It's not over til it's over

Disembarkation this morning. Or should I say yesterday morning (I've been on the go for a whole day now).

We took the tour of Pearl Harbor, as that included drop off at the airport.  So the bus picked us up right at the pier and our luggage stayed on the bus until we were dropped off at the airport.  Saw a few sights around Honolulu on the way to Pearl Harbor, including the capitol building (one of only 11 without a dome). 




The Arizona memorial was very moving.  Oil is still leaking from the ship at the rate of a gallon a day. A drop of oil will bubble up to the surface and then dissipate.  They call them "black tears".

We were dropped at the airport quite early and no Air Canada people were at the desk, so Bridie and I played cards for a while.  There were no shops before going through security so there wasn't much to do.  By the time the Air Canada reps turned up and we could get checked in, most of the shops the other side of security were already closed for the day also (our flight didn't leave until 10pm).  Fortunately one of the 2 shops that were still open sold Honolulu Cookie Company cookies, so I was able to stock up before getting on the plane.  There was no working wifi in HNL airport either, so I couldn't even log in and do a blog entry.

Didn't manage a lot of sleep on the flight from Honolulu to Vancouver.  There seemed to be a large number of young children sitting all around us - most of them spent the entire flight wailing and refusing to go to sleep. 

We're now sitting in Vancouver - where the wifi works, waiting for the flight to Ottawa.  It's going to be a long day.  Once we land in Ottawa I have to admit that my vacation is officially over. :-(

Last night aboard

This evening we sailed along the Napali coast.  A place where several movies have been filmed including Jurassic Park 1 and 2, King Kong, Six Days and Seven Nights, South Pacific, and others. 

Since it was our last night on board Bridie and I put on our glad rags and went to a fancy French Bistro called Jeffersons for a slap up meal.  Very nice.




Now we are all packed again and have to put our cases outside the room tonight. 
Tomorrow Pearl Harbor and then off to the airport. I don't want to go back home to the snow .....

shave ice and chickens

Sadly, today is the last full day at sea.  We dock at Honolulu early tomorrow morning, and will be on the plane home tomorrow evening.  I'm told it's snowing in Ottawa - so I'm not looking forward to the change in the weather.

Today was day 2 at Kaua'i.  It was a short day as we were leaving port at 2pm.  Bridie was booked on a zip line tour, but being scared of heights I chose not to join her.  I started the day out in the library/internet room doing a post about last night's luau.  I must have been spending too much time in that room because people keep coming up and asking me questions as though I'm a member of the staff. Yesterday I had a couple asking me how to print out their boarding passes.  Today I had one guy wanting me to show him where the printer was and another couple came in and asked me if it was OK to "wait" in there. I'm not quite sure what they were waiting for, or why they thought I would have any authority to tell them where they could or could not "wait" for anything.

Having the morning to myself, I walked into town - which was not far at all from Nawiliwili Harbor where Pride of America was docked.  I wandered around the small mall and checked out all the gift shops, doing some last minute present buying.  Then I headed across the road to "restaurant row" where there was an ice-cream shop called Skinny Mikes. All through the vacation I've been seeing signs for "shave ice"  which is apparently a Hawaiian "thing" - sort of like a gigantic snow cone.  I'd decided I really had to try it before the end of the vacation, so for breakfast this morning I had a pineapple shave ice.  As the photo shows - I ordered a small one. I cannot imagine what size a large one would be.  Skinny Mike himself was a nice bloke - and yes he was very skinny.  I asked him how he managed to stay so thin when he's surrounded by ice-cream, sorbets, milk shakes, smoothies, etc.  He told me he'd always been that way -  doesn't it make you mad when you meet people like this?

After breakfast I went down to the beach and had a paddle.  And I couldn't leave Kaua'i without offering up at least one photo of the ubiquitous chickens.  In most places you go to a park and it's full of pigeons. But here the parks are full of chickens.  I had a strong urge to run around after them shouting "gravy gravy!", but managed to contain myself.

Back on the ship by 11am I then hung out by the pool and spent an hour in the hot tub talking to a couple from Maryland.  The guy was yet another Donald Trump supporter.  There seem to be a lot of them on this cruise.  Although I guess if you've got enough money to go cruising all the time you're more likely to be a republican.  All the poor people who can't afford to come on a cruise are probably democrats. 

Bridie was back by 2pm and we went up to a very windy top deck to watch the ship leave port.

At about 5pm we'll be making a special  pass close to the Napali coast which National Geographic reckons is one of the 50 most beautiful places in the world.   I will take a photo and let you know.

Blue Hawaii

Our vacation is drawing to a close, so we want to fit as much in as possible.  Thursday was a full day tour of Kaua'i followed by a luau.

We started off at the location where Elvis filmed the movie "Blue Hawaii".  It's very picturesque - except for the chickens.  They have wild chickens everywhere on Kaua'i because they don't have mongoose like every other island does. On the other islands mongoose are supposed to be there to eat the rats, but instead they eat the chicken eggs. 

