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 see with his bright coloring. As we left Hilo, the scenery around us was beautiful to see. With the weather constantly changing, the light accented one place then another.

I took another picture of the ship to show that they painted 2017 Grand World Voyage on the front of the ship. I am finding out that this trip is much more special than other cruises put on by Holland America. A special effort is made in every department to make this cruise special. There are special teachers brought on board to run the various classes that are offered. The culinary staff is hand-picked since the menus are more varied (and amazingly delicious). We come back to our rooms and find gifts from time to time such as special post cards, bags, hats, etc.

At each port, we have a Sail Away Party as we leave the port. For some reason, tonight’s party had free drinks (we usually have to pay), so even WE attended this one to get our free Pina Coladas. We donned our new Walmart Hawaiian shirts and mingled. After three weeks of cruising, we know a few people and had opportunities to stop and chat. We took a picture with the Culinary Arts host, Jessica and the guest chef, Denise Vivaldo (and one of the waiters photo bombed us). Pretty cute.

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 our ship in the harbor, showed us some beautiful waterfalls, flew us over the crater of Kilauea and showed us where the lava is flowing into the ocean. We could see the red stream of lava and we saw several big explosions of steam. Wesley flew us back and forth over each site so we each got a good view. We saw several rainbows and saw a lot of great scenery. The trip did NOT disappoint.

My niece, Elizabeth, lives near Hilo and works as a teacher about an hour away. She was able to rush home after school and meet us near the ship before we had to board. She brought a bag of her favorite island treats that included some Spam Musubi (we shared it around at dinner… I’d forgotten how much I like Spam!) Elizabeth took a great selfie of the three of us. You can see our ship in the background. It was a wonderful visit, even though it was only about 20 minutes.

Day 22 of 111. Hilo, Hawaii

The Hawaiian Ambassadors did a chant and dance ceremony when we arrived into port at Hilo. Unfortunately for them, this came at 6:30 a.m. It was still fairly dark and cool out on deck. It rained briefly, but the young people were undaunted and they did a great job. Afterwards, everyone had coffee to warm up/wake up. The next item of business was a trip to Walmart. We had several things on our list including some new Hawaiian shirts, earphones, art supplies, and new jeans for Ron (contrary to tradition, he is actually LOSING weight on this cruise… Go Ron!)

Hilo seems to have rainstorms and bright sunshine in quick succession, so we saw several rainbows today. The one that seemed to end on our ship was fun. On the short drive to Walmart, we saw Moana Loa in the distance. It is so high that there is snow which has lasted for two months this year which is unusually long. The Walmart had row after row of Hawaiian fabric (not too surprising), so I took a picture.

Day 21 of 111. Getting close to Hawaii

We finished our marathon walks and saw another dramatic sunrise. We collected our certificates and patted ourselves on the back for setting a goal and completing it. We had a hands=on cooking class today wth recipes from guest chef, Denise Vivaldo. You can see her with three of the dishes on the plate. The white chocolate macadamia nut cookies were still in the oven.

The menu included Pineapple and Golden Raisin Rice Salad, Coconut Shrimp with Mango Salsa, Garlic Snow Peas with Almonds, and Macadamia White Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I took a close-up picture of the plate, but when we sat down in the fancy dining room to eat the dishes after the class, the chef only put tiny dabs of some of the dishes on the plates. What is THAT all about? Luckily, he was generous with the cookies.

Ron worked on the mango salsa and I was on the team that made the snow peas. Ron had to cut up a jalapeño pepper for his salsa so he had to be very careful not to rub his eye. I had two art classes and Ron attended a great lecture about Pearl Harbor. Another great day at sea.

Day 20 of 111. 537 nautical miles from Hilo, HI

Day four of our walking marathon. We are getting close to Hilo, Hawaii. One of the benefits of walking each morning is the changing sunrise views on the port side of the ship. At one point there was a glorious scene with streaming rays of the sun that was hidden behind the cloud. Today was the last tough day of walking. Tomorrow (our fifth sea day in a row) only requires 12 laps by Ron and six laps by me. We get our last little ticket, our Grand Dollars, and some refreshments. I’ve actually made some friends during this marathon walk.

Today’s cooking demonstration was about Australian favorites of our Cooking Host, Jessica Potter who is Australian. The cookie (biscuit) is called an ANZAC Biscuit. The ingredients are those that do not easily spoil (no eggs or milk) so women during WWI were able to send these treats to their men. The other dessert is called a Lamington. These are sponge cake cubes, rolled in a dark chocolate frosting and then rolled in coconut. These both tasted great. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Jessica also clued us into Vegemite which is some sort of yeast extract and although it is good for you, is an “acquired taste.”

I passed by the fancy dining room (The Pinnacle Grill) which was set up for a James Bond Dinner (whatever that is) and the dinner must feature several types of wines as part of the dinner… look at the number of glasses at each place setting! I stopped for tea again today. I thought it would be a good place to ponder the things I learned in drawing class today. Perspective vs. Byzantine art. Ron listened to a couple of great lectures today about the Natural History of Hawaii and we each took a computer class.