Hawaiian Cruise
July 2025

Dates: July 16-July 27, 2025

People: Mark, Sarah, Luke, Seth, Anya, Ben, Mom, Dad Witte

Itinerary

• 7-16 (Travel Day)

• 7-17 (Pearl Harbor)

• 7-18 (Oahu North Shore)

• 7-19 (Diamond Head - Cruise Start)

• 7-20 (Maui, Hana)

• 7-21 (Maui, Haleakala)

• 7-22 (Hilo, Volcanoes NP)

• 7-23 (Kona, Beach)

• 7-24 (Kauai, Waimea Canyon)

• 7-25 (Kauai, Beach)

• 7-26 (Cruise Finish)

• 7-27 (Travel Day)

CRUISE NOTES

SHIP:  Pride of America (Norwegian Cruise Lines)

CRUISE ITINERARY
Sat 7/19 7PM Depart Honolulu
Sun 7/20 8AM Arrive Kahului, Maui
Mon 7/21 6PM Depart Kahului, Maui
Tue 7/22 8AM Arrive Hilo, Hawaii
6PM Depart Hilo
Wed 7/23 7AM Arrive Kona, Hawaii
5:30P Depart Kona
Thu 7/24 8AM Arrive Nawiliwili, Kauai
Fri 7/25  5:30P Depart Nawiliwili
Sat 7/26 7AM Arrive Honolulu

Room Assignments:

10062 Denny, Marcia, Milo, Ike (outside w/ balcony)
10053 David, Megan, Ames, Etta (interior)
10055 Mark, Luke, Seth, Ben (interior)
10057 Sarah, Annie, Anya

Notes:

• A couple weeks ahead there was online check-in where we entered personal info for every person in our cabin. We even had to upload photos of each person to speed up check-in on the day of.  Each cabin had a credit card registered to it ahead of time.   At check-in you also signed up for a time on the day of the cruise at which you could arrive, complete check-in, and then board.  Our cabins signed up for 12:30 and 1p figuring the early in the day the better.

• Each cabin had a $100 onboard credit.  This was used to pay drink taxes and then some shopping in the gift shop at the end.  Sarah and Annie almost used it on manicures but could never get that scheduled.

• We wondered how communication would work on the boat. Especially when we were out of cell signal, would be able to find each other? But generally speaking it just sort of works itself. On this particular boat the common areas that we would frequent weren't so many that we wouldn't bump into each other. And with the Hawaiian cruise we were in port most of the days and getting some sort of signal as well. 

• It was nice having the little collapsible backpack. When we would go to the pool I could throw my key card and my phone in it as well as my shirt. I had also brought along some of the name card sleeves that I got from conferences figuring it to be an easy and safe way to carry a key card.  I never needed it as I had shorts with zipper pockets.  One of David's boys was using one like it. 

• In the room it was handy to bring along a big search protector or a power cube. Times where we were charging several devices. An extension cord also helpful.

• For embarkation day, when you wait for your room and your luggage to be ready, its worth thinking about what items you want.  The kids swimsuits would have been a good start.  Its also worth noting that while it makes sense to eat lunch on the boat since you've paid for it, everyone else is doing the same.  And with no rooms available yet, everyone else including you has nowhere to go but to the dining halls.

• We had a few nights where we did our own thing for supper. We had a few nights where we met with the bigger group of the Wachtels in one of the dining halls for a 5:30 supper. If the timing works the formal dining room is nice and the food is great. It does take at least 90 minutes.  It felt like other than the Cadillac Diner, the "free" options were limited to the two formal dining rooms and the Aloha Dinner (buffet). 

• Drink Plans:  The adults had the full alcohol drink plan which gave us free access to most all basic drinks.  There were some 2nd tier drinks that cost extra but that wasn't an issue.  Norwegian provided a nice list of basic drinks to start with but other classics like the captain & coke were also available.  Some of the youngers like Luke had the soda plan but I'm not so sure that was necessary.  Seth did not have the plan.  It was easy enough for us on the drink plan to get Seth a soda if he wanted, it also worked well enough for him to get lemonade or another fruit punch type drink, milk or water at most meals.

• I did run almost every morning on the promenade deck. I didn't pack enough socks though, thinking I'd be wearing sandals so much. With the running I still needed the socks. So having enough underwear and socks to handle running is good. I also had a sweaty running shirt every day. I would sometimes wash it in the shower to keep it fresh.  

• Promenade Deck Run/Walk Data: the ship sign said 1 lap was 548.6 meters, 1800 feet.  Roughly 3 laps mile or 1.0227 mi.  In the end I counted the laps as 0.35mi figuring I didn't run the splits perfectly and I was dodging people at times.

WEDNESDAY JULY 16

I started vacation morning by being up at 4:20am to get a walk and some steps in.  I'm very deep into a step count streak and I wasn't going to let this long day of travel interrupt it.  We had a 5:30am plan to leave the house with Jonah and Caleb driving us.  I also had to drive over to Mom and Dad's house to pick them up so we could leave their vehicles in the garage while gone.  It was certainly handy to not have to pay for parking while gone nearly 11 days.

Security and our time at DTW went quite smoothly. There was some gathering of breakfast from McDonalds and Chick-fil-A.  We had an 8am departure. Our first flight was to Denver.  I watched the Angel Studios Bonhoeffer film in flight and it was quite good. I sat with Sarah and Anya for this first leg.  Ben sat with Mom and Dad.  We had an hour and 40 layover in Denver.

We left Denver on time.  I watched another episode of the Disney+ Marvel show Ironheart in the next flight.  This leg I sat with Anya and Ben.  Sarah sat with Luke and Annie putting Seth with Mom and Dad.  For the most part Ben and Anya were travelling well either sleeping or playing on their phones in flight.  They did some coloring or playing with their Number Blocks figures.  We probably over packed their backpacks for entertainment. The next leg took us to San Jose, California.  I'm pretty sure we flew near enough Yosemite National Park that I was seeing the back side of Half Dome as well as Cloud's Rest from the plane.

In San Jose we grabbed some lunch.  We had a 3:50 layover here and so plenty of time to kill.  A bunch of us did lunch at the Una Mas Mexican Grill.  Sarah and I split one of their nachos.  The Littles got Chick-fil-A for lunch.  Seth tried Smashburger.  I think everyone got a bit of a nap in while we sat here from the already long day.

Our flight for Honolulu left at 4:00p PDT.    It was a full flight.  Thankfully this flight had the USB-C outlets in the chairs so we could get devices charged.  It would be a nearly 5 1/2 hour flight to Honolulu with no views once we left the mainland.  Thankfully this long flight went pretty smoothly.  Southwest gave several extra snacks for this longer leg and came around at least twice to offer up drink service.  Dad and I each tried one of the Kona Golden Wave beers in flight.  I watched the 2021 movie Dune.  I had been putting it off for awhile but I was glad I gave it the time today.  Very intriguing.  Before the flight I pulled up a plot synopsis on my phone to help and I'm glad I did this as there are so many characters to keep track of.  I sat with Dad and Seth for this long leg.  On the arrival to Honolulu we flew over Diamond Head and Waikiki and then also circled around Pearl Harbor on final approach.