After that it was off to Opeaka'a falls. Very beautiful spot.  Then the spouting Horn - which is a place where a lava tube goes out into the sea, and as the tide comes in it spouts up out of a break in the top of the lava tube.   We then went on to Poipu for a packed lunch.  Of course the chickens joined us hoping someone would drop a piece of sandwich.  One chicken even got up on the picnic table with us. 

In the afternoon we went to Waimea Canyon.  Sort of like the Grand Canyon - but smaller.  In my opinion also prettier than the Grand Canyon as there was green in the mix of colours and some waterfalls too.

We also had a stop at a Kaua'i coffee plantation, but I have to say I preferred the Kona coffee, which is a bit sad - since it's more than twice as expensive as the Kaua'i coffee.

We rounded out the day at the Luau.  We watched them dig up the pig first.  Both the women and the men did fire dancing.  Bridie went up on stage and had a go at doing the hula.  The food was good - the pork was amazing and there was also mahi mahi which was very yummy.  We were exhausted by the time we got back to the ship.

Approaching Kauai

Beautiful view from the deck this morning as we sail towards Kauai.  We will be here 2 days.  Today Bridie and I will be taking a full day tour called "Best of Kauai" and in the evening we're going to a luau.

Caffeine and Chocolate

Today I went for a ride in one of the lifeboats.  Not because the ship was sinking - they use them as tenders to transfer passengers to and from the port at Kona.  Kona has no deep water port - so the Pride of America has to anchor out at sea and take us over on the lifeboats.

Bridie and I were booked on the Kona Mocha tour. First stop was a coffee plantation with samples of Kona coffee.  Once we were all buzzed up with caffeine we were taken to a chocolate plantation.  So apparently when you hack open a cocoa pod the 30-40 beans inside it are initially covered in this white sticky stuff - which the lizards find very tasty.  While the guy was trying to give us the demonstration about half a dozen of these guys arrived on the bench. The place smelled divine, and the samples were all yummy, but this stuff is expensive!

After arriving back at the port we had lunch in a place called the fish hopper on the waterfront where I tried a fish called Ono for the first time (I keep wanting to call it oni - but that's some sort of Japanese demon isn't it?).  They had great cocktails.

Also saw the old Royal palace - which I've got to say looked more like a country house than a palace, and the oldest Christian church on Hawaii.  Did a bit of shopping, then lifeboat back to the ship again.

I'm now exhausted and hanging out in the library while Bridie is attending another lei making class.

Fire at night

Last night we sailed by Kilauea at about 9.45pm and watched the lava flowing into the sea.  I'm afraid I don't have a fancy camera, so the photo really doesn't do it justice.  Bridie and I climbed up to the very highest point on the ship to watch.  It was pretty windy up there.  The captain turned off the lights on the ship as we went past.  One of the unexpected aspects of this was that you also got a great view of the stars with no light pollution. 

Volcanooo!!!!

Arrived in Hilo this morning. I finally managed to sleep past 5am, but I was still up in time to see the dawn.  Today's activity was a trip to the Volcanoes National Park, where we saw Kilauea, which has been erupting since 1983.  We also got to walk in a lava tube.  Just for once, as a short person I had the advantage, and it was fun being able to walk along the tube not worrying about anything while watching all the tall guys having to duck their heads all the time.

We were back on the ship by early afternoon and we weren't sailing until 6pm, so Bridie and I walked down Banyan Drive and part way into town to see the statue of some guy called Kamehameha which Bridie reckons is shown in the credits of the new Hawaii 5 0 show.  Banyan drive is supposed to be made up of Banyan trees planted by "famous" people.  But apart from Richard Nixon and Babe Ruth I didn't recognize any of them. Just who was Mrs D Bond - and why was she "famous"?

Had a lovely meal this evening, sharing a table with the same Australian couple we sat with last night, and with a pair of American ladies from Pennsylvania and California.

I have to stay up until 9.45 this evening as the ship will be sailing past Kilauea and we will be able to see the red hot lava flowing into the sea.

We all live in a yellow submarine

I'm still adjusting to the time zone changes and was up at 5am again this morning. This allowed me to go up on deck and watch the dawn on Maui.

Today we went to Lahaina for a trip on the Atlantis submarine.  Our submarine was actually white - but I did see a yellow submarine nearby.  Excellent trip in the sub. Saw a wreck and a shark and a lot of fish.  On the boat ride out to the sub and back we also saw pods of dolphins.

Bridie wasn't very well on the boat, but she recovered enough afterwards for us to go for ice-cream (instead of lunch).  By the way - Bridie's Mum, if you're reading this, Bridie says Hi.

Lahaina was a lovely town. I would have loved to stay there longer and eat in one of the restaurants on the sea front.  Did you know that Mick Fleetwood (of Fleetwood Mac) owns a restaurant there?  It has the very original name of "Fleetwoods".  The main "attraction" in Lahaina is the world's second (or third - depending on who you ask) largest Banyan tree.  This thing is huge and takes up a full city block.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to eat and had to cut the shopping short as we had to get the bus back to the ship by 3pm because the ship leaves Maui at 5.30pm.  Tomorrow morning we dock at Hilo on the Big Island.

