Wow, what an awesome day today was! And I'm really not even kidding :) Today was spent in learning sessions at the beautiful Hawaii Convention Center. We started our morning off with breakfast at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Folks, if you want a beautiful, full service resort on the beach with lots of shopping, dining and entertainment venues, this is the place for you! We were provided with an awesome breakfast as well as a little bit of entertainment by some of the hula dancers from the Hilton Hawaiian Village Luau. Boy, I sure wish I could get my hips to move like that! We've decided those girls have to have an extra muscle somewhere that us mere mortals don't possess. What an awesome talent to possess!

We transfered as a group to the Convention Center where we began our day in a general session. We were treated to some more Hawaiian Dancers and singers and then it was time to kick everything off. After a few give aways (two $1000 Amex Gift cards and one $500 Amex gift card.....which was won by Michelle Johnson of Travel Leaders in Fargo by the way...she's my new best friend!), we were briefed on what our next two days would entail and then it was off to our first session. The two morning sessions were to learn more about Oahu and the Big Island (my first session) and Kauai and Maui (my favorite session! Maile was AWESOME!!! I'm so glad she's going to be part of my post-fam at the end of the week!!). This was an amazing opportunity to learn some new things about all of these islands that I didn't know previously, this being my first visit to the islands. If you're interested in a trip to one of these great destinations, give me a holler and I can definitely set you up with the trip of your dreams :)

Our lunch today was a traditional Hawaiian Lunch. Ok, I know some of you know how my menu normally looks when I eat, but, I'm sticking with the new leaf I turned over of trying new things. Lunch today was DEFINITELY out of my comfort zone. For those of you who don't know, I'm more of a meat and potatoes girl, vegetables and fruit are not high on my priority list. Lunch today consisted of an appetizer that included sears Ahi, Green Papaya Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette followed by our entree of Smoked Huli Huli style Chicken and fresh Mahi mahi with Mashed Okinawan Sweet Potatoes (they were Vikings purple, no wonder this was my least favorite part of the meal!!!) and Taro Rolls. We topped this all off with toasted coconut Haupia cake with a chocolate dipped strawberry. The Ahi was ok, but I'm not going to run out and order it again tomorrow....the Chicken was awesome, but I wasn't a huge fan of the Mahi Mahi (a little to dry and fishy for me). Not being a fan of sweet potatoes to begin with, these were no different, even if they were a pretty shade of purple! Now the rolls, which were also purple mind you, were very yummy! And the cake, well, coconut is definitely in my top 10 of least favorite fruits, but this one was so subtle, I actually liked it. See, I am growing up a little bit....there might be hope for me yet!

This afternoon was spent in one-on-one sessions with different tour vendors where I again discovered a few things I never knew before. It also snagged me some cool gifts (like a GIANT neon green pen that I'm pretty sure won't be able to walk off my desk to parts unknown like some of my others do) and allowed me to meet some new vendors that will be able to help me sell more Hawaii!! Yay :)

Our evening was finished up with a dinner and reception at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Hotel. Dinner tonight (at least the one buffet line anyway) was more up my alley.....prime rib, roast suckling pig and garlic mashed potatoes......yummy!! And topped off with Chocolate Oreo Parfait.......ahhhhhhh! There was also a buffet line with more Asian inspired foods including Peking Duck, Mushu Gai Pan and sushi. And no, I didn't hit up the buffet line.....one meal out of my comfort zone a day is enough for now :) Tonight we also learned more about the Hyatt properties as well as Funjet Vacations. And again.....more giveaways. This time it was one of our Bursch girls who won! Jill Ward won a beautiful spa basket that I'm sure she will make very good use of......once she figures out how to get it home! It's a little large for her suitcase, so UPS may be the answer :)

It's now 9:09 pm Hawaii time and I'm about ready to crash for the day.....how sad is that??? But, tomorrow is another day, so maybe a little extra sleep might be a good thing. We finish fairly early tomorrow, so I'm meeting up with Cousin Lisa again for an evening of fun and adventure.....wonder what we're going to find this time?!?!?

Aloha all and for my friends that are freezing their tuckuses off in ND and MN, can you see about getting rid of that white stuff before I get home Sunday afternoon??? Thanks!