We arrived HNL at 6:30p HST which was six hours behind home. Our luggage arrived safely and we dragged it and everyone to the Alamo rental car to get our two minivans. Thankfully at HNL the rental car garage is across the drive from the airport terminal. We got both vans and loaded up to head to the hotel.  We stopped at a McDonald's to grab food for everyone.  We would be staying our first 3 nights of the trip in the Waikiki Malia Hotel Resort.  Most of us were quite tired from the long day (and it getting near 3am back home).  Dad made a trip back to the airport to pickup David's family when they arrived at 9:15pm.  The two vans we were able to park in the very tight and snug parking garage under the hotel for $40/night.

FLIGHTS
8a DTW to 9:05a DEN (2861)[3:05]
10:40a DEN to 12:10p SJC (2777)[2:30]
4p SJC to 6:30p HNL (1701)[5:30]

THURSDAY JULY 17

I started today with a run in Honolulu from our hotel down Waikiki Beach and past our engagement gazebo.  It was a beautiful morning for a run and I was intrigued by how many others were out running in downtown Honolulu.  At the end of my run I stopped by the McDonalds just a block away and grabbed breakfast for most of our family group.

Our first big order of the day was a reservation for the USS Arizona Memorial.  This was a site we had wanted to see back in 2003 when we were here last but it was under renovations and so closed.  We were happy to see it work out to visit this memorable place this year.  About a month ahead of time we booked a reservation time for our group at 9am.  The NPS recommended getting to the visitor center an hour early and also told us we had to check in at the Theater Validation desk 10 minutes early.  So we left the hotel and drove over to Pearl Harbor getting to the parking just before 8am.  There is a whole complex here with the Arizona, the USS Bowfin submarine and a couple of small museums.  There are also outside gardens and memorials making this a one-stop shop to getting all the Pearl Harbor and USS Arizona information.  

At quarter til 9 we hopped in line and at 9a an NPS ranger led us into a small theater where we watched a several minute orientation on visiting the Arizona memorial.  They were reminding everyone of the somber nature of this location and that proper decorum and behavior was requested.  We boarded the ferry and they took us out to the memorial.  We spent about 20 minutes out there.  I hadn't realized parts of the ship were still above water.  We were able to see several droplets of the oil still coming up from the ship.  After the Arizona memorial we spent more time walking through the museum and exhibits and watched another 20 minute video in a theater just to re-learn all that happened at Pearl Harbor and specifically Dec. 7, 1941.  

When it came to lunch time we were about to grab lunch in the small food shop (cold cuts sandwiches and the like) but then realized there was a nearby Wendy's and opted for that.  Our next goal of the day was to visit Ford Island.  We shuttled out to it after our lunch and went first to the USS Missouri.  It was $39/adults for the tour of the ship and we went for it.  We mostly did a self-guide walk going through what felt like almost every nook and cranny of the ship.  Learning again about the Missouri's history at the end of WWII as well as its service beyond.  For some reason both Dad and I had this visual impression that the Missouri had changed locations and that when we saw it in 2003 it was over by the Bowfin and the Museum park.  I looked at our pictures to confirm that we were wrong. When we saw the Missouri in 2003 it was in the same spot along Ford Island and the Arizona as we saw it this time. Weird how impressions or memories can change or become so wrong over time.

While on Ford Island we were able to also drive by the USS Utah memorial and see what was left of this sunken ship. It had parts above water and was clearly in poor shape now from all the years of weathering since the war.  Our next stop would be the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and the Ford Island Control Tower.  We bought tickets to go up in the Tower and it was a treat.  A guide gave us a nice 20 minute talk at the top of the tower explaining the visuals and events of December 7 while answering other questions about Pearl Harbor.  The Museum had numerous old plains including a replica of the Japanese Zero plane. I was intrigued by the story of Shigenori Nishikaichi, a Zero pilot, who crash lands on Ni'ihau.

Part of the museum was Hangar 79 which was a short walk to the next building. It still had bullet holes in the glass of the hangar from December 7 which was fascinating. It also had the B17 Swamp Ghost plane remains in there which is another interesting story to look up. 

When we finished up with Pearl Harbor we headed back to the hotel to regroup for a bit. The Wachtel group had just arrived that afternoon and we talked to them down at the hotel bar for a bit.  We then walked across the street to Aloha Amigo Mexican restaurant for supper.  I tried the mahi mahi fish tacos, it would be the first of several times this trip I went for fish tacos.  During supper they had the $3 Tequila Shots Guy come by with fun glasses, bells and bubbles, it was part entertainment.

After supper we walked down to Waikiki Beach.  So many lights and shops along the road and then the beautiful beach behind.  Sarah, Luke, Annie, Seth and I walked down the beach to revisit the old pier and gazebo where we got engaged.  It would be our first time there in 22 years.  It was somewhat like we remembered.  It was also a popular spot with a street DJ and several people hanging out and smoking.  Lots of graffiti on it. So it was a bit bittersweet.

FRIDAY JULY 18

I was up at 540 today, still partly living on home time.  I read a chapter of my book and waited for first light and then headed out for a morning run.  I headed down to the main street along Waikiki Beach and ran there including passing by our engagement pier again and followed nice sidewalk and bike path out close to Diamond Head.  There were a bunch of other runners out at this time in the morning.  As I returned to the hotel I decided to look for a small grocery to buy some breakfast. I found one at Island Market.  I was hoping for a fruit bowl and donuts and that is pretty much what I found.  They had these malasada donuts with cinnamon and sugar on them.  I brought enough for our family and this turned out nicely.

As everyone got ready we worked out way through plan ideas for the day.  We settled on heading to the north shore where there were several beach options as well as a hike option or two.  It seemed we wouldn't run out of ideas up there.  We left our rooms around 830am. We targeted Laniakea Beach as start.  Reviews said sea turtles often showed up there and it seemed a nice place to start.

The traffic out of Honolulu was bad, but once we got north of Pearl Harbor things were smooth.  This held till we got around Haleiwa.  They had a bottleneck section of road where they were doing construction and had it down to one shared lane for both directions.  This turned into an almost 30 minutes delay.  When it finally opened up we quickly hit the Laniakea Beach parking but it was still in a construction area.  The parking was somewhat open but very full and congested.  We decided to head on to our next destination at Three Tables beach.  It was just north of the small Waimea Bay Beach (which was also quite crowded).

