Mostly Hawaii

Porthole 2 Sept 2006




Hawaii was amazing. The only regret was that we just had one day. I hope that I can make it back very soon.

My day started at about 6:00AM. I went up on deck to see the sunrise and watch us come into Hawaii. There were already a lot of people up there. It was strange to see land after so long of nothing but ocean ocean ocean. The faculty and staff were taking tons of pictures and the students all had their cell phone's out. I think most of them had a cell phone glued to their ear the majority of the day. As we got closer to the port the pilot got on board. This entails a speed boat zooming up alongside us and a pilot literally leaping on board. This is evidently the same process used by pirates. The harbor pilot is the one who actually parks the ship, there wasn't a tug boat this time, because the water is deep enough the ship can come in under its own power. A tug boat did pull us out of port at the end of the day and turned the ship part of the way around.

Here's the process they use to clear the ship. Immigration comes on board and has to look at our passports, because we came to Hawaii by way of Mexico. They have a table with all of our passports, a couple of immigration officials and a table to turn in our passports. As they called us up to the faculty/staff lounge in groups they handed us our passport, the official glanced at it, then we handed it back in. The whole process took 20 seconds at most. Very efficient. The ship would have been cleared in 30 minutes if it hadn't been for two students who didn't go through. It took another 15 minutes to get them through. Just as we were getting ready to leave the ship the computer that checks us in and out crashed. We got out as the 4th or 5th person on the manual check-out, but it was evidently 10:30 (2 hours later) before the last people managed to get off. I'm so glad that didn't happen to us, I was already about to have an anxiety attack standing there waiting for the little while we had to. I was able to call Chris while I was waiting, though the reception wasn't great.

Mary, Kelly, Sally and I caught a cab right outside the port and our cab driver, Ted, took us to Enterprise where we had our reservations. We got a Honda CRV and a navigational system and then we were off. Our first stop was the Dole Pineapple Plantation. I'm really glad we went there, because I had a lot of misconceptions about pineapple agriculture that I got cleared up. Plus some very tasty pineapple bread.



Me and a baby pineapple











We then drove up to the North Shore and stopped at Sunset Beach. We stuck our feet in the water and walked on the beach, there were only a couple of families there having picnics and fishing. There were shells and pieces of coral on the beach. I was also introduced to sea glass, and picked up a few pieces that I think I'll give to Sarah for mosaics. It was very peaceful and beautiful. We continued to drive around and stopped for a seafood lunch, we shared fried fish, clams, onion rings and shrimp cocktail in a pineapple boat. Lunch was good but we immediately found two other places we would rather have eaten, but that's always the way. Then Kelly and Mary decided they really wanted to go to Pearl Harbor, so we took a short cut from the Northeastern part of the Island back to Honolulu, through a tunnel that cuts through the mountains. Sally and I dropped them off, then went to Borders where I bought some magazine for the library and a few books for Kelly. Then we went to Walmart, the biggest in the world, and it was BIG and overwhelming and we got out of there as quick as we could. (I HAD to go to Walmart to buy a sleeping bag, by the way, I didn't go to Walmart as a tourist destination. I also got a little vino, and another pillow. Erin, the pillows on the ship are awful! I'll leave you the one I bought in the library. I'll leave you my sleeping back too, it's purple and gold, GEAUX TIGERS!)




Then the day was almost over, but we went to Waikiki where we saw the brightest, fullest rainbow I'd ever seen. Waikiki is usually packed and very touristy. It was late in the day though, and sort of misting-raining, so it wasn't very crowded at all. Beautiful water. We hustled back to the rental car place, and got a lift back to the ship, then ran back out for a quick bite (Tom yum at a Thai place)

I was really glad that we got that GPS, it was so helpful driving around, it was also the best entertainment. The digital voice authoritatively mispronounced the Hawaiian words to comic effect. The best was Kamehaha Highway. I think it's Kah-may-ah-may-ah, right? She said Commie-ah-me-ah-ha. She also combines words in strange ways. Highway 2 East, for instance, Highway TA-WEEST. So that was worth the 7 bucks, right there.

Ok, here's the part that's going to be tough to describe. If you've never been to Hawaii you need to stop what you're doing immediately. Seriously, stop now. Turn off this blog you can read it later, and book yourself the next flight out. This is the greatest place in the United States (except the lawn at UVa, obviously). I have never seen anything more lovely and enchanting. Yeah, yeah, yeah you're thinking, of course Hawaii is beautiful. If you haven't been here, you don't understand. It's GORGEOUS. Every direction you turn there's a view that will knock your socks right off. Dramatic lush mountains, crystal clear ocean that ranges from almost black, to blue, aquamarine and green. Giant, white clouds against, blue grey sky. I had a lump in my throat more than once during the day. It was awful to leave after just one day.



It was way too much for one day, and as a consequence my cold finally caught up with me. I've been a mess all day. Sore throat, runny nose, run down, headache. I slept in, missed breakfast, missed Global Studies (bad girl), went to lunch but just had some soup and half a PB&J, went back to bed and woke up feeling somewhat better. I had to go give a little talk to the senior adult passengers, and then drug myself into work. After dinner (chicken n sauce, green bean casserole, tabouleh) I went to work for a bit, and learned the news about Steve Irwin. No piece of news has caused a stir on the ship like that. I'm back in my room now, watching "Lost in Translation" and working on this. I'll probably go to bed very soon, I think I'm a bit feverish.

I hope to post most of my pictures on Flickr. It's not going to happen tonight, as the internet is very slow. I'll post something as soon as I can manage it.