Hawaii!

First off, THANKS GRANDMA!  What an awesome trip!

This is going to be a super long post.  Sorry.  I tried to post from Hawaii but it just wasn’t happening.  It was a fanciful $0.75 a freaken minute to use the internet on the ship and I wasn’t about to try and write a post on the fancy little internet capable phones that drive me crazy.  So sorry it is long and there will probably be some details missing….. I am sure you are deeply upset.  (You can just skip through to the pics at the end if you like.)

Where to start?  Hawaii is such a great place.  A magical place.  There are so many sides of it I love.  I love its nature worship side.  I love the nature.  I love its Asianess and the mixing of all sorts of cultures.  I love the hula spirit that permeates the air because I fancy myself an amateur hula dancing.  (Hula dancing is so fun.)  Hawaii is a great place.  And it is far enough away (both physically and culturally) that you can almost feel like you are going on this exotic adventure to a foreign land…. but you are still safely in America.    Its a good baby step for want to be world travelers.  Or anyone who likes beautiful beaches and dense tropical jungles.

Day one of trip (Wednesday the 23rd)

Today starts (at 1200 am) with me still at work.  When I got home from work, I had to pack.  I know, excellent preparation.  I packed and packed almost all night.  Packing for a cruise is hard because there are so many different sorts of venues to dress for.  Packing done, I had to shower and get ready for my 5 am departure to the airport.  Whoever bought those early departure tickets should be punished.  I was tired.  Jason and Jena hadn’t gotten much more sleep.  But of course wee baby Evra didn’t care that we were tired.  I have learned that it does in fact take 3 adults to travel with one infant.  Evra comes with an entourage of stuff!  But she is well worth it.  There were a couple of small hiccups in our travel day to Oahu.  In my drunken stayed-up-all-night haze, I forgot my passport.  I was especially disappointed about this because I had just bought a new adorable passport cover.  And I just love using my passport for anything.  Oh well- its not like I would have gotten a stamp.  There was the standard wait on the plane for 45 extra minutes because you pre boarded with an infant.  (I think they should put kids on last- by the time they wait 45 minutes their patience is up and they want off!)  There was the frantic water chug as you realize, seconds from the the x-ray machine, that you must drink this whole liter bottle of water before going through security if you want an empty bottle to refill on the other side.  Then there were a few more unique hiccups to our travel.  There was a 5 minute circular conversation with a luggage check attendant.  “Your screen says checking one bag is free, why are you going to charge me $25 dollars?”  “It is free.  It gets more expensive if you have more bags or bigger bags.”  “But free isn’t $25 dollars.”  “Yes it is $25.  But it gets more expensive if you have bigger bags or more bags.”  That went on for a while…. apparently to Hawaiian Airlines, $25 is free.  If this new meaning catches on you better watch those ‘free’ samples at Costco.  And refills on your beverage could get very pricey.  So anyhow, she was weird…. Hawaiian Airlines has another weird employee.  He is a testosterone filled authority hungry flight attendant.  He actually yelled, “do you speak English” up the isle at me (on an international flight that was continuing on to the Philippines) because I stood up to try and get Evra consoled while the seat belt sign was on.  Lets face it, that sign is almost always on and people get up to go to the bathroom whenever they feel like it.  Anyhow, Jena and him had some words.  And from these words I learned that our particular plane was flying at 30,000 feet at 500 miles per hour.  Who knew?!  I thought it was a magic time machine capsule you sit in for a few hours and think your way to Hawaii.  He ended with a warning that this was our last warning…. we wondered if we should start building parachutes from the plane blankets in case we angered him again and he threw us out.  I am still very curious what happens after your last warning.   After a bit of craziness, we arrived in Honolulu.  All worth it.  We were off to find adventure and explore.

Honolulu is a great city.  It is a tropical big city in paradise.  A mixing of many cultures.  And the most commercialized place in Hawaii.  So I wouldn’t recommend it be the only place you go if you want to feel the Aloha spirit (guess they got to me with all their oogabooga Hawaiian spirit stuff.)  I am always surprised by how Japanese it is.  Japanese signs, people, food- even the convenience stores are stocked with Japanese snacks and drinks.  I love it!  Makes me want to continue on to Japan.