Finding parking at Three Forks beach was nuts.  The primary parking lots were full but we were able to find some roadside parking behind others.  It was quite a challenge driving and turning around and navigating there.  Thankfully this roadside parking was only a quarter mile or so up from the beach.

We spent just under 3 hours at Three Forks Beach.  There were tons of people there.  It was a classic place for snorkeling.  There was a protected bay with plenty of shallow water and small fish.  On the hill above the beach we found a shady spot and put towels down and made our base there.  The downsides here was that there wasn't a more open classic sandy beach, it was rocky in most places.  The sun was blaring most of the time. It was a challenge to keep from getting sunburnt.  Ben and Anya both enjoyed playing in the water and exploring for awhile.  Ben got tired of it first.  Luke and Seth got to try out snorkeling borrowing gear from their cousins and Papa.  David's kids all had basic snorkel gear and fins for the fun.

When we finished up it was getting close to 1pm and we were hungry.  We explored on Maps the places nearby but were concerned that parking was going to be a nightmare.  We finally settled on heading to a grocery store in town where we knew it was a big parking lot.  We went inside and just tried to scrounge together a lunch. It worked fairly well.  They had a whole thing of cold cut sandwiches near the entrance which makes me wonder if this is common. WE grabbed what made sense and then made it out to the car.  We decided it was best to just head back to Honolulu to reset and get ready for the evening Luau.  There just wasn't much time to do anything else and the constant traffic was tiresome.

We had hoped to have more time to check out the Ehukai Pillbox Trail where there was a nice hike and some WWII relics. We had also considered riving up Waimea Valley for the scenery and the falls.

The Honolulu traffic was bad as expected coming back into town even at 2:30pm.  We had a little over an hour of time to change clothes and refresh for the evening fun.  The drive from the hotel to the location of our evening Luau was only supposed to be about 45 minutes but it took us an hour and 23.  It was our 3rd long traffic drive of the day and exhausting.  Thankfully the rest of the evening would be a delight.

My aunt Chris planned for our whole group to attend the Mauka Warriors Luau which is at the Coral Crater Adventure Park in Kapolei, HI.  The Luau started at 6pm and we got there around 5:15p for check-in.  Seemed many others were there even earlier.  We entered and all received very nice leis.  The whole area had green astroturf underneath.  There were long tables setup for what looked like 200 people  We each received a pair of drink coupons with the younger ones getting a single coupon for a drink or a snow-cone.  There were activities like hula dancing or fun tattoos, there was Cornhole and ladder toss games and other items to just relax and entertain for the first hour.  Just before 6 they talked about and demonstrated taking the hogs from under the burning sand where they had fired logs.  We wouldn't actually be eating those hogs (though I think they gave some samples).  At 6pm they started dismissing everyone to long buffet lines of all sorta of food for supper.  Pulled pork so amazing, 🍍 too. One of the main emcee's of the night gave a nice prayer including the name of Jesus for the meal.

There was entertainment during and after the meal for the next 2 hours with them presenting Polynesian culture and stories of the warriors and women from the many different island cultures.  One presenter talking about how the cultures used the coconut and he was humorous.  They ended with several performers doing the flame torch juggling and it was quite good.  During the evening they did a nice job of thanking and honoring the military service members present as well as celebrating birthdays and anniversaries.  The whole event had a nice polish and professionalism to it yet was fun and engaging.  It all finished up around 8:45pm.  The drive home was the first drive of the day that went rather smoothly.  Tonight was our last night at the Waikiki Malia so we began the packing for the cruise tomorrow.

SATURDAY JULY 19

I was up early again today still living partly on Michigan time. With first light around 550 I popped up.  I immediately set about to go for a run.  Today I settled on a route that went along the water canal just a block or two from the hotel.  I did a couple out and backs along it for an nice 3 miles. We had a slightly tighter time schedule today so I didn't press it further.

We had an 8am entry reservation at Diamond Head so we left the rooms at 730 to start heading to the vans to leave.  We debated over and over whether to check out of the rooms prior but finally decided we would have enough time to hike Diamond Head and get back with time to spare.  Sarah and Annie decided not to go.  

We got to Diamond Head parking at 753. It was interesting driving through the one-lane tunnel to get into the Crater area.  The entry gate didn't make a big deal we were 7 minutes early.  

Diamond Head Crater Trip Report

At the bottom we were warm and hot and thirsty and they had a shaved ice truck which we got a big shaved ice. 

We were back to the hotel for almost an hour to just settle down and wait for check out. At 1055 we checked out of hotel and loaded the vehicles. We weren't sure if we'd get all of us and luggage into the two vans but we made it.

At 1125 we dropped everyone off at the Pier 2 Cruise Terminal. All the luggage was left with them.  Dad and I drove to a Costco for gas fill up for the vans. Incredibly busy gas station!  We then drove to the car rental return at the airport.  There we ordered an Uber, a nice Korean woman named Grace who did this full-time. She got us timely back to the cruise terminal. 

We made our way through the cruise check-in and got to board the boat around 1pm.  Once on the boat we headed for the Aloha Cafe (the main cafeteria) along with everyone else.  Since nobody's rooms are ready yet and the other restaurants aren't open yet everyone funnels here.  Seating was very difficult to find but we worked it out.  

After lunch we hung out by the pool getting some shade.  Sarah and I were both on the full adult beverage package with the rest of the adults in our group and so we were enjoying regular beverages from the bars.  I was helping the younger boys checking out the athletic activity stuff like basketball and ping pong.  They were also busy and hard to find an opening.  Anya and I tried out the deck chess game and I was able to teach her the pieces and the moves.  The Littles wanted to swim but since our luggage wasn't available yet we couldn't.  A wise father I talked to later said it was an insider tip to pack your swim gear in your backpack so you have it available.

When the luggage did finally arrive to our rooms around 530 we took the Littles swimming.  The pool water was a nice temp and it felt good to cool off in there. It was sunny at first but the shade of the evening sun quickly hit the pool and helped us out.  They had two pools, one larger and just under 5 foot deep, the other small with two sections, one about 4 foot deep, the other about 2 feet deep.  Great for the kids.  We swam til near 7pm when we wanted to get supper and watch the departure from Port.

We found open tables on the back end of Deck 11 just out the back of the Aloha Cafe. It was beautiful to view off the back of the deck as we ate. They had some great blackened tilapia which I paired with rice and a salad for supper.

After supper we walked around a bit and then settled on the Shuffles Game Room on Deck 6.  It used to be a library. We played some board games and I taught Anya checkers and jenga.

We finally hit our rooms around 930 being pretty tired from the long day.

DRINKS TODAY
rum and coke
Blue Hawaiian
Strawberry daiquiri
Rum and coke

SUNDAY JULY 20

For our first morning on the cruise ship I started a routine of getting up around 515.  This was partly due to my being on Michigan time mentally and physically and it didn't seem so early.  I also wanted to get some morning exercise in to take advantage of the time.  I went down to the Promenade Deck (#6) and started running laps.  There were others also getting physical activity in.  There was a sign on the deck giving some measures for the length of a lap, noting about 1800 feet.  This meant every 3 laps was just a hair over a mile.

