Day 10 Nawiliwili, Kauai

Posted on November 27, 2016 by nomad

On Saturday November 26th we arrived in Nawiliwili Hawaii on the island of Kauai. I decided to take the excursion to Waimea Canyon – the Grand Canyon of The Hawaiian Islands. We took the tour bus through the Hanapepe Valley and stopped at a scenic spot along the highway to look at a small canyon of colorful rock formations as a sample of what we were going to see.

 

Here are a few pictures along the way:

We then drove to The Waimea Canyon lookout:

After leaving the Canyon we drove to the coast to Poipu Beach to see the Spouting Horn:

We then had lunch at a local resort near the Gran Hyatt Hotel.

Then we were off again to look at Opaekaa Falls before taking a river boat cruise on the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto State Park.

At the Fern Grotto we were informed of the waterfall and the Grotto which is now caved in.

We were entertained with Hawaiian songs and hula dances at the grottoa and on the riverboat before departure. Then it was back to she ship for a sailing away to Kona on the Big Island, dinner, shipboard entertainment,and a trip to the Crow’s Nest for a night cap.

 

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Days 8 and 9 Honolulu, Oahu

Posted on November 25, 2016 by nomad

We arrived on Honolulu on November 24th, Thanksgiving. Originally we were to be here only the 24, but because the weather was not conducive for tender landings at Maui, we spent an overnight and additional day in Honolulu. 20161124_091914_5This was great for me because I wanted to visit the State Capital House which was closed on Thanksgiving but not the day after.

So, I disembarked the ship a little after 9 AM and walked to the State Capital Building about 4 blocks away. I walked around the area and took pictures of the Iolani Palace and the Kamehameha Statue – the statue in front of the Judicial Building in the series “Hawaii 50”. I then decided to walk to the Punch Bowl National Cemetery. Id did not seem that far. I thought I could just walk up to the base of the hill and find a footpath to the top. – No such thing. I had to walk all the way around to the back side to gain entrance to the cemetery.

A few pictures of the State House:

At the National Cemetery:

At Germaine’s Luau in Barber’s Point…..

The visit to the State Capital and Iolani Palace….

Off to Kauai tomorrow……

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Day 7 Hilo, Hawaii

Posted on November 23, 2016 by nomad

Just a quick note because the ship has arrived in Hilo and I am out the door to go on a Goddess of Fire Volcano Exploration tour. More later with pictures

Later a lot longer than I thought! Here’s the day’s story—-

 

20161123_090144_sm    Arrived in Hilo, where we stood out on deck and watched a traditional Hula dance asking permission to go ashore. I had signed up for a trip to the Volcanos National Park. The trip included a drive along the coast where the 1992 earthquatke and sfollowing sunami flattened the shore. There is a dedicated clock monument depicting the time of the sunami. We then stopped at  the Mauna Loa Macademia Nut processing plant.

 

The ride to the volcano park included a ride near the crater rim and visit to the Jagger Museum.  We drove by steam vents along the way. We stopped and walked through the Thurston Lava tube, we then passed another inactive crater that people were walking  across. — I passed on that!

We drove by the an area that had black sand beaches.

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20161123_175514_225We finally departed the Big  Island around 6 PM .

 

 

 

Had a nice dinner and a late night and then ZZZs!

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Day 3 Sailing toward Hilo, Hawaii

Posted on November 21, 2016 by nomad

 

Since we sailed, I have been doing stretching exercises andab workouts in the morning to make sure I don’t have those lbs. creeping up. Later in the day yesterday, I attended a seminar to learn about Windows 10’s Edge Browser. It can do some interesting things. It has a privacy mode that must be turned on each session, but it does allow you to browse in private and then automatically erases all traces of your browsing – history, cookies and caches when you close the browser.

Hula classes in the afternoon. My participation was just watching.

Later I attended a “cocktail mixology” class.

In the evening, played some trivia. The day before yesterday our team tied for first with three other groups.  Last night we came in second. We also had our first of three Gala Dinner nights.- a black tie event.

20161119_234113_1After dinner listened to some piano music and later had a night cap in the  Crow’s Nest.

 

 

 

Finally, the turned down bed and zzzz’s

Teaching the Hula

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At Sea, Sailing toward Hilo, Hawaii

Posted on November 18, 2016 by nomad
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Waiting to board the MS Amsterdam

Above:San Diego before we set sail. Our departure was delayed about 2.5 hours for reasons dealing with the weather out at sea.

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San Diego At night. Taken as we were departing. We sailed 2.5 hours late to avoid weather in our course of travel.

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 The Crow’s Nest (the bar on Deck nine) late in the afternoon.

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Here I am in my stateroom and the above photo is of the turned down bed at the end of the day.

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Introduction to the ship’s entertainers

 

I the rest of the evening sorting out my schedule for tomorrow’s day at sea.

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Boarding the MS Amsterdam in San Diego

Posted on November 17, 2016 by nomad

Arrived in San Diego yesterday afternoon and spent some time with local friends. Today I boarded the ship at 13:00 and settled in. Had trouble getting an account due to my browser kept autofilling information – sort of like Facebook. Have to go to mandatory drill. Later

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