And that was day one.  I better start writing less detail about each day….

Day 2:  Even though I was dead tired (see day 1) I had the FOMO, so I was up early with everyone else.  I can sleep when I am dead!  And Fear of Missing Out could kill me if I don’t wake up and participate in all activities.  Breakfast at the hotel was from 6:30-8:30- early because they are hoping the time will deter you and they won’t actually have to feed you.  Well it worked on me and I skipped breakfast.  Who eats that early?!  Then we were off to the North Shore to snorkel at Shark’s Cove and go to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  The North Shore has a very different vibe from Honolulu.  It is so Jack Johnson up there.  I love it.  The snorkeling was good.  Saw some sea turtles.  Swimming with sea turtles is like swimming with a prehistoric dinosaurs (redundant I guess because all dinosaurs are prehistoric.)  Sea turtles are just so interesting to look at.  They are like archaic pieces of living natural history.  And so alien.  We also saw cuddlefish.  I have never seen cuddlefish diving or snorkeling so that was really cool.  They are a top fave for me.  All crazy looking, swimming backwards and jig jagging around in such weird angles.  And they change colors so quickly.  They are so cool.  They also have green blood.  And when they look at you, you know they are smarter than you.  Same with octopi.  Cool creatures!  We also saw many wrasses- who can change sex when the situation calls for it- and tons of colorful parrotfish and butterfly fish.  So it was a good snorkel day.

Next was some lunch at a roadside cafe, a superglue surgical procedure on my cut foot, and some surfing lessons.  Then on to the PCC.

The PCC was nice.  Really the best part of the PCC (by far) is the night show.  It is so good!  I realize that I like Polynesian dancing more than some, but the PCC’s dancing is really so authentic and good.  I saw a lot of dancers on this trip- many are just posers and don’t really have the skills!  The PCC has great dancers.  It was a cool show.  I will say that I found their buffet lacking.  I mean it is impossible for a vegetarian to eat a real meal at the PCC buffet- and this place is run by Mormons.  Come on!  But the dancing was great and I enjoyed all the exhibits I saw.

Day 3 (Friday)

I believe I slept in a bit because my family was going to play beach volleyball and I don’t play volleyball (beach or otherwise.)  I got up and went for a peaceful people watching stroll along the beachfront.  I ended up out on the pier sitting with my feet over the edge eating an apple and watching the boogie boarders careen toward the wall I was sitting on only to veer left or right just before impact.  It was a good show.  I very much enjoyed my sitting time.  Then we went to lunch in a hurry because we needed to meet our scuba boat.  We went to cheeseburger in paradise and this is where my problems began.  I had decided I might be a little lax and try a non-vegan taste or two on the trip.  But that quickly snowballed downhill and by the end of the cruise I was eating all you can eat soft serve with the rest of the family.  Its a slippery slope folks.  And I will have you know that I paid dearly for it.  I got so congested and uhum nasty feeling (for lack of more detail) from the reintroduction of these dairy products.  Even now, I am sipping tea and trying to clear my sinuses.  I even got a mystery eye condition of some sort that is quickly clearing up now that I am back to vegan.  Anyhow, I paid.  Where was I?  Oh yes, Cheeseburger in paradise was the beginning of the end.  At this point I was still trying to be good.  I ordered the veggie burger with guacamole on it.  Well it came with cheese!  (Cheeseburger in Paradise- I should have known.)  So I decided that cheese was either going to be thrown away or eaten, but the cow had already suffered either way and I was on vacation!  Bring on the saturated fat!  And fatty it did taste.  But it was a tasty little burger!  I felt a little queasy but very satisfied when leaving.  So off to scuba dive.  Captain Bob (I think) or Bruce?  Some Captain somebody took us scuba diving.  The service was awesome.  They were a great crew.  I was so nauseous.  In the boat, out of the boat, it didn’t matter.  Usually I get seasick when the boat is just rocking in the swells but I can just quickly get in the water and the nausea is over.  Not so this time.  I really think it was a combo of full stomach and the compression/ decompression that happens to all your air cavities when you scuba dive.  I threw up on both of those dives that day.  A little miserable, but it attracted some nice fish.  And I have finally settled it for myself that you can in fact throw up through a regulator underwater and then continue to breathe.  They weren’t messing around when they designed regulators.  So I am sure the dive was beautiful, but it was mostly lost on me.  Everyone else had a good time.  My dad and uncle Chad also got pretty nauseous (the other two main eaters of Paradise’s cheeseburgers….)     A few days later we dove again off of Lanai.  I didn’t eat breakfast, took meclyzine, pepcid, and chewed some tums just before decent and had two great dives!  They were so cool.  So that is my new system for diving I guess.

