Around the World with J and J: Week 4 Hawaii and Sea Days

It is hard to believe that a month has gone by already. We had some beautiful sea days and a couple of rough sea days that really unbalanced Jeff but he made it through. We were in Hawaii on the 16th and 17th and then we set sail for another 5 days to reach French Polynesia. So that will be in Week 5’s blog.

Hawaii was beautiful and the weather had sprinkles in the afternoon but no real rain to disrupt our excursions/activities. We were docked in Honolulu which allowed us to walk right to the center of the city. The area was very safe and we were near the medical offices associated with the University of Hawaii. Our first day we took the Scenic Oahu island tour. It was really nice as we were able to see and photograph many of the beaches and land formations on the island. We even had some “excitement” when we stopped at our lookout point. We get to the parking area and saw rescue vehicles and a helicopter. A person had ignored the do not go past this point signs and, with the high winds, somehow was injured. They were trying to get him off the mountain side. On the third helicopter attempt they were able to drop a fireman to prep the party for evacuation. Winds up the side of the mountain were 50-60 mph. When we returned to the ship we decided to walk to Iolani Palace and the iconic police office and Hawaiian king statue. These are often shown in Hawaii 5 O and Magnum PI. We were too late to tour the museum and see the quilt made by the last queen while she was under house arrest by the US government.

Aloha Tower at night

Coastal Oahu

Rescue Area

Start of “no trespass area” that the person entered

Police Station and Statue

Iolani Palace

The next day there were no excursions that we wanted to take so I decided to find a fabric shop with traditional fabrics. Of course I found one. Google said 1.4 miles and so we decided to walk. So we walked and walked and walked though Chinatown, not so safe areas, passed Costco, and after walking 2 miles we arrived. To say the least, we took a taxi back to the ship. Jeff could not have made it back. I did buy fabric for when I get home.

Chinatown

My fabric

That afternoon we sailed away for Oahu for another set of sea days.

Diamond Head

Honolulu, Hawaii

There is so much to do on board the Neptune that we can’t do it all. As I said, there were several entertainers, an Explorer Society get together where our friends, Michael and Kathleen were awarded for being the passengers with the most Viking sails, twenty-five. We took the Behind the Scenes tour of the ship with the General Manager Ronald to see how they maintain the ship. We crossed the Equator yesterday evening and in the afternoon they held the “traditional” first time crossing ceremony. Instead of tossing you in the ocean the polywogs jump into the pool to become shellbacks. Fun watching crew members in uniform jumping in. They only saluted the fish this time as in the past they had to kiss the fish.