_______________________________________
Day 11, Hawaiian Cruise November 6, 2011
Weather: partly cloudy High 72 Low 60
Sunrie 7:20 Sunset 5:30
________________________________________
Today started out and continued to be a pretty dreary day at sea. There is lots of wind outside.
The LasVegas Company Fixer
The 84 year old approached me at coffee this morning. He has been "collecting life stories this trip and mostly relating his own. He has been "working the piazza" in the morning for most of the trip. Today was my turn.
I had watched him approach other and he diffidently had the gift of gab. I overheard that he had connections in Escondido. Escondido was one of the childhood homes of my dad. So when he approached me for some conversation, I asked him, "How is the man from Escondido doing today?"
He was a little taken back that I knew that, but it only changed his patter a little.
He had good mobility but had that long hound dog look that many years in the world of accountancy could give you.
He said that his job was to turn companies around. He claimed to be very successful at it.
He talked through his bushy eye brows. He introduced himself as "Chuck." I had overheard his story before at least three times with various people seated in the piazza. He took the Piazza as a center of the town literally. He agreed that he had lived in Escondido, a town just north of San Diego California for a large part of his life. He only recently, in the last three years had moved to Las Vegas. He moved there because California was taxing him to death. He owned or used to own numerous parcels of land including one that was about 1200 feet above sea level. It had no electricity or water. He brought in a railroad generator and drilled his own well. When they came to "provide" him with electricity, his power bill went up. They would make him pay for the water that he had drilled. He won a lawsuit that showed that he was out of their water district, so he could use his own well without having to pay an entity.
He has always worked hard he claimed. He was sent to rescue a jewelry company based out of Chicago that was losing 800,000 dollars a year. He turned it around by paying the employees much more than then the prevailing rates and firing the ones that were poor employees. He also reduced the market prices sold by them by a third and underbid the competitors. The company turned around to be making $28 million. They refused to give him his bonus on this turn around because they felt that the turn around was a fluke. Two more years later it was still doing that kind of business.
He wanted to pay his secretary a big raise. The company wouldn't do it because she was "union."
He has a bad taste in his mouth regarding unions. He said that he is a "conservative" not a Republican.
He also stated that he was behind the idea for Costco. He knows the president of costco by first name and also the owner of its older competitor, Price Club, He had someone try to sell him a 2 dollar coffee cup that he could sell for 3 dollars. He found out that the company had a warehouse in San Francisco. He called them knowing that they were paying a lot for warehouse space for all of the cups. He said that he would pay 39 cents for all they had. He sold them in his stores for two for a dollar. He had two railroad cars full of these cups that he warehoused in Texas in stead of San Francisco. He took an 18 percent profit from the transaction and shared the idea with the founder of Costco. Costco moved into that kind of sales and the rest is history.
He went on about his connection with Jimmy Carter and Clinton.."Two of the worst " presidents outside of Obama.. yada yada Yada.
He said that when Jerry Brown, the current governor of California, father was governor, he vowed to never build a freeway in San Diego because he disliked the mayor and the politics of the area. The next governor did.
_____________________
Hard Working Mexican
I met a miner on the ship. He was in his early 50's and short.. about 5 feet one inch. He said that he lived in Chico California. His wife was a RN .
He worked with crews that drilled underground to build utility lines and other infrastructures. His maid job was material removal. He ran a small train with rails that took the soil out form where they were digging.
He had done farm labor but realized that to get his kids though schools he needed more money.
Work pretty much stopped for him in 2008. He had to return to the farms. He was making good money but not as much as working the tunnels. He worked planting almond and other trees in orchards around Chico and Stockton and Lodi.
His kids are both gown now. He is proud that his daughter is working up the corporate ladder in CVR pharmacy . They told her that she had to get trained as a pharmacy tech to be a daily manager and eventually a district manager of about 40 stores.
The son had a college education too. He went on to study to become a computer engineer. He is working for a private corporation near China Lake in Southern California.
_________________
He and his wife and her mother had chosen this cruise because all of his current jobs were completed . The last one as a miner took 3 years . He could not take time off during that time.
The was a sea day. The football game (being Sunday) were sparse. The Green Bay Packers fans and the San Diego Fans got their wish of coverage on the big casino tv. The Green Bay Packers caem through which delighted the vocal crowd. I am sure that if there was a rallying song the Green Bay Packers fans would have broken into song.
In the afternoon I watched the movie "Super 8". It would be available on Netflicks about 20 days later. It was shown in the stardust theater.
Dinner: Italian themed
Pat: antipasto seafood mix, mussels, calamari ,
parma ham and cantaloupe
veal scallopine
snow crabs (legs cut in half lengthwise
Tiramisu
Zabaglione ice cream
Sue: zippy peach soup
snow crab legs
lemon sorbet
I watched the movie "The Help" up in the other big venue stage.. the vista lounge. Its a powerful movie about prejudice in the 60's with the black people that were the "help" to the rich white people of Jackson Mississippi.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Day 10 Hawiaan Cruise
_______________________________________
Day 10 Hawaiian Cruise Saturday, November 5, 2011
_________________________________________
I Checked the mail-email- messages sent and received. I bought a new coffee card to get me through the cruise. I did laundry on Deck 5. Later I found about three others all around the ship, and some were even closer. $2.00 wash $2.00 dry and $1.00 for soap. I had read that I needed quarters for the laundry from some nice people that blogged their trip on the web. No one was using the two washers or dryers that were in this compartment early in the morning. I watched the "coin" man come and get the money out of the machines and haul it away in a little cart. He was on his last cruise before he was off. He was pretty happy that there would not be any more coin collections on this cruise. The laundry was just down the hall from the art gallery and the piazza center. It still made it easy to get the clothes going and go get a coffee while they whirled and spun. We just needed a little bit of laundry done from this or that to make the one more formal night happen.
I got Sue up and we headed to do ceramics. Its one of the things that Sue liked to do when we were on the Alaskan Princess voyages. On this ship its a closed one table kind of thing. The table was sitting in one floor above us perched out above the indoor pool. Sue accidentally bumped a sun chair with an older lady in it. She got pretty upset . I informed the lady that she was way in to the passage space area with her chair and we couldn't get by without a bump. She said at least you could have said excuse me.
Sue was pretty upset about the lack of access to the event and the whole attempt.
She ate a quick scoop of shrimp slaw from the international cafe and headed back to the room.
I took her back and then had lunch in the dinning room.
I met a family from Madison Wisconsin. In conversation I found out that the mad worked for CUNA- now retired three years. There was also a couple from Nebraska and one from Ohio.
I got to talk health care plans with the insurance man. His office was union covered and he negotiated their contracts. Just as he was retiring, their company pulled their retiree health care package.
He had to go outside to get a $10,000 deductible policy,
He asked me what I thought we should get into at the end of the health care issue. I said a single payer plan.
