Saturday, April 27 Honolulu

Saturday, April 27 Boarding

A great time mingling with people from different countries all boarding at the same time.  The set sail party was very quiet compared to our previous cruise.

Boarding Boat

Real Lei

We had a very nice dinner of Mahi at one of the huge restaurants – excellent food.

The ship is your basic size, about 2400 passengers and crew of 750 approx.  One of the glaring shortcomings is the pool area. It is very small.  They have a second one aft (rear) of the ship but again it is maybe 20 X 20 ft.  Not exactly the ideal situation for so many people.  The cruise’s function is transportation from one island to another so onboard entertainment is very limited.

We sat on our balcony and watched the sunset and a few miles of ocean go by.  No seasickness for us – I don’t even feel the ship moving in the interior.  Ted says that he can feel the ship moving but not anything that would make you ill.

Sunday, April 28, Rainforest Tour

Sunday was a day of adventure. We took a walking tour in the rainforest to see a couple of small waterfalls with our Tour Guide, Dawn, and three other couples.  The other couples were from Edmonton, Sidney and Pennsylvania. 

Our first stop was at a surfer’s beach, Ho’O’Kipa, that supposedly gets waves as high as 30-40 feet during the winter.  There were tons of surfers on the water so must be a local favorite.  Stunning, beach shore as well.

We started out on pretty nice trail through the jungle but soon found ourselves crawling up rocks and tree roots.   The size of the plants and flowers were unbelievable!  I loved it all!  You can’t believe the amount of vegetation that is edible.   Along with eating parts of trees and plants, we picked and ate Sugar Banana,  Guava, SugarCane, Ginger and Mangos. 

We ate lunch after the toughest part of the climb on the top by one of the waterfalls.  We had a smoked turkey sandwich and homemade chocolate chip cookies from a local farm – delicious! And of course, more fruit picked from the trees. 

At the second waterfall, everyone was encouraged to jump in and cool off.  I walked in a ways but the water was freezing and about 2 feet in I couldn’t see my shoes so opted out of the cool of in the pool.  About half of the group did go in but agreed that it was pretty muddy.

Ruby In Pick Suit

We heard then saw a “bull frog”.  If that is a bullfrog, then I have never seen one before.  It was about the size of a MN turtle and the sounds it made sounds like an air horn on a semi truck.  No croaking for that big boy!  The noise stopped us all in our tracks.  I was sure that we were going to run into a wild boar. 

By the way, there are no snakes, poison ivy or oak and not many bugs of any kind on the islands.  They did have the MN bird in the forest though. 

Back to the ship for anniversary dinner at the steak house then listened to some bad Elton John music on the main deck. 

Day 7:

We are repacking this morning and will board the ship later today.  As we leave the island of Oahu, a look back at the week.

Oahu and especially the City of Honolulu is very commercial.  All the large companies have buildings at the ports to receive shipped in goods; Cargill, Land O' Lakes, Coca Cola, Miller Beer, Budweiser, etc.  Then there is Lewers Street with all the top end stores and labels.

The traffic is horrendous! Yesterday there was a "suspicious package" a block down from the condo.  The alert brought out, I swear, every policeman in the city.  Traffic was stopped on Waikiki for 4 - 5 hours.  Can you imagine sitting in a car that long?

The Japanese presence is everywhere.  The culture is engrained in almost everything even at fast food were rice is the favorite side over french fries.  We visited a large Japanese market, very similar to Sam's or Cosco.  I am guessing that it is very like what you might see in Japan.  All Japanese language with a few English signs.  We could recognize items by the packaging like Kit Kat bars.  I guess if you don't read Japanese you are not in the right store.

Visitors from the US are far outnumbered by Pacific Rim countries, Europe, Canada and Australia.

The young people that have grown up in the islands want to move to the mainland for jobs.  We talked with several servers and bartenders that had gone to college on the mainland then moved back home but are not able to find jobs.  We talked for a long time with a young man that had attended UND flight school and is still in line waiting for a pilot opportunity on the island.  Also, from our BWW friends, they had found jobs in Seattle and were moving on to the mainland.  Hawaii is not paradise for everyone.  Many homeless on the streets and parks.

