Maui-Kawai-Maui-Kona

Over the past two days we have visited 2 different islands.  The same will happen over the next 2 days as well. 

Our first stop was Maui.  Here we had booked an adventure hike for the day. We set our alarms for early and woke around 7 to start the day.  We went to the Insignia lounge to get our bus assignment and then headed out to a green van.  The group was small today. Only 8 hikers and one ship guide.  

This tour took us to a 50 acre 'farm'.  It was purchased in 1996 by 5 families in the hopes of turning it into a commune.  As it turned out, the age of communes had passed and the families had a bunch of rainforest. Our guide told us that years later when they lost their livelihood, they began charging the public to go hiking through the forest.  

It was a beautiful simple hike.  Not at all the strenuous experience I expected given the description from the cruise ship.  I enjoyed it all the same.  On this hike, we saw 4 waterfalls.

At the first one, George and I decided to go for a 'refreshing dip'.  The water was at 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Not cold, but not warm either.  Certainly not what I expected to have in Hawaii.  This one was called Caveman waterfall. The reason I’m assuming is because of the cave behind the waterfall?  At this waterfall, we had a lunch of a turkey sandwich, a cookie, and some potato chips. It was a bit early in the day for me at 10:30 so I gave most of mine to George.

The next waterfall we came to had no name that I can remember and we were only able to access it from the top and look down on it.  

At this point, our guide opened a gate labeled, keep out farm, and we went on our way.  After a short hike we ended up at Ohia Lei-liua.  A 35 foot waterfall.  This one we were not able to swim at as there really was no pool to speak of. 

We carried on up a trail and arrived at running man waterfall. This was fantastic.  People were able to jump off the edge down into the pool below.  Only one man from our group tried this. George and I thought about it, but since we had changed out of our swimming gear at the pool we thought better of it. I’m sure people did not want to see 2 naked folks jumping off a cliff.  

On the walk back, we sampled a strawberry guava and learned a lot about teak trees and other plants in the rain forest.  Overall, it was a nice way to spend the morning.  

When we returned to the dock area, I opted to stop at a local mall and wander around.  I purchased some guava juice for George, and a few puzzles for me.  Nothing spectacular, just a different take on a 1x3x3 spinner cube and some floating spinner rings.  

When I returned to the ship George was still napping so I just sat quietly and played a silly game on my iPad.  Dinner that night was with people we had dined with before and as usual was quite enjoyable.  

On Tuesday we were in Kauai.  Our mud buggy tour was cancelled because of lack of interest so we took our handy scooters and off we went. 

The day before I found a pier that looked interesting and was close enough to scoot to.  We went for it and thought only to take a few photos and see a bit of scenery.  The pier itself was interesting in that it used to be the end of the line for a railroad. It has since been let fall into disrepair with no building standing other than the concrete pier that held it up.  The water below was so clear, we could see the fish swimming there.  

After a bit of time there, we then went over to the break wall and took a walk down to the end.  Here we took a few more photos.  It was wonderful to watch the waves crash against the wall, but when they got a bit higher, I decided it was time to go.  This area is littered with rocks, and I can’t imagine it is a safe place to do water sports.  Having said that, we saw quite a few paddle boarders and even some scuba divers.  

From here we decided to scoot back to our ship.  The day was young so George stopped and followed a path he had seen earlier.  I refused to go, and he went on his own.  It looked dodgy to me.  Shortly after he came back, told me to tuck the scooters behind a tree and walk with him.  I trust him completely so off we went.  

We came to an opening at the end of the trail which overlooked the water.  Here we sat for a while just enjoying the views.  We looked off to the right and saw a beach so we decided to scramble our way over the larger rocks to go to it.  

When we finally arrived, we stripped off and went for a swim.  We had found our own secluded beach in a Hawaiian paradise.  Ok.  Maybe not.   It was a rocky beach, not a sandy one and the ocean floor was a bit slimy from the algae that was there.  But it was heaven all the same.  

We were enjoying the swim-more of a float because it wasn’t that deep-and had planned to stay quite a bit longer when out of the corner of my eye I saw a snake!  No way!  I’m out of here!  I don’t believe I have ever moved that fast in my life. I DO NOT like snakes.  

