Month: January 2017

January 31, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 26 of 111. The Northern Pacific Tonight was another Gala Night, but was followed by the Black and Silver Ball. There were special decorations in the dining room and the theater was rearranged to provide a dance floor for the ball. The bottom photo shows the Captain dancing the first dance with his wife….

January 31, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 26 of 111. The Northern Pacific Ocean There was a fun cooking demonstration today called The Sommelier in the Kitchen. Chef Joseph and the Chief of the Cellar teamed up to make two dishes and discussed why you would make certain wine choices with the dishes. This picture is Sambuco Shrimp. It was a…

January 30, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 25 of 111. Sea Day Happy Chinese New Year. We had special decorations and food on the Lido Deck complete with a dragon. Ron attended a class on Chinese cooking earlier in the day. In a separate event, we attended a fun cooking class after lunch. The cooking class was Cooking With SPAM! The…

January 28, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 24 of 111. Oahu, Hawaii The last stop on our tour was the Dole Plantation. It is almost like a Disneyland with a train ride, a huge maze, and best of all soft serve pineapple ice cream (just like at the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland). Coming into the parking lot, our guide pointed…

January 28, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 24 of 111. Oahu, Hawaii The next few stops sort of blended together for me. Justin, our guide, was very knowledgeable about the nature we were seeing as well as the history and culture of the island. Some of the highlights for this section was driving by the Kualoa Ranch which has been the…

January 28, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 24 of 111. Oahu, Hawaii We are on an excursion today called the sights and tastes of North Shore. We wanted to get a chance to see some of the sights outside of the city. Our ship is docked near Chinatown next to the Aloha Tower, but this bus trip today will visit some…

January 27, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 23 of 111. Honolulu, Hawaii Being in Hawaii, we HAD to attend a luau (Hawaiian for Party). A free drink was included with the meal and one of the choices was a Blue Hawaiian which I never had before. It was pretty and pretty tasty (but not very strong, luckily). The food was great….

January 27, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 23 of 111. Honolulu, Hawaii This morning, we took a tour of the Arizona Memorial and the Battleship, Missouri. In Pearl Harbor, there are several memorials associated with the bombing on December 7, 1941. The battleships that were harbored there were named after states of the union. The Arizona was hit with a bomb…

January 26, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 22 of 111. Leaving Hilo… on to Honolulu While we waited for Elizabeth just outside Port Hilo, we saw a cute little gecko. The man who ran the Tour Depot where we were waiting said they make messes everywhere and he has to clean it up… but the little creature was still cute to…

January 26, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 22 of 111. Hilo, Hawaii This is the Big Island. It is home to several active and extinct volcanoes and we scheduled a helicopter trip to fly over the island and see the most active one, Kilauea. The flight was fantastic and our pilot, Wesley, was a lot of fun. He flew us over…