A few of my favorite things:

Day 6:

We didn't do a whole lot today walked on the beach, people watched and window shopped a bit.  Lewers Street is a little like Rodeo Drive without all the guards at the front doors.  All the big fashion names in clothing and jewelry have a store here.  It is fun to look at the price tags and to see what people are buying.  The Japanese men and their "daughters" love the top end jewelry and lingerie shops.  Did you know that you could pay $200 for bikini underwear?  I don't think Vickie's has much to worry about.

In the evening we watched the sunset on the beach, spent time at the small pool and then the hot tub.  The hot tub area is much nicer than the pool.  It must be a recent upgrade.

Sunset From Oahu

The sun sets in just a matter of a few minutes, five minutes at tops maybe even less.

We board the cruise ship tomorrow so more from the Hawaiian Islands next week.

Day 5:

Today is beach and luau day.  The weather is absolutely spectacular, sunny skies, light wind and 90 degrees.  It rained very hard last night with flood warnings for inland but nothing on the beach except rain.  There is a large drain off nearby!

After a bloody at our favorite haunt across the street, we were headed to the beach but ran into a road block right outside of our condo building.

Water Main Break - Oops

The building in the left of the photo of the condo building where we are staying.  The storm sewers were able to handle the thousand gallons of water so no damage to the buildings other than some wet welcome mats.  It was quite the scene and held up traffic for a couple of hours.  The geyser is pretty high.  We were on a second story street level when taking the picture.

Off to the beach...

Not The Only Ones On The Beach Today

Body to Body On The Beach But Always Room For One More - Aloha Way

Tour Launches

How Clear The Water - Amazing

Can You See The Minnows?

Taking A Break Along The Beach

Mai Tai Time

The happy hour Mai Tai's are not made with the 151 so not quite as good as the evening.  

The luau was very fun.  Again, we followed the advice of our friend, Clinton, and again he did not disappoint us.  Germaine's Luau was excellent.  The imi (removing the smoked pig from the ground), food and dinner show were all very good.

Getting Ready For The Luau

Luau Beach

Horrendous Honolulu Traffic Jam

Taking Pictures Of Ourselves On Bus - Part Of The Keep Busy Party

The luau was on the western shore of the island about 30 miles from the condo.  What should have been about a 45 minute drive turned out to be an hour and a half yuk!  Our tour guide, Matt, with the first T silent, kept everyone pretty well entertained during the drive.  He never got tired of the silent T joke.  Americans are definitely in the minority here.  The Australians had the largest number followed by Canada then California.  We have not met anyone from MN as yet.  We had dinner with the Australians and a young couple from Baltimore that live in HI.  We had our Australia geography and history lesson and may have even been talked into visiting the Aussie's one day.  They tell us they have lots of wine and great beer - enough said?

We do not have any good pictures from the luau as it was dark by luau time - remember no daylight time here.  The beach was only lit by tiki lamps so definitely not enough lights for our cameras.  Hula and fire dancers were great.  Matt tired to breath fire on the way back but his Bic couldn't reach his lips, lol.

Beach and laundry day tomorrow.

Day 4:

It was a great day for sightseeing in Hawaii.  We rented another "economy car" from the VIP across the street.  We upgraded to air conditioning and a later model but not an upgrade on performance.  It is probably our last experience with wrecks.

We slept in until 7 so we didn't get the early start to Diamond Head that we had thought.  The climb up the mountain (hill compared to Rockies) is 1.5 miles up hill and 1.5 down the hill.  The trail is very well maintained but very uneven with many stairs on the last part of the climb.  It was 92 degrees so needless to say we were sweating by the time we got to the top but we had no problems making the climb.  Thanks to the every day treadmill and step exercise.

Ted At The Start Of The Trail - Pavement Ended Shortly!

