Dry Dock is finally here! and it's only two days and nine hours till I'm home!! I thought this day would never come. It feels so great to not feel rushed and have to be back at work on the ship, we are incredibly lucky to have this break!! Lauren says it would have been really cool to be on the ship during dry dock and see the entire ship out of the water, she was showing me some pictures some crew members posted and the ship is huge, I would love to see it in person and get a picture by it but then again, I'd much rather be home to visit. She showed me pictures of the crew just hanging out on the deck and swimming and having a good ole time, which would be really cool since we don't normally have access to the pool but still I would rather come home.

WEEK 22- Saturday was embarkation day and I wasn't booked any guests the entire day, so my boss had me walking around the atrium passing out menus and raffle tickets and helping out guests I talked to so many passengers It had difficult remembering who I had already spoken to about the spa. That day we met our new team members Tina, our new esthetician, and Eric, our new massage therapist.

Sunday was my day off, St. Patricks day! We finally got to go on our hike to the seven sacred pools! It was Anjulia, Jessica, Silvia and myself. Michelle, the new fitness trainer, wasn't able to come with us because she had a yoga class to do and we all wanted to leave early in the morning to beat all the traffic from all the tourist driving the road to Hana. The road to Hana is a "must see" place in Maui and I was really excited to finally get to experience it. It's a beautiful drive but a very long and windy road, so if you get car sick I wouldn't really suggest it, its about an hour drive and I even started feeling a little carsick. On the way we saw this huge cross on the top of a hill. Jessica had a picture of that cross on her iPad I had seen a couple months back and I told her I wanted to go there, she said it was on the way to Hana and we would see it when we go on our adventure. It was awesome I was glad I got to finally see it. Next we drove by some rainbow eucalyptus trees, Silvia was ecstatic to see them, she had told me about them before and she really wanted to find them on the island. The road to Hana is also really narrow so its a pretty dangerous drive if you haven't been there before, luckily Jessica knows the ropes. I get guests that come in to the salon saying they were terrified driving the road to Hana and ended up turning back around. I saw a mongoose for the first time, I didn't even know they existed until that day, they look like meerkats but with longer tails…. well apparently they are meerkats or meerkats are mongoose. Finally we arrived to the Haleakala national park where we walked along the seven sacred pools, saw a gigantic banyan tree that we got to climb, walked through the bamboo forrest which was pretty cool hearing the bamboo hit each other when the wind blew. The hike had quite a few stairs, which probably helped that I have been taking the stairs on the ship for the past month or so. Near the end of the hike we were crossing the stream and some older tourists were crossing ahead of us and an old man was almost across and slipped and fell flat on his back, he fell really hard but his backpack broke his fall and we were glad he didn't hit his head on all the rocks. The group he was with was able to help him up and he seemed to be ok. At last, we made it to the waterfall! On the ride back we stopped at the black sand beach, my first black sand beach. It was sooo cool there were caves to explore and lava tubes, we just crawled into one that was right on the beach, every time I go on these adventures I'm in awe of all God's creation. We stopped in Paia and ate dinner at Flatbread. When we walked back to the car there was a little band set up with a fiddle and a banjo and what not playing some irish music. Once we got back to the ship I showered and met up with Lauren, Alana, Amber, Gina and Alex and went to the Ale house up the road from the ship. I really wanted to go see OZ but I was super tired after the Ale house and just went straight to bed.

Monday all I remember is working

Tuesday I got up early to attend Michelle's yoga class out side on our basketball court on deck 13, she didn't have any passenger's show up so Eric and myself just did a yoga class with her. Then I went to the aerobics room with her and joined her Pilates class, she just had one passenger attend. Since I was up so early and didn't have to be at work till 12:30 I started packing everything I wanted to take home and leave at home. After work I cut Michelle's hair and then showed her around the ship, we went out to the crew pool on deck seven all the way forward and she really enjoyed how well you could see the stars from there. When we walked out and ran into Melissa and her parents, I had given Melissa's mom a pedicure the day before so she told me all about her hike at the volcano earlier in the day, I wish I had time in Hilo to do that Volcano tour. Before we left Melissa told us about the Candyland/ 80's party in the crew bar that Felix, one of the dancers on board, was throwing. Michelle had never been to crew bar and it was all of the cast's Aloha week so we decided to go hangout there for a bit then head to bed. Oh and Michelle is 23 and a couple months younger than me, I'm no longer the youngest in the Spa!

