Day 7- Honolulu , Oahu

Today was our longest day on the islands and we intended to use every second of it! We were in the first group to get off the ship. We intended on taking the bus down to Pearl Harbor.
 We asked what bus we should take and were pointed in the wrong direction several times… after almost an hour of wandering down town Honolulu we decided to take a cab! I hailed my very first cab and was quiet proud of myself until I found out later that Kenny was right behind me hailing it… Oh well. Our driver was super nice and got us right over to the memorial for a small fee of just $30! Sure makes me thankful for our own vehicles and not having to depend on public transportation! 

We were lucky enough to get on the next boat out at 9AM and there was no charge for tickets (not sure why but I was expecting a $35 ticket per person). It was surreal being in the middle of a battle zone and visiting that watery grave site. Although, I didn’t know anyone who was there it still made me SO sad for the lives lost and thankful for our service men (and women).

 our flowers from the leis we brought mixing with the oil 

black tears still bubbling up...

I am glad we went and got to see Pearl Harbor, however it was kind of a sad way to start a vacation day. We were all pretty somber as we headed toward the beach. We caught the bus and got quit the tour of the island as it took us an hour and half to get to Waikiki beach! I don’t think any of us expected the bus ride to last that long and I was pretty frustrated, but changed my attitude when Sarah talked emphatically about all we had seen and the parts of the island she had never seen before. It really was like a $2.50 island tour or a LONG boring bus ride wasting precious beach time… depending how you look at it. I choose Sarah’s view.

We got to the beach and found out the waves were too small to do the outrigger and we were a few blocks down from where we needed to be to Parasail so we settled for a few mai-tais and beach time.
Kenny and I rented a surf board and paddle to try out Paddle Surfing which I guess is a new trend…. It is a lot harder than it looks (especially after drinking a mai-tai!)  But man, we had so dang much fun laughing, swimming and drinking salt water!

 we finally figured out how to do it ; ) 

After we had our fill of sun and salt water we decided to check out the International Market Place which was defiantly on my list of must do’s. I liked it and thought it was a fun shopping afternoon, but wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be.

Again I am not a fan of bartering and a lot of the shops had the same items. I got some souvenirs for our buddies at work and Kenny bought me a really pretty Abalone ring and Barb and Sarah had the most fun playing at the Pearl Factory. It was really exciting to watch them. Barb and Sarah both ended up with the prettiest pink, blue and large white pearls!! I think the sales man got more excited about the blue pearl than Barb did! He said it was something like only 7 in 100 are blue! Plus she got a nice sized white pearl he seemed pretty impressed with.

Once the pearls were set, we rushed over a block to hail a cab to take us to the hotel where we had to meet the shuttle for our Luau at Paradise Cove. I think the Luau was one of my most favorite things we did in Hawaii! Our driver was awesome and joked about taking just 15 Hawaiian minutes to get to the Cove (which is just whenever we get there!) He had us pumped up and ready to party by the time we got to there! It was SO stinkin’ gorgeous and there were tons of things to do. 

We got fresh lei's (they were made from the same flowers that we used on the ship to make our leis) and a free drink when we walked in-

First we gawked at the beautiful sunset - 

Then Kenny and I took a little canoe ride around the cove-

Then it was time to watch the showering of the flowers ceremony (I cannot remember what they actually called it). A man climbs to the top of this tree and showers the crowd with flowers. If you catch a flower before it hits the ground you are supposed to have luck in love for 1 year. Kenny caught 2 and I caught 1.

Next they did the bringing in of the fish nets- Love this picture because you can see him throwing out the net-

A little dancing-

Then it was time to pull the pig out of the ground... more dancing- 

There it is... don't look to close you can see his little face :  ( (but he sure was tasty) 

Kenny and I got our picture with the flame thrower guy-

This is Kenny's tattoo for the night. I forget what it means, but it was something like power and strength.

One of the too many drinks I drank that night- 

Entertainment- 

Oh yeah and Barb got on stage to do the hula with the group-  

My favorite of the night was the fire guy at the end. He was awesome... he even licked the fire! 

When we got back to the ship about 10:30 PM I was exhausted and quickly changed into my PJ’s. Kenny ran out to get a slice of Pizza and found a huge party going on, on our deck! I took these pictures of all the chefs’ masterpieces. I could eat anything, because I was feeling a little sick from all my drinks at the Luau… Enjoy the pictures.

Today’s Forecast: Scattered Showers High 80, low 71