Heading Into Tunnel Near The Top - Part Of The Trail

Sharing The View From The Top Of Diamond Head

From The Top -  How Clear The Water Is

View Of Honolulu From Top

The Crater - Extinct For 150,000 Years

Other Climbers Ahead Of Us

I did it!

Ted - Successful Climb or Touchdown?

After we cooled off a bit, we headed to Dole Plantation.  The plantation is a working farm where 100,000 pineapple and other fruits are grown each year.  We did learn that it takes 20 months to grow the first pineapple then 15 months for the second.  Each plant only produces 2 fruit and then the fields are cultivated down and the process starts again.  The farm workers are native Hawaiians.

Pineapple Field

The second tour was of the plantation's garden.  It was disappointing because it is spring and the cleanup is just starting and the plants were not blossoming.  Just like home.

Plants Native To Hawaii

Fun Roosters!

We did have fresh fruits from the farm papaya, sugar cane, coconut and mango.  The sugar cane is a chew and spit treat.  It was not my favorite.

After leaving the plantation, we drove towards the North Shore which is very beautiful.  The shore is more of what I would have expected of the Pacific - more like Laguna Beach.  Our destination was Turtle Beach and the only directions that we had "look for the white fence".  Our friend, Clinton, was spot on.  Right next to the white fence was parking along the road.  You couldn't miss it as there were dozens of cars already there.

When we got there, there was on giant turtle laying on the beach.

The Turtle That Was Beached When We Arrived

Turtle Watching - Beautiful Shore

Second Turtle Coming Ashore - Took Him A Long Time To Beach

Two Turtles On The Beach

Ranger Would Let You Within 3-4 Feet 

The turtles are Hawaiian Green Turtles.  This turtle was estimated to weigh between 250 - 260 pounds and about 39 - 40 years old.  They typically live to about 90, I guess.

It rained very hard on the drive back to Waikiki and dripped most of the evening.  We had quick dinner and called it a day.  Tomorrow is beach and luau day!

Day 3:  Today was Pearl Harbor day so the first action was to decide how we were going to get there.  The tours seemed outrageously expensive so... We did a Ted.  He decided that we were going to rent an economy car.  The term economy car has taken on a new meaning.  For the first time in our many travels, we rented a "Rent a Wreck" from Waikiki VIP service. I am still not understanding the VIP but I am guessing the owner has a sense of humor.  Once you got over the smell of burning oil and the hood not quite closing, the trip to the Harbor was uneventful.  Not bad for a car that has seen the far side of 117,000 miles.

The Nissan Sentra

Also note that the T is missing

The memorial is just a you would expect, a place where a very tragic event happened.  The memorial on the Arizona does not seem to be appropriate for the more than 1,100 lives that were lost on one battleship.  A very plain white cement structure that houses a wall with all the names of the sailors who died on the ship.  I have seen more impressive monuments for movie stars for goodness sake!  I also was expecting a huge military presence but other than the sailors that were boat captains of the shuttle out to the memorial none where present.  The narrators were Park Rangers.

The Arizona Memorial From Pearl Harbor Vistor Center

The Memorial Sculpture At The Visitor Center That Is Repeated On The Memorial

The Arizona Memorial Over The Remains Of The Ship - Note The Sculpture Repeated

We took a ton of pictures so can share them at a different time.  Many are the story of December 7 as it is captured at the memorial.  The USS Missouri is also part of Pearl Harbor story as that is the boat that the Japanese signed the surrender documents.

USS Missouri

Surrender Documents Signed By Japanese To End WWII

It was very warm here today near 90 with a bit of humidity and a few short rains.  The "rental" did not have AC so we were a little warm on the return to the condo.  Dripping wet in the short 10 mile trip back.  We returned the rental in good shape to the smiles of the guys that run the rental shop.  We will rent again tomorrow but Ted agrees that we should splurge for AC.

After a beer, pizza and walk on the beach, we are in for an early night.  We are off to Diamond Head and the Dole Plantation tomorrow.