Welcome to Avatiu, Rarotonga April 17, 2016

We not really a welcome as once again, we cannot go ashore. The wind is at 30 KTS across the bow, and they tried to get us off, by putting the tenders in the water, but just too much wind and the swells are just too big. Then on top of that they had a medical evacuation, so they had toget that person off to be air evaceted home to Australia, sad. 

So we are to do scenic cruising around the island to take pictures. I will post them here. 

So now we are on our way to Raiatea we are now suppose to spend the night, arriving about nine tonight. This is a docking port, not a tender. We have not been off the ship, since we left Kona, a week ago!

Saling towards Rarotonga April 14,15 2016

Ok we missed Fanning Island. We woke up early, so we so we could watch the sail in and we saw the island,,,,, and then we didn't!

This was at first. 

Then it looked like this, then you couldn't even see the island, it rained so hard.  The capten  said we had to abort, as there was no way with the storm, that the tenders would make it. 

So we just headed south, on to our next stop Rarotonga. Now our on location guid says it Friday the 15th, but none of us is really sure, as we have criscrised the date line, with no real refeance as to time and date. Oh well "what difference does it make?"

So now we are on our ? Sea days, all I know is we should be in Rarotonga day after tommrow. We'll see. I'll try to give you an idea of how we have settled into sea days around the ship. 

This is a very interesting ship, it is smaller then what we are accustomed to, so even though we are more aft we don't have very far to go to get to most things. 

I profiled the library, last time, that is on deck 10, if you go down one deck to 9 you are on the lido, and spa deck. The lido market is wher you have the casual option, for breakfast lunch, and dinner. It is very good, as that type of thing goes. The biggest problem is finding a seat, and the dinamics on this ship, makes it even more of a problem, as they are all so much older, so they all go to everything way ahead of schedule. 

There is another lunch venue on this deck, it is The Drive In, the have hot dogs and hamburgers and frys, this is the BEST I have experienced, in this category. I will try to get some photos tommrow.  We had lunch here today, with Bill and Irene, we got New England clam chowder and the other three had hotdogs and I had a chicken sandwich. Now Ed is napping, and I'm writing. 

We have been going to the lictures around 2 tha Kaino, gives on the upcoming islands, but there wasn't one today. The one today is on flying the North Atlantic, and Pacfic. Not sure if Ed is going or not. 

We go to dinner at 7:30, finely got that worked out, and we go to the Oceans Bar befor dinner, more on that later.  

So more trivial things later.  

Catching up part 2

  Ok so we get up and, have breakfast, and plan what to do today in regards to the car. What seemed like a good idea 6 months ago, doesn't seem so now. We are tired,and don't feel Ike driving all over Oahu today, so it is onto the walk to the garage, and find the car. Long story here, for another day. 

So we drive to the Pagoda, hotel, turn in the car, and walk to Walmart, do some last, shopping for, necessities, water, sunscreen etc.  it was an adventure. Then took the free shuttle back to the ship, the ship sailed at five.  We said a sad aloha to Oahu we were all sad to leave, hope we get to come back some day. 

So now it was on to, the big island, and Hilo. George, and Diane met us just outside the gate, and they showed us there, part of Hawaii. Right beside there condo is a small park, and I don't remember the name, but there is a great swim area, and you can swim with the turtles!

This is walking into the park. 

Just beyond here, there are steps, to go into the water. 

Then you see these guys

Then we got to see their airplane, and we were on to a Saturday morning market, no photos, of the market, too busy buying. 

Next day we were in Kona, here we had a private tour, to Explore the Kohola coastline, the birthplace of King Kamehameha and the mystical Polou Valley. This tour took us along the scenic Kohala coastline, a landscape of lava flows, resorts and white sand beaches. Visit PU'ukohola Helau National Historic Site and the temple of King Kamehameha the Great. We traveled to historic Hawi town, the birthplace of King Kamehamaha and payed  a visti to the original statue of the king, we continued to the end of the road to take in breathtaking views of the Pololu Valley with it's black sand beach and tropical wetlands, traversing the Kohola mountain pass through active ranch land return to Kailua-Kona along mountainous country roads while taking in panoramic views of the island.  

It was nice but a long drive in a van, that had one too many people, I think by now we were tired, ready for a sea day.

So now it is on to Fanning Island..... 

Catching up on all the days in Hawaii April 11,2016

Wow here it is the 11th of April and I last published on the 6th and that didn't go out like it was suppose to. So now to catch up the best I can. 

