Aloha.

I'm having a wonderful time in Hawaii. Don't worry, I really am working! But it's an incredible place to be on business! After arriving yesterday around noon, I made my way from Honolulu up to the Northern Shore. I'm staying at a beautiful place called Turtle Bay, and this is where we'll be staying this coming fall for our board meeting. I met with the president of BYU-Hawaii yesterday evening (he's one of our board members). He's hosting our board meeting on his beautiful campus. I learned more about the history of his campus, which has a very unique and interesting mission. 35% of their students come from the Pacific Islands, so it's considered one of the most international campuses in the US. I then went to a luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Over 700 students at BYUH are employed at the PCC, which helps fund college educations for many of these international students. The food was wonderful, and the night show later in the evening was awesome--drums, dancing, island stories, fire! My little boys would have loved it! I'm excited to see it again with our board members in the fall.

This morning I texted some of the family that my toes were on the beach and in the ocean by 7:30 am. (: I went for a walk around the resort, grabbed coffee, and did some work in my room. I spent most of my day at BYUH, meeting with staff, touring their meeting space, and figuring out logistics for transportation, AV, catering, etc. The staff at BYUH are wonderful, and I feel really fortunate to have such a cool job. I was back in time to take a swim in the ocean and soak up some Vitamin D on the beach.

Tomorrow I have a breakfast meeting with the resort folks, and then I head back to the southern part of the island. I hope to get to Pearl Harbor before having dinner with one of our HI commissioners in downtown Honolulu. I'm on an overnight flight to San Fran tomorrow, so I'll be back home Friday morning. I'm missing my boys whole bunches. They're getting a lot better about talking to me on the phone. Justin said that firemen visited the school today for an inspection. Apparently, Morgan talked to the firemen extensively about their truck and their jobs. And he had the firemen laughing and quite impressed by how much this 2-year old knew about them! That's my boy! Although, I have no idea where he picked up his extrovert genes!

View from my room

BYU-Hawaii

The luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center

The grounds at the PCC are amazing and replicate all of the Polynesian islands.

My zippy little rental car. It's served me well on this trip.

One of the swimming beaches at Turtle Bay.

The lovely ocean.