was going to be rainy all day and it wouldn't be good for us to hike, especially with my camera. We turned around and Jess drove us to this Valley that is supposed to be really pretty but when we got there it started raining and we were freezing cold because we were in shorts and tank tops. We agreed to head back to the ship and grab a change of clothes and then go back to the valley. Gina and I hurried and grabbed our stuff and jumped back in the car thinking that Anjulia was already in the car because she wasn't in her cabin. Well time goes by and she's heading off the ship and the captain decided to do a Pop safety drill and they weren't letting crew off the ship. So Anjulia was super upset about it and just didn't want to do anything anymore because everything had gone wrong and it wasn't even 10am yet. Jess had to go pick up her TWIC card and Gina needed to get a new phone because hers broke, so we dropped her off at Walmart and told her to give us a call when she's done, then Jess and I went to pick up her TWIC which was going to take a while so I sat in the car and listened to one of Pastor Jeff Vines' sermons and took a little nap. Jess came back and we went back to the ship to drop off Anjulia's stuff since she was upset about the day, but I texted her saying "don't leave me, It's not our fault, I'll make it better!" and we persuaded her to come with us because we hadn't heard from Gina in an hour and it was would just be Jess and myself with the rental car. So she finally came with us and we went to Wailea and ate at Tommy Bahama's. On the way over I recommended we go to a spa and just relax and conveniently there was the Grand Wailea Resort right next to where we were going. The spa was super nice, Jess and I bought a day pass for $165 which includes access to the hot tubs and salt pools, a massage or facial, a body scrub, and $25 for lunch or dinner at the Bistro. Anjulia just paid to relax in the hot tubs and salt pools. At the spa there were two different hot tubs, and two cold pools, six different salt pools, a steam and sauna, and showers. The salt pools were different colors each for a different use, like muscle relaxing or detox, etc. I received a massage which was super relaxing, I usually can't fall asleep knowing someone is touching me but I knocked out for a bit, after my massage I walked down to the beach to catch the last bit of the sun and watch the sunset. When Jess and Anjulia were done we ate dinner at the Bistro, I ordered a delicious veggie calzone. Then we drove about 45mintutes to Barnes and Noble because Anjulia really wanted to get a book and I figured I should get one too since I hadn't started one for this month. I purchased C.S. Lewis' Signature Classics and I'm really excited to read it but haven't had too much time to sit and read : / I'm hoping to finish Mere Christianity by the end of this month.

Monday was our crew snorkel tour! there were 50 spots available to go on a snorkel tour and my boss let a few of us go that wanted to. Because Charmaine doesn't swim I was able to go automatically and I was stoked about it because I had never been snorkeling before! It ended up being Anjulia, Chris, Gina and myself from the spa. We left work at 11:30am and headed to the bus. It was a 3 hour tour. haha. It was very windy out and all the other snorkel tours for our passengers were cancelled because of the weather and the choppy waters. We didn't sail to where we originally were going to go and instead went to the Coral Gardens. On the boat ride over we saw whales! I was nervous to get in the water because it was cold out but the water was actually warmer than staying on the boat. On the way over I told Chris how I didn't want to see an eel and when I jumped in the water Chris had me swim over to where he was and look down and the first thing I saw, right under neath me was an eel! I had a difficult time swimming with fins and trying to only breath out of my mouth and I was trying to use my GoPro for the first time in the water but it was hard to see what i was filming but i did get some cool shots of Gina and Chris swimming. There weren't too many fish to look at and the water was really choppy Gina is a better swimmer than I and she ended up pulling me around with the pink noodle I was floating on. Off the back of the boat there was a slide and two trampolines, it looked like fun but I didn't go off any of them. When we finished they had sandwiches for us for lunch and on the boat ride back we saw a monk seal and turtles and whales! It was my first time seeing a monk seal and turtles, I was able to get some decent photos with my new zoom lens. We finally arrived back to the ship at 4:30 and we all had appointments with guests at 5pm so we really rushed, and even though I was in a hurry I stiiiill took the stairs from deck 2 to deck 12 (because I gave up the elevator for lent) That morning I saw in our freestyle daily "Frank Sinatra night" at Pink's Champagne and was excited to see that my friend Michael, the pianist from Irvine, was back from vacation. Alana and I went at caught the last bit of his gig after work.