I watched some college football (we got ESPN2 on the room TVs) Iowa beat Michigan in the last moments of teh game. I heard reported that Stanford had beaten Oregon State.
I did some more painting in the room. Sue did more reading with the books we bought in Kaui and some that people had donated to the pile in the library (paperbacks). We donated a half a dozen too that we had already read.
I completed the rainbow over Lahaina Maui that was scanned and inserted in a previous entry.
Dinner: Sue Hamburger and fries at the outdoor stand
Pat: Hawaiian fruits and macadamia nuts
Leg of lamb
Prime Rib
Chocolate Brandy Cake
Banana brioche bread pudding with caramel sauce
Day 10 Hawaiian Cruise Saturday, November 5, 2011
_________________________________________
I Checked the mail-email- messages sent and received. I bought a new coffee card to get me through the cruise. I did laundry on Deck 5. Later I found about three others all around the ship, and some were even closer. $2.00 wash $2.00 dry and $1.00 for soap. I had read that I needed quarters for the laundry from some nice people that blogged their trip on the web. No one was using the two washers or dryers that were in this compartment early in the morning. I watched the "coin" man come and get the money out of the machines and haul it away in a little cart. He was on his last cruise before he was off. He was pretty happy that there would not be any more coin collections on this cruise. The laundry was just down the hall from the art gallery and the piazza center. It still made it easy to get the clothes going and go get a coffee while they whirled and spun. We just needed a little bit of laundry done from this or that to make the one more formal night happen.
I got Sue up and we headed to do ceramics. Its one of the things that Sue liked to do when we were on the Alaskan Princess voyages. On this ship its a closed one table kind of thing. The table was sitting in one floor above us perched out above the indoor pool. Sue accidentally bumped a sun chair with an older lady in it. She got pretty upset . I informed the lady that she was way in to the passage space area with her chair and we couldn't get by without a bump. She said at least you could have said excuse me.
Sue was pretty upset about the lack of access to the event and the whole attempt.
She ate a quick scoop of shrimp slaw from the international cafe and headed back to the room.
I took her back and then had lunch in the dinning room.
I met a family from Madison Wisconsin. In conversation I found out that the mad worked for CUNA- now retired three years. There was also a couple from Nebraska and one from Ohio.
I got to talk health care plans with the insurance man. His office was union covered and he negotiated their contracts. Just as he was retiring, their company pulled their retiree health care package.
He had to go outside to get a $10,000 deductible policy,
He asked me what I thought we should get into at the end of the health care issue. I said a single payer plan.
I watched some college football (we got ESPN2 on the room TVs) Iowa beat Michigan in the last moments of teh game. I heard reported that Stanford had beaten Oregon State.
I did some more painting in the room. Sue did more reading with the books we bought in Kaui and some that people had donated to the pile in the library (paperbacks). We donated a half a dozen too that we had already read.
I completed the rainbow over Lahaina Maui that was scanned and inserted in a previous entry.
Dinner: Sue Hamburger and fries at the outdoor stand
Pat: Hawaiian fruits and macadamia nuts
Leg of lamb
Prime Rib
Chocolate Brandy Cake
Banana brioche bread pudding with caramel sauce
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Day 9 Hawaiian Cruise
_________________________________________
Day 9 Friday, November 4, 2011 - Formal
Weather: Chance of Showers High 80 degrees Low 69
Sunrise 7:20 Sunset 6:14
Added on an hour
___________________________________________
We are headed back today. There is a 30 mile an hour wind we are knifing through with a 190,000 ton vessel. There was considerable dip and roll last night no seems to be sea sick from it.
We are now out of shore days with the getting on land and security checks. I checked the email and Nattalie is handling it well.
Sue is pretty wiped out form yesterday. We needed some time to rejuvenate after all of those shore days. I got some painting in. Oh the joy of good brushes. They accompanied me to the ship with a limited palette of colors. It was fun to wet on wet the landsacpes of the Maui countryside from the ship. I made the first one on the moleskine tablet and made a few cards of the flowers we saw in the Botanical gardens. I also got a chance to paint the wild? chickens of Kaui. A rooster was printed on the tag of one of my shirts . He became the the starting off point to my rooster series. One wet on wet with the spray background, followed up by some pigment pen. The other card started with a dry paper and a very wet brush and pigment pen to define the details.
I am reading the Steve Jobs biography that I picked up in Hilo. Its a hard bound and written by Walter Isaccson . Its pretty clean. He also wrote the biography of Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein. Steve picked him to do the biography and Walter turned him down twice.
Sue was too tired for lunch in the dining room. I had a great one.
Crustinnee with smoked sturgeon and cream cheese and scallons each on their own layer
Ruben sandwich
creme carmel for desert
Great conversation at the table with a couple from Green Bay, Southern New York, and a couple from Florida. The green bay couple had cheeseburgers.
It was formal night and we were invited to the captain's reception. All but the passengers with the their first year were invited.They honored the passengers with the longest cruise record- a mother and daughter tied (they always travel together). They had 1,072 days on Princess. No one else was close. The captain did not shake hands with anyone coming in. due to the Norwalk restrictions. The captain introduced a short movie of the artists representation of the newest princess.. the Royal Princess 4X the size of the Golden. Its due to enter service in 2013.
It was the Chef's special night:
Dinner:
Pat: Goat cheese souffle
French onion soup
gnochi, in cream sauce
strawberry sorbet
Triology- Veal steak, Lamb chop, and chicken skewer
Menage le Trois desert--- pana cotta, termousou, strawberry creme
(2 small tablespoons of each) 2 cookies pistachio and chocolate
Sue: Strawberry soup
green salad
seared scallops
strawberry sorbet
Romantic quote for the day: The best and most wonderful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller
Day 9 Friday, November 4, 2011 - Formal
Weather: Chance of Showers High 80 degrees Low 69
Sunrise 7:20 Sunset 6:14
Added on an hour
___________________________________________
We are headed back today. There is a 30 mile an hour wind we are knifing through with a 190,000 ton vessel. There was considerable dip and roll last night no seems to be sea sick from it.
We are now out of shore days with the getting on land and security checks. I checked the email and Nattalie is handling it well.
Sue is pretty wiped out form yesterday. We needed some time to rejuvenate after all of those shore days. I got some painting in. Oh the joy of good brushes. They accompanied me to the ship with a limited palette of colors. It was fun to wet on wet the landsacpes of the Maui countryside from the ship. I made the first one on the moleskine tablet and made a few cards of the flowers we saw in the Botanical gardens. I also got a chance to paint the wild? chickens of Kaui. A rooster was printed on the tag of one of my shirts . He became the the starting off point to my rooster series. One wet on wet with the spray background, followed up by some pigment pen. The other card started with a dry paper and a very wet brush and pigment pen to define the details.
