A Wonderful Vacation!

So with the sadness Justin and I have dealth with the last few months, we decided we needed something to look forward too. We got a decent tax refund so we decided the only option was a cruise in Hawaii. It was fantastic!

Saturday, June 6: We left for the Phoenix Airport at 3 am--the Airline said to get there 3 hours early. I think that was unecessary. At 8 am we were in our seats and ready for the 6 hour 10 minute flight. Oh that is a long time on a airplane--the only saving greace was that we were in two seat on the left side of the plane by ourselves--no sharing and armrest with a stranger. We arrived on O'ahu at about 11:30 am Hawaii time and we took a cab straight to the ship: Pride of America with NCL. Justin's back was tight from sitting so long, and there were massage specials for the first night so we indulged. This was Justin's first massage and now he wonders why he did not do it sooner. After that dinner is the main dining room, where we shared a table with a very sour woman traveling alone. We saw her a couple moretimes during the week and she never got any better. We were so tired from the travels and we had an early morning ahead to it was straight to bed for us.

Sunday, June 7: We arrived in Maui! We went on an excursion: Snorkeling at the Molokini Crater. This is considered one of the top 10 spots in the world for ssnolkeling because of the clearness of the water. It was beautiful. The crater is a half of a crater and we swam in the hole of the crater. Not a huge variety of fish, but there were schools of fish all over--not afraid of anyone. We were in the water there for about an hour. The we went to Turtle Town where the big turtles hang out. the water was more cloudy here but the coral was more diverse and built up. There were about 90 of us in the water all looking for the elusive giant turtle. Then someone spotted one and called out. It was right near Justin--he got about 2 feet from it and got some good pictures. People swarmed and the turtle was out of there. In Hawaiian, the word for turtle is Honu. The captain of the boat said we can now tell people we had a honu experience ;0). That afternoon we were so tired we napped until about 7:30pm. We go up, had dinner and went right back to bed.

Monday, June 8: All of our mornings are early ones, much to Justin's dismay. Today, still on Maui, we went in the mountains to go zip lining. It was soooo much fun. We did five lines, each one progressivly longer. For the first four, I came to a landing on a wooded platform. For the last one, the line was 150 feet off the ground and 750 feet long. No landing platform for this one. I did a short jog off the launch. There was a pretty good drop that got my stomache like a roller coaster. Instead of landing, I zipped past the guy (Jimmy) on the onther end and then zipped back out to the middle of the line and then back again. On the second pass, Jimmy grabbed my feet, pulled out a roller ladder and unhooked me from the line. Justin and I both loved every minute of it. When we got back, it was time for lunch, naps, and then dinner as one of the specialty restaurants on the boat. It was lovely. On to The Big Island.

Tuesday, June 9: This morning we arrived in Hilo, Hawaii. Today, it was off to the volcanoes. We took a helicopter ride and it was really cool. This was a first for both Justin and me. We flew over macadamia nut fields and then we got to the lava fields. We saw two spots where magma was flowing into the sea creating new land. One had been flowing at that spot for 20 weeks and the other for 8 weeks. The clowds of steam and noxious gas were huge. Then we headed up the mountainside, to see the loan house sanding since the 1982 eruption. A large red house called Lava Jack's. You can be helicoptered in to stay the night--there are no roads. Then in the lava field we could see spots where the lava tube had cracked at the surface and we could see the magma flowing. Then we made to one of the vents spewing smoke. In all we were up for 45 minutes. Then it was back to the ship for lunch. In the afternoon, we took a trip to botanical gardens. We saw some amazing plants and flowers. It was about a mile walk round trip--very humid but so lush. We are putting together a website to share all our pictures so look for that is a couple weeks.

Wednesday, June 10: Overnight we moved to another port on the Big Island to Kona. On the docket today was a tour of chocolate, coffee and vanilla farms. I have mixed feelings about this excursion. While each place was amazing, the time it took to get to them but rediculous. I take that back: chocolate and coffee were in Kona, but vanilla was almost all the way back to Hilo. All three farms are the only American producered of their product. The chocolate farm was pretty cool--he showed us what happens from plant to product. Justin even ate a raw chocolate bean. Most chocolates are from a mix of beans. Each chocolate produced on this farm is from a single bean. They do a dark, milk and criollo dark chocolate. The smell was divine.
Next was the coffee farm. They grow their own beans there, but also process and pack beans from other local growers. Here was also saw the process from plant to product. Not being a drinker of coffee like Justin I did not try the samples. But Justin said they were tasty.
Then it was the long drive to the vanilla farm. The family who runs it are dedicated. Vanilla is a diffult venture. Did you know that vanilla comes from an orchid. In order to get a decent crop, they need to hand-pollinate each and every flower. It a family operation with parents and five kids--they do it all. The wife had developed great recipes with vanilla. She served us a fanstastic lunch with each item containing vanilla. It was all wonderful, especially the vailla lemonade. The husband showed us how to make flavored liquors and also how to make vanilla extract. All in all a very cool operation.

Ok, so this post is long and I am out of time right now, so I will cover Thursday - Sunday in a day or so.