When I finished the workout my next routine would be to head to the Aloha Buffet to grab some breakfast.  It further became the group custom to take that food and sit in the open air back deck on level 11.  Eventually the whole group began to trickle in to breakfast.

We got off the boat at 8:30 from Deck 3. And we made what turned out to be a fairly lengthy walk to get out to the main street in Kahului. I would say at least 4/10 of a mile. There we went to the parking lot of the Longs Drugs pharmacy and we had six nice rental Jeeps were there waiting for us. It sounded like Aunt Chris had been texting with her contact at the rental with full instructions. We were told the Jeeps had a lock box with keys under the front fender. As we searched the Jeeps for this we kept setting off the car alarms on each Jeeps. The alarms became quite comical as they sounded off in the parking lot. Eventually I found the lock box on one of the Jeeps and I had the keys for all six.

We began the winding road drive to Hana.  I had done no research on the drive so the only thing I knew is we had jeeps rented.  I didn't know if it was dirt road or rough or what.  I had seen the map so I knew the road was a bit windy.  So we found out the road is entirely paved and in mostly good condition.  But it is slow-going and continuously windy.  So much so that we found out what this does to young stomachs the hard way. Ben got sick and before we could do anything, he unloaded his stomach in the backseat.  We pulled over to find ways to clean this up.  We used a lot of our water supply rinsing things out.  After this we started asking Anya how she was and about 20 minutes later, despite our efforts, she also got sick.  More time spent cleaning up the seat.  I would spend the next 5 days of the cruise washing Anya's carseat cover in the shower trying to restore it to an odor-less state.

We made a stop at the Kaumahina State Park Wayside with the other vehicles for bathrooms but there was no potable water there.  They did have a few nice ocean views though. Eventually we made it to Wai'anapanapa State Park which was our key destination.  It is just a mile or two short of Hana.  It hosts the black sands beach.  It is such a popular destination that they do timed entry reservations.  Ours was for 12:30p to 3p.  We were arriving around 1200 so we decided it was good timing to go find some lunch.  There were not many options in Hana.  We found the Hasegawa General Market and bought bread, lunch meat, cheese, chips and drinks.  Things were very pricey in Hana!  

We took our groceries in the car and drove in to the State Park.  Parking was very tight but we found a spot and then a picnic table to eat the lunch we had just purchased.  The picnic area was right next to the parking and just above the beach area so it was all conveniently close together.  After a nice lunch we walked down the staircases to the black sands beach area.  We had heard ahead of time to wear beach shoes or sandles as the sun can really heat up the black sand.  The waves were really coming in to this narrow and protected area of beach.  Several of the older adults in the group spent time out in the water.  It was too much for the little ones to get into more than just their ankles.  We spent an hour or so enjoying this beautiful area.  There was a hiking trail along the side of this protected cove and Seth and I explored it out a quarter mile or more to an elevated area.  There were big waves crashing into rocks and shooting water 30 feet up into the area. 

It was lots of fun at black sands. Only big problem was that the State Park was either under-staffed or under-funded or just under-kept.  The bathrooms were too small for the crowds and out of toilet paper.  As a whole the basic facilities for a park that receives so many visitors were quite subpar.  As 3p neared and our time ended we had a quick debate: do we return to Kahului on the same road or do we drive around the south side of Maui and take in new scenery.  The south side drive was longer mileage-wise but we weren't sure time-wise it would be more than 20-30 minutes longer.  All six jeeps decided on the longer drive.

The first part of the drive south of Hana was just as difficult as the drive-in. It was narrow and very windy. It went through a number of light residential areas that were very tight on the road.  One of the first key sights was Wailua Falls which you pass at a bend in the road.  There was a parking area just after it that we stopped to go back and get photos.  There was a short, perhaps 200 feet, trail from the edge of the road to get close to the pool at the bottom of the falls.

Eventually the drive opened up a little bit with some views of the ocean. They were even some sections where we were kind of on a shelf road with a rock wall to our side. Much of the road was what I would call a very narrow double-track, two cars could very snuggly pass each other.

On the far south side of the island things really opened up to an absolutely amazing set of scenery. The road climbed up to over 2,000 ft and on your left you had views of the beautiful blue ocean and on the right you had prominent views up to the summit of Haleakala. The views of the South slopes were incredible with all the different gullies and the green grass is that dot of the slope. I was jaw-dropped and just couldn't stop being caught in awe of it all.  The prominence of nearly 8000 feet and everything else in the scenery together was just something. When the first part of the road was tough we wondered if it had been a bad idea to go this slightly longer route, but with this section in the views it made the day totally worth it. For me it was possibly the highlight of the day. 

The road did eventually begin to bend to the north as we hit the middle of the island. It was increasingly a more standard two lane road through here and there are plenty of ups and downs. The road topped out at 3,000 ft elevation. The driving in here was much better and allowed us to keep up more good speed. It was scenic for the views to the middle of the island and the west side of Maui.  It was around 6pm when we returned to Kahului.  We had it worked out that the jeeps could be parked in the same parking lot overnight.

Once back on the ship we tried supper at Cadillac Diner but they had an hour wait so we went to the Aloha Cafe and ate on the open back deck. I tried a nice garlic chicken crunch.  After dinner we had a nice swim for kids for about 30 minutes until pool closed at 8p.

DRINKS
rum and coke
Bahama mama
rum and coke

MONDAY JULY 21

Today was the early day.  We got reservations over a month ago to drive up to Haleakala for sunrise.  It's a pretty big deal around here and so they have the reservation system.  Between 330am and 7am only people with the reservation can drive beyond the main gate of the National Park.  Sunrise was officially around 5:53am and Maps was telling us the drive from the terminal up to the top was around 1:15, not including any delays.  

We decided to be up 3am with the hopes of being out to the jeeps around 330am to start driving up.  The drive was all in the dark, obviously.  Traffic never really got bad.  There were maybe 6-7 cars lined up ahead of us at the Park entry, but they kept it moving.  The road up high was fairly typical of any other mountain road and well paved.  A number of switchbacks the highest ones with a fair bit of exposure and no guard rail.

We arrived at the Visitor Center parking at 5:03am and the lot was maybe 2/3 full already.  It was 46°.  We had heard about the cold ahead of time and so came prepared with extra layers.  Of course it was pretty much the only time this whole trip we used them.  We were glad we got there that early because within about 5 minutes the pre-dawn colors were already hitting the horizon and the 45 minutes or so leading up to the actual sunrise were well worth it.  From the main parking there is a hike up to a hill just above the VC that takes about 5-10 mins.  I carried Anya and we went up there and much of the family eventually followed.  There was a great set of clouds below the summit and they helped to add to the view.  All of it was worth it, so pretty and so difficult to really capture it all on just a smartphone camera. 

