It's 11pm Saturday night, I didn't have much time to blog this morning so I'm trying to finish this up before I crash. This week actually went by pretty fast, I'm sure the next two months will fly by.

WEEK 27- Saturday after starbucks I headed back to the ship. The next street from starbucks all the way back to the ship the were lined with people from the food bank collecting money from the people driving by so after I passed about 30 people, midway, I gave them some money.

I got ready for work and ran up to the spa and Silvia said I had just missed my neighbor from back home and she had left me a note. I looked out the spa doors to where the elevators were and there she was, Shirley Gapper. We chatted for a bit, it was great to see a familiar face, a face I have known my entire life. Anjulia and her mom came in for pedicures later in the day, Anjulia seemed so happy being on vacation she had a great time cruising.

Sunday work was incredibly slow to start with but then picked up a bit in the evening. Mrs. Gapper came in for a manicure and my manager was generous enough to let me give a complimentary service. The Gapper's are a couple I greatly admire, to be married for 62 years, travel to 72 different countries and STILL be traveling is incredible!

After work I went to eat Thai food with some coworkers then finally got some groceries at safeway. Its funny because I arrive back to the cabin and put my food in the fridge and notice my roommate and I pretty much bought the same exact groceries and told her we should probably just go shopping together.

Monday I woke up at 5am to shoot the sun rise with Alex and then do my laundry. Last week on the bus ride to Paia he pointed out this row of trees he's always wanted to shoot at sunrise and I thought it was a cool idea. Saturday night he said he was thinking of renting a car on sunday so we could capture the sunrise on monday morning. I figured I should go considering I hadn't seen the sunrise in Hawaii before and it seemed like a cool adventure so I told him I'll go if he could take me to the laundromat afterward. I met him off the ship at 5am and we headed to the row of trees. Once we got there we took out our canons and tried looking for a good angle to shoot and didn't think it was a good location at all, for some reason driving by it looked much cooler than actually being there so we walked across the street looking for a different location. We looked back and saw the sun coming up behind the line of trees and it looked awesome so we ran back across the street. While we were shooting I found a spider in it's web and tried to focus on the spider with the sun rising behind it. We both took out our iPhones to instagram and I started laughing because it was funny to see Alex with his huge canon hanging on his shoulder and taking pictures with his iPhone. We made it to the laundromat and while we waited for my laundry we instagramed our sunrise picture and made it a competition to see who could get the most likes on their picture… I'm still winning by one:P

Tuesday at work I had a guest who's sister was from Covina and another lady named Jan from Claremont, what a small world to be on the was ship all the way in Hawaii.

For a second I actually toyed with the idea of coming back for another contract until I had to do a pedicure, that thought went away fast.

Wednesday Amber and I had a half day off and my friend Brendan was able to get us on the Big island snorkel tour! It was so much fun! Way better than the first time I went snorkeling in maui on the crew snorkel tour. There was about 100 people on the boat It looked like a ship wreck scene when you saw us all out in the water. The body glove boat had a slide that came down from the second deck which was a lot of fun and a pretty big drop off the side of the boat. I didn't see too many fish but still, it was a much better experience this time. They even barbecued burgers for us for lunch. On the boat ride back to shore we saw two spinner dolphins! It was only for a little bit they swam right in front of the boat where Amber and I were sitting, they didn't jump out of the water but it was still awesome to seen them considering I'd never seen spinner dolphins before. It was around 12:30pm but the time we got back so we had time to kill, we decided to get henna tattoos. I got an anchor on the side of my arm and Amber got a turtle on her foot. Then we got some amazing shaved ice at Scandinavian shaved ice, I ordered a small cone with macadamia nut ice-cream in the center and coconut & tigersblood flavor. Now we can finally mark that off our list, we'd been meaning to get some shaved ice since we arrived to Hawaii. I did get a little sunburned but It was a great day, I love getting time off in Kona.

Later, while Charmaine and I were giving a couple from Canada a pedicure, they told us how there was an add in the paper that this lady put in saying "take my husband" and she actually got a call for it. Apparently it was an acquaintance of theirs and she was serious about the add she really doesn't want her husband and they've split the house in half and he stays on his side of the tape and she stays on hers. I thought it was hilarious, they should have sent it to Jay Leno.