Later when we were drying off on the large rocks George mentioned that Hawaii doesn’t have snakes.  He thought it must have been an eel.  It sure looked like a snake to me.  Swam like all the snakes I’ve ever seen too.  I was much more comfortable on land watching the crabs and drying in the warm sun.  

Back to the ship we went for a shower, a cold beer, and a nap.  We didn’t do anything else of note the rest of the day. Dinner I suppose, but I really don’t remember much of it.  

Wednesday morning found us back in Maui.  We had opted for another hike on this day. Only to get in the van and realize it was exactly the same hike we had gone on two days before.  We decided to switch our excursion and ended up going to a pineapple plantation. It was very nice of Oceania to switch the excursion for us at the last minute.  Although, in my defense, it did not say this was the same hike in the brochure.  

We now had 2 hours to kill so we went for a walk along the main drag-tourist trap.  Then went to a bar/restaurant named Cool Cat for a few sandwiches and a drink.  The food was acceptable and the drinks were cold.  

The pineapple farm was run by Maui pineapples, and was one more pineapple farm.  We’ve been to a couple of them over the years.  The difference here is that the pineapples are said to have 85% or more sugar content.  While these were nice, and they were definitely sweeter than what I get back home in Florida, I have had much much sweeter pineapples in Asia.  Or should I say I've had pineapples that do not have that bit of sour tang that hits the back of your tongue when bitten into. 

When the tour was finished, we had a pineapple smoothy that was nice and cold.  Again, it wasn’t super sweet to me.  It was full of flavor and that is what one looks for isn’t it?

After our return to the pier, George jumped on a Tender to return to the ship. I went into town to get some cookies from the Honolulu Cookie Company for our room stewards.  You see, I burned my hand with some scalding water and they ran quickly to get me some ice to cool it with.  I’m right as rain now thanks to their quick thinking.  These cookies are very good so I thought what a great way to thank them.  

I also bought a bit of sugared ginger, and a few pieces of jewelry today.

And now on to the real news of the day.  Our around the world trip has shifted focus.  We are no longer going around the world, we are now going around the Caribbean and to Europe and the middle east.  If we decided to stay on, Oceania would give us a 15% refund on our cruise cost. Well, this was added incentive.  We had no plans of cancelling the trip even without the refund.  But BONUS!  Now we will just slap that money down on a 2024 world cruise deposit.  

When we originally signed up for the cruise, it was because of Australia, New Zealand, and Madagascar.  Sadly, the first two were scrapped before the cruise even began. The last was just scrapped because of the change in itinerary.  No big deal.  While we have been to a few of the Caribbean islands, we haven’t been to all of them.  Same goes for cities in Mexico and quite a few places in the revised 'Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cruise'.  It will be interesting to see what the excursions will be.  

While the letter the ship sent to us blamed the lack of open ports at this time, I can’t help but wonder if perhaps it wasn’t diverted because of the eruption near Tonga.  Perhaps this is more of a safety issue than we realize.  Either way, it really doesn’t bother us. We will enjoy our time together and at sea.  

Our final day in Hawaii was in Kona.  Here we had a snorkeling excursion booked but due to lack of interest, it was cancelled.  We will as usual jump on our scooters and scoot around the area trying to find something to do. Before we left the ship, George found a local brewery for us to take a tour of and another beach.  

Off we went.  We got to the brewery after a small detour to a medical marijuana shop.  Totally by accident. We were embarrassed when the young lad came out and asked us for our medical cards.  Eventually we found the brewery, paid for a 12 noon tour, and set off for that beach he had found.

This beach was off to the left of an abandoned airfield landing strip. After scooting along that road, I can see now why plane landings are so bumpy.  That road was rough to say the least.  We found a place to lock the scooters and headed down to the beach to find a place to swim. Sadly, this beach was so rocky that it would have been dangerous to swim in.  That didn’t stop us.  We found a tide pool, took off our shoes and went wading.  

This was fascinating! We saw a number of small fish and I thought that would be the end of it. As I went to step on a higher rock, George showed me a sea urchin.  The more we looked, the more we saw.  There was even a sponge there.  This is a truly interesting world we live in.  All one needs to do is look around.  

