February 3-4, 2012. Home again.

We had to check out of the hotel by 3 PM, so I went for a swim and then we packed up and left our room, leaving our luggage at the hotel. Our flight was not until almost midnight! We walked around and saw the sights, found a pavilion on the beach and played Scrabble. McDonald's is near our hotel, so I took a photo of its banner--bet you won't see this in any other state!

We had a very nice dinner on an upper balcony overlooking the beach. Dianne had a combination plate of local favorites and loved them all.

We walked back to the hotel and changed into long pants and took a shuttle to the airport about 9:30. Our flight out was at 11:50 PM. While most of the passengers slept for the 7 hours, Dianne and I played Scrabble all the way to Phoenix. We said our goodbyes there, and Bill and I flew home, arriving at 4:00 PM on Saturday. What a long flight!

Once we were home we took turns being sick--he had the throwing up sick that Erika and Dianne both had 2 weeks previous, and I had sinus and chest congestion, like I had before the trip. Ah well, it was a wonderful trip, and I have a new favorite place to visit.

February 2, 2012. Around Oahu, HI.

Yesterday was a quiet day for us--we were emotionally and physically exhausted after spending the previous day at Pearl Harbor. But I would not have missed it for the world. I took a swim, and we did some shopping. Not much else.

This morning we were out bright and early to catch our bus to tour the island and visit the Polynesian Cultural Center, which was highly recommended. First we stopped at Diamond Head, making me wish I had time to hike to the top. Our next stop was at Hanauma Bay, one of the best snorkeling spots on this island. Here is Dianne in her very Hawaiian outfit!


The water was crystal clear, and we could see the reef and the people snorkeling from the overlook. Another thing I wish we could do...

Next we stopped where they filmed "From Here to Eternity" and watched for the blowhole below us, caused from pressure shooting the water high into the air through small fissures. We saw it a few times, but I was not able to catch it with the camera.

Throughout the day our guide showed us homes of the rich and famous: Jim Nabors (high on a hill overlooking the ocean), Bill Gates (gated), Tom Selleck (pink) and a home that once belonged to Elvis Presley. I was amused by it all--it reminded me of the Hollywood tours I have heard about...

We stopped at the Nu'uanu Pali Lookout, where 400 Oahu warriors jumped off the cliff to their deaths rather than become subjects of King Kamehameha I when he sought to unite the tribes of the Hawaiian Islands in the 1700s.

The bus stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation, where we walked around and had a cup of coffee. There was not enough time to take the train tour or walk through the pineapple maze.

There were articles in the local newspaper about 10 foot waves on Oahu's north shore a couple of days ago, but when we got there we found it much calmer. Warnings were posted, but there were quite a few surfers out there riding the waves, which were about 6' high today.

We arrived at the Polynesian Cultural Center around lunchtime. We paid for the tour and the PCC admission, luau, and show when we booked the trip last night.

Dianne and I both felt as if we were led astray.... this was listed as a "don't miss" attraction, and we thought we were at Disney World South Pacific Style. The banana tree was real, but the rest was staged. And all for the Mormon Church! I guess I should have read the fine print! There is a branch of Brigham Young University here, and this park was created to provide employmen to the students.

But we were here for the afternoon, so we walked around and saw the presentations for all the different islands--Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, Tonga, Tahiti, etc. There was an outrigger similar to those used by the ancient people of the South Pacific islands. We learned about navigating on the ocean before even the simplest instruments were invented.

All the presentations shut down at 2:30 for the show on the water--flatbed boats were poled down the canal and each island group demonstrated its music and dance.

Then we attended the Samoa presentation, which was very entertaining. The young man you see below is holding a burning coconut, which he lit from a fire he made rubbing two sticks together right in front of us. He told us of life on Samoa in the drollest manner....

And then a couple of young men climbed a palm tree to retrieve coconuts.

We were promised a luau, but it was not exactly what we expected... there were about 500 people in our building, and the food was set up on a buffet. There was live entertainment on a stage, and we were all given leis when we entered the building.

The live show after the luau, "Ha, the Breath of Life" was superbly done and immensely entertaining, complete with fire dancers and volcanos spouting fire into the open sky. What a day!

January 31, 2012. Pearl Harbor, HI.

We ate breakfast at McDonalds, which is right next to our hotel. Dianne had Portuguese sausage, eggs, rice, and pineapple. Spam was on the breakfast menu, but we all passed on that. They also have taro pie.

The trash cans are polite (mahalo means thank you).
We were picked up in front of the hotel at 8:30 and shuttled out to the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites.

First we went to the USS Bowfin, a World War 2 era submarine. With our tickets we each got a set of earphones and an audio tour, which was very helpful and informative. We also toured the USS Bowfin Museum.

We toured the entire sub--every inch of space is used. While these bunks look a bit close, I think I would rather sleep here than on top of the torpedos, where more bunks were located. Not all seamen had bunks--they worked shifts and also slept in shifts, taking turns in the bunks.

There was also a memorial to all of the submarines lost in World War 2, with a marble marker for each sub, listing the names of those lost. We could see the USS Missouri in the harbor but did not have time to tour it as well as the other things we had planned.

We took a ferry boat out to the USS Arizona memorial, which was built on top of the sunken ship. I lost count of the times I watched the actual footage of the battleship being bombed and exploding in a fireball on December 7, 1941. Each time was as horrifying as the last.

We could see the ship below us in the water, and there was a marble wall listing all of the men lost on the ship (over 1200). There was a separate plaque with the names and dates of those who survived the sinking of the Arizona but requested interment with their ship mates, some as recent as 2011. It was a heartbreaking sight.