I am reading the Steve Jobs biography that I picked up in Hilo. Its a hard bound and written by Walter Isaccson . Its pretty clean. He also wrote the biography of Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein. Steve picked him to do the biography and Walter turned him down twice.
Sue was too tired for lunch in the dining room. I had a great one.
Crustinnee with smoked sturgeon and cream cheese and scallons each on their own layer
Ruben sandwich
creme carmel for desert
Great conversation at the table with a couple from Green Bay, Southern New York, and a couple from Florida. The green bay couple had cheeseburgers.
It was formal night and we were invited to the captain's reception. All but the passengers with the their first year were invited.They honored the passengers with the longest cruise record- a mother and daughter tied (they always travel together). They had 1,072 days on Princess. No one else was close. The captain did not shake hands with anyone coming in. due to the Norwalk restrictions. The captain introduced a short movie of the artists representation of the newest princess.. the Royal Princess 4X the size of the Golden. Its due to enter service in 2013.
It was the Chef's special night:
Dinner:
Pat: Goat cheese souffle
French onion soup
gnochi, in cream sauce
strawberry sorbet
Triology- Veal steak, Lamb chop, and chicken skewer
Menage le Trois desert--- pana cotta, termousou, strawberry creme
(2 small tablespoons of each) 2 cookies pistachio and chocolate
Sue: Strawberry soup
green salad
seared scallops
strawberry sorbet
Romantic quote for the day: The best and most wonderful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller
Day 8 Hawaiian Cruise
________________________________________________
Day 8 Hawaiian Cruise Lahaina, Maui, November 3, 2011
________________________________________________
Morning pastries at the Piazza. The ship is moored in the Bay at Maui around 7:00 am. Some people had to be on shore at 7:30 to go to a snorkeling site. 2 snorkeling sites were going to be explored . 3 of our evening table dinner mates were on the excursion. The owner of the tour was showing some of the people the probable location of a medium sized octopus. As was related to us later that afternoon, by Jill, a 70+ year old man who seemed in good shape took the snorkel and died in the water. His wife who was along on the trip shouted for his rescue, The doctor who happened to be on the excursion jumped on the man and tried to revive him. He was already gone. It happened that a bereavement counselor was also on the excursion. She immediately started helping the wife. The excursion went back to port, the owner apologized profusely and the excursion was refunded to all the participants.
Our trip to the port was largely uneventful. I had taken the tender earlier and was back on the ship at 1:30.
I had texted Lindsay to make sure that I was getting the right products at the ABC store. She was hoping that we could bring back some pikake perfume. It is very subtle and is made only on the islands. Its pretty much only sold in the islands as well according to her. It has a distinctive after taste rather than a bold upfront smell.
At the ABC store Sue thought that she would go for one of her favorite snacks. Snowballs. I asked her to look at the price before she bought them. Not that she couldn't get them... but I had seen that the other hostess products packed a hefty price. She was shocked that they were over 3 dollars. The grocery store in Merced sells them for a dollar. I guess jet fuel is expensive.
I also found a great Hawaiian ice spot just off of front avenue. It was shady and important quality for today. There are no clouds in Lahinia. There was no rain today and it got rather warm in the sun. A gentle breeze from the ocean helped out however. The surfers were out giving it a go of the reef. The surf was bigger than any I had seen in California. It seemed more consistent.
We walked along Front street and enjoyed the art that was visible from the gallery windows.
It was a pleasant time. The huge banyan tree in the city square was much more than I imagined.
As we were leaving by tender Sue saw a beautiful rainbow by fog up on the mountainside above Maui.
Even though it was hot and everyone was sweaty, it was a great time. Sue loved the shopping and the Hawaiian ice. The first one she had was a mango and cherry with a little leeche thrown in. We shared this one.. but it was sooo good Sue needed another small one before we left. The one that I had before her was their coconut lychee condensed milk ice. It was spectacular.
Lahainia was an interesting mix of Carmel by the sea and Sonora. With their art galleries and architectural historic restrictions on city look it was an interesting combination. I really loved the idea of the banyan tree taking up a city block. That was unbelievable.
Diner:
Pat: tomato and fresh mozzarella cheeese
Crayfish and savory relish
smoked slices of duck breast
Potato and Ham soup
Chateubrieand and Snow Crab legs
Carmel souffle with sauce
Peanutbutter Oreo pie with chocolate garnish
Sue: Hamburger with fixings
Maui adventure was energy intensive, Sue didn't go to dinner
Day 8 Hawaiian Cruise Lahaina, Maui, November 3, 2011
________________________________________________
Morning pastries at the Piazza. The ship is moored in the Bay at Maui around 7:00 am. Some people had to be on shore at 7:30 to go to a snorkeling site. 2 snorkeling sites were going to be explored . 3 of our evening table dinner mates were on the excursion. The owner of the tour was showing some of the people the probable location of a medium sized octopus. As was related to us later that afternoon, by Jill, a 70+ year old man who seemed in good shape took the snorkel and died in the water. His wife who was along on the trip shouted for his rescue, The doctor who happened to be on the excursion jumped on the man and tried to revive him. He was already gone. It happened that a bereavement counselor was also on the excursion. She immediately started helping the wife. The excursion went back to port, the owner apologized profusely and the excursion was refunded to all the participants.
Our trip to the port was largely uneventful. I had taken the tender earlier and was back on the ship at 1:30.
I had texted Lindsay to make sure that I was getting the right products at the ABC store. She was hoping that we could bring back some pikake perfume. It is very subtle and is made only on the islands. Its pretty much only sold in the islands as well according to her. It has a distinctive after taste rather than a bold upfront smell.
At the ABC store Sue thought that she would go for one of her favorite snacks. Snowballs. I asked her to look at the price before she bought them. Not that she couldn't get them... but I had seen that the other hostess products packed a hefty price. She was shocked that they were over 3 dollars. The grocery store in Merced sells them for a dollar. I guess jet fuel is expensive.
I also found a great Hawaiian ice spot just off of front avenue. It was shady and important quality for today. There are no clouds in Lahinia. There was no rain today and it got rather warm in the sun. A gentle breeze from the ocean helped out however. The surfers were out giving it a go of the reef. The surf was bigger than any I had seen in California. It seemed more consistent.
We walked along Front street and enjoyed the art that was visible from the gallery windows.
It was a pleasant time. The huge banyan tree in the city square was much more than I imagined.
As we were leaving by tender Sue saw a beautiful rainbow by fog up on the mountainside above Maui.
Even though it was hot and everyone was sweaty, it was a great time. Sue loved the shopping and the Hawaiian ice. The first one she had was a mango and cherry with a little leeche thrown in. We shared this one.. but it was sooo good Sue needed another small one before we left. The one that I had before her was their coconut lychee condensed milk ice. It was spectacular.
Lahainia was an interesting mix of Carmel by the sea and Sonora. With their art galleries and architectural historic restrictions on city look it was an interesting combination. I really loved the idea of the banyan tree taking up a city block. That was unbelievable.
