Our first port of call was Honolulu, Oahu, arriving early this morning. If one happened to be up at 6:30am, you could go to deck eight aft, and participate in the traditional hula welcome. Wonder how many people showed up? As you might guess, we were not among the crowd. Setting the clocks back another hour last night still tends to mess with your body's time clock. After three of these time changes in a week, it has caught up with everyone we know.
Did you know that the word "oahu" means the gathering place? It became just that when workers from Japan, China, and the Philippines to name a few, arrived here to be employed in the sugar and pineapple plantations. They stayed along with the Polynesians and Europeans to create a society that is quite diverse. It shows in their cuisine, shopping, and entertainment. Seventy percent of the total Hawaiian population live on this island, and one million visitors come here annually.
Oahu has 597 square miles of pineapples, formerly sugarcane fields, and two mountain ranges. But they are better known for the best beaches like the two-mile long Waikiki Beach and also the North Shore. One is for tanning your hide, while the other is for extreme surfing. Most of the natives are employed in commercial, governmental, and military jobs. Tourism has to be high on the list as well.
Among the most visited attractions has to be Pearl Harbor, where people pay homage to the 3581 Americans killed or injured on December 7, 1941. A total of 20 various shore excursions were offered on the ship, many of which we have done on past cruises. For us, we love walking and taking in the sights at our own pace.
So after breakfast, we headed off of the ship around 9:45am, which was docked at Pier Two today. The weather was questionable as to whether there would be rain or not. You know that if you decide to pack umbrellas, it will not rain. That's what we did, even though our newsletter said partly cloudy and warm, the skies told a different story. On the horizon, we could see a series of isolated showers. However, they never did come onshore. Lucky, and even more lucky that we had a nice breeze for most of the day. When the sun did peek through the clouds, it was darned hot.
Heading towards Ala Moana Beach, we followed the sandy beach all the way past the Ala Moana Center, the largest outdoor mall in both Honolulu and the state. There are 220 stores there with gardens, pools, fountains and sculptures. Our plan was to stroll through there on or way back.
On the beachfront, we saw two different couples that had just gotten married, perhaps yesterday. The girls were dressed in their wedding gowns, while their grooms had on shorts with dress shirts and bowties. Most all of them wore tennis shoes. Made for a nice setting.
Many families were out and about on this lazy Sunday. There were ball games and barbeques beginning all around us. We made our way to the Hawaiian Hilton complex, then walked down to Waikiki Beach. We had just missed the end of the Sunday morning church service on the beach. The music and singing is the big draw here. Another group of tourists were getting ready to board the Atlantis Submarine to view the sea life under water. The beaches were filling up with the serious sunbathers, like we said previously, tanning their hides. With those clouds overhead, one can be fooled into thinking you are safe from sunburn. But we think that the worst case of sunburn will happen on days like these.
From here, we headed towards the Hard Rock Café for lunch and t-shirt shopping. It sure felt wonderful sitting at a high top table, while sipping ice cold beer and soda. Since it was Sunday, a group of teenagers had taken to the stage, singing to the lunch-goers. They were really good, and performed the whole time we were there. A new burger showed up on the menu, a BBQ bacon cheeseburger, so we decided to share one. It was delicious from the first bite to the last. We had saved a little space for a shared slice of cheesecake before moving on.
Next door is the Tommy Bahama store, where, just by chance, a special "Hawaiian" shirt caught our eye. Only two types of Hawaii-only shirts were sold here, so we bought one with a most unique palm tree and hula girl design on it.
The next stop was at the Ala Moana Center, where we had planned on doing some supply shopping at the drug store. But the more we thought about it, a better place to pick up stuff would be at Kauai or Hilo in a few days. There are always shuttles running to these shopping venues, and we would not have to lug the bags for miles back to the ship.
Taking our sweet time, we got back to the ship around 4pm. One of us is being stopped by the xray checks, due to the metal in the new brace. But it a small price to pay, since the longer it can be worn, the better chance it will do what it is designed to do.
Bet we drank at least a quart of water and soda before it was time for dinner. It sure was nice to sit on the veranda watching the traffic in the harbor, and eventually enjoying another sunset.
Usually, the ship overnights in Honolulu, but not this time. For that reason, both dining rooms seemed to be full of guest, even at 7:30pm. Our waiter, Zaki, announced last night that he had been chosen to be trained for a head waiter. So a new waiter appeared this evening by the name of Tama. He said he had been on three world cruises, and while he remembered seeing us, we did not recall seeing him in the dining room. Perhaps he worked in the Lido back then, where we seldom ate our meals.
One of us ordered a fish entrée, and the other huli chicken, a Hawaiian specialty. Both were tasty, and we were glad to have tried something new. Then we shared a peach cobbler with one scoop of ice cream. Double desserts today……hope it does not catch up with us. Walking the lower promenade was pleasant until showtime started at 9:30pm. One performance only, a local group of dancers and Nohelani Cypriano, an Hawaiian singer, entertained the folks with a great show. All aboard was 10:30pm, when we headed towards Maui. Hope conditions are good for tendering ashore for our second Hawaiian port.
Bill & Mary Ann