Seriously those dives were so neat.  We were swimming under and over and through archways.  We went into this underwater ‘cathedral’ like Little Mermaid’s cave.  It was totally incredible.  I somehow managed to miss the dozens of eels my family saw all over Hawaii.  I didn’t see one all trip.  But I did see a crown of thorns starfish (I thought that was pretty cool,) many turtles, some nudibranchs, and pretty fish.  My favorite was this school of yellow fish of some unidentified species.  I swam through them and they just parted and enclosed me.  I felt like a mermaid.  Fun fun.  Scuba diving and being weightless and being able to go up or down right side up or upside down is so neat.  That floating underwater feeling is the best.  And looking at all the bubbles rising to the surface is also hypnotic.  A plug for scuba diving.

Day 4 (Saturday)

This is the day we got on the ship, but we had to pack something in to the morning for sure.  We went for Maunawili Falls.  Amazing.  You hike a somewhat slippery muddy hike to this waterfall oasis in the forest.  It was so green and wet and misty.  And you can cliff jump!  It was a really cool place.  I am sure pictures won’t do it justice.  The walls of this place, with their moss and bryophytes and ferns all over, are what I want in my house someday- a living wall of water plants…. I’m just saying.  Also at the magical falls are little fish that will clean your feet if you hold still.  I only got 3 bites total but it was a fun experiment.  Apparently I don’t have enough dead skin on my feet.

In the afternoon, we got on the cruise ship.   And we went straight to the buffet to begin the cyclical ritual of eating too much and then hating yourself only to eat too much again in a few hours.  This went on for days….  We were at the mercy of Norwegian hospitality!  Things are good on a cruise.  You play all day, get back on the ship and are entertained all night.  It really is a good time.  And a very busy time.  You often need a vacation from your vacation after a cruise- which is why I am glad I don’t have work for two more days.

NCL is the only cruise line that cruises just the Hawaiian Islands.  So it was our only option.  But it is not our favorite cruise line.  Snobbish as it may sound, they do not do near as great a cruise as others we have been on.  Royal Caribbean is the best.  Anyhow, thought I would throw that in.  THey have some issues…. but it was still an amazing vacation and I have nothing to complain about.

Today was also the day I gave up on voodoo dolls.  Last time I was in Hawaii (about 2 years ago) these little funny Japanese voodoo dolls were everywhere.  I love them and want more- and I promised a friend I would bring her one.  I searched high and low all over waikiki.  They were no where.  I even asked around and eventually got the number of a supplier of the voodoo.  Said supplier said I could come by and buy all I wanted.  When I went to go to the Honolulu World Trade Center were the supplier was, he wasn’t there!  So I had to give up.  I died a little inside.  I continued to look on every island in every ABC store, but my heart wasn’t in it.  I had no hope.  So sorry Annie, we have no voodoo dolls.  That ship has sailed.

Sunday on the ship

After a lovely night’s sleep (I love sleeping in the belly of a ship in a pitch black room because we poor things don’t get a room with a window- you’ll never have better sleep) we were docked at Maui.  We got off the ship, got some cars (a major process at each port) and were off to Ka’anapali beach where there is a big black rock, some cliff jumping, and lots of sea turtles.  Saw the biggest turtle of my life and followed him around for a while.  He was soooo neat.  Then we went open air jeeping style (loved it) to Lahaina to go to the giant Banyan tree park.  This is a park that is covered completely by one tree with various roots sticking down.  It is like an Avatar tree and just as fun to climb.  We climbed all over it and took pictures with the “no climbing” signs.  The locals were doing it….. It was a great day.

