Alooooooooooha!
Since I last wrote, we have come and gone from Hawaii.
Sooooooooooo much has happened!
So much! I’m kicking myself for not writing sooner, because (as is inevitable with my writing) I know that I will come up with some random but necessary detail the minute I post this. Oh well. You get what you get.
Tuesday morning we landed in Hilo, Hawaii. The ship was buzzing, mostly because we all had minor cases of cabin fever and NEEDED to get the HELL off the ship. Unfortunately, we arrived about an hour late and about a half an hour behind the Pride of America, a Norwegian Cruise Line ship that was holding 10 times the number of people as our humble MV Explorer. Bummer.
So even though we made land (thanks, Jon) at 8am, we did not actually touch land until almost noon.
Thankfully, Hawaii was all uphill from there.
A group of friends and I made our way to a local restaurant for lunch and enjoyed some local beers and drinks. Volcano Red Ale. Awesome.
From there we wandered around Old Downtown Hilo before heading up to one of the two highlights of the trip: Boiling Pots and Rainbow Falls.
I’ll admit, on the drive (uphill) to the falls, I was skeptical. The driver asked if we wanted to go straight to the falls or hike down from the pots where the falls began. That question resulted in 6 resounding ‘yesses’ from the other occupants in the car and one loud groan… from me.
Hike?! Seriously?! Why couldn’t we just go look at the pretty falls? Wow, this drive is kinda far… Isn’t this kinda far? Are we sure we wanna do this? I don’t think I’m dressed for this. Ugh, and these shoes suck. Are we really sure?!
If only I had known the awesomeness that was to come.
This was the view from the lookout point at Boiling Pots. If you look closely, you can see some people climbing the rocks in the center of the picture. That’s precisely where my group decided we should go.
The Interesting part: no paths or trails.
Crap.
So we traversed.
There are plenty of pictures of diggers and near tragedies around these rocks, but I’ll spare my poor mother the worries and skip right to the finale:
We had the best time EVER! From the spot pictured above, we swam through the water toward the falls in the background, where there was another cove. We climbed over some more rocks and got right up next to the actual waterfall! Gorgeous!
As if that wasn’t enough, we dried off and walked a couple miles (downhill, whoohoo) to Rainbow Falls. We ran into a local girl on the trail who led us into the falls. Yep, into. I’m fully convinced this girl was a mixture of human and mountain goat based on her climbing skills that followed… in flip-flops and a dress she led us here, to the top of the falls.
Yep, the top of an 80 ft waterfall.
Booyah!
Happy girls!
Such a spectacular view!
From there, we packed up and made our way back downtown for a quick dinner. A group of us, I’d say about 30 or so, rented a house on the north side of the island where we could relax and enjoy a night off the ship. We stocked up and made our way there and had an amazing night, bonding, drinking, relaxing, and just generally trying to soak up time spent not rocking back and forth on the ship.
It wasn’t until the next morning that we realized just how awesome this house looked!
Super cute!
Hilo has a fairly large farmer’s market that opens on Wednesdays and Sundays, so the next day after brunch, we made our way downtown to check out the local vendors. This will probably be the most relaxed shopping experience we will have on the voyage (I can’t even IMAGINE China yet), so we leisurely wandered through the food carts and artisan stands looking for souvenirs and gifts.
One lady, who I passed 4 times before deciding to make a purchase (make of that what you will), was weaving handmade jewelry and hair accessories out of flowers, bamboo, and palms. One of my friends and I tried on her handiwork below.
I promise we bought something. ;)
We finally made our way back to the ship, thinking that all roads would then lead to Japan.
Not.
We woke up the next morning to find out that we would be stopping in Honolulu to refuel and staying overnight to wait out a storm brewing in the Pacific. Not a bad deal until we were told that, no, we were not allowed to leave the ship while in port.
That’s right, friends. I had to stare at Oahu from the 7th deck, wondering why we didn’t just stop there in the first place!
But before you riot and say I shouldn’t be complaining, I’ll say it for you. I got two days on the deck by the pool and now have a killer tan.
Silver linings are numerous on a ship docked in Hawaii.
So this afternoon, we finally departed from Honolulu and have officially left the United States. We are currently floating around international waters and will be adding one hour every evening until we cross the international date line and skip an entire day to make up for several nights of extra sleep.
Still weirded out by that.
While we were in port at Honolulu, I found myself getting nervous about the voyage to Japan. So much unknown. So long at sea. So many questions.
But the minute we got tugged out of port, thankfully, my heart turned to excitement.
I think this is because of my extra time in Hawaii. I’m so thankful for that. I know that those conversations and messages that I shared with many of you will carry me through the next 8 days at sea and keep me grounded and secure while I explore a new culture in Japan. Thanks to everyone for being so wonderful and supportive. I continue to be humbled by your love.
As you can tell, I’ll have lots of time at sea to reflect, especially as we move toward colder climates and the option to lay out by the pool becomes less enticing. I’ll write a post about classes and roommates and funny ship details as soon as I determine that chilly windburn does not compare well to sunburn.
Question of the day:
Has anyone ever crossed the international date line? I’m told it’s an actual line… Confirm, please?
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