Diner:
Pat: tomato and fresh mozzarella cheeese
Crayfish and savory relish
smoked slices of duck breast
Potato and Ham soup
Chateubrieand and Snow Crab legs
Carmel souffle with sauce
Peanutbutter Oreo pie with chocolate garnish
Sue: Hamburger with fixings
Maui adventure was energy intensive, Sue didn't go to dinner
Friday, November 18, 2011
Day 7 Hawaiian Cruise
_________________________________________
Day 7 Nwilliwilli, Kauai, November2, 2011
Today's Forecast: Isolated showers- High 78 Low 73
Sunrise 6:43, Sunset 5:58
__________________________________________
The waters of the Ocean had become on the rough side as we snaked inot the port of Nawilliwilli. The port side was tall mountains and a very small breakwaterarea. The ship landed next to a huge shed that looks as if it were used to load ships with sugar cane or other products. The ship had to move completely to one side in the wind and then straighten out to dock along the tiny port.
I took the free shuttle to Walmart. the crusty female driver had been doing this for years, drove us up the hill. She had a good patter and narrated the sights. She could also let you stop at the museum or the anchor shopping area. But she made it clear that she would not pick you up at the anchor shopping center. It was about a half a mile away from the ship downhill.
The town its self is really small and kind of broken down. Along the top ridge are various helicopter businesses to take people for adventure rides into Wiemea Canyon.
One of the old guys on the shuttle said he was cold and could she turn down the air. We had been waiting outside and the rain had fallen, She said,"No" He asked why. She said that she liked it that temperature. The shuttle was a 25 passenger bus with a tall ceiling and a short step up to get in.
There was also a free shuttle for passengers that wanted to go to Kmart and Hilo Hatties. All the big boxes knew they needed to get the ship passengers up to their businesses.
Later that morning we were waiting transport up to the walmart with Sue. The Hilo Hatties shuttle arrived ahead of the Walmart one. We opted for the Hilo Hatties.
Sue and I had a great time at Hilo Hatties. That girl loves to shop and it seemed like everything Hawaiian was in this store. Most of the goods were made in Hawaii.
The shuttle driver started out by handing out to each rider a shell lei. One of the old ladies up front asked if he was going to kiss each person that got the lei. He said, "They have laws against that Now!" Everyone on the bus laughed.
Hilo Hatties in Nawilliwilli's is a one story about 10,000 square feet of retails space. As you walk in there are coffee cups and a couple of Hawaiian coffees for self serve as well as a couple of fruit juice containers for self serve as well.
The store has most of the square footage stocked with racks of Hawaiian shirts and other other attire. There are some sections with Macadamia nuts and cosmetics.
Sue found the bargain table and we invested in some nice genuine bargains.
We saw the chickens all over everywhere.
At the Walmart I picked up another 12 pack of caffeine diet pepsi. I was stopped by several passengers in line back to ship asking me whether that was permissible to take on the ship. They all made plans to do the same.
The Follies Singer
At breakfast I met an Asian man that needed a table to eat his breakfast. He told me that he was living in a gated community at 1500 feet elevation just outside of Palm Springs. He had retired as San Francisco architect 13 years ago. He said that he loved his life since he could play golf 4 times a week throughout the year. He also liked the fact that his community village had numerous interest groups that met throughout the month. They brought in a big star at least once a month to give them a show, like Bono or Andy Williams.
Every year the village puts on a big follies show. He was a performer. He likes to be an Elvis impersonator. As of 2 years ago his hearing got in the way of his performance so now he does it with lip syncing. He also is a star in the village people YMCA group. He is the C. Sometimes he is able to do a Louis Armstrong without the lip sync. He used a napkin to demonstrate how he could carry on a conversation with Louis Armstrong leading up to his singing one of his songs for me. What a treat.
He said that he had 6 Grand kids but is not as close to them as he should be. Some Grand kids live in Fresno and some in Turlock. He follies singer was a regular character. He asked me to guess his age. I guessed 72. He was amazed. He said that he was 78. It is these encounters that make the cruise for me. I always try to get a conversation going. The only problem that I have now is that these people will see me on the ship and break out in a big smile and they walk by before I can track down the memory of their conversation.
Chickens Domestic ---- Wild
At Walmart there were a huge amount of chickens running around loose in their parking lot. They were looking for a spare piece of a McDonald's bun .
Apparently they started out as domestic chickens in people's backyards. A hurricane in 1992 whipped through the town and lifted the chickens out of their cages and dropped them into the verdant country where they became feral. There were many more roosters than you would usually see in a domestic chicken population. They were also very territorial and had huge spurs.
Our driver mentioned that it was against the law to try to suppress the population. He said though with a little wink that went along with the statement. There homeless don't go hungry. At the Walmart parking lot the flock has become pretty bold, and the cars slow down when they make turns so as not to hit them. The flock was defiantly working the waiting crowd, looking for a a chance to pick up a crumb or a two.
There were downpours again today. Hilo Hatties has a covered outdoor waiting area for the shuttles along the side of the store. Even with this, the rain splashed significantly on one side reducing the sitting area to about half.
In the waiting area, Sue saw a lady show off to her friend a cosmetic bag she had bought on sale in the store. It was bright yellow with orange flowers on its side. She found out that it was only 5 dollars marked down from 27. We marched right back in and bought a stack of them. There was also a matching wallet kind of thing. Sue needed it too.
Sue bought be a T shirt at Hilo Hattie that had the logo from above on a green shirt.. StarClucks Kaui
Dinner:
Pat: Daiquri Soup (watermelon based)
Calamari-flash fried with baby octopus and artichoke
rack of veal with aspargrass.
Apple Struedel
Sue: Daiquri Soup
mixed greens salad
Tiger Shrip with mango and tomato chutney
coffee creme bruelee
Day 7 Nwilliwilli, Kauai, November2, 2011
Today's Forecast: Isolated showers- High 78 Low 73
Sunrise 6:43, Sunset 5:58
__________________________________________
The waters of the Ocean had become on the rough side as we snaked inot the port of Nawilliwilli. The port side was tall mountains and a very small breakwaterarea. The ship landed next to a huge shed that looks as if it were used to load ships with sugar cane or other products. The ship had to move completely to one side in the wind and then straighten out to dock along the tiny port.
I took the free shuttle to Walmart. the crusty female driver had been doing this for years, drove us up the hill. She had a good patter and narrated the sights. She could also let you stop at the museum or the anchor shopping area. But she made it clear that she would not pick you up at the anchor shopping center. It was about a half a mile away from the ship downhill.
The town its self is really small and kind of broken down. Along the top ridge are various helicopter businesses to take people for adventure rides into Wiemea Canyon.