Wednesday I could have sworn it was friday I was incredibly busy and obviously anxious to get home, that night we had to do inventory so it was a late night. Audrey, my boss, ordered us some sandwiches for the late evening.

Thursday I was booked solid from 8am-8pm and Alex had texted me asking if I wanted to go to dinner because he had rented a car so I invited Michelle with us so we could show her around Kauai. We didn't get to leave till around nine, the restaurant we wanted to go to closes at ten so we tried to hurry over there but the traffic was terrible and I told Alex we wouldn't be able to make it on time and we all were starving and everything closes early on that island so we just went to Kalapaki Joe's by the ship and sat with some crew members that Alex knew. When I came back from the ship and did a little more packing.

Friday our last day of work before dry dock!!! Work I was booked solid once again and packed… packed…. packed.

Saturday Amber and I got off early, signed off the ship and walked to starbucks with all our luggage and waited for Lauren and Alana to pick us up with the rental car that Lauren and I will have for the next few days. Lauren and I are staying with April, a massage therapist who use to work on the ship but now works at the Mandara spa at the Hilton in Waikiki where we did our training. April was very helpful when I was in training and we're so thankful to have a place to stay until we leave to Cali on Tuesday! April and the girls picked us up and we went to Big City diner for breakfast. It was Alana, Lauren, Gina, Amber, April and myself. After breakfast we dropped Gina off at the airport, she's going home to Moab, Utah. The we headed over to April's so we could drop off our luggage, we met her dog Hazel who was crazy excited to have people around. April had to go to work and we had a little time to kill before taking Alana to the airport so we drove around the island and dropped Alana off at the airport around 1pm, we ran into Michelle when we got to the airport and got to say bye to her, she's going back home to Idaho just for a couple days. I thought it was so cute, Alana's family has no idea she is coming home to Florida to visit so it'll be an awesome surprise. Amber's flight wasn't leaving till 11pm so we drove up to North Shore but the weather was overcast and rainy all day, we came across Waimea Valley and decided to walk around there its a beautiful place, great for weddings and photography. It was about a 30min trail to the Waimea waterfall. The trees on the trail were gorgeous there was a huge Monkey Pod tree that I fell in love with. After our little adventure we met up with Anjulia and Jessica for dinner at Uncle Bo's in Honolulu then dropped Amber and Jessica off at the airport where they will be flying back home to Seattle, Washington. Then we came home to April's place and relaxed for the evening, it was funny to me when I picked up the direct tv remote, it's been a while. April's husband is in the Navy, she lives close to the navy base and she had a chance to Skype with him so we met him over Skype. Andrea is a girl that lives with April and her husband in their spare bedroom, she use to be a cosmetologist on the ship, I had a chance to meet her once she got home, I had heard a couple stories about her from the spa girls so it was nice to put a face to the stories.

I didn't have a chance to blog yesterday but its now Sunday and it was great to actually wake up to some sunlight, April made us pancakes for breakfast be for she left for work and Lauren and I are just going to do some shopping and get massages and pedicures since it's pouring rain outside today. I wanted to visit my friends Larry and Jessie's church up at north shore but it's an hour away and I didn't want to have to drag Lauren along with me early in the morning. Hopefully I'll get to visit them before my contract ends! Can't wait to come home!! everyone has been texting me about how excited they are to have me back :D It's gonna be a blast! see you in two days!

"He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots but the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." -Jeremiah 17:8