Our next stop was the Pacific Aviation Museum, where there were planes from WW2 as well as a separate hangar full of planes from other wars. I recognized the Huey helicopter from the Viet Nam era, but did not take its photo. What a sad place.

The last shuttle back to the hotel was at 4:30 and we were on it. It was a sad day, but an important part of our history.

I thought this sign was a real hoot--Interstate Highway?????? To what other state does it connect!!!?????

January 30, 2012. Waikiki Beach, HI.

We are staying at the Waikiki Circle Hotel, which was built in the 1960s when it stood alone on this block. It is clean and comfortable and we can see the beach from our balcony on the 11th floor.Now that Waikiki Beach is so built up, it looks small. It is the short round one in the middle of the photo below.

We walked around town today, and Dianne kept after me to take a surfing lesson--she has been talking about it since we arrived on Hawaii on January 20! I finally gave in and we walked across the street to one of the surfing lesson tents and signed up.

Our instructor was Mike, and he was 40ish, which was OK with us. I did not want to take lessons from a 17-year old! He was quite patient with us and said that even though we paid for a one hour lesson we would stay out there until we both stood up on our boards.

The waves were pretty mild, not like the 10 foot waves on the north shore of this island! I got up on the second try. My form was not the greatest--I guess I should have tried this when I was young!

Dianne took longer to get upright, bashing her face on the board in the process. The instructor kept yelling at her: GET UP. LET GO and GET UP! Loud enough that she heard him.... finally she let go of the board and surfed. We were out there an hour and a half. We may try it again later in the week if we have time. Now that we had a lesson we can rent a board for $10 per hour.

There are bike rental places here but I don't think we're going to get one. If we do there are plenty of places to lock them up! These ingenious bike racks are everywhere.

Bill and I drank a toast to his 50th state! He told me when we first met that he had been to 49 states. Now he can cross it off his "bucket list" if he has one....

January 29, 2012. Kona to Honolulu.

We ate breakfast on the open air terrace, packed up and Woman Tours shuttled us to the airport. We saw these turkeys strutting their stuff around the resort this morning. Why turkeys?

There was not a person in line when I went through security at the airport. It is all open air, like other tropical airports I have flown into or out of. So different from the airports where I come from! It was a short flight to Honolulu, not even enough time to play Scrabble! We took a shuttle from Honolulu airport to our hotel, had some lunch and checked in. Below is the view of Waikiki Beach from our balcony. Bill is due to arrive later today and we will have 6 more days in Paradise! I can't imagine anything better than the Big Island of Hawaii, but I'll keep an open mind.

January 28, 2012. Waimea to Hapuna, HI. 46 miles.

The top photo is yesterday's elevation profile--you can see that we had quite a climb after lunch, and then a little coast down at the very end of the ride. Today's profile is a bit different. We had a very short coast, then a climb of 6 or 7 miles, then a very long coast down with a few smaller hills at the end.It was a lovely morning to be on a bike! Sunny and bright, chilly enough to start out with a jacket, but VERY windy. There was a cross wind of about 30 MPH with gusts up to 40, according to Kristen who looked it up on her smart phone. We were in what I would call "high desert" when we started out--it was very dry, with little vegetation.

We were in rural areas all day, with cattle farms and horse ranches along our route. We could see the Pacific Ocean off to our left all morning. What a view these cattle have! I would bet that they don't even notice...

After a pretty tough climb, made tougher by the crosswind, we reached the crest at 3564 feet above sea level. The van was parked there for support; some riders had chosen to skip the climb and go straight to the downhill. Linda warned us that the downhill was more dangerous in the crosswind than the climb, but I was not giving up on my ride today!


Here is Dianne just ahead of me on the downhill ride.

At mile 22 we stopped in Hawi, a small town with galleries, cafes and shops. We spent about an hour there, having coffee and snacks, and SHOPPING, always a dangerous thing to do on a bike tour. The van was there to haul our purchases to the hotel.

The terrain had flattened out by the time we left Hawi. It was a lovely ride, and now the Pacific was on our right. We could see Mt. Haleakala on Maui in the distance across the blue expanse of ocean. We stopped a few times to look at the spouting of whales very close to shore. In the 18 miles from Hawi to Kawaihae Dianne and I saw 4 or 5 groups (pods?) of whales. Apparently this is part of their migration route. A couple of times they were close enough that I could see they were orcas. The cuesheet told us to ride 2 miles into Hapuna Beach State Park and then turn on the first paved road to the right--but the first paved road was only about .2 miles into the park. I turned there (and that was correct) but about half of the riders did not, and got some very hilly bonus miles on our last day of riding!
Dianne and I toasted the end of another great bike tour, removed our pedals, and gave our bikes to the leaders. We were both highly impressed with the quality and fit of the bikes we rented from Cycle Station back on the first day in Kailau-Kona. It gave me a whole new attitude toward renting a bike. It was so much like riding my own bike that I sometimes forgot that I wasn't!

We checked into our rooms and I went down to the pool--this resort has a 50-meter pool! I swam 1000 meters and then we went to the beach. I did not swim there since the red flag was up and I'd already swam. The water was clear and warm (we waded), and the beach was beautiful. What a great place to end our tour!We were all invited to Jen's room for a pre-dinner reception at 5:30. Here we are, drinking wine, enjoying hors d'ouvres, and saying farewell.

Jenny, Judy, and Ellen.

Sue, Denise, and Liz.

Ruth Ann and Kristen.

Me, Dianne, Kristen, and Jenny. Natalie and April.

Leaders Laurie and Jen (with the very chic key chain we used for the van all week).Cheryl and Linda.And Linda B, who was fashionably late. Somehow I missed photographing Tina...

ALOHA!