A photo journey: Benji's 30th Birthday Party!!!

Happy New Years from Fruh-reezing New Orleans. I always thought the dirty south was hot hot hot. It is giving boston a run for it's money. All those t-shirts I brought are sitting in my suitcase....it is freezing out there. It is still a great trip, despite the humuliation that Georgia brought us in the Sugarbowl, I still think it was worth the trip. It was the coolest experience to fly on a plane and land in airports in Texas and Arizona and recognize green-shirted Hawaiians wandering around the airport. It was like our own spiritual journey to Mecca. The Georgia fans have been absolutely gracious and I just wish I had more UH stuff to wear. Those Georgia fans have logos on everything, we're talking Georgia hats, scarfs, gloves, and shoes, socks. They

are crazy Georgia everything. I'll blog about it later. Today we went with Leilani to look at two plantations and learn about their history, it was very interesting.

These pics are from Leilani's boyfriend, Benji's 30th surprise birthday party. Leilani was worried about people drinking and driving with all the traffic accidents happening lately. So someone brought a portable breathalyzer machine. It had a handheld machine with a package of disposable plastic moutthpieces. We advised Leilani to be very stingy with letting benji play around with it so they wouldn't use up and waste all the mouthpieces. Turns out, there was no need to worry about that. She tried it once and then left her mouthpiece on and told Benji to try it. He did...and got so excited about this new toy that he ran off and everyone at the party was crowding around sharing it, trying to beat each others alcohol reading. Then we got really worried when Kahekili, Chrystie and Matt's 9 year old boy, ran over to the crowd. No...noo....

...Kahekili...don't put that in yo.....aw, too late. Matt just shrugged his shoulders and said "we'll just brush his teeth as soon as we get home." Maybe all the alcohol from everyone else will kill any germs. The centerpiece of the party was the cake...a huge affair of chocolate in the shape of the Aloha stadium. Leilani had it made by a bakery called Cake Lava in Kailua. Scott and I brought it in the back of our Saturn vue and it was a stressful ride but it made it to the dock, and Benji's dad, took it across in the back of the boat.