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Aloha Illini Nation!

To kick off our spring break trip, we began with a beautiful seven days in Hawaii! There was little downtime once we got there. We got off the airplane and went straight to the swap meet at Aloha Stadium. We shopped around, tried some different things, and bought lots of souvenirs. From there we went to Pearl Harbor to learn more about Oahu's, and our country's, history.

Sunday, our first full day, began with a hike up Lanikai Pillboxes to watch a breath-taking sunrise! Following the hike we went to Lanikai Juice to fuel up on acai and pitaya (dragon fruit) bowls. We were then ready to conquer the Lulumahu waterfall hike. It was a steady uphill climb across creeks and through the trees, but the end result was well worth the muddy shoes and clothes! Next, we drove around and stopped at other scenic areas around the coast and also had shaved ice at a roadside stand! After our morning adventures, we played 14 holes at Ko'Olau Golf Club, one of the hillier courses on Oahu. The course was great and had amazing views of the rainforest and coast! Following our round, we went to Ala Moana and ate all the sushi our hearts desired at Genki Sushi. We were all fueled up and ready to go for the next few days of fun golf!

Monday was our practice round at the Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course on the Marine Corps Base in Kaneohe, Oahu. The ocean holes were as breathtaking as everyone says! With the views and ocean breeze, all one can do is relax and have fun when playing golf in Hawaii. Tuesday and Wednesday were the tournament days. The weather was beautiful and the slight rain storm hardly fazed us during the first day of the tournament. We enjoyed every bit of it and worked our way to a fifth place finish! After the round, we even got to take a few of the tee markers which were fresh pineapples. What a tee gift!

Wednesday night, to celebrate our finish, we went over to my Uncle Dick's amazing home for a big family dinner. There were 32 people who attended and only 10 of them were not related to me. My Uncle Myron made a majority of the feast which included; kailua pig, limi salmon, poi, lau lau, gau gee min with cake noodles, chicken long rice soup, fired chicken, chicken and vegetable combo, loads of pineapple, shoyu chicken, kalbi steak, and wood grilled salmon, and super ono. All delicious! We told stories, sang happy birthday to my Uncle Dick, indulged in Hawaiian delights, and parted ways singing Aloha Oi. It was so much fun to see my family, some of them even made it out to watch us play!

Our final two days were full of fun, culture, food, shopping and more sightseeing. Thursday was an early tee time at Ko'Olina, home of the Lotte LPGA Tournament, where we played a shamble between two teams. Team 1 was Grace, Bing, and Jan against Team 2 which was Rick, Dana, and myself. Surprisingly, Team 2 won by one stroke at -10! After the fun match, we were off to a luau at the Polynesian Culture Center. We were able to experience many different cultures and traditions there. All of the Pacific Island cultures were recognized through the small towns of Samoa, New Zealand, Tonga, and shows displaying the different traditions. We had an awesome dinner, similar to the family dinner on Wednesday night, with the addition of hula dancers and a fire show to go with it! The hula dancers asked if people from the audience would like to come up on stage to learn how to hula, so I pulled the whole team on stage to learn. It was so much fun! We ended the night watching a show called "Breath of Life", which was a story about growing up in the different island cultures. The show was very interesting and a fun experience!

Friday, our final day in Hawaii, ended with another sunrise at Laie Pointe, a drive up to the North shore for a great view. It was a beautiful way to spend our last morning. We packed everything up and headed to Waikiki Beach to do a little walking and shopping before leaving for the airport. The rain might have ended our shopping excursion early, however, we didn't leave empty handed! We ate lunch at Duke's for one last Hawaiian meal, accompanied by some send-off hula pie. It was a perfect way to end our trip to paradise.  

On behalf of the entire team, we cannot thank our coach and all of our supporters for the opportunity of a lifetime to come to Hawaii to compete and have many new life experiences!

Much Mahalo (Thank you) to everyone we saw in Hawaii!!

Until next time, Illini Nation!

Stephanie Miller