One of the old guys on the shuttle said he was cold and could she turn down the air. We had been waiting outside and the rain had fallen, She said,"No" He asked why. She said that she liked it that temperature. The shuttle was a 25 passenger bus with a tall ceiling and a short step up to get in.
There was also a free shuttle for passengers that wanted to go to Kmart and Hilo Hatties. All the big boxes knew they needed to get the ship passengers up to their businesses.
Later that morning we were waiting transport up to the walmart with Sue. The Hilo Hatties shuttle arrived ahead of the Walmart one. We opted for the Hilo Hatties.
Sue and I had a great time at Hilo Hatties. That girl loves to shop and it seemed like everything Hawaiian was in this store. Most of the goods were made in Hawaii.
The shuttle driver started out by handing out to each rider a shell lei. One of the old ladies up front asked if he was going to kiss each person that got the lei. He said, "They have laws against that Now!" Everyone on the bus laughed.
Hilo Hatties in Nawilliwilli's is a one story about 10,000 square feet of retails space. As you walk in there are coffee cups and a couple of Hawaiian coffees for self serve as well as a couple of fruit juice containers for self serve as well.
The store has most of the square footage stocked with racks of Hawaiian shirts and other other attire. There are some sections with Macadamia nuts and cosmetics.
Sue found the bargain table and we invested in some nice genuine bargains.
We saw the chickens all over everywhere.
At the Walmart I picked up another 12 pack of caffeine diet pepsi. I was stopped by several passengers in line back to ship asking me whether that was permissible to take on the ship. They all made plans to do the same.
The Follies Singer
At breakfast I met an Asian man that needed a table to eat his breakfast. He told me that he was living in a gated community at 1500 feet elevation just outside of Palm Springs. He had retired as San Francisco architect 13 years ago. He said that he loved his life since he could play golf 4 times a week throughout the year. He also liked the fact that his community village had numerous interest groups that met throughout the month. They brought in a big star at least once a month to give them a show, like Bono or Andy Williams.
Every year the village puts on a big follies show. He was a performer. He likes to be an Elvis impersonator. As of 2 years ago his hearing got in the way of his performance so now he does it with lip syncing. He also is a star in the village people YMCA group. He is the C. Sometimes he is able to do a Louis Armstrong without the lip sync. He used a napkin to demonstrate how he could carry on a conversation with Louis Armstrong leading up to his singing one of his songs for me. What a treat.
He said that he had 6 Grand kids but is not as close to them as he should be. Some Grand kids live in Fresno and some in Turlock. He follies singer was a regular character. He asked me to guess his age. I guessed 72. He was amazed. He said that he was 78. It is these encounters that make the cruise for me. I always try to get a conversation going. The only problem that I have now is that these people will see me on the ship and break out in a big smile and they walk by before I can track down the memory of their conversation.
Chickens Domestic ---- Wild
At Walmart there were a huge amount of chickens running around loose in their parking lot. They were looking for a spare piece of a McDonald's bun .
Apparently they started out as domestic chickens in people's backyards. A hurricane in 1992 whipped through the town and lifted the chickens out of their cages and dropped them into the verdant country where they became feral. There were many more roosters than you would usually see in a domestic chicken population. They were also very territorial and had huge spurs.
Our driver mentioned that it was against the law to try to suppress the population. He said though with a little wink that went along with the statement. There homeless don't go hungry. At the Walmart parking lot the flock has become pretty bold, and the cars slow down when they make turns so as not to hit them. The flock was defiantly working the waiting crowd, looking for a a chance to pick up a crumb or a two.
There were downpours again today. Hilo Hatties has a covered outdoor waiting area for the shuttles along the side of the store. Even with this, the rain splashed significantly on one side reducing the sitting area to about half.
In the waiting area, Sue saw a lady show off to her friend a cosmetic bag she had bought on sale in the store. It was bright yellow with orange flowers on its side. She found out that it was only 5 dollars marked down from 27. We marched right back in and bought a stack of them. There was also a matching wallet kind of thing. Sue needed it too.
Sue bought be a T shirt at Hilo Hattie that had the logo from above on a green shirt.. StarClucks Kaui
Dinner:
Pat: Daiquri Soup (watermelon based)
Calamari-flash fried with baby octopus and artichoke
rack of veal with aspargrass.
Apple Struedel
Sue: Daiquri Soup
mixed greens salad
Tiger Shrip with mango and tomato chutney
coffee creme bruelee
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Day 6 Hawaiian Cruise
______________________________________
Day 6 Honolulu Oahu, November 1,2011
Today's Forcast: Mostly Sunny High 82 Low 73
Sunrise 6:36 Sunset 5:58
_______________________________________
We pulled into the dock ten minutes late at 7:10 am. I got up on the deck to take photos of the surrounds.
I saw a double beautiful double rainbow off the decks and to the East.
We were ported in the dock closest to the Aloha Towers.
I had my usual cappuccino on deck 5 with the usual pastry assortment. Sue wanted me to to check out the "get off the ship" clearance and report back.
I was off and looking for Diamond Head and maybe Waikiki.
My morning walk took me after 2.5 miles to the county park of Ala Moana. It had a good view of Diamond Head . Many people were jogging the park in the morning. It was not crowded on the beach or on the trails. Three were people swimming in the area before the breakers and several people on very long boards doing paddle surfing on the flats in front of the breakers. The breakers seem to be a quarter of a mile away from the beach. This is not what I imagined.. but good.
I was having a pleasant time when I felt a gentle mist blowing in the wind the had picked up. Then suddenly a tropical downpour occurred. It was huge. I tried to find cover under the Banyon tree. It helped a little but I was drenched. The downpour continued for 25 minutes . It reminded me of heading toward the trees or the car when a rainstorm would hit when we were fishing in the rockies.
This rain was pouring out of the sky. It lacked the coolness of the Rocky Mountain thunderstorm. There was no lightening in this and no thunder.
I rolled into the nearby Starbucks and the cashier noted my condition. I earned my Hawaii badge under the banyon tree. A native Hawaiian also headed for the tree at the same time I was there.
A banyon tree is a ficas relative. There are a million ficus trees in homes across the country but I will never look at the indoor tree in the same way again.
I had lunch at the Ward Farmer's market on the way home. No farmers but a grocery store for the Asian population. It also had a "junk souvenir" stand out in front. Inside they had a section of the store devoted to making sushi. 8 people were working making sushi in an animated way. I bought a bento box for $6.69 that had a thin piece of cold salmon the width of my hand, a shrimp tempura piece and a chicken on a skewer tempura piece. there was rice and three different salads. No wasabe or pickled ginger. also no chopsticks... fingers worked.
Another rainstorm hit and I was glad I was under some cover.
I took the bus back to the ship 2.50. Sue wanted to get out and move along the streets with her power chair. I thought that we might do the upscale mall right along the side of the ship. We did those and bought a few items. Then she wanted to go to the park that I had been. As we made it out along the streets we realized that the power chair was not fully charged. We had a mix up and got separated. She barely made it up the ramp to the elevators and to the room to plug the beast in.