We returned to the Brewery for the tour.  This place was impressive. They have solar panels on the roof and produce 25% of their energy.  They have a water processing plant on the property and clean 50% of the water they use to be reused for cleaning and watering plants.  They also allow local farmers to use the spent barley for cattle and pig feed.  This is amazing to me.  It's a real treat to see a company doing something to help protect the planet.  

Later we tasted a total of 4 different beers.  I liked the one with lemon grass and the one with coconut. We did something unheard of.  We left beer on the table and went back to pick up our scooters and head back to the ship.  Have no fear though, before we left we purchased a few growlers of the coconut beer and 4 cans of the mango beer.  

Upon scooting back to the ship we dropped our things and headed for lunch.  George had a banana milk shake and I had a glass of red wine.  Did I mention that I really only tasted the beer?  I much prefer wine.  Oh how times have changed.  As little as 5 years ago I’d have never left a beer on the table.  Now, I find it easy to walk away.  My head will thank me tomorrow morning I’m sure.

I leave Kona with the same thoughts I've had all 6 days we have been in Hawaii. It's a nice enough place to visit, but I am glad I don't live here.  I would go stir crazy for sure. The hikes are nice, the water is pretty, but it's just not for me.

On to 4 more sea days.  Expect a puzzle update in a day or two.  We have purchased a few more along the way. Until then, I wish you all happy puzzling and gentle winds.

Sea Days from San Diego to Hawaii

Well, we’ve left San Diego once again. It’s on to Hawaii.  Fingers and toes are all crossed in the hopes that we make it there.  

On our first day at sea, I ate a sleeve of saltines and took 2 meclazine tablets (generic bromine) which I purchased them on Amazon before we left and took along the better part of 2 bottles.  I’m not sure how many in total I have, but I’ve realized that this trip is taking me longer to get used to the motion than the last two trips we took.  I spent the morning in bed then went up for lunch.  Putting a bit of food in my belly helps greatly.

After lunch, we went up to the card room and met another couple there. We had had lunch with them the day before and had agreed to teach them how to play Hand Knee and Foot.  (Instructions to follow in a future post) The ladies partnered up as did the gents.  We brought along our iPad with the scoring app on it and were ready to begin teaching.  Both picked up the game rather quickly.  To be fair, it’s an easy one to learn.  I can’t chalk it up to our teaching.  

The first night we had dinner in the grand dining room and I’ll post a photo of a meal here.  Osso Busco.  It is huge!  There is enough food here to feed 3 people.  I ate a small portion of it and was asked if there was something wrong with it.  Other than lack of portion control, I see no problems with most of the food on the ship.

As usual, we did not go to any shows or to have drinks or anything other than have a good nights sleep.

The next morning I woke to go to yoga.  I’m enjoying this, but the schedule changes are doing my head in.  Every day is a different time and it’s not good for my sense of normalcy.  Today the air is chilly and the boat is rocking a bit.  

When walking to yoga, I noticed the sea sickness bags all over.  Yes, it is rough seas. I had to stop a few times to steady myself.  I saw quite a few green travelers and am grateful for the pills I take. I was told at cards later that there are more than a few people affected by the motion. The Meclizine tablets I take work wonders.  I have no side effects from them.  Some of the other brands made me drowsy, but these do nothing more than calm my stomach. 

After yoga today had time to return to the cabin and grab a quick shower before heading out for a cooking demonstration. I enjoy watching cooking shows at home and this was no exception. The two chefs made pasta (really?  How hard is that to do?  I know, I know some people didn’t grow up doing this 3 times a week-and the fancy electric pasta machine was cool.  I’ll have to look into getting one when I return home) and dover sole wrapped scallops with caviar.   

I was surprised how few people in the audience knew how to make a lobster stock-there was a wave of ah’s when they were told to crush the shells and let it cook out with a cup of white wine.  I’m not a foodie, but even I knew that one.  I don’t normally add brandy when I make mine, I’ll give that a try next time.  Sadly, there is no tasting because of COVID, but they did say they would put the dish on the menu soon and the pasta is always fresh in Toscana.