We stayed up there taking in the views til about 630 and then began to make plans for what was next.  David, Milo, Luke, Seth and myself were seeking to stay and hike.  Sarah and the Littles hopped in Dad's jeep.  The others would head back to the ship and decide what they wanted.

I had been planning the hike from atop Haleakala for sometime.  I knew of a classic route that was on the Sliding Sands Trail that left from the Visitor Center.  This particular route could be an 11-mile hike with about 2000 feet elevation gain. It would end at the Halemau'u Trailhead which was 6 miles down the road from the top.  Sometime in the weeks leading up to the trip I realized this would probably just be too much of an ask for our family trip so I downgraded the plans a bit.  I decided we would just do an out-and-back on the Sliding Sands for as far as we wanted.  This would ease the vehicle question.

Haleakala Sliding Sands Trip Report

At the end of the hike we spent some time in the Visitor Center.  Now that the sunrise crowd had left it was much less crowded.  We also drove up the road just a bit to the true summit where there was another viewing area.  This was worth it because you got views to the south to the ocean.  There was something impressive about the "summit to sea" view of being 10,000 feet and looking down to zero.

It was already a wonderful day from the sunrise to the hike to the summit. It was an instant falling in love with Haleakala National Park.  We could see there were other trails that traversed the Crater area and opportunities for more hikes.  This would be high on the list of places to return to for adventure.  

Our fun continues on the drive down.  With the rental jeep it was time to open up the top sun roof windows and to enjoy the drive down the mountain.  We were soaking up the fresh air and the views the whole way.  Even the drive was rich with unique views of coming down from on top the cloud deck and viewing Kahului and the base of the island from so high up.  We drove through the cloud layer around 5000 feet.

It was 11am when we got back to Kahului. We headed for the ship and again tried the Cadillac Diner but it was busy as usual. We waited til noon for the Aloha Cafe to open and got a big lunch.  In the afternoon the Wachtels drove to West Maui and the town of Lahaina which had been hit by the bad fires a few years back.  David's family joined them for some brief touring and shopping.  Our family was just tired of the drives and wanted to relax on ship.  In mid-afternoon Sarah took Annie and Anya to a lei-making class and that seemed to be a lot of fun for them.

When David's group returned from Lahaina Dad and I left the ship again to meet them out in the shopping center parking to finalize the jeeps.  It was our return time and we needed to get our stuff out and return the keys.  We filled them with gas and there was a lockbox in David's jeep we used for the keys.  With the rest of the afternoon there was some good pool time for the kiddos again.

We did supper with the bigger group in Skyline. I had French onion soup with a BBQ medley, chicken, ribs, brat and a Chocolate s'mores dessert.  Sarah, Annie, Luke, Seth went to a show called "Not So NewlyWed Trivia" I went back to the room with the Littles. I basically crashed at like 830 with littles. Both fell asleep with me. Luke carried Anya to the girls room later.  From the early morning and a big of jet lag I was done.

DRINKS
rum and coke
Mai tai
Blue Hawaiian
Mango meltdown
Rum and coke

TUESDAY JULY 22

Another day, another 515 wakeup to run laps on the deck.  As I ran today I got some nice views of Mauna Kea as we entered port at Hilo.  

Today was a single day at Hilo and we had vehicles rented just for the day out of Hilo airport.  Dad, David and I did an Uber to the airport and talked to a nice guy who gave us all sorts of good info on the island.  We each got our mid-size vehicles and headed back to port to pick everyone up.

The main plan for today was to use the vehicles to drive up to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  If there was extra time we would consider other options, possibly a drive up to the visitor center area on Mauna Kea at 9000 feet.

We got into the park around 10am.  The main visitor center was under construction as was some of the drive, this led to some congestion and parking issues.  Just a short drive west on the Crater Rim Drive West we stopped at the Steam Vents. Here we got our first wide view of the Kilauea Crater.  There was some signage referencing 2018 and the collapse of a massive part of the crater.  I have been trying to understand just what all that meant.  I remember hearing news stories of lava flows that flowed out of the park and  hit some communities.  In fact it seems Kilauea is responsible for almost all of the lava flow activity in the past 100 years in the park including the one we saw in 2003.  

I had the mistaken impression that we had come into the park from the west and saw lava flow blocking a park of the west portion of the park that year.  That was wrong.  I investigated my photos from 2003 and saw that we made it to the Kilauea viewing as well as the Thurston/Nahuku Lava Tube.  The flow blocking the road was somewhere along the Chain of Craters Road. 

For today the viewing from the Steam Vents only revealed some smoke/steam coming up from the Halema'uma'u Crater which is the most active area.  We drove on to the Uekahuna overlook which is the closest and took in some more views there.  It had parts under construction as they expand and update the park.  

We decided to do the Chain of Craters Road for the next couple hours and this meant finding lunch first.  Food options were limited.  We drove back to the Welcome Center which was temporarily located in an old military housing complex.  There we found a general store which had enough foods and microwave to put together a lunch.  While we sat outside and ate a gentleman and his wife came up recognizing Dad's Concordia Chicago hat.  We got talking and turned out he was also an LCMS pastor from Idaho.  We hat a nice chat with them.  Later in the day he e-mailed some pictures of our ship in Hilo.  It was then we learned it was Tim Pauls.  I knew his name from when he and a Pastor McCoy ran the scholia.net website.  What a small world!

After lunch we started our way down the Chain of Craters Road.  I believe the NPS signage says 2-3 hours at least.  We figured we could do it faster as the road is only like 20 miles.  We also had a time deadline today. We had to be returning the rental cars by 5pm and even more importantly, deadline to be back on the ship was 530p for a 6p departure from Hilo.

We made several stops at various basic Crater overlooks.  We wanted to stop at the Nahuku Lava Tube but there was no available parking.  The first great stop was at the sign for the July 1974 Lava Flow just before hitting the Halamanu Crater.  We got out and just walked and explored here.

1974 Lava Flow Trip Report

The next big stop was at Maunaulu. It was a big parking area with pit toilets and another large lava flow area to walk out and explore. After this we began to see that time would run short on us.  So we started skipping some of the simple Crater stops.  At on are we drove through another old lava flow area, this was now just a half dozen miles from the bottom, I wonder if this was the area we saw in 2003.  Our last stop before the bottom was a beautiful overlook blending volcanic terrain and the ocean at Kealakomo.  Here we decided between driving to the bottom to the Sea Arch or heading back up to try and do the Lava Tube, if parking allowed.  We decided on the Sea Arch. The road descends 1500 in the last couple miles to get down to the coast.   We stopped to see the Hōlei Sea Arch.  It was a parking area with a near half mile walk to the viewing area for the Arch.