This is the evening my life was changed by the discovery of the crepe man.  Any filling, any topping, delicious crepes made to order!  Amazing.  Banana filled crepe with coconut sauce and caramel became a staple for me at this point.  I am sure this helped me toward my cruise goal of gaining 7-14 pounds.  (We read somewhere that that was the average weight gain.  Luckily I didn’t gain quite that much…)   I am having crepe withdrawls.

Monday on Maui

This was the day of the second dive trip.  Two amazing dives.  And I just love cruising out at sea sitting on the bow of the boat in the sun.  Is there anything better?  Cruising as in moving forward…. when we stop the sick starts up again.  At some point during these dives I ran into some coral of some sort.  I remember thinking, “that’s going to leave a mark.”  I still have the wound to prove it and I thought that was pretty cool until my roommate has informed me that it looks like ringworm.  Awesome.

Tuesday on Hilo side Big Island

I love Hilo.  It is so small town and jungley.  It gets a lot of rain.  It is so beautiful and there is so much green.  And there is this perpetual mist in the air.  It is really neat.  Hilo has all sorts of neat things tucked away in its secret jungle places.  We went back to the lava tubes of last trip.  Lava tube caves that go on forever and have roots hanging down and water dripping down from the ceiling.  We went to Rainbow falls.  We went to the steam sauna caves- these natural outlets of hot steam from Pele’s belly.  You just have to know where to look for them (thank you Lonely Planet and hand drawn Taco Bell napkin maps) as they are a pull out on the side of the road “near mile marker 15” and “just start looking through the underbrush.”  Really neat.  Very hot and mysterious.  Next was the town of Kalapana which was paved over by lava in 1990.  It is a lava field now with a beautiful black sand beach forming at the far end.  I love black sand beaches.  Maybe more than white sand beaches.  The water looks so angry and beautiful with black sand underneath.  Anyhow, it was neat to see what lava can do so quickly.  It was said to have buried 100 houses or so.  Crazy.  Get out of the way for lava!  Then we went back to Isaac Hale State Beach park which is this neat beach with beautiful black rock and big waves.  You can swim or surf there.  A few feet inland from the beach is a natural hot spring pool.  It is just so beautiful.  It is one of the many places in Hawaii that makes you think that you couldn’t design a more magical place.  We met a hippie in the pool that told us about leaving society and moving to this happy place.  He also said grandma in place of the word earth.  As in, “we need to stop punching holes in grandma.”  I just wonder why it is grandma and not mother.  I thought mother earth was more traditionally correct.  He had a feather in his hair and he was really groovey.  From the hot springs we followed our Taco Bell napkin map back past Lava Trees National (or State?) Park but didn’t have time to stop.  That is a neat place though.  Highly recommended.  Back on board we had a night of entertainment with a great comedian.  I discovered another curious coral injury on my leg (that is still with me) and we got to sail by the coast between Kona and Hilo and watch the lava surging down the mountain (well volcano really) in the darkness.  Last trip we could see it running into the sea and causing all sorts of havoc but this time the glowing orange lava was higher up and flowing slower so it didn’t make it to the sea while still red.  Still a really amazing site to see.  We were informed by the soothing hypnotic voice narrating the lava viewing coast that another island is being formed underwater today further down the archipelago line from the Big Island.  It already has a name and its birth into the above sea world is expected sometime in the next few centuries.  Amazing this lava.  Also amazing are the stars while out at sea if you can find a dark place on the deck.  I love just walking the lido deck and watching the sea at night.

