But aside from that, our trip to Hawaii was wonderful! We arrived on the afternoon of July 17th to a traditonal lei greeting. (That's Ken's hand, in case you were wondering!)
Once checked into our hotel, the Waikiki Shore, we headed over to the Halekulani Hotel to enjoy some Hawaiian music, coconut cake, hula dancing, and an ocean sunset. Sorry, but all the photos were terrible! Some guy's big, bald head was in all of them! Then it was back to the room for a few hours of sleep before getting up for some sightseeing. It was going to be an action-packed 3 days on Oahu...so many things to do & so little time!
Next morning we boarded the red double-decker Aloha bus and headed out to the giant swap meet at Aloha Stadium. I bought some apple bananas (very tasty), some fresh mango, and some sugar cane. Here we are posing outside the stadium while waiting for the bus:
Next, we hopped back on the Aloha bus and headed to the Bishop Museum. The Bishop Museum focuses on ancient Hawaii and Polynesia. It was created by a Hawaiin princess in 1899 and is housed inside an old (but refurbished) boarding school:
Here I am inside next to an ancient Hawaiin dwelling:
My feet were starting to ache around this time, so we got back on the Aloha bus, so I could give them a rest:
Then we rallied for our last stop of the day which was supposed to be the Iolani Palace. Here I am posing with King Kamehameha in front of what I mistakenly thought was the Palace:
When we went inside, I was sorely disappointed...there was a display on the history of law in Hawaii, but it just wasn't what I'd expected. We left and headed back to the hotel, where I later found out that we'd been in the Hawaii Supreme Court Building! The Iolani Palace was across the street...we did make it there later in the week, though.
Our second full day on Oahu was spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center on the north shore. The PCC is a Disneyland-like place centered around Polynesian culture. There are eight villages at the PCC, each representing a different Polynesian island/country. The people working in each village doing demonstrations, performing, and/or leading guests in interactive activities are all natives of the island the village is teaching about. The majority of the employees at the PCC are students at the nearby Brigham Young University and are purportedly earning tuition by working at the facility. We had a guide who took us around to various villages the day of our visit. Our first stop was at the Samoa Village where we watched a fire-starting and coconut cracking demonstration. Then a guy showed us how to climb a palm tree to get coconuts:
Next we went to New Zealand, which had some of the best interactive stuff of the day (but not as good as the singing with sticks...but more on that later!) We played a stick game that is/was played by young boys as a form of warrior training. Noah did really well, but didn't win:
Then we tried the twirling balls. I was pretty good with these. Here are Noah and I (& some random kid we don't know):
And then we got to sing and play the bamboo sticks. We learned three different beats which we played on cue by pounding the sticks on the ground & got to sing along with the leaders on the chorus of the song they were performing. Fun!
The last village we visited was Tonga. Here I am posing with the drummer from the show we watched.
Our visit also included a really good buffet (with all the snow crab legs you could eat...and believe me, I ate a LOT) and a theatrical stage show that included lots of singing and dancing from a number of Polynesian islands. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photos of the show, so I can't include any here. By the time we got back to our hotel it was almost midnight, and we were worn out. We hit the sack, because we needed to get up early to hike Diamond Head!
We woke up the next morning at 6:00 a.m., dressed quickly, and asked the front desk clerk to call us a cab. When it arrived, we were a bit taken aback, because it was a black limousine! Here I am in our limo heading for our hike (how absurd!!):
When we got to Diamond Head, we started heading up the crater. At first we were on a paved walk which soon gave way to an unpaved rocky trail. Don't know if you can make him out, but that's Noah in the middle of the photo waving from the trail:
About halfway up, at the top of a flight of stairs, we came to a tunnel blasted through the rock. It was dimly lit and steeply slanted uphill. Here I am at the tunnel entrance:
At the other end of the tunnel was a steep flight of stairs. I didn't take a photo of it from the bottom, but I did take one of it when we were coming back down. Here it is from the top:
At the top of the stairs, we finally reached the summit of Diamond Head. Here's Noah:
...and me:
Thankfully, the trip back down was much easier, but Noah & I both highly recommend climbing Diamond Head...it was one of the highlights of our visit to Hawaii!
