Aloha ~ Hawaii Day 1

The night before our vacation began we got three hours of sleep. We were at my parents' in Missouri, from delivering the kids, and were flying out of Kansas City. We got up at 2 a.m. to drive to KC for our 6 a.m. flight. At 11:30 a.m. we arrived in Honolulu. With the 5 hour time difference, it was 4:30 p.m. our time.

We took a shuttle to the ship and boarded. It was about three hours before our stateroom was ready, so we headed to the Aloha Cafe for lunch and then to the pool deck for some sun.

At a little before 4 p.m. we retired to our room. We were EXHAUSTED, now being up 19 hours, and decided to take a nap. We were going to get up at 7 p.m. to see the ship leave port. At midnight we woke up ... ooops! Oh well. We had a good night's sleep, and hadn't even unpacked.

And up to this point we hadn't even taken our first photo.

The next morning we were wide awake at 5 a.m. (that time difference issue). We left our room at about 5:30 and went to the Aloha Cafe for breakfast. Then we decided to walk the ship.

This was the sunrise.


And this was the rainbow that arrived shortly thereafter.


Yes, it was touching the water!


We decided to go for a run. And then we had a second breakfast .. yes, a second breakfast!

We got off the ship around 8:30 a.m. in Maui and went to get our rental car. We rented a Mustang convertible.

We had a zipline tour scheduled for late that afternoon, so had hours to kill before then. So, we started driving around. We saw a sign for Halakalea Crater, and since I remembered seeing that in my research we decided to take the drive.

Wow!! Wow!! Wow!!!!!


The summit of the crater is 10,023 feet. When we started our drive, the clouds were heavy above us! Then we drove through the clouds. And when we were done, the clouds were literally below us. It was astonishing! And the higher we climbed the colder it got! It went from over 85 degrees to right at 60 degrees in a very short time. Since we were going ziplining, we were in long pants and tennis shoes. I had also bought us some "jackets in a bag" at Old Navy at the last minute. And, I'd thrown a hat into my suitcase at the last second. Thank goodness! It was cold and windy and foggy, especially at the summit!


It also looked a little like mars. (See the clouds below us?)


Funny story here. Rick had the tripod set up for a picture and said, "Hey, there's a bag going down the hill." I thought he was telling me to move over. He said, "I said 'there's a bag going down the hill', not 'hey bag, move down the hill.'" He thought that was so funny!

On the drive down we stopped and ate a lunch we had packed ... and the clouds were below us. Magnificent view!


As if we hadn't already had a breathtaking day, we arrived at our ziplining tour.

Now ... I am not an adventurous person. But, I knew that Rick's thing isn't to just sit on the beach day after day, so I planned some adventure to keep him happy too.

I was scared to death!




But, I did it. And, it was fun!


Rick had a blast! He zipped like a pro!


After an exhausting day, we headed back to ship. We ate dinner at the Cadillac Diner, a fun 50's restaurant. We were back in the room by 8:30. I read for a bit and we were out!

I woke up at 11:30 p.m. WIDE AWAKE! Yes, the time change was killing me! It took Dramamine to get me back to sleep.

And we were up at 5:30 a.m. again the next morning for another full day!