Gilly's Hawai'i Trip 1999

10/20 Wednesday - Honolulu, Oahu

7:50 am

I can't believe it's finally time. I'm on the flight to Chicago, and we're currently passing over some clouds that look precisely like freshly groomed snow. I don't suppose I'll get to do any skiing in Hawai'i, but at least I'll have a reason to go back to Boston!

I had a brief heart attack at the airport when I realized I didn't remember packing my passport, but just as I was going into overdrive trying to figure out who I could call to get it from my house and FedEx it to me, I discovered that I had packed it a week ago with my other tickets and documents. Sometimes I'm too smart for my own good.

Wouldn't you know it, the stem on my watch broke this morning. It still runs fine, but I can't set the time, which I suspect will be important once I get to Hawai'i.

We're running late, so I don't know whether I'll make the flight to Honolulu yet, but that's ok, I'm 30 now, I'm a grown-up now, I'll deal. :)

Later

Made it into Chicago just in time to run to my gate (good thing I printed out a map of the airport beforehand!) and get onto the plane. I was frantically trying to find Mom-mom to make sure she knew I made it, and discovered that she was in the seat next to mine. Very convenient.

1:00 pm EST (no idea what time zone we're in now!)

The captain just took us for a brief scenic detour over the mountains in Denver and the Grand Canyon. I begin to see why they call it "grand" big doesn't even begin to describe it. My binoculars have come in handy already! Add another spot to my list to visit someday.

 

10/21 Thursday - Honolulu

8:00 am

Travel trip: if you're going to somewhere with a 6 hour time difference, leaving at 4 am after 2 hours of sleep is pretty much guaranteed to make it hard to stay up any later than 5 pm local time. Which means you wake up rested and refreshed at midnight. Somehow we managed to force ourselves to keep going back to sleep until 6 am, at which point it felt like noon and we just had to get up. There's a little international market filled with carts right beneath our window, and I woke up to the loveliest music playing from it. I pulled on clothes and ran downstairs to try to find out where the music was coming from, and what it was. I asked one of the natives sweeping off the street with a palm frond, but he just shrugged. Oh well, maybe I'll find out someday. Mom-mom and I washed and dressed for real, then went across the street for macadamia nut pancakes and fresh pineapple. Yum! Now it's 8am and time to write some postcards until the shops open at 9 and we do some power shopping before our bus leaves at noon for the Polynesian cultural center.

10:30pm

Went for a quick walk alone, looking for somewhere I could buy a cheap watch so that I could stop trying to subtract 6 from everything in my head, and I stumbled across a sign that said "INTERNET" hanging from a balcony in a motel. I followed the signs, around past a shoe store promoting six-inch spike heels intended either for hookers or transvestites, past a store selling gold lame bikinis for 50% off, up the back stairs, and around into heaven: a tiny room with four computers and a laid-back guy on the balcony inviting me to use one. I grabbed a computer, started a telnet session and managed to get a connection to apocalypse. Ah, email! Sent off a few quick messages, including one explaining that I wouldn't be able to join the group movie outing being planned for the evening because I was in Honolulu, and had to run. On the way back to the hotel I stopped at a little sushi bar, grabbed three plates off the little moving belt bringing a never-ending parade of sushi past the sushi bar, ran into the hotel shop and bought the first $15 watch I found that wasn't completely hideous, and was just in time to meet Mom-mom for the bus to the Polynesian center.

Our bus driver was a wonderful Hawaiian woman named Nora who kept us entertained on the hour-plus ride with legends, Hawaiian lessons, information about each area we passed, and bad jokes.

At the Polynesian center we first saw the Samoan presentation, in which a large morose man tattooed from his waist to his toes kept insisting that the Samoans were a happy people. He showed us how to start a fire with sticks and how to husk and open a coconut with a sharpened stick as big as my leg. (Those things are tough! The last time I tried to husk one, hurling it to the ground from my balcony only dented the ground, and it broke the best blade on my pocketknife.)

We moved over to the nearby canal for the pageant of canoes, in which performers rode platforms atop twin-hulled canoes and performed legends and dances of the various Polynesian cultures. After that we visited a Maori village and saw some of their dances. Afterwards I got to learn how to do one of their stick games that involved tossing and catching sticks with other people in rhythm. The guy teaching me said that was the fastest he's ever seen anyone learn.

