Momma Linda: The Most Expensive car rental

We took it easy in the morning, slept about 8b hours because, even though we went to bed quite early, we were quite exhausted. The bed was fairly comfy. But that wind! It's very noisy in this corner unit with all the windows and wind whistling over, around, and through them. . . Truly-- the vertical blind slats in our teeny bathroom move around a bit. And two slats are missing, so it's not the most private bathroom around :-/ Good thing we are way up high and far away from others.

Tuesday was our afternoon to go to Laie. We got in touch with David and Jeannette Lund from Cedar City ( he lived in our ward) who are missionaries there in Laie. They would meet us for a late lunch/early dinner in Laie.

We decided to NOT do the Bus there, because Mike wanted to try to stop by and visit his dear friend, Donn Cupp's gravesite in Kaneohe. He got the information from Keala Cupp in Henderson, NV via phone. Their son also lives in Kailua.

We went out to breakfast and split a Scramble at Sunny's. Made arrangements to rent a car for a day at noon. The car rental place was conveniently located in our building.

We picked up the car at noon and headed for Laie via Hawaiian Memorial Cemetery. But we were not successful.

We hunted high and low but could make no sense of the numbering system she gave us. So sad to try for so long and not find it.

On we went to Laie. This wind! Intermittent rain all the way, too. Big waves. North shore ones must be HUGE. We'd kind of like to see that, but didn't leave quite enough time.

The road hasn't changes much at all.

Steep green cliffs along the Pali.

Murky water off the Windward side of Kamehameha highway due to the rain and run off.

Winding road and lots of clouds.

A nice view of our familiar Chinaman's Hat Island. I believe it goes by it's Hawaiian name now, but I don't remember that.

If you look closely below, the two little black dots are surfers. We saw LOTS of them in some of the bays.

The waves were pretty wild.

We met the Lund's at Seven Brothers hamburger joint. I think I'd qualify them as gourmet burgers. Mike and I split one. And we split a large crazy fries. Should have got a small one. And Mike got a chocolate shake. We went on to the BYU Hawaii campus and looked through the Library where their office is. The Church is totally re- building the whole of campus to remedy settling problems. Or building it up out of the swamp it is in. They are academic support missionaries helping students on o(academic) probation. And the campus is a series of detours and construction sites. Everywhere!

Here is a photo of a wildly blowing flag at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, HI. We go on Friday!!

Mike and I with Jeanette and David Lund at the Library outside the Academic Support Center where they have office space.

Mike's Hair gets curly in the damp humidity. Mine goes straight.

I look like a drowned rat. The humidity and wind and rain does not make for pretty hair

Our Temple appointment was at 4:30 p.m. We needed to rent our White Clothing so went early. Good thing, as Mike had to try THREE times to get pants that fit, each time having to re-dress in his slacks, go back to the clothing counter down the hall ( which was quite busy!). Poor guy. He was so flustered and hot and sweaty by the time we got into the endowment room. The session was filled to capacity.

That Temple was expanded and remodeled in recent years. Totally different than in the late 80's and early 90's when we were there. And it is lovely. I've been in many temples, and this is the first Celestial Room I've been in that has no mirrors. At least, that I can recall.

Castle Hospital, where Eric Liebhardt was born.

Then we drove on to a Safeway store to get some milk, etc. $89 for a few little things for breakfast , yogurt, milk, juice ( so we will stay hydrated) and fruit and nuts. Yowch. But we expect that.

We didn't want to keep the car overnight, just planned for one day. We could have parked it overnight, but opted to just return it and not pay for a night if parking. That would have been cheaper in the long run. We pulled into the parking garage, looked all around for the proper place to park and they all appeared to be full. So we backed up to turn around out of a dead-end spot and, Crack!! We hit a concrete support pillar!!! It was kind of skinny, off center, we were looking and thinking about. . . Well, we just smacked right into it. Ugh. Swear words were said.

We walked the half mile back to our room, watched a dumb movie and then slept pretty good, all things considered. But both of us awoke to thoughts of the accident. We were kind of stunned ( not injured, just stupidly stunned) about hitting the pillar and forgot to take photos. And we thought, what if a drunk plowed into it and made MORE damage. So we got up, got dressed, and walked the half mile to the drop off place ( it's a different parking garage than our building), took the photos, and walked back, checking on leis for our grandkids while we were at it.

And look who found US when they looked out the Bus window they were on, riding to work!!

Mike's grand-niece, Alexis Linarte! She's Lesa's Daughter. We'd forgotten that she even lived here! She just happened to look up , saw us, called, hopped off the buss and ran to catch up and say hi for a minute before going on to work

Small World!