Aloha!

There’s nothing like 5 days of doing nothing but staring at waves, watching whales, and reading for fun! It was definitely a different vacation for me though! For one thing, this was the first family vacation I’ve been on since Megan and Nathan got married. They weren’t able to join us, so I was the “only” child for a week—lets just say I missed my sister! We’re used to going on business vacations, where Mom & Dad have banquets or business dinners each evening, but when that happens the two of us usually go to dinner together, and then either go for an evening swim, enjoy the hot tub, or go down to the beach together to watch the sunset. I wasn’t prepared to have to eat several dinners alone! I’m usually ok with doing that, with reading or people watching if I have to be in a restaurant alone, but there was something about it this time that felt weird! I’m not sure Hawaii is as much fun without you, Megs!

But, because this was a business trip (Thrivent, my dad’s company, takes their top insurance sales people and spouses for a week long trip each year to celebrate their accomplishments in 2006 and to re-motivate them for this upcoming year, and my dad was there from the corporate office to act as one of the “hosts” of the week), Thrivent chose the location. So they pay for the rooms, but each family is responsible for anything extra they order—food, drinks at the pool, movies etc. So since Thrivent chose the place to honor their top 100 sales people, we were at the Ritz Carlton, a place I have never stayed, and a place known for their astronomical prices & phenomenal service. Anyways, so I was on my own for all but 2 dinners of the week, so I went to the restaurant a few times and ordered room service a few times. I thought I’d save money one night by calling room service & ordering something from their kid’s menu, which they won’t let you do in the main restaurant but they will via room service. I didn’t have the entire menu in front of me, so I asked what they had on their kids menu and decided that the hot dog/French fry meal with a bottle of water—this sounded like a good, and probably one of their more inexpensive options available. So the bill comes…yeah, I enjoyed a $15 hot dog and a $12 bottle of water….and that was the most inexpensive thing we were able to order all week…needless to say when we go back to Hawaii on a non-business trip we won’t be visiting the Ritz!

Here are some photos from the week:

The first day I was there, my mom and I went on a hike with about 10 other Thrivent folks out to a blow hole and to a spot with this crazy cool lava rock spot.

Maui has all kinds of crazy beautiful spots that you just kind of stumble across as you wander...

The Ritz...yeah it was a rough week!We went whale watching on Saturday, with our new friends Hana and her grandpa. Here we are, ready to head out to sea in search of humpbacks!The West Maui Mountains from the boat Our hotel had baby sized palm trees--they were SO cute and I was actually taller than them!The beach by the hotel

And…even though I am not officially Lutheran any more, the one thing I have always appreciated about Lutherans (even though this is not something you might expect me to say…) is that they sure do know how to throw a party! Each night of the week had a different theme, and they did a full-blown bash every night to celebrate the accomplishments of their top producers. I wasn’t invited to any of the parties until last night when they let the families come to the St. Patrick’s Day party, and I was blown away by what they had put together. I didn’t realize this but Thrivent has a team of event planners that do nothing but plan the big events for Thrivent throughout the year. Since the last night of the week was the 17th, an Irish pub crawl was quite appropriate, and it was also a fabulous way to announce that this top conference for 2009 would be taking place in Dublin, Ireland (next year’s is a Mediterranean cruise…I’m kind of bummed my parent’s probably won’t be asked to host that event!) Here are some photos from last night: they even brought in a band that impersonates U2, they’re called “To-You” and were surprisingly fabulous—they did all the U2 songs and did them really well, getting everyone dancing and celebrating.

The entry bridge

They very cool guy hiding in a fruit platter who startled people as they reached for dessertOf course they had plenty of accessories around to help everyone get into the Irish spiritHana beating me in foosball