Photo of me in my fancy new shirt!
Aloha from Hawaii! Ok, so technically I’m not there anymore but I did visit Honolulu and La Haina. Honolulu holds special significance for me because that is where my grandparents met. I think it’s such a great love story. In 1941, my grandpa was in the Army stationed at Pearl Harbor. My grandmother had a job in some sort of fabrics, she never described it in very much detail. For some reason I still don’t understand, her employer would send her to Hawaii to purchase (I assume) fabric and bring it back to California where she lived. While she was there, the attack on Pearl Harbor happened, leaving her stranded in Honolulu with two children back home who I’m sure were scared to death their mother was dead and I doubt she had any way of contacting them, at least at first. (She was a single mom) My grandpa was stationed on the beach that morning, so he survived the attack. Somehow they ended up meeting and (details are sketchy on this because I was a child and they never really talked about it) getting married to get back to the mainland. According to the story, once they got back, they decided to go ahead and stay married. I always thought that was funny, but in those days in their situation, it worked out favorably for both of them. There is a lot I don’t know to the story but I think the essence of it, that my grandparents met as a direct result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, is pretty romantic. A wartime love story.
So after all that you’d think I’d visit Pearl Harbor. I did not. Mostly because the only available tour was really long and included a bunch of other stuff I’m not all that interested in. Plus I had some errands to run and I needed some free wifi to get some work done so I went to the very un-romantic shopping mall. I got everything accomplished I wanted to, then popped over to Waikiki beach for about 1/2 hour. I got a shaved ice, which made me feel more like a tourist, then caught the shuttle back to the ship.
Day 2 in La Haina, Maui was much more touristy. I went on a submarine dive. That was really cool! We all got in a little boat which took us to the submarine, which was still submerged. After a few minutes it popped up out of the water! We navigated the very shaky ramp (the waters were choppy so it was moving quite a bit) to the submarine then climbed a ladder to get down inside. Once inside, each person had one seat with their own porthole. We went past a couple of reefs with an array of fish, then we got to the best part. The company had their own sunken ship which functions as an artificial reef. There were lot of fish there, and we even got to see a couple of sharks! The tour was definitely well worth the money and the wait (over two hours from the ship to the submarine). I also got to see my first whale: just the tail as it went back down in the water but it was still thrilling to see one in person. I am looking forward to seeing more whales! Close call of the day: some guy overestimated his maneuverability and first, fell into me and this little kid and scared the daylights out of the kid. Then he turned around and smacked me in the face with his hand and knocked my glasses off and they almost fell overboard! I’m sure glad they didn’t! I have a spare but I’d like to keep it that way: spare. I don’t want to lose my glasses!
Back in port, I looked at the shops but they were all selling the same Hawaiian print dresses and shirts which are pretty but they don’t really fit my wardrobe with where I’m going. I have to be really careful about buying souvenirs because it all has to fit in my bag. I finally did find a cute clothing boutique and bought a great top that has an Indian print and some flowers. I had some fish tacos and mac’n’cheese, a nice break from all the British food I’ve been eating. No complaints, it’s just nice for a change. So now we have five days at sea before we get to American Samoa.
These days at sea are interesting. The days are long, without the usual distractions of home. So it becomes a game of filling up the time. The first couple of days I spent a good while wandering around not knowing what to do. But as time passed, I figured out where things are and when the various services are open, and began to form sort of a routine. On the last sea day before Honolulu, I had the good fortune to meet the ship’s ballroom dance instructors, Brenda and Jeffrey. They are a fascinating and talented duo, and I got to dance with both of them. They invited me to their advanced ballroom class, so I am looking forward to that. It also fills out my afternoon. So I have line dancing in the morning, ballroom in the afternoon, then either a ballroom dance or a show in the evening to keep me entertained. And of course the longer I’m on the ship, the more friends I make. So it is getting easier.
Me with Brenda and Jeffrey
No comments:
Post a Comment