We arrived in Honolulu about an hour late, which wasn't good for us, as we were renting a car, and for a while it got worse befor it got better. We finely got off the ship about 10:30. And where the Westerdam docked was not at the aloha tower, it was about a mile toward Waikiki, so we get out and Ed calls Hertz, for a shuttle, and the say the shuttle only runs untill 9 AM!  So we walk off to Aloha tower 1 which was the address, and guess what they aren't there!  So now what to do? Ed calls Hertz, and the guy says, were in the Pagoda hotel, about 5 miles away, we flag a taxi but he doesn't know where the Pagoda hotel is, so we go to the Interprise rental, as it was on the way, and we are not happy with Hertz right now, but they have no cars, so we get out on the street again, this time we found a great taxi driver who knew the way, and the Pagoda was right behind the WALMART!  Who knew we found out the next day that we could have taken a shuttle to Walmart, and been right there, but more on that later.

So we finely get the car, it is now it is noon, and we wanted to be at the Polynesian Culture center at noon, but at last we were on the way. We took the road over the Palii and road it around the coast, It took about an hour, and it was beautiful I saw lots of places I used to paint, lots of memories, the whole day, was just beginning. 

The four of us, Jim, Val and Ed and i, had purchased the Super Ambasader Package, so we got parking right up front and our own private guid for the day, and very VIP  treatment all day. Our guid was Phobie a sweet young blond girl from China!  And she really considered herself Chinese her parents moved moved to China when she was three, and she now had  9 siblings and they are all in China and when she finishes school on Oahu she will go home. She speaks fluent Chinese as well as English.  She was delightful and we all enjoyed her very much. 

We started out going to Fiji , and we learned that the early Fijians, were the pottery makers of Polynesia, and saw some wonderful natives dancing,  and our seats were right up front. We were given used some big bambo sticks that you pounded on the ground, it was fun. 

Tonga, was the next stop, Tonga is one of the few countries in the world, and the only one in Polynesia, never to be colonized by a European power. It's a royal family, now headed by his Majesty King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV.  This was one of the funniest shows, they chose three guys from the audience, one from Wisconsin, and two from California, one being aishen decent who was so funny. They were all very good sports. 

Then we went to Samoa, we learned about all the uses for coconuts and learned how to make coconut bread, yum, and Ed was chosen to try coconut juice, from a fresh coconut, he too was a good sport. 

Then we went to Tahiti and Jim and Ed learned to dance,, lol 

Tahiti, is the name of one island in the Society Islands, a group that includes Moorea, Bora Bora, and Raiatea, among others. 

Then it was on to the Pageant of the Long Canoes, and again we were given front row seats. 

Tonga

Tahiti 

Hawaii

After the show we got our own longboat canoe ride. Then it s on to dinner, again we had up front seats, and I mean up front. 

When it is time to dine, the pig is ritually removed from the imu and  paraded across a bridge into the dinning area. 

Then you have The Ali'i Lu'au, or the show, this was not the big evening show, that we saw later, I didn't take photos there, just enjoyed. Here are photos from the dinner show. 

We were so close they had to put up a fence to protect us, this was a female fire dancer. 

We left the center, about 9:30, we all had a great time, so many memories, from the past, and the day.

 The drive back was easy, and the guys dropped Val and I to the ship, and then they went on to hunt a place to park the car, then they had to walk two miles back to the ship, now we all said good night, after a brief glass of wine we were off to bed. 

To be continued........

Sailing towards Honolulu April 6, 2016

It say partly cloudy, not it is raining and very cloudy and about 70 F 

Today's highlights include: a lecture on Pearl Harbor - what happened and why, the events leading to December 7, 1941, the missed clues, the spy, the catastrophe for American forces and its impact on the future of the world. Ed is there now. 

You could learn to do the hula at 11am pool side, I think that might be a wee bit wet. Or you could do a licture on diversification of life in ancient seas.  Later at 2 we could see Hawaii's 2010 male star of the year performing music from Hawaii and see the hula dancer Celeste Akeo, we might just do that one, if we didn't have reservations for Wine Tasting For Dummies, at 2:30. Oh well you can't do everything. 

We are on our last sea day before we get to Honolulu tomorrow, we are scheduled to arrive about 10 am, and we are setting the clocks back, I think, although, there has been no reference to that yet. 

We just went to a talk on three of the islands we will be visiting. We must have missed the talk on the first three, but it was ok as it was interesting any way. 