We saw an Imax film on the Polynesian people, which was an impressive film as well as a nice chance to sit down for a while.

Dinner was the Ali'i Luau, with more performances and lots of good food. Poi is pretty much as I remembered it lavender wallpaper paste. But I got some poke, which is marinated raw tuna yum! And lots of other good cooked fish, and purple dinner rolls that I think were made from Taro root. After dinner there was a huge show that features dances and performances from all the cultures: Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, Hawai'i, Tonga, and probably some I'm forgetting now. It culminated in a truly impressive fire-dancing, -eating, and -sitting performance by our friend the happy Samoan. Then it was time to board the bus and fall unconscious until we were deposited at our hotel to fall into bed until the next morning.

 

10/22 Friday - Honolulu

4:30pm

After breakfast we boarded the bus for Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. I wasn't really sure why I wanted to go, but I had heard about it from Tim and it seemed the thing to do. Our bus driver was jovial "cousin" Clarence (all Hawaiians seem to call each other cousin, or aunt, or uncle. I'm not sure whether it's a sign of affection or if they're all just that interrelated.). He told us to watch out for the ugliest woman bus driver on the island, bringing another part of our group and he was the only one who could say that, because she was his wife. He also told us that there were two kinds of mu'u-mu'u's: the kind that shows everything, and the kind that shows nothing. Hawaiians prefer the kind that shows nothing. It's like a bank account you know you have money but you never know how much. We were also told that the ancient Hawaiians built their women for comfort, not for speed, which explains a lot about the mu'u-mu'u as well.

The Arizona Memorial is incredibly popular. We had to stand in line to get a number, then wait for over an hour for our tour. First we saw a 20-minute movie about the bombing at Pearl Harbor. I hadn't realized what a heavy loss of life we sustained there, or how sudden and complete the destruction was. I find it so tragic that over 2,000 men lost their lives in the attack, and it bought us nothing except perhaps the incentive to join the war. We took a launch over to the memorial itself. We were talking and joking and snapping pictures on the way there, but as soon as we entered the building everyone fell silent. We walked along the windows looking down on to the ruins of the ship that is the final resting place of so many men, many who have been younger than myself for almost 60 years. I wondered at first why they left them to lie there instead of recovering the bodies, and I think the horror finally hit me when I realized that there were so many that there would be no place to bury them on the island. Took a long time to feel like talking again.

Cousin Clarence picked us up again and took us for a brief tour of Honolulu on our way to the ship. We stopped at the fabulous gilded statue of King Kamehameha the Great, across from the only royal palace on American soil.

We pulled up at the dock, and as we rounded a corner our ship came into view. I knew it would be big, but I wasn't nearly prepared for the scale of this! It'll take me the whole time to learn to find my way to our dining room, and I'll bet there will be decks I never know exist.

Lunch was open seating, so we ate in the Four Seasons. I had some delicious minestrone, veggie lasagna and Crepes Suzette cooked at our tableside for dessert (almost as good as the ones John mad for my birthday dinner!). I think I'd better find the health club pretty soon if I want to fit into my clothes the whole trip!

Our itinerary has been changed it seems that the Iron Man is being run in Kona tomorrow and they're swimming in the spot where our ship would dock. So we have a day at sea tomorrow and Kona later, which means only one port (Maui) on a shabbos. Excellent!

We weighed anchor a little past 8pm. I went up on deck to watch. There was a hula dancer and Hawaiian band on the dock below us, playing us off, and as we pulled out they shot off a confetti cannon at the ship. I was disappointed that we didn't get to throw streamers down at them, but glad some were thrown, even if it was the wrong direction. As we pulled away and moved along the coast of Oahu the Hawaiian music faded to be replaced by a medley of music from all the clubs on the strip, just like turning the dial on the radio. The port got smaller and smaller, and then we were out to sea.

 

10/23 Saturday - at sea

I woke up at 5:45 and was feeling restless, so I pulled on some clothes and went out on deck to watch the sun rise. When I first emerged on the deck, there was just a faint glow in the clouds off the port bow. I didn't seen another soul on my way up, or on the deck, so I spent a little time wandering around, leaning into the stiff wind on the bow, watching the water, and enjoying the solitude. Nothing but sea and sky as far as the eye could see ­ I could almost follow the clouds and see the curve of the earth. Gradually color bled across the sky, "Turnerizing" the landscape, turning all the shades of gray to blue sky and pink cloud and deep sapphire sea. I waited until the show was over and went inside for breakfast.