On the way back I noticed that the water in the port had cleaned and the little reef that the port made had dozens of Angel fish and trigger fish swimming around it. No snorkel mask needed.
Dinner: Because we were in Honolulu there was reduced dinning room support. They told us all to use the anytime dinning if we wanted a formal dinner on the ship instead of our usual spot.
Pat:
Bratwurst and fries from the hot dog stand on ship. Copra (a kind of Italian salami) and a couple of chicken skewers from the buffet.
Sue: Hot dog with cheese roll, fries and some brough from home fruit roll ups and a nut bar
During the dinning hours teh captain came on the announcements and stated that there was a higher than normal admission to the Drs for gastro intestinal outbreak Norwalk. He said that we should be vigilant regarding our hand washing and that he was enacting new procedures today in the self serve sections of the food areas.
It was obvious that self serve buffets were no longer self serve. Everyone was "served" in the buffet. No passenger was allowed to "touch" tongs or even in the hot dog bar pump their own mustard.
I sat down at the table and an "older lady" sat across from me at the buffet tables. She said that she was hit by the malady. She was signed up to go with her grown kids to the Polynesian Cultural center all day long excursion. She sent them on in the morning. She tried to send word out that she could not make it on her legs. She slept the entire day. She was hoping that they would cancel the cost of the excursion..$375. There was no one down at the excursion table to collect her request. She had not been to the Dr on the ship. I told her that she needed to do that if she hoped that the excursion would not be billed to her account. She said that she was up all night but slept the morning through to the afternoon before she could get up again. The Polynesian Village excursion was to leave at 8:30 in the morning and get back about 10:30 at night.
The captain reviewed again the Norwalk procedures and did not shake hands with anyone that night at the captain's reception for the Captain's Circle members. At our cabin we responded by wiping everything down again with the disposable sheets we bought at the walmart in Hilo.
Overall there was a large contrast to between the rural sort of run down look of Hilo and the urban Jaguar car feel of Honolulu.
We saw some homeless (a few) camped out corners along the road in Honoulu. None of them were begging like ours. Some people were living out of their cars or vans, living the idealistic surf bum life.
Oddly there were not many tourists in the areas we walked except for ship borne folks all carrying their free blue princess bags.
I also had a chance to visit the Ward center. Its a 3 story "outdoor" mall and a group of parking spots between the two wings. There were empty store fronts and a little food court with a DQ and Orange Julius combined. I had a pumpkin blizzard.. pumpkin pie flavored soft serve with some cookie chucks that had the texture of crust tossed in.. I approved. the McDonald's was advertising their baked pies in Hawaii... bananna.. I didn't try.. got to save something for the next trip!
I took some photos of the sunset across the port.. The lights came on and streaked across the water of the port as the sky turned orange.
Overall a great day.. although it had its moments!
Day 6 Honolulu Oahu, November 1,2011
Today's Forcast: Mostly Sunny High 82 Low 73
Sunrise 6:36 Sunset 5:58
_______________________________________
We pulled into the dock ten minutes late at 7:10 am. I got up on the deck to take photos of the surrounds.
I saw a double beautiful double rainbow off the decks and to the East.
We were ported in the dock closest to the Aloha Towers.
I had my usual cappuccino on deck 5 with the usual pastry assortment. Sue wanted me to to check out the "get off the ship" clearance and report back.
I was off and looking for Diamond Head and maybe Waikiki.
My morning walk took me after 2.5 miles to the county park of Ala Moana. It had a good view of Diamond Head . Many people were jogging the park in the morning. It was not crowded on the beach or on the trails. Three were people swimming in the area before the breakers and several people on very long boards doing paddle surfing on the flats in front of the breakers. The breakers seem to be a quarter of a mile away from the beach. This is not what I imagined.. but good.
I was having a pleasant time when I felt a gentle mist blowing in the wind the had picked up. Then suddenly a tropical downpour occurred. It was huge. I tried to find cover under the Banyon tree. It helped a little but I was drenched. The downpour continued for 25 minutes . It reminded me of heading toward the trees or the car when a rainstorm would hit when we were fishing in the rockies.
This rain was pouring out of the sky. It lacked the coolness of the Rocky Mountain thunderstorm. There was no lightening in this and no thunder.
I rolled into the nearby Starbucks and the cashier noted my condition. I earned my Hawaii badge under the banyon tree. A native Hawaiian also headed for the tree at the same time I was there.
A banyon tree is a ficas relative. There are a million ficus trees in homes across the country but I will never look at the indoor tree in the same way again.
I had lunch at the Ward Farmer's market on the way home. No farmers but a grocery store for the Asian population. It also had a "junk souvenir" stand out in front. Inside they had a section of the store devoted to making sushi. 8 people were working making sushi in an animated way. I bought a bento box for $6.69 that had a thin piece of cold salmon the width of my hand, a shrimp tempura piece and a chicken on a skewer tempura piece. there was rice and three different salads. No wasabe or pickled ginger. also no chopsticks... fingers worked.
Another rainstorm hit and I was glad I was under some cover.
I took the bus back to the ship 2.50. Sue wanted to get out and move along the streets with her power chair. I thought that we might do the upscale mall right along the side of the ship. We did those and bought a few items. Then she wanted to go to the park that I had been. As we made it out along the streets we realized that the power chair was not fully charged. We had a mix up and got separated. She barely made it up the ramp to the elevators and to the room to plug the beast in.
On the way back I noticed that the water in the port had cleaned and the little reef that the port made had dozens of Angel fish and trigger fish swimming around it. No snorkel mask needed.
Dinner: Because we were in Honolulu there was reduced dinning room support. They told us all to use the anytime dinning if we wanted a formal dinner on the ship instead of our usual spot.
Pat:
Bratwurst and fries from the hot dog stand on ship. Copra (a kind of Italian salami) and a couple of chicken skewers from the buffet.
Sue: Hot dog with cheese roll, fries and some brough from home fruit roll ups and a nut bar
During the dinning hours teh captain came on the announcements and stated that there was a higher than normal admission to the Drs for gastro intestinal outbreak Norwalk. He said that we should be vigilant regarding our hand washing and that he was enacting new procedures today in the self serve sections of the food areas.
It was obvious that self serve buffets were no longer self serve. Everyone was "served" in the buffet. No passenger was allowed to "touch" tongs or even in the hot dog bar pump their own mustard.
I sat down at the table and an "older lady" sat across from me at the buffet tables. She said that she was hit by the malady. She was signed up to go with her grown kids to the Polynesian Cultural center all day long excursion. She sent them on in the morning. She tried to send word out that she could not make it on her legs. She slept the entire day. She was hoping that they would cancel the cost of the excursion..$375. There was no one down at the excursion table to collect her request. She had not been to the Dr on the ship. I told her that she needed to do that if she hoped that the excursion would not be billed to her account. She said that she was up all night but slept the morning through to the afternoon before she could get up again. The Polynesian Village excursion was to leave at 8:30 in the morning and get back about 10:30 at night.
