Day 19 of 111. Halfway to Hawaii

Marathon to Hawaii–Day 3
Ron has successfully completed the third day of the marathon (20 laps around the ship). Paul is only doing a half-marathon (10 laps per day). Walking this morning was very interesting because there was some rain off the starboard side, but the sun was shining was on the port side so there was a pretty rainbow off toward the horizon. Unfortunately, my photo did not do the rainbow justice. My latest watercolor project involved a cute little tropical bird. We were practicing our backgrounds and developing the shape of the object with the shape of the feathers.

One interesting aspect of the is trip is the fact that we are changing time zones every couple of days. We drop back an hour each time. This is somewhat troubling with our phones and AppleWatches because we are not connected to the internet. I need to find a city in the desired time zone. Right now I am on Anchorage, Alaska, time. My next change will probably be Honolulu.

Crossing the Pacific has been a little problematic because there are storms to the north of us. The swells of the ocean are significant enough that seasick bags have been hung near the elevators. Also, when you leave the dining room, you can get a small napkin of ginger candy which is supposed to help. Luckily, Ron and I have not been greatly affected. Walking with a plate of food or bowl of soup is somewhat challenging and I tried to take a dance class (the Foxtrot) which proved interesting when the floor kept tilting. Life is full of challenges, isn’t it?

The other photo is what we look like on Gala Nights. We change right after dinner.

Day 18 of 111. Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean

Hi everyone. It’s Ron again.

We just finished day 2 of the Marathon walk to Hawaii this morning. 12 miles down, 14 more to go. We start at 6:30 a.m.and finish about 8:00 a.m. Sunrise is around 7:00 a.m. So it’s really beautiful to watch the sunrise even while walking. Gene, the cruise director, is the smiling fellow in the picture on the deck. His smile really shows his personality.

It’s hard to believe but we’ve traveled over 5,234 nautical Miles (6,000 land miles)! We still have about 1,500 nMs to go before we reach Hilo, HI. We’ll spend 3 days in the Hawaiian islands then another 5 days before we get to Majuro, Marshall Islands. From there it’s on to Guam, Saipan, Japan. Once we get to Japan, things begin to happen pretty fast for a while.

Everyday we have at least two lectures about the history, geology, and peoples of the area we’re sailing to. This week all the lectures are about Hawaii and/or the Polynesian islands. As an example, one of today’s lectures is “Paradise Undiscovered-Polynesia Before Cook” about how for a thousand years before the coming of the Europeans to Polynesia a society existed which was remarkably successful: orderly, prosperous and fun loving.

We even learned a little Hawaiian in this morning’s lecture:
“mauka” means Mountain
“makai” means sea/waterfront
“moana” means Ocean

These lectures are all extremely well attended.

While Paul is off to Watercolor and Drawing classes, I’m off to another cooking class with guest Chef and Caterer to the Stars, Denise Vivaldo. Today’s class was “Shrimp with Corn Salsa and Espresso Tiramisu”.

This evening is another Gala Night. We dress up in our suit and ties before going to dinner. The ladies at our table are always dressed to the nines. There are 15 of these gala nights during the cruise. Always a fun great night.

Finally, tonight’s entertainment is the group UKEBOX. Five guys from Liverpool England (go figure) playing ukuleles. Should be fun??

Day 17 of 111. Pacific Ocean
Hello everyone. This is Ron and I’m putting my two cents into the Blog.
We have five sea days between San Diego and Hawaii. Today we started walking a marathon for the next five days, by then we’ll be at Hilo, HI. We’ll walk six miles each day (20 laps around the ship) for four days and then two miles (seven laps) for the last day for a total of 26 miles. Today’s walk took me about 1 and 1/2 hours.

At the end of the five days, we’ll receive 2,000 Grand dollars which we can use to buy great stuff (almost as good as the Oakridge Bingo door prizes 😄)! With all this money we can buy $10 Amazon gift cards, key chains, memory cards , etc. and if we get a lot more money, we can even buy a Kindle Fire!

We also have several Hawaiian ambassadors on board (we had Mexican ambassadors on board this last week) who will be teaching us how to make leis, play the ukulele, and dance the hula! Should be a lot of fun.

Day 16 of 111. Leaving San Diego

This is the first segment of the Grand Voyage World Tour. About 90 passengers debarked the ship in San Diego and were replaced by a different 90 passengers. They just had THEIR lifeboat drill and are about to have their first dinner. You can see on our map, how far we have come already… so much to come.

Day 16 of 111. San Diego, California

Next to the Midway museum is a huge statue that captures an iconic photo that was on the front of Life magazine after the war. Our trolley guide told us that the statue was called “Unconditional Surrender”. The real name was posted under the statue… “Embracing Peace.”

The pier next to the ship had the aircraft carrier Midway. No time for a visit today. There was also a cool set of bronze statues commemorating Bob Hope’s entertainment of the troops. As you visited the memorial, some of Hope’s jokes were played over a speaker.

The day started out cold, wet and rainy, but the sun came out and we had beautiful weather. This was a great stop and it was nice to have internet again. We have five sea days between San Diego and Hilo, Hawaii, but because of a storm in the Pacific Ocean, the captain has warned us that we will experience swells from 6 to 12 feet. We have been warned to place breakable objects on the floor. I think I might have to get out the seasick patches for this part of the journey. We’ll see. 🙂