Our ship's "Hawaiian Ambassador", June, is teaching hula lessons this week three different dances. We're learning the Hukilau hula, a fast dance called the Bora Bora (I should have gone to more belly dancing lessons with Jack for this one!), and a slow and graceful one to the Hawaiian Lullaby. We'll have five days of lessons, and then give a performance for the while ship. Should be fun.

She also will be teaching some crafts classes. Today we made kukui nut necklaces. The kukui nut was traditionally only worn by royalty, since preparing it involves drilling a hole through the nut, scraping out the insides, burying it for the ants to finished eating out anything left, and then polishing it to a high glass. They still prepare them the same way, expect now they ship them to the Philippines to do it. (And yes, I felt pretty guilty about that.) Anyway, we just took a pile of beads and a ribbon and strung them like pearls ­ one bead, one knot, repeat. It's hard to get the knot in close to the bead, but I'm happy with the way mine came out.

We've got a medical emergency on board. Someone is having trouble with his appendix and needs to be transported to a hospital. Trouble is, we're out in the middle of the ocean. We had to turn around and go back to within 100 nautical miles of land in order for a helicopter to make it out to the ship, drop a stretcher, and airlift the patient. I hear we're going to have to miss Kona because of the lost time, but it's worth it if it saves a life.

Tonight was the captain's party. We all dressed up in our formal wear and went through a receiving line to be presented to him. Afterwards there was caviar and champagne and dancing in the Stardust Lounge. I felt terribly elegant and adult, until dinner when our table companions asked me if I was in school.

 

10/24 Sunday - at sea

4pm

Hula lesson #2 ­ just when I was starting to get the hand motions, she's having us add in the hips. Every time I get one end moving right, the other falls apart. Oh well, I've got a few days to get it down. The Latin dance classes help some, but now I'm sorry I didn't do more belly dancing.

Mom-mom and I hit the casino spent $20, made it back, and lost it again. I'm rather relieved that I find it mostly boring I think I would have stopped while we were ahead and been happy, but Mom-mom was psyched to keep playing.

I slept through lunch ­ I don't seem to be feeling entirely well. I can't believe that I could be seasick on a ship this size in seas this calm, but I suppose it's possible. Embarrassing, but possible.

In crafts today we made a Lauhala weave lei (lau means leaf, and hala is a kind of tree ­ this was traditionally woven out of those leaves) out of yellow ribbons. Very pretty. A little tricky to get started on, but my bits of weaving and crocheting experience helped a lot. I managed to help some other people get started on theirs, as well as doing my own, which felt good.

The suggested theme for dinner dress was 50's and 60's. I pulled on a tie-dye shirt, jeans, and a bunch of puka shell leis and considered myself well dressed. A few people went along with the 50's theme, but not many.

After dinner we saw a Polynesian revue. I clearly have a lot of practicing to do before our hula graduation!

Heard that the appendix patient got through the operation and is recovering well, but wouldn't have made it until today without the rescue.

The midnight buffet tonight was a tour of the galley. It's amazingly clean and well-organized, but then, it would have to be, to serve two dining rooms on a ship this size.

 

10/25 Monday - at sea

More hula lessons ­ I'm starting to get the hang of it, but it's still like walking and chewing gum. Lots of subtleties to the ways you move your hands that I can see but not repeat myself so far. Oh well, most people learn for years, this is just day 3 for me. June showed my how to tie a pareu (sarong) as a skirt so that it covers you and stays in place, which I think I'll use for our performance eventually.

There was a singalong tonight, which I was looking forward to, but was disappointed. I like old songs, and there were plenty I knew in the book, but the piano player chose mostly ones I didn't know, didn't take requests, and insisted on singing each song twice. Phooey

After dinner there was a "Broadway" show, George M. I was pretty disappointed by that, too. It would have been a good quality production for a high-school show, but not great for here. To be fair, I later learned that half the cast is about 18, but still And it wasn't just the cast ­ I like the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy that Cagney made about Cohan, but this one made him out to be kind of a jerk and yet also the hero, which didn't make much sense to me.