Wednesday in Kona, Big Island

A truly magical day!  This is the day I fulfilled a childhood dream.  My life is now complete.  I can die happily at any time.  I swam with dolphins!  In the wild!  We set off from the ship to this beach we had snorkeled at last year.  It is a great snorkeling location.  As we were pulling up, we spotted the first spinner dolphin doing a spin to welcome us!  We watched and saw many dolphins.  I was frantic to get out there with the dolphins.  They were a ways from shore and I didn’t want them to leave because those stupid other snorkelers to scare them off!  I think I exited the vehicle while it was still moving.  I gave up Evra willingly for the first time ever and ran to the dolphins.  There was a painful pause as I tried to frenetically apply sunscreen and then give it a total of 30 seconds to set in.  Then I was running over the painful rocks, quickly into the coldish water, and off to the dolphins.  Turns out I didn’t need to hurry.  They were there all day.  There were about 40 dolphins that I could count at any given time.  I believe they were sleeping.  Their swimming pattern remained pretty standard and steady and they were linked in groups of two and three.  They didn’t even seem to notice if they were cruising right towards you.  You had to move!  This was totally amazing to be watching them, surrounded by them, and within 2 feet of them at times.  I never touched them of course, but I did let them swim right by me.  My favorite is how when they break the surface to breathe their eyes swirl around like, “what is this other place?”  Sometimes they look right at you.  Such neat animals!  Where they were it was about 60 feet deep and it was just clear blue ocean.  (With a few large fish following them around and eating their poop….)  It was beautiful.  My favorite dolphin was one I will call Kelpy!  I think he was some adolescent awake while everyone else was trying to sleep.  He was obsessed with this piece of kelp.  He was carrying it around on his right flipper like a purse.  When it would fall off, he would invariably break formation and circle around to pick it up again.  Hilarious!  Miss you little Kelpy!

The rest of the area had excellent snorkeling as well.  It was a beautiful, amazing day.  Our next stop was a white sand beach.  I don’t know the real name, but this was your standard idyllic beach.  I had been looking forward to waves so I jumped right in and got slammed.  Twice. I know how to swim in big waves and not get killed, but these waves were a bit tricky.  I am not sure why.  I think it was the quick up slope of the beach.  I tried to body surf in on the first gentle looking wave and got slammed and rolled in the sand.  At least is was sand.  I recovered nicely from this, I thought.  Swimsuit check, all in place, nothing up the nose, good to go.  Then the second wave hit.  I didn’t even see it coming.  And I was standing in about 6 inches of water at this point.  I had nothing in the lungs so seawater was forced down my nose.  It burns!  After that, no more body surfing, but I did enjoy the waves and wished to steal a boogey board from one of the local kids.  After a while I gave up swimming and went to take my turn with Evra and guarding the belongings on the beach.  While working my hardest to entertain Evra (she is quite spoiled at this point and knows when you aren’t working hard enough for her happiness,) I overheard some nearby locals.  I couldn’t understand a lot of what they were saying, first interesting thing, and what I did understand was that the adorable little girls had to get out of the water, put their hula skirts on, and go to hula class.  Second interesting thing.  I guess Hawaiian culture does live on!  They were top favorites for me on the beach that day.

Thursday, Kaua’i

Two days at port in Kuau’i!  This is such a cool island.  It is like a playland for the gods.  It is mostly untouched, pristine, jungle paradise surrounded by awe inspiring beaches.  I love it.  I love the feeling of remoteness and isolation. If I ever stayed in Kuau’i for more than a few days I would probably go native and there would be no going back.