We spent time in the spa yesterday, and I have found places for all our stuff in the room, so all is going well. Now we are up in the library/ crows nest, and coffee bar. It is really pretty, up on the 10th deck all the way forward.  And now it is clearing up, the sun is out. 

Where you get special coffees

The bar area

The library area

The view, Ed doing sudoku. We will go to lunch in a bit. 

Saling towards Honolulu Monday April 4 2016

Partly Cloudy temp 21c /70 f 

Tonight is our first GALA NIGHT / formal night, so what have we done so far today? We woke again at 6:30 am, and decided to go and use the thermal spa, we bought that for the whole cruise yesterday, but didn't use it then. It was great, we also bought the Internet package, so I can blog. 

The thermal spa is really nice and if we get to use it at the India of the day it would probably put us to sleep. You start with a BIG hot tub, then move to the steam bath or sana then shower, and lay on a heated lounge. It's a tough life!

We came back to the room to dress and do some housekeeping. I'm still trying to find logical places for staching stuf in this small room, it is really small, but the bed is a full King!  Which is probably, why it seems so small, na, it's small, and little closet space too. 

We then went upstairs, for a bit of lunch, as we did not have more then coffee, and a banana. I set I the sun by the aft pool, and Ed walked to get us a cheese burger, frys and hotdog. Now we are back I the room, Ed is taking a nap, and I'm working on catching up on the blog. 

We could have lured to dance the hula, or listened to a talk about Kona, both befor lunch, now it's 2 PM and we should e listening to the lecture on "courageous voyaging" how did these isolated islands come to be populated, by a homogeneous people? Then at three, we have the Migrations of Hawaiians.  

We may make the Blue Hawaii, sunset hour at 4:30in the crows nest, before we go to dinner, as it is also happy hour, buy one drink and get the second for $1.

Yesterday, we dined in the Pinnnacle Grill, Westedams specialty stake house restaurant, we weren't that impressed, but we'll try again. The company was great as Bill, Irene, Jim, andVal were all there. But the place was far from full and the she is was not good. 

So I will sign off and catch you tommrow. 

San Diego day 2

It was another beautiful day in San Diego.  We got up early again and Ed retrieved coffee for us. Then we met Jim and Val and bought our tickets for the hop on hop off and after waitin for over an hour for a  trolley we hopped on. Seems the trains were blocking the tracks, and that's what made them late. Our driver was named BOX CAR, and he was a kick, he turned a bad situation into a very fun morning. We road almost the full journey and debarked in old town, for lunch. As we hadn't even had breakfast. 

We walked down the hill to the Guadalajara restaurant and had a yummy lunch, bean and beef tostada, with a big Margareta!  

Walked around old town a bit and then re-boarded our trolley and arrived back at the US Grant in time to get ready to go to dinner at the top of the Fish Market. What a place. And what a view!  We had a wonderful dinner and great conversation.  

Day 1 in SanDiego

We had a great first day in San Diego, it was bright and sunny, but cool. Pet picked us up about 2 pm to take us on a bit of a tour of the New Point Light and Cabrillo National Monument.  

Cabrilloset out on his epic voyage 50 years after Columbus landed in America. It was very interesting to know about this history we knew nothing about

Looking across the bay

Cabrillo monument

A navy ship arrives, we saw her on the other side, out doing maneuvers. 

San Diego

We awoke at 5: am daughter Peggy had coffee on, bless her and at 6:00 we piled out to the car, and Peggy drove us to Dulles. Got a sky hop and he took all our bags (4) and we checked in. We went through the Global Entry  line and it was fast, and no issues. Went to the United lounge, for another cup of coffee, to wait for our flight. Flight was called right on time, and we were off.

A Bloody Mary,  and huge breakfast and the next 5 hours "flew" by about an hour and a half away from landing we flew over the Grand Canyon and I got this shot.

 

We landed 30 minutes early, and our bags came out the very first, that was nice. Got a taxi to our hotel the US Grant, and our room was ready. That was wonderful!  We freshened up and went downstairs for a late lunch that turned out to be dinner too. The time change was affecting us. Went back to the room for a nap. 

When we woke we decided to go across the street to the mall area, to CVS, and buy a couple bottles of water, for the room and some snacks. But both of us were dragging so walked back to the hotel. Ed took the stuf upstairs, and I drank a refresher drink they had at the desk, and it helped! It was pair and rosemary, very interesting.  We then went to the bar for happy hour, and had an order of pamasan cheese frys to shear, that was dinner, LOL 

On our way

We will leave home in a bit, the bags are packed, now to get them, and Ginger in the car. She is ready to go home I think. 