10/26 Tuesday - Fanning Island, Republic of Kiribati

Land ho! We went to breakfast this morning, and as we walked through the Four Seasons on the way to our dining room (The Terraces) I glanced through the windows and was startled to see Fanning Island not far off. For so long now all we've seen is sea all around us that the sight of land, even as small and primitive as we're told Fanning Island is, is exciting. Imagine how the ancient Polynesians must have felt after spending much more time in a much smaller boat, and not knowing when or if they would ever find land! There's no place big enough on the island to dock, so we're going to go ashore in tenders. After breakfast I got my tender ticket #516 - and I'm currently waiting for the number to be called to go ashore. I don't expect much, but it'll be nice to be on dry land, however briefly.

12pm

Fanning Island was really something. We were told how primitive it would be ­ no electricity, no running water, mostly glass shacks and for the most part, that was true. Yet there were the natives selling shell leis and shark-tooth knives for American dollars, the kids spoke only enough English to say "Give me my money", the traditional grass skirts were made partly from what appeared to be old videotape, and there was even graffiti on their few buildings. Still, many of them wore at least a combination of traditional Western clothing (t-shirt and lava-lava [short sarong/skirt worn by men], woven palm bras over cotton lingerie) and they performed beautiful songs (in the Western keys of music, I noticed) and dances for us. And I finally got to swim in the ocean I've been in Hawai'i or thereabouts for almost a week and this is the first time. It felt wonderful to float on my back and be gently rocked by the waves.

Got back just in time for hula lessons and then country line dance lessons (the theme of the night was "Country/Western"). We learned a modified version of the Electric Slide that goes to Elvira, by the Oak Ridge Boys (I used to have a 45 record of that!), the Achy Breaky Heart, and the Canadian something or other to some Shania Twain song. Lots of fun. The best I could do for dressing country was a plaid shirt and jeans, but it was fun to make the effort anyway. There was a group there from Amarillo, Texas, who went all out with matching bandanas and shirts.

The evening show was a comedian, Milt Abel, and he was much better than I was afraid after last night's show he had me laughing pretty hard. Then the country/western show, where we saw some Paniolo [Hawaiian cowboy] dances and got to do our line dances. I ended up talking to one of the staff members, a woman named Heidi, who was thrilled to find someone near her own age, so we hung out and talked for hours. She invited me to join the crew ashore if I have free time, and she's going to try to get me into the crew bar.

 

10/27 Wednesday - at sea

Still feeling sick. Went to a pareu/lava lava tying demonstration after hula that turned out to be more of a fashion show by the Tihatis, our resident Polynesian dance troupe, than a lesson. But yum, what gorgeous models! The boys were drawing tattoos on people beforehand, so I had one of them do a tattoo on my arm. I asked for a face tattoo, like the Maori ones they were wearing, but there wasn't enough time. Found Heidi in the afternoon she got her boyfriend Shane to bring up some liquid ginger that helped the seasickness some.

I managed to eat some dinner after that, which was good because I would have missed quite a show had I not. After the main course, all the waters disappeared, the lights dimmed, some music started playing, and the waiters reappears, dancing in a conga line between the tables bearing huge platters of flaming baked Alaska. David, our assistant waiter, a sweet guy from Jamaica, came over and pulled me up to dance a quick merengue, which was fun.

The evening show was the Sea Legs Circus: one award-winning gymnast, one wonderful adagio team, and a lot of music and costumes. Not what I usually think of as a circus, but a good show. Shane is the drummer in the show band, so I went over and said hi to him again afterwards.

After the show they had the Liar's Club, which was basically the game of Dictionary performed by some of the staff. It was hilariously funny even the sign language translator, Sergio, got into the act, by swapping places with one of the panel members for a while. The panel member managed some crude but effective and highly amusing sign translation. Then came the Gala Buffet, with lots of impressive ice sculptures and a vast array of food and desserts, and then bed.

 

10/28 Thursday - at sea

At breakfast this morning I had some more of the delicious coffee I've been drinking all week. I finally asked what kind of coffee it was, thinking it must be Kona to be that good, and being in Hawai'i and all. But no, it turns out I've been raving over Folgers. So much for any notion I had of being a coffee connoisseur!