Thursday I worked half a day and took an hour nap once I got off then met Gina up at the spa so she could give me a massage and I could do her hair. Ohh, the perks of working in a Spa…. I get to trade work for doing something I love to do. It was my boss, Audrey's, Aloha week and she wanted us to have a spa family dinner at Dukes. Myself and a couple other girls didn't want to spend too much money off the ship so we planned on going to Skyine on board for dinner then meeting up with the rest of the team for some hula pie. Well, Gina's hair took longer than I expected and Alana, Michelle, Gina and I showed up at Dukes an hour later. Anjulia joined us and she showed us a video of some spinner dolphins jumping high out of the water spinning, on her Zodiac tour on Wednesday. Gina shared her video of the monk seal she saw on her run to the beach we named secret beach earlier that day, she got super close to it. Thursday was Audrey's last day on the ship but she'll be back from vacation in five weeks. Jessica, one of the massage therapists, is now managing the spa while she is away. After Dukes Gina and I went to the Marriott Lagoon Condos where my friend Nick, one of the engine room cadets, was celebrating his 21st birthday. We only stayed for about an hour it was his last week on the ship as well.

Friday I woke up figuring I worked at 8am and got up to the spa and didn't have to be there till ten so I went back to my cabin and got to FaceTime with my brothers and sister in-law. After our port cleaning we had our weekly meeting in the spa, it was different having Jess present the meeting, I noticed she picked up on a couple terms that Audrey constantly says in the meetings.

After dinner in Aloha I went to Michelle's cabin and we chatted a bit until Brendan and Alana were available to watch "UP" with us. It was a fun movie night but I fell asleep near the end. Michelle absolutely loves Disney. The girls laughed at her when I asked her if she wanted to watch UP with us because her entire face lit up like she had just won the lottery. Her entire room back home, in Idaho, is minnie mouse. I showed her all my pictures of my Disney costumes and she said I have the life she wishes she had. haha. I told her we have to go to Disneyland together once she finishes her contract:]

Saturday I woke up at 8am and ran into my friend Nick when I was getting off the ship, I didn't think I would see him again before he left but I got to say goodbye, He was going to give me a tour of the engine room the day before but our schedules conflicted.

I walked to the Ala Moana mall to eventually meet up with Gina so I could help her shop for makeup. Saturdays they have a farmers market at the mall so I decided I'd walk around and check it out. I came across a booth that served macaroons, my friends back home rave about macaroons so I thought I should try them and they were delicious! I try so hard to stay away from that mall… its huge, I always get lost and it's nearly impossible for me to not find something cute to buy, the mannequins call my name. I went to starbucks so sit and blog a bit until Gina arrived, the starbucks was packed. I learned that no matter what starbucks it is at Ala Moana they are always super busy so I don't think I'll be going to a starbucks there anymore. I'll stick with the one near the ship. While I was walking to the Mac store to meet Gina, Charmaine just so happened to be walking next to me at the mall and I didn't even realize it until she called my name. Gina and I spent about an hour shopping for makeup, $200 later we finally made it out of there. I told Gina about the macaroons and she said she wanted to stop by the farmers market to get some so on our way over there we ran into Michelle and she walked with us for a bit. Across the street from the mall at the park near the beach they had an event going on, we decided to go check it out it was just a huge carnival event with the military and boy scouts with obstacle courses and what not.

Michelle left us to go find a pawnshop so she could pawn a titanium ring she found. Gina and I headed back to the ship and saw a little girl swinging on the vines of a banyan tree so we decided to do the same. I always wanted to do that but didn't think the vines would be strong enough. I love banyan trees. Gina stopped at the bike shop to do some bike shopping and I walked to the starbucks near the ship and called my bestie, Mikaella.

When I got back to the ship Gina called my cabin saying she needed help applying her makeup so once I was done getting ready I gave her a little lesson. Debbie signed on the ship today, she's back working as an esthetician. She was my boss when I came aboard. I think its weird having her back just because she didn't think she would ever come back but she had a difficult time finding a job back home. Maybe its just weird to me that she's back as an esthetician and not my boss.

It should be an interesting week at work with all these changes. We are now down to four massage therapists and three estheticians, when usually we have 6-8 massage therapists and 2 estheticians. And of course the fact that Audrey isn't here, I think we'll survive. It'll only be like this for a couple weeks then Katia is back!!! Just 83 days till I'm home! <3

"From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised." -Psalms 113:3