ALOHA 3-16-10 TUESDAY

Up and dressed and so dreading the car return and having to haul luggage through 3 check points...and all that it entails. And, not to mention the fact that we both have 3 suitcases. That's an addition of 2.

Joy and I sat on the balcony, and prayed together. We thanked God for the time we had spent together...the fun we had had...the laughs we had laughed...and the sweet memories that will stay in our hearts forever. Joy had spent more time sitting on the balcony than I, and she said that she had seen the whales from there. Now, I'm not saying I did not believe her...but I had not seen one. So, as we were praying, I asked the Lord to please allow me to see one more whale. (Cause, it is just not right for one sister to see something and the other not see it and then the one who did see it would always be saying that she had seen it and you had not and there could possibly be some tension there...if you understand what I mean.) And, no, I did not tell the Lord that part, because He has much more important things to think about than 2 old sisters trying to out do one another...besides He already knew all about it...and I didn't want Him to think I was being petty or anything...I'm just saying...
ANYWAY...I looked at my watch and saw that we had about 10 minutes before we had to leave, and I glued my eyes out on the ocean and I stared with all my might! I did not even blink until my eyes were dry. And, then...sure enough...there it was. A whale! I saw him glide over the top of the water...and then, as if to say, "He told me you'd be watching,"...his beautiful tail flipped up out of the water...and disappeared back into the deep. Thank you, God!

And, when Joy came back outside...I said, "NAH-NAH NAH-NAH NAH NAH...I SAW A
WHA-ALE!" Not really :0). But, I did tell her, and then we saw another one...or maybe that was just a swimmer. We had to go...

Now, being the big sister and taking care of my little sister as I always do and have done all my life...unselfishly, I might add...I again took the wheel, and let her enjoy about 15 miles of ocean view as we drove back to Kahului. And, she said she saw another one...but, I'll never believe that one!

I dropped her off with our bags...and went to return the car. Easy-Peasy! The H*rtz bus took me back to the check-in. Now, it is usually so horrible to go through the agricultural check and the check-in...and then the check of the carry ons and us and trying to manage all those bags through it all. But, do you know what God did? He directed me where to put Joy off...and when I got back I saw that D*lta was opening up their curbside check-in right next to where she was sitting with our 6 bags! I asked in my sweetest Southern accent if I could check in there, and the D*lta man said, "You sure can. Where are your bags?" I pointed to Joy sitting there upon the bags acting like she was some kind of princess or something. He went and got the bags, checked us in, gave us our boarding passes, said that he would take care of the agricultural check, and said he would make sure our luggage got to where it needed to be! I never even had to break a sweat! Oh, God is so good! He cares about all the things that we struggle with...even luggage in a busy airport!

We boarded the plane. It was about half full, so, I moved to the 3 seats behind ours, pushed up the arm rests, got my pillow and went to sleep!

Arrived LA, boarded another plane bound for Atlanta. I watched the movie "Precious" on the screen in the seat back. Oh! My! It is a wonderful movie...except for the language. Very bad language...but aside from that-it was a wonderful story. The girl who played Precious was very good, but Monique, who played her mother, was fantastic! She sure deserved her Oscar!

Arrived Atlanta...3 hour layover...then on to Dothan. And, guess who we saw when we entered the terminal? That's right! There stood Pop...waiting for his girls to come home! It was so good to see his sweet, smiling face. We gathered up our luggage, and entered the cool, rainy Dothan weather. Our sweet Pop at the wheel, we talked about the trip, and told him some of the highlights. We'll share our pictures and talk of all the fun things we did. But, the sweetest memories can not be put into words. Because they are felt with our hearts...inside that little room that holds things that only sisters can feel. That room that holds the sweet things, and the hard things, and the unpleasant things, and the silly things...just things that only your sister would understand. And, we will treasure them the rest of our days. "Pop, you gave us a much bigger gift than you thought. You are a good and kind man. From you and Mom we learned about giving of self...and living life to the fullest. You have blessed us, and we are so grateful."

And, That's All She Wrote!