Last 5 days at sea on the way from Hawaii

December 14 - 18, 2017

The next 5 days we will be at sea.  Tic is very sick with a bad case of bronchitis so he basically stayed in the stateroom all 5 days.

This beautiful morning many of us are throwing our leis (flowers only) off the stern/back of the ship.  It was a fun ship tradition to follow. 

Above we are preparing to throw our leis. Below we are in the process of throwing our leis.  Can you see pink bunches just above some people's arms?

I was getting to throw 2 leis, mine and Tic's. Above I'm ready to throw the 2nd leis. Below I was laughing with other passengers having fun after throwing our leis.

Beautiful black & white picture of the mid-morning sun reflecting on the ocean.

 Some gingerbread houses set up in a Christmas display on the ship.

 Above and below are a couple of critter towels left in our room early in the cruise.  

This sunset shows a tanker ship on the horizon.

To help us remember what day of the week it, the crew changed the carpets in all the elevators showing the day of the week.

While Tic was sleeping in the stateroom, I played a lot of cards and or games with several of the new friends we made on the ship.  In the evenings, after I went to dinner, I would bring Tic some dinner and we would watch movies on the television. There were plenty of movies to choose from. I really felt sorry for Tic.

Hanapepe, Kauai, Hawaii

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Today is our last stop and our last island. 

As we got off the ship, we were directed to enter a shopping area.

We boarded our bus on the opposite side of this shopping area. Our 8 hour tour started at the Wiamea Canyon, also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.

 I took this picture out of the bus window as we were driving to Wiamea Canyon.

 It is a little hazy this morning but the colors in the canyon still stand out.  Below is a close-up of the waterfall on the left side of the above picture.

 I took the above and below pictures as I was turning and looking up the canyon.

WOW, gorgeous!!

I mentioned in a previous post that chickens were everywhere, that includes this island also.

Here we are at Sprouting Horn blowhole. This is the best picture we got of the blowhole.

 Above and below is the coast on each side of the blowhole. The lava rock causes beautiful crashing waves.

Our next stop was the Wailua River State Park.  

We took a boat ride on the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto.

Above and below are pictures as we travel up the river to the Fern Grotto.

 This husband and wife team entertained us.  He sang and she did the hula.  

 This is our walk to the Fern Grotto.  

This is THE Fern Grotto. The flower close-up below is of the flowers in the foreground.

Near the cave opening is a small water fall.

 This cave must be farther away than it looks, because people can actually go inside the cave. Visitors used to be able to go inside. Now only special occasions like weddings are allowed to be held inside the cave.

This couple also sang to us and told us the history of the Fern Grotto.

 We take a different route back to the boat and get to see the waterfall above. Below is the bottom of the waterfall and creek it flows into.

 It is so tropical here at the Fern Grotto.

 On the way back in the boat, we passed this paddle boarder with his dog.  Just in front of him was a girl on a paddle board. The wake from the boat caused her to lose her balance and fall.  I felt bad for her.

This is where part of the movie Blue Hawaii with Elvis Presley was filmed.

We've had a very full day enjoying many of God's glorious wonders.

Kona, Hawaii

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Today we are in Kona on the big island Hawaii. 

We had to be tendered into Kona today.  At least it is a beautiful day!

This is what we saw when be got off the tender boat. WOW beautiful!

This is where we were waiting for our tour bus at the dock.

 This is our first stop of the day. 

 We walked across old lava flows as seen above. Below is one of a few petroglyphs we saw in the lava.

This is supposed to be a woman giving birth.  This was said to be a birthing stone.

We continued on to the beach to see the Honu or Green Sea Turtles. 

Above is looking out of a replicated hut the natives used to store their canoes in on the beach. Below is more of the beach in the park.  So gorgeous.

 Above is a couple of green sea turtles sunning themselves. Obviously they have been out of the water for a while.  Below is a turtle leaving the water. We saw him working his way up on the sand.

We did get pictures of the green sea turtles in the water but they are hard to see so I'm not including any in this blog post.

Our next stop was the cloud forest which was on the property of the Kona Coffee Farms.

 This is the entrance to our hike through the Cloud Forest which will end the Kona Coffee Company.

The foliage along our path was marvelous.

 There were several cockatoos that had been rescued and lived here.  This one was very vocal.  I caught him with his feathers up.  I have a video of him talking and squacking, but cannot post videos in the blog.

These are buttress roots of a rainforest tree which may be a kapok tree.

This is a rainbow eucalyptus tree. The trunk was so colorful! God's creations are so amazing!

We arrived at the Mountain Thunder Kona Coffee Company.

 This display shows the red coffee bean shell after it has been soaked.  From right to left the light roast, medium roast and dark roast are displayed. The red shell used to make Kona Coffee Cherry Tea.

 This small lava tube was on a wall surrounding the sitting area at the coffee store.

 During our tour of the coffee processing plant, we learned that coffee beans are sorted by size before they are roasted.
Our tour guide was very informative on the entire process from picking of the beans to the roasting.

I got some of the Cherry Tea and Tic got some Kona Coffee. We won't get to try these until we are back home.

It was beautiful today and we enjoyed our tour. We were back to the ship in time for dinner.