Home from Hawaii

I arrived home yesterday from Hawaii after a very exhausting trip. It wasn't the vacation that was exhausting it was the trip to get to and from Hawaii! These are a few pictures of the nearly 200 that I took.

We arrived in Honolulu on Friday and spent the night in a hotel before boarding the ship on Saturday evening.

This is the view from our hotel room 

This is the entrance to the Hilton Hotel across the street! 

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We could walk across the street and through the Hilton complex to the famous Waikiki beach.

This is the first look at the ship at the dock in Honolulu.

Ship's wake as we leave the port of Honolulu.

Our first port of call was Kahului on the island of Maui where we took an excursion to the Maui Plantation and Iao Valley.

This is a coffee tree at the plantation.

These are some of the beautiful flowers at the plantation.

This is the mountain range around the Iao Valley.

Our next stop was Hilo on the big island of Hawaii. Here we took an excursion on a helicopter over the volcano.

This is the side of the volcano that wasn't touched by the eruption.

This is what it looks like on the top of the volcano. The orange is hot lava. Sorry the picture is a little blurry but it was taken through the window as the helicopter was gong in a circle!

There are patches that the lava flow missed. After we left port we went to the side of the island where the lava still flows into the sea. It was at night and the ship turned off it's lights so that we could see the glowing lava. Unfortunately my camera couldn't get a picture. The next port of call was Kona also on the Big Island.

The harbor in Kona isn't big enough or deep enough for a large ship so we had to tender from the ship to shore. You can just see the tender boat to the right of the ship.

This is the sign that welcomes you to Kona. Here we took an excursion in a glass bottom boat across the coral reef but between the boat rocking, the glass and the water movement I couldn't get good pictures. We were lucky to see spinner dolphins out between the dock and the ship. Apparently they are not always there.

I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of them jumping and spinning around!

Next stop Nawiliwili on the island of Kauai. This was my favorite island, the most pristine and least commercial. After someone decided to build 15 story building they made it a law that no building could be taller than the top of a palm tree.

The harbor at Nawiliwili on Kauai island was the only time we saw a lighthouse. 

This is the little tugboat that got us safely in and out of port. In Kauai we went to a luau but I didn't get pictures as there were too many people between me and the Hula dancers! We spent the night in Kauai and when we left port the next afternoon we went around to the side of the island that can only be seen by boat or air.

There are caves and small sandy inlets on this side if the island. 

 We saw beautiful rainbows.

The rock formations were unbelievable!  

 The bluest water around the islands is right off the coast of Kauai. Away from the wake it is navy blue.

Then it was back to Honolulu and an excursion to Pearl Harbor before going to the airport.

A navy ship entering Pearl Harbor

 

USS Arizona memorial

 These are just a few of the pictures I took but I hope you enjoyed seeing them.