Sunday, July 6th : by Allie Kabbes

Hi again!! I'm actually writing this on Monday while waiting in the airport. Last night was very crazy. We had to pack up our suitcases and clean everything! We also had to leave by 5:15 today. So we were tired!

But beginning with yesterday morning. We all woke up and went to Church at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu. They had a beautiful organ, and their choir was magnificent! Fr. Daren and Fr. Chris were concelebrants with Fr. Jerry from Chicago.

After this, we all went to Saint Augustine by the Sea. There was a small museum of the Blessed Damien of Molokai. Do you know the story of Saint Augustine? Well, he was on the beach pondering the mystery of the Holy Trinity. He saw a young boy who was pouring the ocean water into a hole he had dug in the ground. He did this repeatedly. Saint Augustine told the young boy he would never fit the whole ocean in his hole. The boy said, "yes, and you old man will never fit the mystery of the Holy Trinity in your brain." The boy then vanished out of site.

After visiting the museum, everyone was very hungry. We walked over to a park and had a picnic with the food we had bought earlier. It was very relaxing. From here, we all split up. Our options were the beach, Mount Diamondhead, or Matasumoto's for shave (yes shave) ice and Waimea Bay.

I chose to go to the beach. It was very pretty as always. The water felt especially good because it was very hot. There was only one downfall to our swim. We rented out boogey boards and while we were riding the waves, Carmen was bit by an eel. She had a large slash down her finger and was bleeding very bad. Luckily, the hospital was nearby. Barb took her there, and she got 3 stitches. But other than that incident, the day was awesome!

Mount Diamondhead was a .8 mile hike to the top of an inactive volcano. It was a mixture of stairs and tunnels and steep stairways. Barb was very proud that she completely the whole hike in one hour. The point of it, other than excersise, is the beautiful view once you get to the top.

The last group, which was composed of all boys, went to Mazumoto's Shave Ice and cliffing jumping (again). "Mazumoto's was very good," says Andi. They had to wait in line for an hour, but it was worth it. The boys returned to the same place they went the day before and went cliff jumping.

We all went out to eat someplace different. Brett, Greg, Jordan, and I went to Lucy's bar and grill. It was a little expensive, but after all the fast food I was used too, it was worth it. Everyone else went to a "Pasta Place" (according to Cody). My group got back to the hostel around 8:00 and had the place to ourselves until about 10:30. Apparently Fr. Daren got lost AGAIN!! But the Red Sox/ Yankees game was very good. We finished the day with cleaning and packing for today.

Read later for more on our 13 hour plane flight!