Friday, November 21, 2008

The Ship at Sea




















After leaving our last port of call and with four full days at sea, I thought I'd take some pictures to show you the ship and views of the sea. You can see that it's a big ship with lots of room for shows, sports, lectures, bars, casino, library, pools, internet cafe, art sales, etc, etc, etc. 
You can see our hallway and our "mailbox" for room 6151. There is also an electronic chart with "real time" navigational information and up on top are domes over satellite antennas for television, telephone and internet.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii










We had only about eight hours in Lahaina on Maui. It was a "tender port" where we had to take the life boat type "tenders" in to shore. As in other tropical places we had a mix of rain-sun-rain-sun but it was always warm enough that it didn't feel uncomfortable. It was just a bother on bus windows and camera lenses. In the rain forest area the rainwater caused spectacular waterfalls that were not there on sun only days.
I took a tour that went to the rain forest area with the famous Iao Needle, a tall lava tower in a dramatic, steep sided valley. The tour also visited the Maui Ocean Center, an aquarium that features a transparent tunnel through a giant tank of sharks, rays and other fish.
Leaving Lahaina, we headed out for five days at sea on our way toward San Diego and the end of our 65 day trip.

Honolulu, Hawaii









We had two days in Honolulu. I went on a tour to Pearl Harbor where they have the sunken battleship Arizona Memorial and tours aboard the "Mighty Mo" which used to be at Bremerton. We walked on the beach at Waikiki and went by the Hawaiian Royal Palace.