Off to Hawaii!!

My sister-in-law has been asking me to post more often. She's a faithful reader so I shall oblige her. Anyway, I walk into work this morning and what do I see? I see a terminal packed full of parents taking their kids to Disneyland, Aspen, Mexico and of course Hawaii. Yes, it must be Spring Break because people are fleeing the rain in droves!

I can't blame them though and frankly come Sunday morning, I'll be doing the same.
Yes, only a couple more sleeps until we head off to Hawaii. I'm looking forward to this cruise a lot. Usually I'm not that excited about the ports of call but this time around I'm really looking forward to the destinations themselves. I'm generally all about the ship, but who can resist Hawaii? I'm a little tired of Honolulu so I'm eager to see the rest of the islands.

So here's the round-up of what I have planned to see and do.
We arrive in Honolulu around noon. We'll probably just walk around and relax. Our ship, the Pride of Hawaii, doesn't leave until the next evening.

First port we hit will be Hilo. We rented a car and will make a bee-line out to Volcano National Park. Later that evening, we do a cruise-by of the coast to see the red hot lava hit the cool Pacific ocean which turns the water into billowing clouds of steam.

Our next stop is Maui. We're here for 2 days. We're planning on driving the Road to Hana and take in the sites at Iao Valley State Park. The drive has over 50 one-lane bridges and hundreds of hairpin turns. It's supposed to be beautiful. On the second day, Susan and I are heading to the west side of the island to go on an early morning whale watching expedition. The humpbacks come down from Alaska and spend all winter in the warm Hawaiian waters. I'm really looking forward to that! Then later that morning we're off to Haleakala summit!

After Maui, we head back to the Big Island and visit Kona. Lots of beach time and snorkeling here. We'll drive up north and resort hop.

After our visit to Kona, we are off to the port of Nawilili on the isle of Kauai. We're here again for 2 days. On day 1 we're visiting Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. We'll hit some beautiful beaches later in the day on the way back to the ship. On the second day, we're driving north to Wailua to see more waterfalls and then spend some time at the Marriott Kauai Resort. We depart at 2pm and do a sail-by of the magnificent NaPali Coastline.

Then we're back to Honolulu the following morning. We have a full day to kill so we'll probably rent a car and head off exploring Oahu. Our flight leaves at 1050 pm and we don't get back to Richmond until 11am Tuesday morning. I love the red eye...

I'm really looking forward to seeing the ship of course. It has 11 restaurants!! So much food to eat, so little time. We'll try to control ourselves, but there are no guarantees.

I hope the weather cooperates but I figure a short downpour on a tropical lush island is still better than any grey Vancouver winter day.

So that's the plan. An ambitious plan as always but that' s just the way I roll.

I'll post again once I get back into town! Until then...