Tuesday was just work all day, Audrey came in and asked if Charmaine and I were up last night when the power went out but I was sound asleep, she told us that it scared her and she thought "oh no, we're gonna have to go to the bathroom in bags like the carnival ship." I laughed and said she isn't allowed to be scared she's our boss.

Wednesday I came into work and Charmaine asked if I had heard about Gina, I said no, but I just saw her. In Kona we tender back and forth from the ship because the port is shallow. Apparently Gina got off in the morning to go for a swim and on the tender back she saw a lady in pink swimming and thought to herself "she's got a great swim stroke" then she see the lady waving, pointing and shouting for help. Gina tells the Captain of the tender "Drowning Victim!" jumps off the tender and swims over to help. Gina sees the body and helps the lady in pink take the body to the tender. It was an asian lady from the island in about her fifties or sixties that had drowned and Gina started to preform CPR checking for a pulse and Rick, one of the crew members was trying to help her get air but it was too late, the lady had too much water in her lungs. Gina was late for work but she ended up continuing with her day, everyone appreciates her effort to save a life but she has a difficult time excepting it because the lady didn't live and she would had done it for anyone. The interesting thing is, all of us in the spa weren't surprised that Gina would do that, thats just the kind of girl she is, thats something I really admire. I talked with her about it and she doesn't want to get recognized for it but I told her not anyone would just do that, I explained that I wouldn't be able to because I'm not a strong swimmer and I don't have the medical experience that she has considering that she use to work in the ER. Rick, the man that tried to help her was so traumatized that he was sent home, I found out later in the week that he was so traumatized because the lady looked younger, a lot like his daughter and to him, he was "trying to save his daughter". That night Silvia and Amber and myself went to Jefferson's Bistro, the french resturaunt on the ship, it was the only one I hadn't been to, the portions are small but the food is good. I really liked the decor of the place, its very vintage looking.

Thursday my last guest was Madeline, a 15yr old freshman girl who looked like she was 18, wearing the cutest anchor tank top and had an anchor painted on her Toms shoes. We got to talking about all the music she listens to that happened to be all the old bands I listened to back in high school, I was surprised kids still listen to all those bands. Gina and I were off early and planned on getting tacos at the taco stand up the street with our friend Aaron Kleinerman, the navigation officer, I saw him for a second earlier in the spa and hadn't had a chance to hangout with him since we went to the waterfall so I figured we should do something that evening since we all got off early. We went to get tacos but they weren't set up yet so we hopped in Aaron's old Mercedes Benz to try out this little place that Aaron told us about but they were closed so we tried to go to the cafe across the street and they were closed as well. Turns out everything closes early in Kauai during the week. We ended up going to the store to get some Ahi Poke and seaweed salad and I found some strawberry Mochi! Then Aaron drove us to a beach where you can drive up on the beach, so the water ocean was right in front of us, it was windy and rainy so we just ate in the car and talked. When the rain stopped we took a little walk along the beach and watched the waves, Aaron says all he can think of is how huge the ocean is and how small we are.

Friday I opened the Spa, I tried calling my Gramma on my lunch break for her birthday but wasn't able to get a hold of her. We sail along the Na'pali coast every friday and there is always something cool to see out my window, like a dolphin or a whale… this week it was a gorgeous rainbow! I couldn't believe how beautiful and clear it was. I was told we sailed right underneath it, I wish I had my camera to capture it, a crew member said it was the prettiest one he had ever seen since he's been on the ship.

"and God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth." -Genesis 9:12-13