Hawaii - Day Six

Overnight the ship sailed to Hilo, Hawaii. Having learned our lesson, we rented a car and the lady at the car rental was so helpful in showing us all the places we should see while in Hilo. She sent us first to the black sand beaches up north so that we could see tons of sea turles. We ended up running into my friend, Michelle and family at the same beach. Here's Michelle trying to catch the brief moment the sea turtles surface.
Michelle told me to take a picture of my feet against the black sand, good idea!

Not the best light that day but here are Mark and I in front of the Pacific Ocean on Hilo.

The sea turtles were everywhere. Michelle's family hadn't seen any while snorkeling so it was great to be able to see so many on this day. They would surface often but so quickly that it was hard to catch them in a photo. I did get this one though!

We left Michelle, Lil and Jennifer to continue on their tour and drove up the coast a little bit more. We came upon this beach which was really pretty.

Volcanic rock is not easy to walk on, it gets slippery when wet and is very uneven when dry too!

Next we headed to the Orchid farm, the flowers were so gorgeous. Nothing more needs to be said, just enjoy these colors!

Our next stop that day was the Mauna Loa macadamia factory. It was pretty cool, the tour was self guided and you could see directly into the factory with huge windows. Afterwards we went to have some macadamia nut ice cream at their store. We ended up bringing three boxes of macadamia nut clusters home, yum! I brought some to my team so they could have a taste of Hawaii.

We saved the best for last, a hike down a long bridge and steps to see two different waterfalls, the walk was a bit hard on the knees because there were a lot of steps to climb but worth it!

This was the Hawaii I was expecting! Greenery everywhere, unusual plants, beautiful rivers.

See all those steps! Those were just a few of the ones we had to climb.

The trees in Hawaii look like they belonged in the jungle and probably, technically, they were.

Here was the highlight of the day, the waterfalls were so tall and because they'd had a ton of rain, very powerful. Beautiful!

Hawaii - Day Five

On day five of our trip to Hawaii, the Pride of America sailed overnight to get to the other side of Maui.
This was the scene from our balcony as we came into Maui. This was definitely an island for which you needed to rent a car.

We bought a snorkeling excursion since we enjoyed snorkeling in the Galapagos Islands last year. This one was much different in so many ways. First of all, we got to go out to Molokini on this awesome boat (boy, was I glad I'd been taking seasick medication for a week). The guys who ran the excursion were fantastic, funny and tried to remember all of our names. We were served breakfast including homemade cinnamon rolls. They helped fit us for our gear and really went above and beyond on customer service.

I was determined to not leave Hawaii unless I saw a whale and this was the day when it happened. There were whales everywhere. Unfortunately you never know when they'll pop up so my photos don't catch how close some of them were to the boat and how we saw them breaching. They were traveling in groups of three for the most part, a mother and baby and their "escort" who was not normally the father but a whale hoping to mate with the mother the next season. Strange, huh?

Michelle Nist, my longtime friend and upline, her mom, Lil, and sister, Jennifer, joined us on teh excursion. Don't we look cute in our wetsuits? Once we got to Molokini it was time to go snorkeling. The boat actually opened up on the side so we could slide right into the water and climb back up when we were done. I can't say the fish were as amazing as they were in the Galapagos but they were very pretty and I followed a sea turtle for about 15 minutes, wonderful!

After our snorkeling was over we went to see a Banyan Tree, this is a tree that takes up an entire city block. It's my understanding that the tree will wrap itself around other trees and when they die, drop it's roots right down. It looks like an entire large group of trees because there are tree trunks and roots everywhere but it's all one tree.

I was told by my friends, Judy and Sue, that I have to have shave ice while in Hawaii. Well, they were right, it's sooooo good and not like a snowcone at all. We had it twice but we could have truly had it every day!

Yes, there are scrapbookers in Hawaii and they have scrapbook stores too! This one was very oriented to tourists, almost everything in there was about Hawaii so you could buy to make an album of your trip.

When we returned to the ship this little elephant was waiting on our bed, each day our cabin steward would leave us towels in the shape of an animal

That wasn't the only gift either. Close to my Heart gives us a present every single day. This was the purse from the first day! Each gift come with a poem too!

Also in our cabin that day was this plate of chocolate covered cherries, we were so pampered!

Hawaii - Day Four

On our fourth day in Hawaii, second day on the ship we sailed to Maui overnight. Mark and I spent some time at the pool that day because the area right off from the port wasn't that interesting to walkers. We knew we'd be seeing the island later that evening at the luau so we explored the ship and rested in the sun. That evening we headed to the Old Lahaina Luau with some friends. The luau is right next to the beach and it was a great place to take some photos.

The drink of Hawaii seemed to be a mai tai everywhere we went. They served them from the moment we arrived. They had lots of pretty Hawaiian men and women greeting us with leis and we had a great waiter. Everyone was friendly.

