02/09 — Aloha!

Everyone should come to Hawaii. It’s unbelievable, just drop-dead gorgeous. I’ve been to a lot of places in this world, but this is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to in my life.

When I look over to my right from my balcony, all I see is the ocean and palm trees and surfers and mountains. The waves aren’t exactly that big where I’m at, but I guess they have 30-footers on the other side of the island of Oahu. Right now the water is similar to what you would see at Jones Beach but a lot clearer.

The traffic here — I wasn’t expecting it. It’s bumper-to-bumper every single day. Would you expect a lot of traffic in Hawaii?

But we’re in Honolulu and this is a large city. Lauren, a Dolphins cheerleader who lives in Florida, compared it to South Beach. I know most people probably think of beaches and desolate lands when they talk about Hawaii but it’s very crowded here. There are a lot of hotels, shops and restaurants.

During the week, I’ve exchanged text messages with a couple of the girls from the New York Jets Flight Crew. I’ve also talked with some of my family and some of my friends, but not that much because there’s so much going on and the time difference is a little bit hard — we’re five hours behind here. Every time I think about giving So-and-So a call, I look at the time and realize it’s like 3 a.m. on the East Coast.

One of my many highlights this week was visiting Aliamanu Military Reservation (AMR). We went to the gym on the base and performed for probably 100 kids who actually live there. We did two of our routines, introduced ourselves and then signed autographs. It was nice because there weren’t many people there, so we had the time to talk and take photos. They couldn’t have been more appreciative and they were so cute.

One of our security guys actually told us that the AMR was built in a volcano. It was cool because you could kind of see how it was carved out — it was gorgeous.

On Sunday, I’ll get the sideline view of the Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium. I’ll be sure to drop you a quick line before I head to the game.

(Editor's note: Linda will check in Sunday morning with her Saturday night on the town of Honolulu and her preparations the morning of the game, then will blog one more time Monday with details from her experience performing at the NFL's annual all-star game and a wrapup of her week in Hawaii.)