Hawaii Trip, Monday and Tuesday

Monday

I slept over 8 hours last night! That is unusual for me. My internal clock still doesn't match Hawaii time, though. I was sleepy early and awake early. Fortunately, today that was a good thing. Our excursion started a bit earlier and I wanted to have time to call my mom and tell her happy birthday.

Today, our excursion was to the Maui Tropical Plantation and the I'ao Valley. We had a very entertaining bus driver. He had a very dry sense of humor and he was a big tall guy. He reminded me very much of Brad Garrett.

The Maui Tropical Plantation is a large working farm growing a wide variety of Hawaiian crops. I suspect they make more money from tourism than farming. They have a large visitor center and gift shop. They give tram tours and have a zip line. They have lush flower gardens and an open market with natives selling crafts. It was very scenic and the tram tour was informative.

After that, it was back on the bus for the drive to the I'ao Valley.  The I'ao Valley is a lush green narrow valley between two tall extinct volcanos. Back before the Hawaiian Islands were a kingdom, each island was ruled by its own chief. The I'ao Valley was called the "valley of the chiefs." It was guarded by warriors to keep people out, especially women. The island was a male dominant society and in the middle of this valley is a tall slender vertical mountain with a rounded top. Because it was a phallic symbol, they didn't want women to see it.

Eventually, King Kamehameha conquered this island in his quest to unite the Hawaiian islands into a single kingdom. This valley is where the chief and his warriors made their last stand. The warriors were able to hold off King Kamehameha's  warriors long enough for their chief to climb the tall volcano, get down the other side, and escape to Oahu. However, his escape didn't ensure his safety. He was eventually hunted down on Oahu and killed. His body was returned to Maui for burial. King Kamehameha went on to established the kingdom of Hawaii in 1810.

At the state park in the I'ao Valley, there is a lookout point where you can see the entrance to the valley. I walked up all 133 steps to take photos. Then, there are other trails that go down to the river at the very bottom of the valley. I did two of those, too. It was a lot of climbing and my calves are a bit sore.

We returned to the ship in time for lunch. I'm going to a class on making kukui bead leis in a little while. Debra is napping, then she is off to a gathering of veterans. We'll meet back up before dinner. There's a show after dinner that is a tribute to Hollywood and we are going to that.

Monday night

I made my kukui lei from kukui nuts. It turned out really well and I bought a kit to make another with a different color, as well as some shells for another kind of lei. The class was interesting.

Debra went out to meet up with a group of veterans. I went to the Pink Champagne Bar to get a fruity adult beverage. I ended up with a peach martini that was delicious. I met up with Debra again. Her veterans group never materialized, so went finished our drinks and went off to dinner.

We had to wait a bit in line to get a table, but it was worth the wait. We got a table up against the window. Shortly after we were seated, the boat pulled away for the trip to the big island. It was great to have a window seat for that, the other great thing about dinner was that we had Filipino waiters. The service was flawless.

We did stay up to go to the show in the theater at 9:00 PM. Unfortunately, I'm still adjusting to this time change. To me, I felt like I was still in Central Time and it was 2 AM. I found myself falling asleep. I think the show was pretty good. It was a tribute to Hollywood musicals and the music was great.

Tuesday

Today was a big adventure. It was our longest excursion and we saw some amazing sights. We met our tour group in the theater. There were 350 people going on the same excursion! Fortunately, we were broken up into groups of 50-60 and each bus load became independent of the others, so all 350 never ended up in the same place at the same time.

As we headed out to our tour bus, we were given a box lunch and a bottle of water. That was supposed to sustain us for the day. There was a long turkey sandwich, a small bag of chips, an apple, and 2 cookies. When we ate later, I thought the sandwich was yucky, but the rest was okay. Debra gave me her apple, which helped since I threw away half of the sandwich.

Our first stop was Rainbow Falls, which is in the town of Hilo. The falls were beautiful. Our driver said he never knows how much water will be flowing over the falls. Sometimes, when it is needed, water from that river is diverted to farms, so there is barely a trickle. Other times, when there is a lot of rain, the falls are wide. Today, it was somewhere in between, a respectable amount. However, it was overcast, so there was no sunlight to create the rainbow in the mist.

After that, we began the long drive up the mountains. We stopped at an orchid nursery. The orchids were beautiful and there were dozens of varieties from tiny to large, from showy to ordinary, from expensive to cheap. In the gift shop, their pride and joy, a $20,000 orchid, was on display blooming. It is so expensive because it is so rare. It wasn't the most beautiful by any means.

There was a basket of free orchid blooms for all the ladies. In Hawaii, if you wear a flower by your left ear, it signifies that you are married. If you wear an orchid by your right ear, it means you are single. The free orchids were a small kind that grow wild all over the island. They are called ground orchids.

I spent most of my time in the gift shop where they have a good variety of silk leis. I bought a beautiful colorful one. I also bought a couple of flower pins to wear in my hair. I did manage to see some of the orchids in the nursery, including one kind that smelled like chocolate,

Next, we entered Volcanos National Park, which encompasses Mauna Loa and Kilauea. We went to a museum with a lookout over one of the craters. The view was spectacular.   We were especially lucky because the view was clear all the way into the crater when we arrived. We were able to get great photos. After taking pictures, I went into the museum and gift shop for about 15 minutes. When I came out, the clouds had descended and totally obliterated the view. Those that came after us didn't get to see or photograph the crater.

Also there, atop Kilauea, you see steam vents, sulphur vents, and vast lava fields. The lava fields are barren acres of hardened lava. In some, a few hardly trees and bushes are trying to grow. Their growth is stunted by the hard rocky ground with little soil and the heat in the ground. The farther down the roots grow, the more heat they encounter.

We visited other sites in the park, too. We walked through a lava tube and explored a fairly new lava field, only about 5 years old. We saw some other craters, too. We also saw magnificent rain forests filled with trees that look like ferns. They grow and develop like ferns, but grow 20+ feet tall with fronds up to 4 feet long. They looked prehistoric and very beautiful.

We headed back down the mountain toward the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. As we reached level ground again, only 4 miles from our destination, there was a loud explosive noise and the bus shuddered. We had blown a tire. It's fortunate we were back down the mountain and it only took about 20 minutes to get a new bus.

The Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory was quite unremarkable. It was a simple wooden white two story building with a small wooden white gift shop. They did have a great selection of products and I bought Wil a supply of milk chocolate covered macadamia nuts.

The blowout made us a bit late getting back to the boat, but we still had plenty of time to change for dinner. Tonight, Debra had made reservations in the Italian restaurant on board. We were once again lucky to get a window table and watched as the ship pulled out of port. The view was great, the service was good, but the food was only fair.

The ship headed around the island toward Kona, our port for tomorrow. On the way, about 10:00 PM, we passed the place were molten lava from Kilauea flows to the sea. We couldn't get really close enough to take good pictures, but the view with the naked eye was pretty spectacular! The lava glows bright orange and clouds of steam rise where it touches the sea. It was a wonderous sight to see.