There and Back Again: A Small Town Girl's Journey in Hawaii: 4th of July Weekend Fun

Aloha Everyone!!
Well my 4th of July weekend was filled with food, fun, friends and fireworks. On Sunday the gang all went to Waikiki Beach for "Sunset On the Beach" which is when they show a movie on a big screen and usually have some other entertainment as well. This time the Hawaii band played patriotic songs and we watched the movie "Soul Surfer" about a girl from Hawaii who lost her arm in a shark attack but continued surfing and following her dream of one day going pro. The girl whose life the movie was based on, Bethany Hamilton, made an appearance and watched the movie in a private section on the beach with us, as well as the actress who plays Bethany in the movie. On a random side note, I met a woman when me, Shelly and Jeremy were swimming at Waikiki who is a native of Forks, Washington, and yes I am a big enough Twilight dork to get excited about that. On the 4th of July I worked most of the day. We had a really good show at Cove so to celebrate we all jumped from the ship into pool three, which is about a 10 foot drop into a 20 foot deep pool. We were all just swimming around laughing and discussing the show when we realized we were being filmed by all the people who were leaving the show. It was awkward, but funny to realize I am on about at least 30 peoples video cameras jumping off a ship and swimming around in a dolphin pool. :) After work I joined the gang at Kailua Beach for a cookout, fireworks, swimming, and my annual 4th of July Flag cake. We didn't stay long after the fireworks show was over because right before the fireworks show started it began pouring down rain, then it stopped for the fireworks show...and started up again 5 minutes after the show ended, that brought some unexpected excitement to the evening. As always below are some pictures and a video from the weekend festivities.