At lunch David asked Mom-mom for my hand in marriage. I have no idea how serious he was, but I'm not convinced he was completely joking. She told him that the decision was not up to her, and just as I was being impressed at her attitude, she continued "you'll have to ask her father." I was Not Amused. I think she was kidding...

We had our hula graduation this afternoon. I was amazed at how many of us there were ­ easily over a hundred. We really packed the room, too; it was standing room only! I made sure to get a spot right in the center of the front row, just to Mom-mom could see me, of course. First we did the Hukilau, then the men left the stage and we did the Hawaiian lullaby, and then the Bora Bora. They gave us fake flower leis before we went on, and for the Bora Bora, whose of us who got ones with elastic moved them from our necks to our hips to accentuate the dancing.

In the middle of the Bora Bora the group of women parted in the center and danced off to the sides of the stage and the men came on, wearing grass skirts, coconut shell bras, and wigs, and dancing like loons. Hawaiian loons, of course. I believe one of the cries I heard during the dance was "Ooga Booga"; another sounded suspiciously like "Nookie Nookie", which, I suppose, is what that particular dance is really about. They danced until the audience was having trouble breathing from laughing so hard, then we all went up one by one to say our names and receive our diplomas as Hula Masters. A five-day Masters program, not bad, huh?

 

10/29 Friday - Hilo, Hawai'i' (the Big Island)

Our first real port, finally! We took a bus tour called the Best of Hilo. We drove down Banyon Drive, which is lined by magnificent trees planted by such luminaries as Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhart, Cecil B. DeMille and Mrs. C.B., Franklin Roosevelt and King George V.

Our next major stop was Akaka Falls, which is actually two waterfalls: Akaka and Kahuna. A bit of a hike to get to, but very beautiful. I ended up walking near a woman from Texas who told me all sorts of interesting things about some of the local flora, much of which is apparently similar to some that grows near her home. We saw bananas blossoms and their fruit, immense scarlet ginger plants, and impatiens growing wild.

I got to learn much more soon after, at the Nani Mau botanical gardens where we took a narrated tram ride through the gardens. The guide seemed to be on very good terms with the plants and told us about their personalities: "Oh, that one's pushy, don't plant it where you want anything else to grow. That one is very easygoing. That one looks pretty, but it gets nasty when you try to cut it back." Some plants were familiar, but many looked like something from another planet ­ outrageous colors, unbelievable sizes, bizarre shapes. After the gardens those of us who wished to could disembark at Hilo Hattie's, the store of Hawai'i. We were greeted at the door with shell leis and free coffee, and spent quite some time looking through the aloha shirts, mu'u-mu'us, jewelry and leis and food and music and books and anything Hawaiian you can think of. Luckily, I brought an empty carry-on bag in my luggage so I didn't have to ship everything I bought home, although it may be a tight squeeze.

As part of "Hawaiian" day, we got to find out our Hawaiian names. It turns out "Florence" translates to the Roman goddess of flowers, or "Pualani" in Hawaiian. The closest match for Gilly was joy -- "Punua", young bird singing joyfully.

Suggested dress for dinner tonight was Hawaiian. I wore my pareu and all my new fabric flowers ­ a wreath on my head, a flower behind my right ear (right means you're single, left means you're taken, on the back of your head means "follow me") , flower earrings, and something that was intended to be a ponytail wrap on my upper arm, along with my Lauhala weave and puka shell leis. I felt oh-so-Hawaiian. After dinner the Tihatis put on a very impressive show, and then there was a Hawaiian party up on deck. The King and Queen of Aloha were chosen ­ the Queen by having all the women leave lipstick marks on pieces of paper and choosing the hottest lips, the men by a "muscle contest". Most of the men seemed to be packing their muscle in their bellies, but they enjoyed posing nonetheless. June had the band play the Hukilau Hula so we got to perform one last time. Then there was some more of the usual ballroom dancing. It was extremely windy on deck ­ I can't tell you how glad I was that I had securely pinned my pareu shut!

 

10/30 Saturday - Maui, Lana'i

Finally back in Maui, after too many years! It felt good just to see the island slowly getting bigger through the windows of the dining room as we approached. I signed up for a snorkel trip off of the island of Lana'i with the Pacific Whale Foundation, the same group that Glen (a.k.a. Gub) and I went on our "snuba" trip to Molokini with. They're a fabulous group; very friendly, very informed, and very caring about the ocean and its inhabitants. We were on the Manute'a, a 50-foot sailing catamaran. It had trampolines strung between the pontoons, so I spent a while lying on my stomach on one of those, looking at the ocean and islands.

