Day 20: Honolulu

I was given a bit of an unwelcome reprieve this morning when G left the cabin to do his usual early morning walk around and texted me this pic showing that all the ship’s pools were emptied. 

Well, darn. It wasn’t so much that I was going to miss a workout. It was the thought that the warm pool water I enjoyed yesterday had been dumped somewhere in the open ocean, gone forever. I hope the fish enjoyed it! 🐠

Our day was fun but largely followed our usual Honolulu routine. After breakfast in Sabatini’s, we caught an Uber to visit a friend who is in senior living near the Ala Moana Mall. From there we walked down along the beach behind Hilton Hawaii Village to the Hale Koa Barefoot Bar. 

We have certainly passed this building 100 times over the years and never took note of it. A reverse Google look up told us it is the original Honolulu pumping station built in 1900 and is on the National Register of historic Places.

This kind feels like coming home. 🌴

We only lasted a few hours at the Hale Koa today. It was beastly hot and very sunny, and I’m not even drinking alcohol these days. Still, it was fun to see old friends who work there…and watch from a safe distance as this guy climbed palm trees to knock down coconuts before they fell on an unsuspecting guest. 

Around 5pm we were toast, and caught an Uber back to the ship. We suspected we would be better able to see tonight’s sunset from the Terrace Deck than the beach, and, boy, could we. I got burgers from the Lido grill and met up with G on the back there just in time to witness this spectacle. 

Dinner with a view

We started back there just until the ship sailed at 9pm, then returned to the cabin. I showered off eight layers of sunscreen and fell into bed. Days in the sun are wonderful but exhausting. 

Day 19: Lihue, Kauai

We had reserved a car through National today, and so didn’t dawdle at our Sabatini’s breakfast this morning. We had heard access to Waimea Canyon was limited, but that was fine with us. We had driven there the last time we rented a car in Kauai and therefore planned to go to Hanalei today. 

Things went a bit awry right from the start. There was a line of least 35 people waiting for a rental car shuttle just outside the port terminal building…and waiting…and waiting. G left me in line to hold our place and went to investigate. When he talked to the security guard and was told there had not been even one rental car shuttle in days, G walked outside the gate and talked a taxi driver (who really wanted to give island tours) into running us over to the airport rental car area for $20. I quickly shared the news that we couldn’t expect a shuttle to ever arrive with the waiting line of fellow guests, recruited another couple to split the cost and we were off. 

We always use National car rental, and book an Emerald Aisle car when available. That saves a lot of time in the pick up and also gives us a choice of cars. We had a choice of four vehicles today, one of them a sexy, low, sporty-looking thing. I wanted that one badly,  very badly, but G vetoed that choice. He anticipated us driving over rough, storm-damaged road. He was right (but I’m not admitting that to him). Instead, I drove us away in a Chevy TrailBlazer with AWD. 

That little car was calling my name

<Port day sidebar- We are definitely a Chevy family. My current ride is a nearly 27-year-old Blazer with fewer than 90K miles. My guys call it the NeeNee mobile.  Every night I pray that it lasts as long as I do. I adore that vehicle. >

We really weren’t certain about how much damage from Hurricane Lowell (Category 2, landfall on Kauai September 8) we’d encounter. Nearly 90% of the island had been without power and, fact, on the north side where we were today, they went without power for 18 days. 

The damage around Lihue was noticeable and there were sections where power line and tree work was taking place, slowing traffic. But after we passed the Kilauea Lighthouse Wildlife Sanctuary (closed today), the damage was heartbreaking. We encountered a lot of construction flag men and one lane and stopped traffic.  Still, the island remains beautiful despite its many downed and de-nuded trees. 

We definitely drove across roads that had only recently been underwater and that were covered with sand, downed tree debris and even some mildly flowing water.  We had stayed on Kauai 31 years ago, and wanted to return to some of the places we’d explored then. We drove as far as we could, which was the natural pools just beyond Hā’ena Beach, then spent some time walking along Hā’ena Beach and exploring the Maniniholo Dry Cave, all places we had been 31 years ago. 