From here we began to make the swift drive back out of the parking and back to Hilo.  We had time to spare but we also wanted to keep that buffer.  It was 413p when we made it back to the dropoff area at the ship.  I dropped my group and then headed to an Aloha Mart on the way to the airport.  It was 436p when I got my rental return with Dad and David following shortly after.  We called for an Uber at Hilo airport and it was 506p when we got dropped back at the ship, 24 minutes to spare.  Cutting it close!

We immediately headed to supper with the big group in the Skyline Dining Room.  I had two bowls of French onion soup and the brisket supper.  After supper we hit Trivia in the Gold Rush Saloon with everyone which was lots of fun.  We then did the 830 comedy show in the theater with Mike Burton and then for me it was off to bed about 945p.  Not a late night but a good full day.

DRINKS
6X Rum and coke

WEDNESDAY JULY 23

As usual, I was up about 5:15 this morning and I got ready to go running.  I got in another 18 laps today for about 6 miles.  My last 8 laps were cut a little short.  They blocked off a section of the deck to get some of the emergency boats down to be used for tendering to shore.  I worked around this to complete my running for the morning.  I got breakfast myself and then showered and helped the other start to get ready.  It was around 8am when almost everyone else was on the back deck eating breakfast.

Today was our first and only day tender shipping to shore.  Kona must not have a deepwater port for Cruise boats and so the ship stopped a couple hundred yards off shore.  Each tender boat held 97 people and it looked like they were loading 2 at a time and running four.  With a rush of people wanting to get off first and for excursions they used a free ticket system to space out how quickly people lined up. It was basically a timed reservation system.  The tickets had numbers for groups on them and they would call out when each group was ready.  We weren't in a hurry and so I grabbed tickets for one of the last groups.  They thought around 10:30am the rush would be over and they would move to "open tender" with not tickets.

We were ready and lined up around 930, possibly before our group was called, but nobody checked our tickets and we waited in line maybe 20 minutes to board a tender boat and then head to shore.  It was a short 5 minute or so little ride.  Quite hot and stuffy on the tender boat!

It was 10am when we got dropped at Kailua Pier.  Our hope was to catch the Trolley bus and take it down to Magic Sands beach.  We had read good things for this beach and it seemed a fun destination for the day.  As we gathered our stuff we noticed a trolley just go by.  We did some more asking about and research and it appeared that it only came by once an hour and when it did come by this time, it looked near full.  Our group of 15 was going to have a very hard time with this.  I talked to some people at an information desk and they noted that many of Kona's beaches are fairly rocky and not many great for small kids.  We took all this info in stride.  Do we still try to figure out the trolley?  Do we just Uber everyone to the Magic Sands Beach.  Or do we call an audible?  Right there at the pier was the Kamalahonu Beach, close and accessible.  It was in a protected cove with minimal waves and looked great for the kids.  We decided to go for this, and it turned out great.

I checked it out first myself.  As I did so I made a little goof.  I saw a couple rows of umbrellas setup and not all were in use.  I mistakenly thought these were communal and began to open an umbrella.  A gentleman came up and said "Hey, I'd be happy to rent this to you for the day..."  and it was evident they had a business running these umbrellas.  $49/day for the umbrella and two chairs. 

We eventually got the whole group to the beach and found it a wonderful area for swimming and snorkeling. We did end up renting an umbrella to give us a shady base for everybody and it was the right idea.  The business was Kona Boys and they also rented kayaks and stand-up paddle boards. I decided this was the perfect time to try SUP.  $29/hour.  I gave it a go.  It was more of a challenge that I thought at first to stand on the board.  Going up on my knees and paddling went much easier.  I think learning on somewhat rolling waters was a tough way to go.  Eventually I gained some balance and comfort and took the SUP all around the protected cove and even into the slightly bigger waves in open waters.  Luke and Milo also took turns trying out the SUP before the hour was up.

It was just before 2pm before we all started making our way back onto the ship for lunch.  It was a late lunch but everyone had enjoyed the beach so much there wasn't a rush to leave.  Anya and Etta each played so well together.

We did a late lunch at the Cadillac Diner.  We spent much of the rest of the afternoon at the basketball court on ship.  Luke, Seth and Milo played with some other boys at first.  Then there was a dodgeball tournament from 3-4 which gathered more and more kids.  After that Luke, Seth and I played basketball against a Dad and his 3 smaller boys.  We had the size, they had some good shooting.  It was evident the Dad had been coaching the boys well, we had a good time playing ball with them all.

From 6-7 we relaxed in the rooms and I went up deck to get a little bit of work done on my Chromebook for the first time all trip.  At 7pm we did a family photo on the fancy stairs between Deck 5 and 6.  We grabbed supper in the Aloha tonight and then tried to get into Trivia in the Gold Rush Saloon with the Wachtels but found no open seating.  With just our small family group we shifted to playing Euchre on the pool deck and enjoying the fresh air til bedtime.

TODAY'S DRINKS
Mimosa
Rum and Coke
Strawberry daiquiri
3x Rum and coke

THURSDAY JULY 24

We came into port on Kauai this morning.  It is the most remote of the Hawaiian Islands and from our visit it was also one of the most unique.  It felt more like "island life" than the big city life of most of Oahu.  The scenery was instantly beautiful as we pulled into the very small port at Lihue. 

As usual I was up early and running my laps on the Promenade Deck.  This is always a great way to enjoy the coming into port while also getting the exercise.  I had breakfast and eventually met up with Dad and David so we could make our way to the airport.  Today was fortunate in that David had rented with Avis and upon dismebarking from the ship we saw Avis had a shuttle van picking people up at port.  They were checking for reservations so not just anyone could hitch a ride to the rental center.  Dad and I were able to hop on the shuttle with David as his passengers.  They did warn at the end of the day when things got crowded that it would likely be drivers only on the return trip. The rental was at Lihue Airport and Dad and I were able to walk from the Avis stop to Alamo which were only a quarter mile apart.  We all had mid-size cars today.  I drove a really nice Kia.

We took the cars back to the cruise terminal and picked up the rest of the group.  Today's target was Waimea Canyon State Park. It was towards the west side of the island but only a 40 minute drive or so. We had read reports that one of the main overlooks was closed (as of only a week ago) for renovations for several months.  They also warned of road construction and traffic.  This gave us some trepidation about how the Park visit would work out but we decided to go for it.   The drive over was a nice taste of the Kauai scenery.  A mix of jagged ridges and ocean views.

From the town of Waimea the Canyon Drive starts to ascend up a ridge and for the most part the drive sticks to the ridge for the first several miles of the park.  There was never an entry gate or any fee station on the road itself.  We stopped at several overlooks enjoying the every increasing wonder of the canyon scenery.  Some overlooks had more space than others and if the day were particularly crowded this could become a very difficult visit.  The only traffic we hit was at 3 short road construction areas where they had the road to a single-lane.