The captain reviewed again the Norwalk procedures and did not shake hands with anyone that night at the captain's reception for the Captain's Circle members. At our cabin we responded by wiping everything down again with the disposable sheets we bought at the walmart in Hilo.
Overall there was a large contrast to between the rural sort of run down look of Hilo and the urban Jaguar car feel of Honolulu.
We saw some homeless (a few) camped out corners along the road in Honoulu. None of them were begging like ours. Some people were living out of their cars or vans, living the idealistic surf bum life.
Oddly there were not many tourists in the areas we walked except for ship borne folks all carrying their free blue princess bags.
I also had a chance to visit the Ward center. Its a 3 story "outdoor" mall and a group of parking spots between the two wings. There were empty store fronts and a little food court with a DQ and Orange Julius combined. I had a pumpkin blizzard.. pumpkin pie flavored soft serve with some cookie chucks that had the texture of crust tossed in.. I approved. the McDonald's was advertising their baked pies in Hawaii... bananna.. I didn't try.. got to save something for the next trip!
I took some photos of the sunset across the port.. The lights came on and streaked across the water of the port as the sky turned orange.
Overall a great day.. although it had its moments!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Day 5 Hawaiian Cruise
__________________________________
Day 5 Hilo Hawaii October 31,2011
Weather: Chance of Showers High 82 Low 65.
Sunrise 6:22 Sunset 5:44
__________________________________
This morning started with storm clouds all around the ship. Not overcast, but genuine black clouds. This storm passed us by. We are going to have a brilliant sunny morning.
I brought Sue her breakfast and choice from the buffet, scrambled eggs, bacon, corned beef hash, a baked pear adn 3 rolls with butter.
I took the elevator down to the 5th floor piazza, walking through the art gallery and had what they called an bengue (sp?) a french donut. Its really a small doughnut square filled with blackberry filling., a chocolate glazed rolled doughnut and a custard filled doughnut. Add these to a broad rimmed cup and saucer cappuccino and its almost a perfect breakfast.
I checked the email. Natalie said that Nigel is in the window all day and is happy to eat the treats.
Today is Mom's birthday!
They have a wild display in the piazza lobby. It had some gruesome carved pumpkins (the cooks with the garnish knives on watermelons could accomplish amazing things with pumpkins). Also in the center was a manikin with green eyes, and bloody shirt. My daily internet use is around 20 minutes per day on a 14 day cruise that works out to be around 300 minutes. I bought a plan that would give me more than the minimum 500. So I guess that spend a little more time in facebook. The connection speed was really good as there were only three others in the internet cafe and people started using their regular cell phones as we rolled into US territory in Hawaii.
I called Wanda (mom) to wish her a happy birthday. Dad was chopping on his peach tree.
I text messaged the Brownie Korbs in Colorado and both girls in the Bay Area.
It was neat to see that breakers as we barreled up the coast to our docking port in Hilo. It was clear enough at this point to see all the way up the mountain to the tiny round knobs that had to be the observatory. It was the only time during the entire day that the mountain was visible. The rest of the time grey and black clouds blocked the view.
I was off the boat about a half and hour after we docked for my 2 mile hike. I thought that it would take longer than that with people being on ship for so long. It was an easy off. So the early exucrsions were off on time. We had arrived about a half an hour late. After that many miles at see its a wonder that we were there so close to our planned arrival,
I walked down toward the town and saw car dealerships and big truck warehouses. After I walked a a mile and a half I decided that the additional mile to the town was not worth it. I had failed to put on my hat, and the sun was making it pretty hot.
I headed back and got Sue up to do the run to Walmart. A shuttle runs form port to Walmart and Hilo Hatties was running the some vans and did not want to waste their space with a wheel chair. (This we found out from another wheelchair couple as they waited to get on. Walmart hired a bus to do the runs and everyone including our two wheelchairs were welcome. The walmart bus held 65 people . It pulled up and we climbed on. It dropped us off at Walmart, and the driver gave us a little local color as we traveled. Hilo has 45,000 people.
Sue and I ate McRibs.. yum. I listened to the post high school students talk in their classic "pidgin" What an interesting linguistic soup.
I bought the Steve Jobs biography. Sue fell in love with the quality and depth of Hawaiian material available in the store. Almost everyone was wearing Hawaiian shirts. Shorts were everywhere.
When we were ready to return, we waited for the bus outside of Walmart. It finally came up but it did not have room for us. We could have waited for the next bus. But....
Our excursion started at 2:20 and I was afraid we were going to miss that one. I flagged down a taxi. It was a mini van. The first question the middle aged female taxi driver asked was,"Are you allergic to dogs?" I said no. Sue said, "find out how much it would cost." She guessed it would be about 14 dollars to the port. It was only 12. by meter. I told her to keep the change of the 20. She almost didn't want to keep the change but she did. She did in honor of her little shitzu dog that was her constant companion. Sue sat up in front with the driver and her little dog that had a tiny gold clip to keep her hair out of her eyes. She rode the transmission hump all day with her master.
Back at the port. I took the Walmart purchases up to the cabin while Sue shopped the merchants set up inside the port building. Some of our family members will be the recipients of the fine shopping environments . There were even some lady selling tropical arrangements for your cabin at 10dollars a throw.
The Botanical Excursion
We were gathered up from the huge indoor port building under the sign. We had the tickets supplied by the ship. We traded them for a big gold sticker for our clothes. 9 of us and the manual wheelchair squeezed into the van and off we went. The driver was equipped with a microphone and a headset so that he could narrate the trip and answer questions that people had before getting to the gardens. Our driver took us sight seeing along the way, showing us some of the public parks beside the sea and some of the flora that makes this place different.
We unloaded at the gardens and Sue went diving into the gift shop. She found the only shirt that had a chance of fitting. We also got some postcards of the place. It had some photos of the beautiful flowers and plants that we would see along the slopes of this vertical garden.
Sue got out her camera and took a large number of photos of the things that impressed her. It is situated on a very steep hillside. They got us down to the area that we had a chance at pushing the wheel chair around and more level walking by moving us down using gas powered golf carts. They were also used to drag the wheelchair and us back up the hill.
Sue sat in the front of the van coming and going. I sat with a newlywed couple from our ship from Oregon. She had long gorgeous red hair.
The driver narrated our journey. He answered the "living"questions. Gas was $4.25 a gallon. Currently in the states its $3.65 a gallon. He pointed out the banyon trees and the umbrella trees.
We were all checked thoroughly for identity four times this day just getting into the area that had the ship. Sue was hurting and wiped out. I was just wiped out from what felt like working in a warm sauna all day long.