At noon every day the Capitan comes on and gives us the temperature, the heading, the speed of the boat to name a few items. Today it is 60 degrees air temperature and 63 degrees sea temperature.  The distance to the sea floor was just over 4 miles today.  That is a lot of water.  It really is awesome the depth below us.  When we look to the horizon, we can see nothing but water surrounding us.  In the Currents of January 14th, I read that 72% of the planet is covered in salt water with a total volume of approximately 1.3 billion cubic Kilometers.  That’s a lot of water!  The earth is an amazing place.  We really need to do something about saving it.  The pollution we encountered in LA has stuck with me.  The skies out here are blue.  A bit of cloud, and I can see rain in the distance.  But mostly it is just blue.  This is how the entire world should look, not just the air above the seas.  

We joined another couple for lunch and had a pleasant meal and conversation. From there we again went to cards.  This time Jim and Shari decided to play with each other.  Oh dear! My experience with playing with your life partner has been negative.  Don’t do it.  But they survived as did we.  They did a great job and were ahead until the very end.  They simply couldn’t make the last book and they ended up loosing by only 4000 points or so.  Had they made the book they would have cleaned our clocks.  For only the second time of playing they are amazing and will give us a run for our money on future sea days.  

Dinner that night was in the Polo Grill. I decided to go for the Oysters Rockefeller again as they were so good the night before.  I also thought I’d give the lobster a second try.  Well, there is nothing worse than gritty oysters.  I ate the first one and got the grit.  I thought I’d eat the second and hope it would be better.  No such luck.  I gave up and passed on the third.  Later that night and the following morning I began to realize just how wise a decision that was. (Bad oysters do not make for a good nights sleep.)  The lobster though was so much better than the previous time.  I think I’ll quit while I’m ahead.  

The boat was rocking all through the night. Not just side to side rocking, but the up and down kind too.  It was rough seas for me, although the captain said it was only 3 to 3 1/2 meter swells.  I had a restless night between the oysters and the seas.  I lay awake for quite a while watching the backpack swing back and forth. At one point the sway was fairly close to 6 inches.  Thank goodness it was at night and not during the day where I could see the movement out the window.  

In the morning I awoke around 8:30 (small blessing) and decided to forgo the yoga when I felt my tummy begin to churn.  I quickly took two of the Meclizine tablets and another bunch of saltines.  This helped a bit, but I still stay in a prone position being a vegetable all morning.  We didn’t have a card game lined up so we stayed in bed and went for room service for lunch.  The olive tapenade was spectacular.  The rest of the French mezzo platter I could pass on.  I see a pattern here too. I had the same with the Greek platter.  My tummy just does not like the big waves.  

At one point I looked out of the window and saw a rainbow. This is appropriate since we are headed to Hawaii.  George started singing to me of course and we had a good chuckle.

I played a few games on my iPad and George worked on his program for Oskar again.  I think I watched North by North West, but really only remember the final scene of it.  By this time my tummy was feeling better and I decided dinner would be in order.  We got dressed and headed to the main dining room again where we had dinner with a couple we have met before. It was a very nice evening as always.  

It seems to me that the people who are on this cruise for the long haul are much nicer and less pretentious than those that are taking segments.  I guess the personality type is different. We seem to be much more laid back-go with the flow sort of people vs. people who get uptight because of a port change.  I understand the frustration, but I guess that is what you get for cruising during a pandemic.  Nothing against those only on the segments. Just my thoughts.

I’ve had a few questions on my blog I’d like to address. The first is about how we store all the puzzles and such that we purchase.  I have stated before, we have our suitcases opened up under the bed.  I put all of our puzzles in one of those, and when the compartment fills up, or we reach a certain destination the plan is to mail them home. In San Diego we mailed home around 15 puzzles that we had purchased so far.  We expect to do the same from Hong Kong.  Just outside Ocean Terminal (I’m sure this is where we will dock) there is a post office.  It will be a bit of a schlep with a suitcase full of puzzles, but worth it for us not to have to ship them home from New York.  Our next planned shipment point is Amsterdam.  Again, there is a post office not too far from where I expect we will dock at.  If I can’t find it, we will bring the puzzles to our friends and beg them to ship them on for us.  Our final postal stop will be in London.  While it seems as though it will be expensive to ship the puzzles home, it is well worth it for us.  You see, if we make it to Japan, we plan to take the train to Hakone and purchase all of Puzzle Mountain ;) I jest, but we will purchase many puzzles there.  In Tokyo we plan to visit the Hanayama offices and Torito, and as any puzzler knows, these are three stops that will have our wallets leaving much lighter than when we arrived.

