HAWAII DIARY--May 30--Pt.II--The Black Pearl

After Pearl Harbor, Barry agreed to come with me to consider the pearl necklace, and decided that I should have some nice memento from Hawaii. Jared doesn’t like Waikiki, so he went to a parking lot to read his book and wait for us. The place I had been at the night before in the International Market Place was called Maui Divers Jewelry. There was another store just across the street of the same name, so I thought it would be good to stop in there and see if they had any more options for settings. We were greeted by a saleswoman named Cinderella (it was on her name tag). They did not do the oyster thing in that store, but she quickly ushered us over to the Tahitian Pearl jewelry. It was lovely, large, and expensive. She told us that these particular pearls with the greenish grey huge matched every outfit and looked lovely with my eyes (she may have been right about this) :-). There was one pearl necklace that was not too big and was set beautifully that was a little tempting, but it was 3 or 4 times more expensive than we felt we could go. We told her we needed to look around, but she promised to set it aside for us anyway. We went across the street to the place I had been the night before. The girl I had worked with wasn’t there, but the guy that came to help us, must have been feeling a little more generous, because he was willing to throw in some discounts that she hadn’t. I had liked the least expensive of the white gold settings the night before, but I wasn’t sure I was sold on it. When he told me that the setting was the Maile leaf which is used in Hawaiian wedding leis and other important events—it symbolizes love and honor—I was convinced that this was a good choice, financially and sentimentally. I told him that I wanted a black pearl. He wasn’t sure we would find one in any of the oysters he had available, but I wanted the oyster picking experience anyway. We chose an oyster and found not one, but two pink pearls inside. The pink pearls were pretty, but more gold toned than I liked. He went looking for a black pearl in their reserves and we decided to see if we could buy the pink pearls to save for Kira for when she gets her ears pierced in a few years. He threw them in for free (I think they make all their money on the gold). So I got my black pearl necklace on the maile leaf, and we have some special pearls for Kira for a special occasion. I agonized about this purchase, but am glad that we made the memory and have the jewelry.

(The end result)

Jared met us and took us to the nearest Wal-mart to get the last souvenirs/food stuffs we wanted to take back. We also purchased another duffle bag to carry on, since we were pretty loaded at this point (we had a suitcase half full of Jared and Suzy’s stuff since they are moving back soon, as well as all of our stuff).

Then it was to the airport where we said ALOHA to Jared and thanked him for a great week!