This evening Bridie and I attended a lei making class and made leis from Kukui  nuts.  

Maui Day 1

I was up at 5am this morning - couldn't sleep.  But this meant I could hang out on deck and get a great view as we approached Maui - and docked at about 8am.   Unfortunately the port itself is not that picturesque - this was the view from our stateroom:




Today we were supposed to be going on an Atlantis submarine trip and then shopping in Lahaina. But our booked excursion has been postponed until tomorrow as the submarine was undergoing maintenance today.  Bridie and I walked into the town to the Queen someone or other Center (I know a lot of people complain Welsh doesn't have enough vowels - but my problem is that Hawaiian seems to have too many and all the words are really long).  Anyhow, we caught a local bus and got off at Waikapu to  visit a tropical plantation.  Had a lovely lunch there with nice cocktails and saw lots of interesting plants and a coconut husking demonstration and trolley tour of the plantation.

Then we jumped a bus again and went on to some Harbor town and had a look around there.  Now back on the ship and exhausted.  But I feel quite proud that we went out and used the local bus service and found our way around for the day on our own rather than paying for an expensive organized excursion.  The local bus was 4 bucks to ride anywhere all day - and entrance to the plantation was free (although we did have to pay for the trolley tour)

All Aboard

Managed to get on board the Pride of America early in the day.  Some of the first ones on and Bridie and I had remembered to take our swim suits in our carry on - so we had one of the hot tubs to ourselves.



Spent most of the afternoon exploring the ship.  The library (and internet "cafe" - though there's no coffee) is impressive. 

In the evening we sat with a couple from Florida and a pair of ladies from New Zealand.  I must admit that I thought the guy from Florida and one of the New Zealand ladies were going to come to blows at one point - over their differing opinions on Barak Obama and Donald Trump. 
Bridie and I turned in early as we were both exhausted. 

22nd October

Got into Honolulu late last night.  On Waikiki beach this morning for a paddle - the water is very warm.  Bridie and I had breakfast cocktails and pancakes at Tiki's bar and grill.  Wanted to post more on facebook - but it says it's locked my account!

21st Oct

OK, so I'm stuck here in Vancouver airport on an 8 hour layover.  So far I'm not impressed with the signage. The arrows to baggage claim were pointing into the door of a shop!  On the subject of baggage claim, I thought I was going to have pick up my checked suitcase and it wouldn't be automatically checked through to Honolulu.  But it turned out that it was.  This is weird since I'm pre-clearing US customs here - but apparently I can clear customs without my luggage. I'm really not sure how that's supposed to work.
Not only are the arrows on the signs pointing in strange directions, I can't find a map of the terminal anywhere - except on the YVR website.  The first thing I needed to find was a power outlet To plug in this laptop.  I roamed the airport for 30 minutes before finally finding what was obviously supposed to be somewhere for people with laptops to sit - only to find that they had stupid power outlets set into a depression at an angle - and my plug was too big to get into the depression - back to roaming the airport again until I found this place tucked away at the back of Tim Hortons.  Needed my timmies nyway - as there was no free meal on the plane and they wanted you to charge you about 12 bucks for  sandwich and a bottle of water.
The lack of airport maps is a problem.  This place is huge and my carry on luggage is heavy and I had to trudge around a while before I found the International arrivals hall where my friend will be arriving later.  There is supposed to be some sort of aquarium exhibition somewhere, but I can't find it - and the web site makes a bit deal about it without actually showing where it is anywhere on the on-line map.  I was going to take a photo of it to pretty this post up a bit.  But in the absence of being able to find it I took a photo of this totem pole instead: 

16th October

Only 5 days until I set off for Hawaii.

Packing is underway.  I don't have a lot of volume of clothing since most of it is t-shirts and shorts. This is good - as it means I'll have lots of room in my case for Kona coffee and Honolulu Cookie Company cookies on the way back!

October 9th

It's Thanksgiving here in Canada. So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. Here's a seasonal photo to celebrate the day:


The only big news today is that I finally passed level 2000 of Candy Crush.  I really thought I'd give up when I got that far.  But by now there are 2045 levels ... so maybe I'll keep going for a bit.

October 8th

First day of my new blog.  I will be off to Hawaii in 2 weeks, and I want to post daily about my vacation.  So I thought I'd just set this up now ahead of time, and make sure it's all working properly before I head out on vacation.

This morning did not start well.  I turned the tap on to brush my teeth, and noticed water running out of the bottom of the cupboard beneath the sink.  Turns out the pipe under the sink had come apart.  How does that even happen?






Yesterday the weather was fine and I managed 26500 steps according to my fitbit, which was just as well, since when I got up this morning the weather looked like this, and I really didn't think I was going to be able to walk at all.  However, it did at least stop raining in the afternoon and I squelched around for a couple of hours and managed to put in 12000 steps by the end of the day.