I saw some creatures that I thought at first were large dragonflies, hopping across the water and then disappearing into the ocean, and was told by one of the native guides that they were actually flying fish. They can stay out of the water a really long time! We were all keeping our eyes peeled for the sight of a dorsal fin popping out of the water, and after many false alarms from the whitecaps, we finally spotted one. And then another. And then a whole dolphin coming up for air, and then all of the sudden we were surrounded by a whole pod of wild spinner dolphins, twos and threes breaching in unison. Finally, we saw two of them a ways off doing their characteristic maneuver, leaping from the water and spinning around their longitudinal axis, as of to wave goodbye, and then they were off.

Just in time for us to reach "The Armchair", a small but lovely coral reef right off the coast of Lana'i. I'd never entered the water for snorkeling from a boat before, and it's been years since I snorkeled at all, so I took the stairs they lowered from the bow instead of jumping off the side. At least I didn't need one of the neon Styrofoam flotation noodles that many of the weaker swimmers used. As soon as I put my face in the water, there were fish ready and waiting for my attention. One of the crew led us on a tour of the reef, diving down and pointing up magnificent fish and other sea creatures and popping back up to tell us their names and social habits. After a while, she let us go off on our own and I just floated lazily in the water, watching the brilliantly colored fish and enjoying the coral landscape below.

After an hour or so ­ not nearly enough time, although I was one of the last people out of the water ­ there was a barbecue lunch waiting for us, with grilled mahi-mahi and veggie burgers and pasta salad and other more carnivorous options. Food tasted wonderful after all that time in the sun and the sea. As we made our way back to Maui, I sat on the bow, soaking in the sun, and chatted with some of the other passengers. I got into an interesting discussion with the Norwegian Wind shore excursion staff member, Dean.

The Pacific Whale Foundation gave us each a coupon for a free poster from their store as a thank-you, so after we landed a bunch of us walked over there and claimed them. Dean and I ended up wandering around Lahaina for a while, and then, feeling the sun a bit much, stopped into a restaurant for a drink. (It took a little explaining to make him understand that no, it wasn't that I was broke, I just couldn't use money on Saturday, but when he caught on he offered to buy me a drink.) The place looked suspiciously familiar, so I looked at the name on the menu ­ the Lahaina Fish Company. "I've been here before! I sat at that table over there. We fed french fries to a huge pufferfish in the water right under this dock." We had a wonderful conversation and relationships and religion and philosophy and jobs and places to live and a dozen other things, then went back to the ship for a much-needed shower and nap. As soon as shabbos was over, I ran back to Lahaina for a quick shopping blitz. It's such a fun town; I wouldn't want to live there, but it's a great place to be a tourist. Tons of funky shops, some selling Hawaiian goods, some with the usual tourist wares, others with fine art. I bought an adorable little dress for Mom-mom to give to Leila, and found a lovely little scrimshaw shop where I picked up a magnet for Dad. I recognized a bunch of places I passed, and was only sorry not to have the time to each at Longhy's ­ one of the best restaurants I've ever eaten in. I raced back to the dock just in time for the last tender, and made it back for a late dinner.

After dinner and the show there was karaoke singing in the observation lounge. Heidi and two of the other younger passengers she'd found and I went to join in, and ended up performing Ghostbusters, in honor of Halloween. None of us could remember how it went very well, I had almost totally lost my voice from a cold or something, and we kept cracking up, but it was fun.

I finally got a chance to write the postcards I had picked up at Hilo Hattie's, and then it was time to get some sleep before getting up for the Kauai trip, scheduled all-too-early the next morning.

 

10/31 Sunday - Nawiliwili, Kaua'i

We went on a bus tour of Kaua'i. Our first stop was the Spouting Horn blow hole. Very impressive, and very regular. The sound as the water rushed in was incredible, and the height of the spout astounding. There was a small row of artists selling stuff right next to the view, so I stopped to browse and wound up buying a long string of lovely freshwater pearls for only $15.

