Sunday, May 24, 2009

Amy goes to work with Mike... in Hawaii







I travel a lot for my job. Rarely do I travel to exotic locales though. Rarely is not never though.


I cashed in some frequent flier miles and Amy and I travelled first class to a conference at the Fairmount Orchid on the big island of Hawaii.


And of course I took some pictures. If I don't photoblog it, it might as well not have happened.


The flight took about six hours. Amy went to the bathroom about 11,748 times. Good thing first class has its own bathroom.




After landing, we encountered a particularly amazing naturally occurring phenomenon in the rock.








We smiled a bit bigger as we drove toward our hotel.




Once we got there, we spent some time at the pool.





Later that evening we had a our first reception. The host of the convention flew in Kenny Rogers to play traditional Hawaiian music.





Okay, that wasn't Kenny Rogers. But whoever that was performed on a very cool grass stage.




There would be many more receptions. I think that these "meet n' greets" filled with people she didn't know had to be Amy's favorite part. Especially the cool name tag she got to wear.





Not being able to take advantage of the hosted bar probably grated on her a bit.


Actually her being there was very strategic from a business perspective. People tend to like Amy. Since my job is essentially to get people to like me and thus want to do business with me, having her there is like an unspoken endorsement. People get to know her and figure that if I was able to get her to like me enough to be carrying my fifth child, I can't be all that bad.

The hotel also had this amazing naturally occurring waterfall.



Okay, not naturally occurring, but nice backdrops nonetheless.



The second to last day we took a Catamaran trip out into the ocean to snorkel with sea turtles, fish, hermit crabs and other things. Snorkeling is great, especially if you are trying to give your skin a nice, red hue.



My favorite part of the trip had to be the scenery. There was beauty everywhere I looked.


Oh, and there were a lot of pretty flowers too.


The last night we attended the "Meeting of Kings". It was a beautiful show that traced the history of all the islands of the South Pacific.




Amy impressed me by knowing a lot of this stuff already. Leave it to the homeschooling mom to have a handle on the obscure details.


The highlight of the show for me was the "fire knife" dance. First, because it's cool and dangerous, but also because I thought it would provide an opportunity to play with my camera.

The dance did not disappoint. Can't say the same thing about my camera skills. Taking pictures in low light is hard. Taking pictures in rapidly changing light is even harder. Especially when the autofocus keeps hunting. I took over a hundred shots and got very few keepers.

But I lucked out and got a couple really nice ones just as he was getting ready to eat the fire.

First he just tried a taste.

(I love this picture. They should put it on their brochure.)



That little taste must have suited him well because he went for a much bigger bite after that.



Sadly, our 5 days in paradise came to a close. It's okay though. By this time we were really missing our kids. We knew they were in good hands, but we still were imagining them with us while we considered which activities they would like best.


But it was nice to spend time with just the two of us.




Even so; next time, we bring the kids.

5 comments:

Cutzi said...

Let's see...

1. Loved the name tag picture

2. Did you do the "Mike hearts Amy" or did someone else and you just found it? Cause that would be really cool.

3. Cute, cute orange/red dress Amy!

4. That first fire eating picture is awesome Mike! You should definitely send it to them.. for a minimal fee, of course.

5. While it is impressive that you somehow snagged Amy, it really isn't all that hard to "knock someone up."

Hahahahahaha!!! har har har har!!!

amy said...

Mike your so sweet & funny.

Cutz, 2. the part of the island we visited was covered with black volcanic rock (really crazy to see) so everyone takes white rocks and write things with it creating a cool effect. As we were driving Mike looked out the window and found this that someone else had written. We had to get a picture.
3. I got that dress there are a really fancy (everything was where we were) store. I love it too but I think it will look a lot better when I am not so pregnant & chubby (it is not maternity). I don't love the pictures as you can imagine.
5. You are funny!

Stacy said...

Amy, you look GREAT for being 8 months pregnant!!! :)
Love the blue shirt, white tank, and THAT DRESS!!! Really cute color on you and for you!

Great pictures, Mike.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Mike. So I gasped and guffawed when I read that you guys got to see Kenny Rogers. "I mean, they saw The Gambler! That is crazy!"

And then I read further. And then I scrolled back up to see that no, indeed it was not Kenny Rogers. Pretty clever stuff.

I am very jealous about the sea turtles.

Some of these pictures are amazing. Your talent is really blossoming. I will have pretty high expectations for all of the pictures you take of my kids some day.

-Helen

Anonymous said...

Fun post, thanks for sharing your trip to Hawaii with us! And with just the right amount of sarcasm to add that certain "something". Very entertaining. Love the fire picture, Mike, that is awesome!