So now on to the kids house and fly out to San Diego tomorrow.

A NEW ADVENTURE

It is time to wake up the blog, once more as we are getting ready to go again, this time on the Holland  America Westerdam, off to the south pacific.
We fly out to San Diego on Wednesday from Dulles, we will spend 3 nights in San Diego, ajusting to the time change, and visiting friends.  The packing is almost finished so now to just finish the last minute details.

Last of our voyages, oct 18th

Well it is 5:10 and we are on the ferry, and minutes from home, but next stop will be to pick up food at Food Lion I guess, or Fresh Market, not sure which right now. We just made the Ferry, as we got caught in a traffic jam on 95 because of an accident. Later

October 17, 2015

We are back, we arrive FLL at 05:00 as scheduled it is warm and tropical, with a nice breeze.  Still dark.

We are not going to go to breakfast, as both of us are too full, from dinner. Very nastagic saying good-by to Ken and Claudia not sure when we will see them again. The rest of the table, Val, Jim, Bill, and Irene, we will see in the near future. 

So now it is on to the car rental, and our first day driving home. Tonight God willing we will be in Savannah.

October 16,2015 At sea almost home, Happy Birthday Eddie

Happy birthday Eddie and also Happy Anniversary to you and Jennifer.  

It is a quite day at sea, we have been lucky this trip, not much weather on the high sea. 

I think it is about 7:55 AM ships time we are still an hour off east coast time, as far as time goes we are not sur what time it is as our iPads still read Europe time, not sure why, as they changed right away when we got to Europe, but have not changed back. Jim's has stayed on east coast time the whole trip, go figure. 

Well I guess I better get dressed, to go to our last breakfast in Sabatini's and wake up Ed. 

October 15th 2015

ships time 7:53AM      28* north and 66* west and 760 nm to go, To FLL

Today is not as pretty this morning, looks like we are moving into a storm, but an interesting sky none he less. 

Today is our last formal night of this cruise, and I am not sure what else. We had a great dinner last night at the Crown Grill, and we saw two wonderful shows, we bought a CD from the violinist Greg Scott. He was great, and great looking all 6 foot 4 of him!

I was right we are in a big thunderstorm!  How quickly the sea can change!  But it appears to be just rain as the sea is still pretty flat. 

Ok I just looked at the Patter, and there is a lot to do today so I guess I better go get a shower, before Ed wakes up. 

October 14th again

Ok we are finely caught up for the moment. It is 1pm and our position, is 30 degrees north and 60 degrees west or there abouts and the temp is 80 degrees and we are in the dull drums, seas are very calm. 

 Our day will consist of eating at the Crown Grill tonight an this afternoon seeing a show Paul Baker who was in La Mize and fantom of the opera. So it will be a full day. 

Funchal, Madeira the last port before FLL

We had planed to buy Madeira wine at this port and other goodies, but it was not to be as I reported eairler, it rained so hard all we did is waste $20 to go into town. In the past we loved this stop. But it was not to be, even sale-away was in the cabin, not on the deck. 

All and all we have had a wonderful cruise, good friends,  good food, and great service. Next stop FLL!

October 14, 2015

Now to try to finish theses last to port stops that really didn't amount to a whole lot, but here goes.  We arrived in Lisbon about 8 AM, Ed went upstairs to take pictures of the bridge we pass under. This is Portugal's answer to our golden gate. 

We had a tour to Santra & Cascals we spent a half day exploring Portugal's coastline. We drove to Cascais, stopping for a bit at Guinco Beach, and we had a coffee, and did a wee bit of shopping, then it was back in the buss to go to Santra which is set high in the mountains. 

From the central,square in Santra, we could see the 8th-century Castle of the Moors fortress. But we had more shopping to do. This place had purses and shoes mad of cork! I have never seen any thing like before. 

When we had our sale-away, we saw,hundreds of squid!

Happy Birthday Tim

Good morning Tim and every one, I took a great sunrise again, but lost it, 

So here is another one that isn't as good but shows how flat the sea is. 

Oct 12 more catch up, Lisbon

Good morning, I didn't finish and it is now October 13 and this is the view from my window. I don't know what time it is as the iPad has it all wrong and my watch is in the sleeping area and Ed is still asleep. And we set the clocks back again last night. Anyway I will continue the tale after a shower and breakfast.