We heard before we went that this was one of the best luaus in Hawaii and we were definitely satisfied by the food and the show. (photo by Chris Hill)

As is typical at a Hawaiian luau, they cook a pig all day long and make a big deal out of bringing it up from being buried in coals all day. (photo by Chris Hill)

The place was really huge with tons of people there, about eight people fit at a table. (photo by Rachel Ventura)

Here's just a small area of the luau, I couldn't even estimate how many people were there. (photo by Rachel Ventura)

We'd heard bad things about the food at a luau but we were pretty pleased with the variety and taste. (photo by Chris Hill)

Doesn't this look yummy? (photo by Rachel Ventura)

Once dinner was over, the entertainment started. This was exactly what we expected to see, lots of dancing, girls doing the hula and men banging on drums! (photo by Rachel Ventura)

There were so many costume changes, I wasn't sure where they even changed at, it happened so fast and so often! We did get a kick out the coconut bikini tops. You could actually buy them in different sizes (no I didn't)! (photo by Chris Hill)

Here's a picture of us at our table, thanks to Louise, Barb and Chris for the fun conversation! (photo by Brianna Bostick)

Hawaii - Day Three

My cousin is a travel agent and she gave me lots of good advice about going on the Close to my Heart Hawaiian cruise that I earned. One thing she told me was to hold off on boarding for a couple of hours after the initial boarding call. So, we showed up on the ship about 2:00 instead of noon and only waited for a 1/2 hour. One thing I can definitely say about the Pride of America, the crew is extremely friendly. It started with a lei (a real flower one) being given to us when we arrived. I had hoped to get one at some point because I knew they didn't give them when you get off the plane anymore. I actually ended up with 4 leis by the end of the trip, two with real flowers, one made with some kind of nut and one made with beads.

When we got to our cabin we were super pleased! The room was much bigger than I expected and I loved our balcony. There was also this wonderful plate of snacks too!
Mark set out to enjoy the balcony right away!

I was worried about storage but found plenty of room for all of my clothes and belongings.

We had a couch and a desk and room service was part of the cost of the trip so you could actually have breakfast delivered in the morning or order anything brought to the room at any point. We didn't do it but I wish we had.

The pool came with waiters so you didn't even have to go up to the bar to get a beverage, they would bring it to you. All tips were paid before you even got on the ship which was handy! (photo by Chris Hill)

This was the Cadillac Diner, it was open 24 hours a day and served hamburgers and such. Everytime I was in there I thought about how much my kids would have loved it! (photo by Chris Hill)

The ship was huge and I am still not sure how I found myself around! (photo by Chris Hill)

That evening Close to my Heart had a welcome reception. We were given a flower lei and the cutest little "wallet on a string" as my friend, Rhonda says. It was a tiny over the sholder "purse" that fit my money, room key, sunglasses, phone, credit cards and i.d. I used it every day and still use it all the time now that I'm home. During this party my uplines, Michelle, Diana and Sheri all gave me gifts for earning my first cruise. (photo by Rachel Ventura)

They had official pictures taken at the party with our cruise logo and sent them to us just the other day, thanks Close to my Heart!

Hawaii - Days One through Three

One of the wonderful benefits of working as a consultant for Close to my Heart is that they offer us incentive trips. This past year I earned my very first one, to Hawaii on a cruise! I'd like to share a few photos and some of my stories from the trip this week, hope you enjoy!

My husband and I, taking the first vacation alone since our eldest was born 19 years ago, wanted to go into Hawaii a few days early. The ship sailed on March 3rd but we went in on March 1st. The trip to Hawaii from Michigan is a long one, we first had to drive from Michigan to South Bend, Indiana. We took a plane from there to Chicago, then to Los Angeles and then onto Oahu. In other words, we were in an airplane or airport for almost all of March 1st. We landed in Oahu, hopped a shuttle to our hotel and went out for a short walk around the city! (Photo by Rachel Ventura)

We can definitely recommend the Ohana East (photo by Rachel Ventura), the staff was great and the bed was so comfortable. The best part was that it was centered right in the middle of Waikiki so we were just steps from shopping and dining!

The next morning we headed out to find a beach. The closest one was Kuhio Beach, from what I understand, it's part of Waikiki Beach. I have to say, Mark and I were a bit disappointed. We'd heard about this beach our whole lives but the sand was minimal and there was a lot of construction going on the beach and in the water. We definitely didn't feel it was a beach we could lay out comfortably.

On Kuhio Beach, there was a big bronze statue of Duke Kahanamoku. Duke was a true Hawaiian hero and one of the world's greatest watermen, a master of swimming, surfing and outrigger canoe paddling according to the statue and what we've read about him.
We did love the restaurants in the area and found a fun place down the street from our hotel that had wonderful hamburgers. I'd always wanted to try a mai tai and they served them there with cute little umbrellas.
On our second day in Oahu we'd found a cultural festival in the convention center. It was a long walk (we took the bus back) but we were determined to find the place! They had a lot of music there and the girls with these drums were especially impressive.

The artwork was cool too with lots of booths offering free samples of unusual foods! We enjoyed the festival and even had time to stop for haircuts!

When we used to live in Los Angeles we went to The Cheesecake Factory all the time. Now that we're back in Michigan we have to drive all the way to Chicago to visit our favorite restaurant so we were very happy to see one down the street from our hotel. (photo by Rachel Ventura)

You can see by our happy faces that we'd just had a great meal there! Now we were ready for the cruise! Stay tuned tomorrow to see our first day at sea.