Hawaii part 2

(Because I accidentally hit "send" instead of "save) on my last post.

Where did I leave off? Right I think I had just bought an old suitcase. Anyway I went for a local diner for lunch called Ken's Pancake House (I'm sure no-one is wondering why I picked it) and had that wonderful thing it is difficult to find anywhere but Hawaii - yes, that would be macadamia nut pancakes. And not only that, they had a coconut syrup on the table! Along with guava and passionfruit local syrups. Wow. Yes, I tried all of them. No clear winner, all were amazing. On the way back it started to rain, and a kind Hawaiian lady felt sorry for me dragging my suitcase. She made me buckle up to drive the 4 blocks to the pier. A wise woman. I was very grateful for the lift.

Our second day in Hawaii, Nick was able to get off the ship with me, in Kahalui, Maui. Unfortunately we had a crew boat drill in the morning and couldn't get off until about noon, so we didn't have time for much. We walked into town rather than waiting for the shuttle bus, and had delicious veggie burgers at a Ruby's diner. We wandered around the shops for a while, and Nick spotted some white shoes that will work for the wedding! So the day turned out very productive after all. Once back on board I went out on deck 4 forward to watch the sailaway, and was rewarded by sighting dozens of whales! It was really fantastic, we kept passing by them, some very close to the ship, saw a few jumping and crashing back down, and one who slapped his tail on the water a dozen times for us. What a spectacular sailaway. And a great close to our short time in Hawaii! So there you are, the rest of my Hawaii post. :-)
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Hawaii

I had a fantastic couple of days in Hawaii! We stopped in Hilo on the big island first, and I was lucky enough to get on a guest tour to the active volcano Mount Kilauea (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). The huge crater is visible from a combination museum and observation point, and smoke and steam rises from it in a constant plume. What an incredible sight. A few more volcanic sights were in store for us as we went on a short hike through the rainforest to the Thurston lava tube - basically a massive tunnel caused by the hardening of an outer layer of molten lava as it flowed across the landscape. It was really huge - much bigger and longer than I expected. Then we got to have a view of Kilauea Iki, a smaller, inactive crater that you can actually hike across (I was jealous! I would love to do that hike someday!). There was one last delicious stop on our tour - the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. Fantastic! I bought a few goodies and took advantage of the free samples. The tour finished in the early afternoon, so I stayed out and walked to a Goodwill store, where I picked up an old suitcase to pack full of stuff to send home.
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