Happy Fourth!

I went in to work today and I was surprised to see how many people were working the holiday. James and I spent a lot of time forecasting room sales in the different markets for August, September, and October. It requires a bit of analysis with different forms of measurements and we didn't seem to follow a real straight forward method. Hopefully when I make it to a DORM I will have figured out more of methodical way to do forecasting. Then again maybe that's just how revenue management goes :)

After work, my coworker, Jennifer, invited me to go with her and her husband to Hanalei Bay Beach to watch some local fireworks. She's the director of rooms and basically in charge of nearly all operations of the hotel. They picked me up at and we headed to the beach. The beach was decently full with fellow BBQers and volleyball game players. This is by far my favorite beach on the island and it sounds like locals from the North Shore usually go to this beach. Jen had brought some pasta salad and some brie and bread for us to enjoy with her husband's wide array of fireworks. Apparently, fireworks are legal on the 4th of July in Hawaii and everyone seemed to have a fair share of them. We had the perfect seat to watch fireworks and in the background a group of surfer-looking guys strummed on their guitars to give us perfect background music to enjoy. I loved the feeling of the beach. It was so small-town America, except on a beach! The smell of firework smoke and the laughing kids in the background couldn't make me more proud to celebrate our nation's holiday in such a wonderful place. As we watched the sunset and night approach, we sipped wine and enjoyed the crashing waves and local fireworks show.