Hawaii is a lot more than just a place!

Hawaii is a feeling . . . 

Plumeria flowers

Hawaii is way more than just a place. It is an artist's dream, a florist's fantasy . . . Mother Nature at her best. You can't beat Hawaii for romance because the air is cool at night, the variety of flowers, such as plumeria, maile, gardenia, etc. scent the air along with the sea spray, and everything is beautiful, especially the green mountains with all the waterfalls. Check out these videos of some of beauty.  My husband and I enjoyed this Helicopter ride over Kauai. It was a big adventure. Check out all the waterfalls! Growing up in Hawaii was a fantastic experience. I was a toddler when my family traveled to Oahu on a boat - right, it wasn't a five-hour airplane ride - it was a boat ride that took several days. That was a popular form of travel way back then. In fact, Hawaii was not even a state yet. I was in Hawaii for a couple of years before it became the 50th State. It was still a territory when my father received his Navy transfer to Hawaii and we hopped on a boat! Can you imagine a time when Hawaii wasn't yet a state?  

I was spoiled growing up in Hawaii because I thought all beaches would be as beautiful as Hawaii's beaches. When I traveled to the mainland, I discovered that not all beaches can compare to the beaches where my family and I searched for shells. If we had known that all those broken shells that we ignored would become the craze in the form of puka shells. Puka means hole. Somebody got the idea to pick up all those broken shells and make them into necklaces and the puka shell necklace craze began. We would walk the length of the beaches and push pieces of driftwood back into the ocean. Sometimes the pieces would be huge so the whole family would have to put our backs into it to set that piece of wood adrift again. We had many relaxing days on the beach. We had picnics and barbecues. We looked for caves to explore; checked out sea creatures caught in tidepools; and had many shell hunting adventures. Hawaii is a great place for a honeymoon because it is so beautiful and romantic. Check out these sunset shots that my brother-in-law Allwyn took the other night. Beautiful yeah? Tell me that's not romantic!  Quality Service Lesson:  Get Mother Nature involved - she will sell your product for you!

Thanks Allwyn!

Today's Hawaiian Recipe - Chicken Laulau

If you can find ti and taro leaves where you live, please try this recipe. If you don't like to cook, take a trip to Hawaii and make sure the luau you attend serves Chicken Laulau. It is delicious!

Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah

If you have never been to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah, you are missing out on some quality plays. For a small town, this Shakespeare Festival puts on some fantastic plays. I recently took two friends to three of the plays and they said the quality of the plays rivaled plays they had seen on Broadway. This festival does comedy so well! My husband and I went to see Boeng Boeng the other night. What a funny play. The actors are amazing! I loved the German Air Hostess and of course, Robert, but all the actors were great! Sadly, the Festival is over for this year, but be sure you visit it next year. Just remember www.Bard.org! Quality Service Lesson:  Always provide a quality product and you will have people coming back for more and more and more.

Back to UPR
Come to find out, Bryan Earl, Station Manager at UPR, was at Boeng Boeng on the same night that I

Bryan Earl

attended the play. He was nice enough to contact me on Friday to see if he could stop by my office on campus to meet me since he was in town. Unfortunately, I had taken the day off and was not on the campus, so I missed out. That's just another part of the great marketing that UPR excels at. I was so excited that he wanted to meet me! After I wrote about Kerry Bringhurst in my blog, Bryan contacted me and offered me a certificate for the Shakespeare Festival. That was so nice! So I got to see Boeng Boeng courtesy of UPR. Thanks Bryan and Kerry and all the hard workers at UPR! Your radio station is the best! Quality Service Lesson:  Hire quality people who understand the importance of quality service and are willing to go the extra mile.

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!