Today’s get up, slather on a gallon of sunscreen, eat breakfast, pack a secret lunch from the breakfast buffet, get off the ship, get to the rental cars, and get on our way procedures seemed to take an exceptionally long amount of time.  But alas we were on our way to the Na Pali coast (or Na’ Apali to some.)  You have to drive most of the way around the island from the ship’s port to the beginning of the Na Pali coast where the road ends.  Here there are chickens (magestic birds) roaming freely and taro fields (or as my dad said, “pot plants with taro leaves taped on the top.”)  It is an amazing drive seeing sights like those seen in the beginning of the Jurassic Park movies.  You drive through the town of Hanalei (from Puff the Magic Dragon Lives by the Sea….)  Its a dreamy place.  Things are slow and you feel secluded from the outside world (if not by thousands of miles of ocean then by the magic in the air.)   Once we arrived at the end of the road we began our hike along the Na Pali coast.  We had an ambitious plan to hike up to the ridge, then along the ridge, then back down to a secluded beach, and then back into a ravine to a huge waterfall.  It was a hard hike for me but it was all worth it.  (Although a helicopter pick up from the waterfall would have been nice.)  Incidently helicopter is the only way in or out if you did need a ride and even a helicopter would have a really hard time rescuing you in many places.  The views were amazing.  The Na’apali coast is so rugged and formidable.  It is just a huge wall of rock with a few beaching points here and there.  The sea here is restless and the waves are large.  As you arrive at the beach, you are informed that 83 people have died swimming here and that you should in no way get near the water.  This turned out to be our favorite swimming beach!  (I guess it is probably much more dangerous in the winter when the bigger waves come.)  You couldn’t design a better beach as far as I was concerned.  It had caves for protection if you were marooned here.  It had a fresh water stream with tiny fish to rinse the salt water off in.  The beach was all white sand so no coral or rocks to hurt you in the waves.  And the waves were just perfect- perfectly big and turquoise!  Perfect.  Did I say perfect?

After a few hours, Sarah, Calvin, and I left for the waterfall.  The trail there was jungle shrouded and muddy.  It started right by the ancient port-o-potties left by Dharma Initiative.  We crossed back and forth over the river many times (me three more times than most as I got lost for about twenty minutes before realizing my error with the help of a stone wall in my path.)  The waterfall was immense.  It was a huge black rock wall rising out of the ravine with tons of water falling over the wall into a giant dark pool.  You felt enclosed because the ravine was so tall all the way around you.  The black rock had green plants and moss growing all over it.  It was huge and wonderful!  We couldn’t stay long because we now had 4 miles to hike and it was getting close to sundown.  The hike out was beautiful I am sure, but I was ready to be done.  I love being in nature but I don’t love fighting nature…. I would be content to just sit there for a few hours.  Or build a house and live there.  Of course I wouldn’t want to build the house, but maybe someone else would come out of the jungle and build it for me.  Sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale.  I digress.  So we got out.  No twisted ankles (a feat in my family!) and everyone in good, but tired, spirits.  A great day.  Once back on board we went to the Cadillac Cafe.  So many deep fried foods on that menu and I think we enjoyed 3 of each each.

Day two in Kuau’i we went to a Kipu Falls which is a waterfall with a rope swing.  2 years ago it was a bit more secretive, but now it seems to be on the tour track.  So we went early to avoid the crowds.  I love early mornings.  It is a quick walk through some very tall grass and then a waterfall wonderland appears before you.  My kind of hike!  You can cliff dive or rope swing, but the only way into the water is a fall!  This makes it exciting.  It was a good time and as we were leaving some scuba divers were headed into the water.  I, quite frankly, would be terrified to scuba in that water.  It has a 6 inch visibility as far as I could tell.  And it looks like the waterfall in Lost where they find the dead body.  Yuck.  I wonder what they were after.  We had to be back on board early this day to sail by the Na Pali coast and head back to Honolulu.  I was wiped out from a week of go-go-go so I was very happy to take some down time by the pool on the ship.  I sat by all the sun worshippers (apparently not all people know that pale white is the new tan) and, while wearing my 85 SPF sunblock, I painted my nails and enjoyed the sun.  It was a relaxing afternoon with great views of the coast.  A double rainbow even graced our view of the coast.  Magnification!

We had some last cruise entertainment that evening and the next day was travel day.  Moving 40 people from ship, to beach, to hotel, to airport is no easy task so I was happy to leave a bit earlier with Jason, Jena, and Evra and miss the fray that would be check in and transit through the airport with one extended family!

It was a great vacation!  I couldn’t ask for more!  And I am very happy to be back in my seemingly large apartment with ginormous bathroom!  I can shave in the shower again!  It is a dream.  Bring on the post cruise diet.

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