Once we got off Diamond Head, we headed back to downtown Honolulu and visited the REAL Iolani Palace. The Iolani Palace was built in 1882 by King Kalākaua, and is the only royal palace in the 50 United States. We took a guided tour, but photos of the inside of the Palace were not allowed, so all we have is this shot of the exterior:
Since it was to be our last night on Oahu (our cruise was leaving the next day), we decided to take a dinner cruise on the Star of Honolulu. Here we are getting ready to board:
One of the highlighs for Noah was his first sighting of a girl in a coconut bra! (He'd been waiting to see one since we'd arrived!)
There was a great meal...a second night of all the crab legs I could eat...and as I said before, I can eat a LOT of crab legs. There was also some delicious taro bread and passion fruit sorbet for dessert. And speaking of dessert, here's Noah with one of the ship's dancing girls:
But look at me, Buckskin Lily!! I've got THREE guys with me!!
And that about wrapped up our stay on Oahu...the next morning we boarded NCL's Pride of America and set sail for Maui.
We had scheduled a snorkeling trip to Molokini Crater for our first day on Maui. Unfortunately, Noah was indisposed, so we were forced to cancel the trip. However, he bounced back nicely by the next day, and we were able to spend the day hiking and swimming in waterfalls. Here I am hiking to the first waterfall:
And here I am frolicking in the water...very refreshing:
And here I am IN the waterfall. Nice hair!!
On the way back, we sloshed through some canals to stay cool:
The next day we were on the Big Island (Hawaii). We took a tour up to Volcanoes National Park. We hiked through a lava tube...
...and explored some lava beds...
Don't fall in!!
And finally, we got to see the smoking crater of Mt. Kilauea, but sadly, there was no red, hot lava coming out of it. Boo!
But we did see a red-eyed pheasant in the bushes:
That night, the ship sailed around to the other side of the island, and when we arrived the following day, we got off the ship and headed to Turtle Bay in Kona for some amazing snorkeling. Since I had no underwater camera, I didn't get any snaps of the fish we saw, but I did see a sea turtle from shore. Here she is:
And a shot of me by the water (this is before I realized that I'd gotten an amazing sunburn on the back of my lily-white legs!
The final two days of the cruise were spent on Kauai. On our first day, we went kayaking (a first for me & I loved it!) and hiking to another waterfall...IMO, the best one we saw on the whole trip...but I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's Noah with our kayak:
...and here he is hiking to the waterfall:
I opted for more comfortable attire (I've never hiked in a bikini before, but I highly recommend it!):
Here's the waterfall (pretty spectacular, huh?)
...and Noah & I taking a dip:
For our last day on Kauai, we decided to do a little ATV riding. We started out along a road lined with Norfolk pines (brought to the island by Captain Cook to be used as replacement masts).
When we got to the top, we were rewarded with an amazing view of the ocean:
All too soon our ride was over, however, and it was back to the ship.
Noah & I made a new friend on the ship. Her name was Laura and she was the ship's Activities Director. She invited us to a special sail-away on the bow. When we arrived there were only about 30 people there and they were passing out free champagne and mimosas. Here I am with Laura by the jacuzzi:
...and with my mimosa:
The ship cruised past the Na Pali coast before heading back to Honolulu and our flight back to the mainland (which I won't talk about here! Except to say that it was a red-eye flight and we were stuck in two seats that were right in front of the emergency exit, so besides having even less leg room, they didn't recline, either. Talk about uncomfortable!! The worst airplane flight of my life!!)...but I digress! Here's a beautiful shot of a rainbow & the Na Pali coast:
Well, that about wraps up our trip to Hawaii. I think this is my longest post ever, but it was a busy trip filled with lots of exciting adventures. I'd never been to Hawaii before & wasn't particularly excited about going, but now I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the islands and definitely plan on going back.
Aloha!
Buckskin Lily
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