Looking back

About 100 miles off the shore of San Diego a fire alarm went off on the ship. The emergency 7 blasts of the horn was heard. I opened our cabin door and saw a gray haze about 10 doors down from our room. The firemen showed up quickly. They pulled out the fire hoses and the fires extinguishers, but did not use them. It turned out a rubber belt in the computer room were they train new employees was burning. No real fire broke out. But Mona panicked and put on the life vest right a way.

Luau

We went to an outdoor Luau at Paradise Cove in Honolulu, Hawaii this evening. We saw many demonstrations such a coconut husking, climbing a coconut tree and how to throw a fishing net to name a few. We ate a traditional Luau feast then watched the show. The show was great, but towards the end it began to rain. They handed out plastic ponchos to keep everyone dry. Our bus driver and tour guide on the bus were the best we ever had. The tour guide told stories, sang songs and the best part was when he told us to get the flash on our cameras ready and when our bus passed another bus the bus driver turned off the lights inside the bus and we all snapped our cameras at the bus we were passing with our flash.

Honolulu

Today we visited Pearl Harbor and went to the USS Arizona. It is amazing how much oil is still being released into the water after 61 years. Then we went on a tour of Honolulu on the Island of Oahu. Tonight we are going to a luau. It's a big buffet with barbecued pig! There should be lots of fruit and veggies to eat. The bus driver on our tour said the most popular food in hawaii is Spam! More on the luau in the next blog. ALOHA!

Day 1 in Hawaii

We spent our first day in Hilo on the "Big Island". It was nice to get on land after 4 days at sea. We took a tour of Mt. Kilalea volcano, a 5 mile hike. We walked over lava fields and through a forest. As soon as we got back to the van it started raining. Lucky us. Hilo gets the most rain in the U.S.

Our ship is now leaving for Honolulu. Aloha!

Almost to Hawaii

We have been relaxing the last four days on the ship at sea on the way to Hawaii. Yesterday we celebrated our 30^th wedding anniversary in the formal dining room. There is a lot of activities on board. We took dancing lessons (not to successful) and took in a lot of lectures and entertainment. Last night we saw a comedian juggler. There are a lot of nooks and crannies to sit and read while looking at the ocean.

Tomorrow we arrive at 8am in Hawaii at Hilo. We will be busy taking tours for the next four days.

The captain just announced we are traveling at 23 mph. That’s why it takes four days to get to Hawaii.

Hawaii

We just left the cruise port of San Diego! We'll be in Hawaii in 4 days.

Front Yard Progress

Today we finished another stage of our curb appeal project. All the palm trees are planted with tree sprinklers for each tree. The next stage is to put the path in. Our goal is to have a winding path going through the trees with some kind of ground cover. We might use concrete pavers (which are installed on a bed of tamped sand) or just colored gravel or bark. Eventually we want to remove the existing concrete path going up to the front door and make the path all the same material whether it be pavers, gravel or bark.