It took 6 glasses of water at the buffet for me to feel I had caught up with the water I had lost.
Dinner:
Sue: hot dog with extra mustard with cheese and rolls form the buffet.
Pat: Double hamburger with cheese, handful of fries, a scoop of garlic shrimp form the buffet and a desert sampler (for use to share) small slices of pumpkin pie squares, cheesecake, and choc. layer cake
I watched the last quarter of the Monday night game that pitted the San Diego Chargers and the K.C. Chiefs. It was on the big outdoor screen as we headed out of port in the evening headed to Honolulu.
The kids on the ship, all six of them did some trick or treating through the buffet with the Princess mascot.. the pelican. Its the first and probably the only time that I have ever seen the Princess mascot.
Day 5 Hilo Hawaii October 31,2011
Weather: Chance of Showers High 82 Low 65.
Sunrise 6:22 Sunset 5:44
__________________________________
This morning started with storm clouds all around the ship. Not overcast, but genuine black clouds. This storm passed us by. We are going to have a brilliant sunny morning.
I brought Sue her breakfast and choice from the buffet, scrambled eggs, bacon, corned beef hash, a baked pear adn 3 rolls with butter.
I took the elevator down to the 5th floor piazza, walking through the art gallery and had what they called an bengue (sp?) a french donut. Its really a small doughnut square filled with blackberry filling., a chocolate glazed rolled doughnut and a custard filled doughnut. Add these to a broad rimmed cup and saucer cappuccino and its almost a perfect breakfast.
I checked the email. Natalie said that Nigel is in the window all day and is happy to eat the treats.
Today is Mom's birthday!
They have a wild display in the piazza lobby. It had some gruesome carved pumpkins (the cooks with the garnish knives on watermelons could accomplish amazing things with pumpkins). Also in the center was a manikin with green eyes, and bloody shirt. My daily internet use is around 20 minutes per day on a 14 day cruise that works out to be around 300 minutes. I bought a plan that would give me more than the minimum 500. So I guess that spend a little more time in facebook. The connection speed was really good as there were only three others in the internet cafe and people started using their regular cell phones as we rolled into US territory in Hawaii.
I called Wanda (mom) to wish her a happy birthday. Dad was chopping on his peach tree.
I text messaged the Brownie Korbs in Colorado and both girls in the Bay Area.
It was neat to see that breakers as we barreled up the coast to our docking port in Hilo. It was clear enough at this point to see all the way up the mountain to the tiny round knobs that had to be the observatory. It was the only time during the entire day that the mountain was visible. The rest of the time grey and black clouds blocked the view.
I was off the boat about a half and hour after we docked for my 2 mile hike. I thought that it would take longer than that with people being on ship for so long. It was an easy off. So the early exucrsions were off on time. We had arrived about a half an hour late. After that many miles at see its a wonder that we were there so close to our planned arrival,
I walked down toward the town and saw car dealerships and big truck warehouses. After I walked a a mile and a half I decided that the additional mile to the town was not worth it. I had failed to put on my hat, and the sun was making it pretty hot.
I headed back and got Sue up to do the run to Walmart. A shuttle runs form port to Walmart and Hilo Hatties was running the some vans and did not want to waste their space with a wheel chair. (This we found out from another wheelchair couple as they waited to get on. Walmart hired a bus to do the runs and everyone including our two wheelchairs were welcome. The walmart bus held 65 people . It pulled up and we climbed on. It dropped us off at Walmart, and the driver gave us a little local color as we traveled. Hilo has 45,000 people.
Sue and I ate McRibs.. yum. I listened to the post high school students talk in their classic "pidgin" What an interesting linguistic soup.
I bought the Steve Jobs biography. Sue fell in love with the quality and depth of Hawaiian material available in the store. Almost everyone was wearing Hawaiian shirts. Shorts were everywhere.
When we were ready to return, we waited for the bus outside of Walmart. It finally came up but it did not have room for us. We could have waited for the next bus. But....
Our excursion started at 2:20 and I was afraid we were going to miss that one. I flagged down a taxi. It was a mini van. The first question the middle aged female taxi driver asked was,"Are you allergic to dogs?" I said no. Sue said, "find out how much it would cost." She guessed it would be about 14 dollars to the port. It was only 12. by meter. I told her to keep the change of the 20. She almost didn't want to keep the change but she did. She did in honor of her little shitzu dog that was her constant companion. Sue sat up in front with the driver and her little dog that had a tiny gold clip to keep her hair out of her eyes. She rode the transmission hump all day with her master.
Back at the port. I took the Walmart purchases up to the cabin while Sue shopped the merchants set up inside the port building. Some of our family members will be the recipients of the fine shopping environments . There were even some lady selling tropical arrangements for your cabin at 10dollars a throw.
The Botanical Excursion
We were gathered up from the huge indoor port building under the sign. We had the tickets supplied by the ship. We traded them for a big gold sticker for our clothes. 9 of us and the manual wheelchair squeezed into the van and off we went. The driver was equipped with a microphone and a headset so that he could narrate the trip and answer questions that people had before getting to the gardens. Our driver took us sight seeing along the way, showing us some of the public parks beside the sea and some of the flora that makes this place different.
We unloaded at the gardens and Sue went diving into the gift shop. She found the only shirt that had a chance of fitting. We also got some postcards of the place. It had some photos of the beautiful flowers and plants that we would see along the slopes of this vertical garden.
Sue got out her camera and took a large number of photos of the things that impressed her. It is situated on a very steep hillside. They got us down to the area that we had a chance at pushing the wheel chair around and more level walking by moving us down using gas powered golf carts. They were also used to drag the wheelchair and us back up the hill.
Sue sat in the front of the van coming and going. I sat with a newlywed couple from our ship from Oregon. She had long gorgeous red hair.
The driver narrated our journey. He answered the "living"questions. Gas was $4.25 a gallon. Currently in the states its $3.65 a gallon. He pointed out the banyon trees and the umbrella trees.
We were all checked thoroughly for identity four times this day just getting into the area that had the ship. Sue was hurting and wiped out. I was just wiped out from what felt like working in a warm sauna all day long.
It took 6 glasses of water at the buffet for me to feel I had caught up with the water I had lost.
Dinner:
Sue: hot dog with extra mustard with cheese and rolls form the buffet.
Pat: Double hamburger with cheese, handful of fries, a scoop of garlic shrimp form the buffet and a desert sampler (for use to share) small slices of pumpkin pie squares, cheesecake, and choc. layer cake
I watched the last quarter of the Monday night game that pitted the San Diego Chargers and the K.C. Chiefs. It was on the big outdoor screen as we headed out of port in the evening headed to Honolulu.
The kids on the ship, all six of them did some trick or treating through the buffet with the Princess mascot.. the pelican. Its the first and probably the only time that I have ever seen the Princess mascot.
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