The first key location and highlight was the "Iliau and Kukui" stop as noted on Google Maps. It had very minimal parking and we parked on a dirt shoulder barely getting off the road. We saw trails leading from an initial overlook and walked t hem to an even better look of the grandeur of the canyon.  I remarked the views from here were nearly as majestic as those at Zion National Park.  It was that good.  It sounds like from some reviews there might be trails from this location down into the canyon.  We could never find a full park map before our visit so it was hard to tell about anything other than what Google Maps showed.

The main overlook that was closed was a mile and a half up the road from Iliau and Kukui. Its noted on Google Maps as "Waimea Canyon Lookout".  It does have its own paved drive with parking and public restrooms.  You can tell from other public photos that this lookout is certainly a good one giving one of the biggest and broadest views of Waimea Canyon. 

Our next target was the Pu'u Ka Pele Lookout. It was just another mile or so down the road.  It has a grassy parking area on the west side of the road and also includes a picnic area and some bathrooms.  Not to mention several families of chickens with small chicks.  We saw one mother hen with 10 chicks in tow and one of the boys remarked "Look, its a 10-piece chicken nuggets to go!".

The next stop was the Pu'u Hinahina Lookout.  It is one of the other major lookouts in the park. Another full paved parking area and some trails breaking off from it.  This parking did have a parking kiosk to pay for the day-use parking.  We understood this parking paid was good for the whole park and all overlooks for the day.  They asked $10/vehicle plus $5/ person with it.  You could do this electronically at the kiosk and w/ credit card.  The Waimea Canyon Trail heads out from this overlook we made plans to come back for it on our drive out from the park. 

Our final plans for the drive were to head out to the last two overlooks, the Kalalau Lookout and the Pu'u O Kila Lookout. We hadn't realized til that monent that the park doesn't just give you Waimea Canyon but also has views to the Na Pali (western) coast of Kauai.  This excited us and we couldn't wait to get out there.

We had wanted to hike the Kalalau Trail (part of it) on this trip but found that the reservation system controlling the State Park and Trailhead was already booked up and so we missed out on that opportunity. 

When we arrived at the Kalalalu lookout we were doubly disappointed.  The road beyond was closed so we couldn't even go to the Pu'u O Kila and the west coast was all shrouded in clouds.  You couldn't see a thing of the beautiful scenery of the coast.  We were left with just the public photos shared on Google Maps from others to get a sense of what we could have been seeing behind the clouds.  A future dream would be to not only hike the Kalalau but to look into a helicopter tour or boat tour of the Na Pali coast to see all its grandeur.

Here at the end of the road we made our next plans to hike.  Luke, Seth, David, Milo and I all piled into my Kia rental while all the others made plans to drive out of the park back into Waimea.  We headed back to the Pu'u Hinahina Lookout for a short hike on the Waimea Canyon Trail.  The hope was for 2-4 miles of a simple out and back.

Pu'u Hinahina Trail Trip Report

After our hike we made a beeline out to Waimea to join the others for lunch. We were hearing good reports over text message of the fish taco place they were eating at.  They found a place just around the corner from the Canyon Road called Island Tacos.  They were finishing up when we arrived.  I tried their mahi mahi taco and it was great.  Next door they had a t-shirt shop and I found a hilarious shirt mimicking the Jurassic Park logo only it had a chicken in place of the t-rex and said "Kauai" on it.  It was great and I grabbed it.  I would get several comments about it over the next few days on the cruise ship.

On the drive back David's car wanted to spend time at Poipu Beach for more swimming.  We decided to stop in just to see it.  There were reports that you would occasionally see sea turtles there.  We drove in and found it to be a fairly luxurious and popular area.  It was a great beach with a nice semi-protected area for kids swimming.  I read later that it was rated a top 10 beach in all of Hawaii.  We spent 10 minutes there checking it out with plans to return tomorrow.

From there we headed back to the ship and dropped everyone off at the port.  Dad and I figured out the overnight parking for our vehicles.  A nearby shopping center, Anchor Cove, offered up overnight parking.  For $20 they would let you use a grassy lot across the street.  They gave a parking pass to put in the front window.  There was some parking along the street between this place and the port but it quickly filled with all the other cruise individuals renting cars.

When we were settled on the ship again I went to the pool area to grab a drink and I noticed that the kids side of the pool happened to be in the shade.  That was just what we wanted!  I went and grabbed the kids and we hoped in the pool.  Eventually almost our entire group including Mom and Dad joined in the pool and we had fun for several hours.  This was one of the finer moments of the whole trip enjoying the swimming and some drinks in the pool.  I spent a fair amount of time with Anya trying to teach her to swim.

All of the pool fun put us late for supper.  It was after 8pm when we decided to hit the Cadillac Dinner.  It was our immediate family plus David's boys who all ate together.  We closed out the evening attending the Mike Burton adult comedy show in the theater.

TODAY'S DRINKS
2x  Captain and coke
2x Blue Hawaiian
Bahama mama
Captain and coke

FRIDAY JULY 25

I was up 545 today and decided on an easier run.  I opted for 2 laps easy running with 1 lap walking and I would do 4 miles.  Seth eventually joined me for his own run.  About a mile in it dawned on me we could have gotten off the ship and run in town but that was okay.  

When we finished our morning workout we did breakfast as usual.  I was eventually joined by others and we took the morning without haste.  As 9am neared we started to get ready to head out for our day's adventure.  The plan was to hit the beaches.  We were deciding between Poipu Beach on the south coast or Lydgate on the East Coast.  We were coupling this with a quick trip to see Wailua Falls.  With Lydgate being closer we finally decided on it.

We left the boat around 930am and Dad, David, and I walked up street to pickup the vehicles from their overnight parking.  We all made the drives up to Wailua Falls.  It took us a little more into the interior of Kauai and the scenery was beautiful. I remarked I wish I could get up on a platform or a hilltop to take in the 360 views.  Kauai certainly topped the list with the geographic scenery.

Wailua Falls:  The Falls were a simple 20-minute drive in the pier. A nice somewhat scenic road took us in there. There's a small parking area right next to the viewpoint for the Falls. The Falls were quite nice and scenic, that was about it.

From the falls we made the 20 minute drive to Lydgate Beach Park.  One nice thing about Kauai is it really isn't very big and easy to get from place to place as nothing is very far.  At Lydgate Beach Park we found a nice set of picnic tables under a shade tree. It made for a great base for our time here. Their werey great waves and a wonderful sandy beach right next to our table. It made it hard for the smaller ones to get in and swim in this spot. But they enjoyed playing with some deadwood on the beach in which someone had started to make a hut. The Littles with some help from Seth got a roof on the hut and they enjoyed decorating the inside. It was quite fun for them. 