Taken through the windshield

The following pics were taken north of the Kilauea Lighthouse, around Princeville and Hanalei

 

Lots of traffic backups today

The life guard on duty (to stop anyone from swimming as the swell was so bad) told us the water had covered the guard tower during the storm

Hā’ena Beach

The end of the road for us (residents only sign posted here)

Maniniholo Dry Cave

Leaving ourselves extra time for traffic stoppages, we started back to Lihue, stopping at a few of the beaches on the east side of the island (we had stayed in that area when we had been here). We returned the car to National and took their shuttle for the two minute ride to the airport terminal. While we were waiting for our Lyft pickup there, we were told by other cruisers also waiting that, when they had complained to Avis about there being no shuttles to the cruise terminal, they got 50% back on their rental. Hmmmm…

When I received a survey text before we even got back to the ship, I complained about being assured two weeks ago there would be a shuttle for us when, in fact, there wasn’t. And was immediately also given a 50% discount. If this was a local business struggling after the hurricane I would never have raised the issue, but given that this is a national rental car agency and I had asked in advance about this plus lost time this morning waiting in vain, I felt this was quite fair. 

We had planned to have lunch at a local restaurant on the north shore, but when traffic was so delayed, decided we needed to start back early. So when we got on the ship, we were hungry. Luckily, dinner tonight was really good. G had already left to get us front row seats in the Princess Theater for tonight’s show after dinner when some gallery crew came around to the Michelangelo Dining Room tables. I told them that my Callaloo soup and Mongolian seafood were excellent and the crew that had prepared my dinner gave me huge smiles. 

Forgot to take dinner menu pic, sorry!

I love a man who cooks!

The Modern Gentlemen were back with a second show tonight. I wanted a front-row seat to get a good photo of my brother’s former classmate. 

I’m sharing this one with my shaved head linebacker of a brother, to show him what almost 60 can look like. Because that’s what sisters do.🤭

Tomorrow is a long day in Honolulu, so we returned to the cabin afterward for some sleep. Our neighbor is already coughing as I type this, so I’m hoping we get some. Luckily, we haven’t had so much as a sniffle in our cabin. .

🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

Day 18: Kailua-Kona

This is going to be very quick tonight. Although we did take a water shuttle over to the island this morning, I don’t have a lot to report. 

I was up early and was in Sabatini’s when it opened for breakfast at 7am. We had made a commitment to new friends Bill and Lois to help them with their Australian ETA (visa) application. They had registered with the US State Department instead of Australia and the ship told them they had to have the visas by Honolulu or they had to disembark. They didn’t have WiFi on the ship and had tried unsuccessfully to find it in Hilo yesterday. We had encountered them coming back to the ship as we were leaving yesterday, and when they told us what was going on, we knew we could help. 

So they came to breakfast prepared with passports and a credit card and I had my phone with the Australian ETA app and I completed their applications. Then later today I received notification that they had been granted, but the printer in the Internet cafe wasn’t working. Unsure what else to do, I went to Guest Services, and, well, it’s all a done deal tonight and they know they don’t have to worry about it any longer. 

G and I waited until after tender tickets were no longer required to go over to Kona today, unsure what we were going to do. We had booked a snorkel trip through Viator, to the Captain Cook monument in Kealakekua Bay by boat, and thought we were all set. Then, two days ago the tour operator texted me that our tour had been cancelled. At that point, the ship had no space in any similar excursions, and that kind of burst my bubble. 

We had snorkeled in Kealakekua Bay during a land stay in Kona 31 years ago and I remember it as having fantastic snorkeling. I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with having done it once; I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to this side of the Big Island. However, there is still a conveniently located small beach right next to the tender pier, so we enjoyed that. We also could have kayaked or SUPed (correction, SOME people could).

We returned to the ship and ate a late lunch at the International Cafe. I should have gone to a pool right then but was really tired for some reason. Actually, I do know why. The cabins on either side of us, particularly on one side, have really sick guests in them. For the past two nights we’ve been awakened in the middle of the night and then kept awake by very deep coughs that continue for hours. Two nights of that have caught up with me. 

Still, I don’t nap. We went to dinner at 5pm dressed In our matching Hawaiian shirts in preparation for tonight’s island party. Dinner was pretty uninspiring tonight. In fact, I ordered the vegetarian club and when it arrived, truly had no idea what I was eating. None at all. I don’t think that’s happened to me since I was 4 years old. I was expecting a sandwich, but got sliced roasted potatoes instead of bread. 

  

Pumpkin pie in the Horizon Court for Canada’s Thanksgiving Day.

Pecan pie

G went to tonight’s Princess Theater show but I needed to get Bill and Lois’s Australian visa issue put to bed. Once that was done, I had a sudden burst of energy, changed into a swimsuit and worked out for an hour in the empty Calypso Pool. Then I was really tired and should sleep well tonight. We’re skipping the island deck party tonight after all. We have plans to do a lot of driving on Kauai tomorrow.