On Thursday morning we woke around 7.  George and I had a discussion about turning the clocks back (I did on the analog ones, not the computers and phones) and to stop the confusion I turned on the tv. No luck. They hadn’t changed the time either.  Oh well.  We watched a bit of news, read emails, the usual morning things, then I read last nights currents magazine only to discover that yoga was at 8 this morning!  I really do hate these changes.  Oh, did I mention it was 9 now?  

Oh well, we finished watching a movie from last night, and did some exercise in the room.  My tummy was feeling a great deal better now.  The tablets and crackers work.  

He spent the day working in his 'workshop'.  It spans two rooms on this ship:  the right hand side of the bed and the small box on the table.  Initially he produced a number of pieces that would pop into each other, but that didn’t work well.  He then superglued those pieces together.  After a bit of time, he decided to just print the pieces whole.  I don’t know why he didn’t do that to begin with.  

After lunch we were to play cards with some friends but they had to cancel because of a bathroom flood.  I hope they were able to get that sorted out. 

There was an open bar from 5 to 7 tonight, so we went and grabbed a glass of wine.  The first one I had was corked. If you haven’t had a glass of this, it is a very nasty taste. I returned it and got a better glass.  We met with Chuck and Debbie and had a very nice discussion about pollution.  We carried the conversation to the dining room and had a very pleasant evening.  

Friday morning I woke just south of 9 am.  I managed a full nights sleep and was feeling much better for it.  I spent a bit of time ordering some puzzles as is my usual morning want.  Since getting on this cruise, I have purchased around 25 puzzles to have sent to our home.  This is much less than I normally purchase.  I blame it on the slow internet connection.  

We have one more day at sea before landing in Hawaii.  I am looking forward to this.  I’ve never been.  I’ve listened to George’s stories and want to make some of our own.  Our first stop is Honolulu and we are going to spend the two days there visiting with an old friend of his from his college days.  

We are sailing towards summer. The weather is warming and the winds are mild.  We had lunch outside in the Terrace Café and when we finished, we went off to play cards again.  Today we found a table poolside that was away from others so we could play in the fresh air. It was a beautiful day for it.  The first hand they whomped us.  The last hand we did the same to them. Overall it was a draw. A rather nice way to end the game.

We went back to the room so George could have his nap and as it turned out, it was me who napped.  I turned on Blonde Venus and fell asleep during the first half hour.  The nap was refreshing.  On to dinner.

Tonight we are having dinner at Toscana again. I love the bread and olive oil. I always have.  I could make a meal of just that but will eat something nutritious as well.  I requested in advance Tortellini en brodo and hope they will make it for me.  This is my goto meal when in Rome, and the pasta here is quite good.  It’s not much of a diversion from the menu so I hope they will comply.  It is a favorite from my childhood. 

They did indeed. It was a lovely dish.  Tortalloni, but close enough.  5 pieces is too many.  I told the waiter next time only 3 pieces.  It's the same dish, just much larger pasta.  I also had a lovely dessert.  I'm not sure what it was called but it had both cappuccino and chocolate,  how can you go wrong with that? 

Upon returning to the room, we were presented with a very nice card and two pens of medium heft.  I myself love a heavy pen.  My favorite when I was teaching weighed in at a full 3 ounces. This one has very nice balance, with the majority of the weight being at the back of the pen.  At this point, it is moot. I no longer write as I did in the past.  It is lovely to have a good pen to sign with.  I didn't bring any along with us. The little touches along the way are so nice to see.  It is just one more aspect that makes this cruise so enjoyable.

We retired for the evening to watch the rest of the Marlene Dietrich movie.  Tomorrow morning we will be in Hawaii!  I am eager to see this place that I have missed so far.