Hawaii - Last Day

The last day of our trip to Hawaii was a sad one.  I felt really depressed as we were leaving the ship.  It was so nice to have everything taken care of for you and only have to think about having fun.  Luckily we went right from the ship to our very last excursion on the island of Oahu.  It started out by seeing the oh-so-familiar chickens running around, this truly was one of the oddest things about Hawaii.

Our excursion's main destination was Pearl Harbor but we found out quickly that there is a procedure to attending that site.  You show up and then are given a time to come back and view the memorial and ours turned out to be hours away.  Keep that in mind if you ever visit Hawaii. 

So, we were left with lots of time to kill.  We stopped briefly (and I do mean briefly, less than 20 minutes) at the Dole Pineapple plantation.  I had time only to vist the restroom and buy a bowl of fresh pineapple and we were due back on the bus. 

We visited the famous North Shore of Oahu, this is where you see the surfers who love the really big waves.  The area was just beautiful as you can see in these photographs.

Pearl Harbor itself was quite moving.  First off you watch a movie about the bombing and it was very informative, it's amazing how many people lost their lives that day.  Then they take you out on a boat to the memorial. 

You can see the oil on the water after all these years.

Once we got back to the airport we settled in for the long plane ride home.  Well, it turned out to be longer than we expected because someone on our plane had medical problems that were serious enough that they had to land our plane in Kansas City for an hour to unload the passenger.  We still made our connection in Chicago though.  We left Saturday evening from Hawaii and made it home to Stevensville Sunday afternoon, exhausted but happy.

I hope you have enjoyed my story of Hawaii.  I earned this trip for free by being a consultant for Close to my Heart.  I am currently 2/3 of the way to earning my next cruise to Puerto Rico, St. Croix, Grenada, Dominca, St. Kitts and St. Thomas.  I know how to earn these now and would love to help you earn your own cruise.  Consider signing up as a member of the Close to my Heart club and let me show you how.