Hawaii - part 1

We've spent the past ten days in Hawaii, first traveling by cruise ship around the islands, then finishing up our trip with two days in Honolulu, on Waikiki Beach. If you follow along with me here, you know we went as a celebration of Don's hitting the twenty year mark of quitting smoking. 

When a friend of mine learned we were planning to go to Hawaii, and it would be our first visit, she suggested we take the cruise ship that travels around four of the islands, making six stops. Not only did we not have to deal with rental cars, taking small planes from one island to another, but we also saved quite a bit by sleeping and eating on the ship. 

We landed in Honolulu, boarded the ship and woke up the next morning on the island of Maui. We spent one day at an oceanside aquarium, opting to see the fish through glass rather than face to face. We've been snorkeling a couple of times and decided to stay dry this time. 

I loved the funny face on this fish, and the little red starfish below it.

We also took an all day tour of the Road to Hana, a twisting, turning road with over 1200 turns if you count both ways. Having been plagued with motion sickness my entire life, I was so impressed that one little Bonine and asking to be in the very front seat of the bus and I was fine! 

I'm also fine with never doing it again. We were shown the homes of George Harrison's widow, Chevy Chase, and many, many, many other of the rich and famous. Between the twists and turns and being told milk was $12.00 a gallon at the local mart, I had no longing to move there. 

Some guy swam around in the tank with sharks, trying to convince us all sharks are our friends. Hawaii doesn't have Great Whites (supposedly....), and he insisted that Tiger Sharks don't really want to eat people. 

I wasn't convinced. 

The hibiscus is grown as a shrub there, making fences along the road. 

We were told the biggest danger in Hawaii is being hit on the head by a falling coconut. They were serious. Where I live half the year we have mountain lions and bears. It's hard for me to see a falling coconut as more threatening than a grizzly bear or mountain lion. There are no predators on the islands of Hawaii. Also no snakes, and no poison ivy. Very few birds, and even fewer animals. They abound in feral cats, wild pigs, mongoose and wild chickens. 

Banana trees are everywhere. We bought some fresh for fifty cents each. Apparently there is a seed pod that falls off the plant when the bananas are ripe, and within six months you'll have more bananas. 

We were told these were the fish we'd see if we did indeed go snorkeling. 

A shrub of hibiscus. 

This guy was beyond enormous!

I was good and didn't pick any of the bananas at the aquarium. I did buy a loaf of banana bread at a roadside banana bread store on the Road to Hana. Made with macadamia nuts, it's waiting for tomorrow's morning coffee. 

In a day or so I'll post photos of the botanical gardens at Hilo, our catamaran ride on the coast of Kona, and the beautiful Napali Coast on the island of Kauai. We also got to see the lava flowing on the main island, from our ship - a once in a lifetime experience. We saw where Jurassic Park, South Pacific, Blue Hawaii and several other movies were filmed. All in all, it was more beautiful than we even imagined.