The Gramps and Grandma return from PARADISE!

OK< CAN I JUST SAY AWESOME, AMAZING, INSPIRING, UPLIFTING, BREATHTAKING, EXHILARATING...I could go on, but I think you get the picture! I LOVED OUR CRUISE! It even even bumped out Alaska!
I had no idea I would love that cruise so much! The food was nothing to crow over...it was ok...but the places we went to made up for it!
When I went to Hawaii in 1981, really the only place I got to go see was the Polynesian Cultural Center, and I LOVED IT! But, I really didn't have much to compare it with...the only other memorable thing we did on that trip was body-surf on the north shore area of Oahu. We were on our way back from Japan and just paid $25 extra to stop over in Hawaii. We were out of money...thus the tight budget. Anyway...Kim is in the process of pulling pictures to put on the blog and a picture is worth a thousand words...so you will "get the picture" (heh, heh!)
My favorite places? Wow, that is hard! We loved the Captain Zodiac adventure to this WAY AWESOME tropical reef where we snorkled. I saw critters I never even knew exhisted! (which I found out is called a sea lily) I even saw an Octupus! On our way back to the ship, we jet boated around, explored more closely some sea caves, lava tubes, and we had dolphins on all sides of us! It was GREAT!
Of course then there was the trip into Volcano National Park where we saw 2 live eruptions going on...and the walk in the big lava tube was SO cool! Check out the 12 foot tall ferns outside the tube...this is the area where they filmed a lot of "Jurassic Park". Just natural stuff that grows there...but it was so unusual, it felt like you had arrived on another planet. The pictures don't begin to do it justice!
And my FAVORITE place ABSOLUTELY was the Na Pali Coastline on Kauai. You can only see it from boat or plane. It was simply breath-taking and inspiring as I thought about the beauties of this Earth that God has created for us to enjoy. And with all the spires of rock, it reminded me of the temple...lifting my thoughts once again to Heavenly Father and feeling so full of gratitude for the opportunities we were having seeing so many wonderful things....things that 99.9% of people on the planet will never see (which is a shame!) Kauai is absolutely my favorite island!
But there was the several State Parks that had amazing sea arches, waterfalls, blowholes, etc, watching the lava at night flow into the ocean (quite an experience), snorkling at Mulokini Crater, Waimea Canyon Overlooks (also called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific) in Kauai. Then there was the sea turtles that were swimming all around us, and I went to the Allergan National Botanical Gardens in Kauai that was awesome! Then there was the Polynesian Cultural Center which was also very cool (but the food was disappointing there this time-we didn't go with the "Ambassador" resturant :(
It was funny: On Maui, we rented a convertable Mustang with some friends and went on the "Road to Hana". It is a narrow, winding road...paved all the way, that has over 600 plus tight curves, as it follows the coastline (picture included with this post). And it has many single lane only bridges to cross, and is a major tourist attraction. But it had this big bad reputation on the ship...some of Kims Sysops really wanted to do it, but they had heard about what it difficult road is was to traverse and didn't dare do it. There were "I survived the Road to Hana" t shirts for sale all over the place, and people were buying them. What was funny about it was that it was like taking a drive up American Fork Canyon...the only difference there being there are no single lane bridges in AF Canyon, and not so many curves. I guess if your used to your roads stretching straight on into the far off horizon, it was scarey. We were very amused that it had such a bad repuation!
Kim still liked the Alaska Cruise better, and for me it was way close to being as good...just not quite as good. And Hawaii to do what we did, would cost $3000.00 per person...Alaska wasn't that expensive...so I still think it is best that we keep our aim for Alaska Cruise in 2010 (or was it 2011?).
One last warning...the pictures don't do any of it justice...just so you know.
What a great trip! But I am happy to be home!