The next stop was Waimea Canyon, popularized by Mark Twain as "the Grand Canyon of the Pacific". Words fail me. It was magnificent. The contrast between the bare red earth of the cliffs and the green foliage that covers everything that stands still long enough in Kaua'i was breathtaking. And HUGE! These pictures don't begin to show the scale.

After being awed enough, we drove on to Wailua River. We boarded a riverboat, where the crew sang and danced for us (including the Hukilau Hula!) on the way upriver. After docking upriver, we had a short walk through a lush tropical rainforest to the Fern Grotto. The plants were incredible; immense and colorful and like something out of prehistory. The Fern Grotto turns out to be a cave at the head of the path, simply dripping with ferns. It forms a natural amphitheater and provides excellent acoustics for the Hawaiian chorus that serenaded us with the Hawaiian Wedding Song and proclaimed us all married, Hawaiian style.

We saw wild roosters all over the place on Kaua'i. Apparently people raise some of them for chicken fighting, even though that's illegal, and since they have no natural predators on the island, many just roam free.

When we got back to the ship, I ran to the Stardust Lounge to be in time for the lei making class. June had ordered thousands upon thousands of fresh orchids, and taught us how to string them into leis. So I finally got my fresh flower lei! It was lovely, but heavier than I had expected. I wore it to dinner over one of the dresses that I discovered when I started to pack, and realized I had not yet worn.

After dinner I met Heidi and her charges in the Kids Corner, and we went trick or treating around the ship. (Heidi had gone around before and left pails of candy with staff members for us.) One of the teenagers put on a life vest, painted his lips blue, and went as a survivor of the Titanic.

There was one last night of ballroom dancing, and since there were so few passengers there both dance hosts kept asking me to dance -- I would no sooner sit down from one dance than the other would approach me. Fun.

There was a Halloween party up in the observation deck, followed by some games and dancing. I was one of the winners of a dance game and won a free drink, so I had a margarita in honor of my last night on board.

When I could hardly keep my eyes open anymore, I went out to the aft deck of the ship, took off my lei, and threw the flowers in the water one by one and made wished on them, as June says is the custom. You can bet that many of the flowers went on wishes to return to Hawaii soon!

 

11/1 Monday - Honolulu, Oahu

Breakfast was at 6am, WAY too early after the night before. (Heck, 6am is always too early for me.) All the luggage had been packed and planed outside our stateroom the night before, so there was nothing to do but eat breakfast, say my goodbyes, and sit around waiting to disembark. Our group was finally called and we got to walk down the gangplank one last time, through the customs house, and onto a bus back to the Coral Reef motel. Vantage had reserved two rooms for us all to put our stuff in while we spent the day in Honolulu, but there were several hundred of us, only two elevators, and the rooms were on the top floor. While I waited for the elevator line to thin out I found a pay-phone and confirmed airline information and tried to reach Heidi. I left a message for her with my cell phone number (amazingly enough, it had roaming service in Hawai'i, although I may be regretting that when the bill comes.)

After I managed to get my bags stowed safely in the room, I went for a wander down Kohio Street in front of our hotel. I had made it a fair ways along when I got a call from Heidi asking if I wanted to join her and some others at the aquarium. I found a hotel concierge to give me walking directions and set out to meet them. I walked up Kalakaua Ave, the main drag of Waikiki, right along Waikiki Beach itself, where I had a good view of the sun-worshippers and surfers.

After a mile or two I made it to the Waikiki Aquarium where Heidi was waiting, and we went to a cafe nearby to grab Shane and Mike, the bass player in the show band. The aquarium was very cool; when you enter they give you a plastic "wand" with numbered buttons and a speaker. Each exhibit has a number on it; you press the number on the wand, hold it up to your ear like a phone, and hear interesting information on that exhibit. It was neat to see some of the fish I had been face to face with only days before. There was also an outside exhibit with a volunteer who let me hold a hermit crab in the palm of my hand (tickly!) and pet a sea urchin (the spines gently pressed around my finger to see if I was food and luckily decided I wasn't) and a sea cucumber (mostly squishy).

Heidi and I took a trolley back to the Coral Reef and blew through the International Market, then she had to run back to the ship and I had to grab my bags and board the bus for the airport.

The clouds through the airplane window look like the sea this time... I can't wait to go back.