About 200 yards down the beach from us was a protected cove with smooth water for everyone to swim in. Almost everyone eventually migrated down that way. There's also been snorkeling in there with lots of small fish to check out.  It was a great group time there and we probably spent nearly 3 hours there.

As 2pm neared we finally decided it was time for lunch and opted to head back to the boat.  We drove back and I found parking along the street this time.  We got onboard and decided on Cadillac Diner one more time.  I went with the wings again and had more pretzel bites.

As we ate 3pm began to near and Dad, David, and I made plans to head to the rental car return which was due by 3:30pm.  We started to get off board.  We made it out to the vehicles when Dad realized he had forgotten his car keys on the ship.  David quickly ran back up to get them.  I went ahead and did a gas fill up and made to the rental return.  Dad eventually made it though he was late for the 330time.

We were pleased to find that Alamo did run one of its shuttles to the Ship Pier.  Not sure if this was the case in the mornings for pickup as well.  We had to wait about 20-30 minutes while many of their airport shuttles kept cycling through.  Eventually the one shuttle that hits the Pier came and Dad and I rode it back.  David had rented through Avis and he had already made it.

When I got onboard I grabbed some drinks and then met Dad and some of the Wachtels in the Gold Rush Saloon to talk plans for tomorrow.  The Wachtels had decided to get day passes at the Hilton Hotel Resort.  It would give them a place to spend the day, stow luggage, and have something to do.  We debated joining them and would talk about it well into supper. We think the cost would have averaged about $65/person.

For supper Mom requested we all eat together one more time in the Skyline restaurant at 530pm with the Wachtels.  It made for an early supper after a late lunch but it worked out.  I tried the New York Strip Steak with another bowl of French onion soup.  I had a great chocolate lava cake for dessert.

After dinner we spent time in the shops to use up our remaining onboard credit.  Up to this point we had only used about $45 and that was essentially port taxes on drinks.  We were able to get a little something for almost everybody in the shops.  A dress and stuffy for Anya. A stuffy for Ben.  Shirt for Seth. A few small items for Luke. I  grabbed a pair of water shoes.

After the shopping we spent the next 2 hours packing, checking in for our flights, and getting our luggage ready by 10pm.  We were able to use the onboard WIFI for the flight check-ins.  We got luggage tags for 8:10am.  We are hoping to get breakfast in the morning before getting off.  Packing like this is always a challenge, especially with the kids.  You want to get as much in the suitcase as possible but you have to figure out what you need for the night and the morning.  

When all was finished and quiet I took a walk on the upper sun deck.  It was breezy but beautiful.  Something surreal about looking out into the dark ocean at night and seeing the skies full of stars.  Its especially true when you're out the middle of the massive Pacific with only the little Hawaiian Islands nearby.  In the distance to the east I could see the light of Oahu.  After my own time up top I went back to the room and Ben wanted to see the stars so I repeated the adventure with him.

SATURDAY JULY 26

I started the long day getting up early one more time with a 530 start.  I had given thought to running but decided in the end to walk.  I didn't want to have sweaty running clothes to pack.  I was glad I made this choice.  They already had a section of Deck 6 closed to get ready for the disembark so I wouldn't have been doing complete laps anyways.  I did walk 9 laps and get 3 miles in while watching the approach to Honolulu.  When I finished I went up to the SunDeck to watch more of the ship coming into port.  I eventually ran into David up there.

We headed to breakfast at 645 and found Milo.  Being the last morning breakfast was fairly crowded, not quite as bad as the first day's lunch, but close.  

At close to 8am we heard our red color announced and we got in a hurry to get off the ship. Dad and Megan and I went down first so we could get off and head for the rentals. The others were probably 10 to 15 minutes behind us. The baggage was already in the main room of the cruise terminal.  The bags just get lined up in long rows in the large room. 

The lines outside for Uber and Lyft were crazy and so we ended up getting in the much faster moving taxi line and rode the taxi over to the rental car. It was probably a little more expensive but it turned out to be more timely and efficient. 

The rental pickup at Alamo went smoothly and we were able to get a Corolla and Dad was able to get the 15 passenger van (Ford Transit). The van looked like one of those mini tour vans. It had practically zero luggage space. We filled up the back seat with luggage. We lost four seats doing that. 

Once loaded we drove by the Iolani Palace and the Statue of King Kamehameha in Honolulu and then we drove out to Pearl Harbor. Some of the group did the Pacific submarine museum and the USS Bowfin and the rest of us just walked around the park sticking to the shade.

Annie's grandfather had served at Pearl and so we wanted to go by the Wickfam Field Gate and get a picture of the sign.  We did some poking around on Google Maps to see if this would work. 

After our time at Pearl we got over to the H3 highway and made the scenic drive over to Kaneohe. It was a nice drive especially once over the pass and the views to Kaneohe and its bay coe into view, very pretty area with great color in the ocean and lots of little islands. I found a Hawaiian BBQ place over there for lunch.  It was a local franchise restaraunt called L&L Hawaiian BBQ.  They had a massive menu and lots of selections.  I tried a salmon burger.  

From lunch we decided to drive down to Makapu'u Point where there was a nice lookout and an easy hiking trail up to the Point and the Lighthouse.  There was some traffic heading south on the drive, it took about 38 minutes from downtown Kaneohe.  

There were tons of people at the beaches along the way. We drove by the Waimanalo Beach which looked gorgeous. 

The Lookout at Makapu'u had some classic views of the beaches and Kaneohe.  We stopped there a few minutes and then drove up the road to the parking for the Lighthouse trail.  The lot was full but there was parking along the short drive.  We had read ahead of time there was no shade in this area so some of our group opted to stay by the van while the others hiked. 

Makapu'u Point Trail Trip Report

When we finished up the hike it was time to begin the trek back to the airport.  We debated driving back on the coast along the south side of taking one of the mountain drives.  We opted on the mountain drive.  We routed up to the Nu'uanu Pali Lookout and stopped there for a few minutes.  It had beautiful views to the east over Kaneohe.  The drive down was short and next thing we knew we were in Honolulu again.  Some of these drives, when the traffic is light, remind you how small the island is.  Nothing seems that far away.

We filled up the big van at Costco Gas and then headed for the airport.  We met up with Megan and the Corolla at departures and unloaded all the luggage.  Dad and I took both vehicles back to the rental return and then walk back to the terminal.  Everything was fairly close together at HNL. 

Before we could get the big bags into the check-in terminal they had to go through a USDA Agricilture scanner and get tagged.

Security was a bit of a mess. They put us in a child friendly line which hardly helped. They gave Sarah all sorts of trouble with her backpack. We also met an SWA flight attendance and her son and they also had all sorts of trouble getting through.  Somewhat ironically, that same flight attendant would be on our flight to PHX.  She was really quite nice and helpful on our flight.

Once at the gates we saw the Wachtels again and sat and visited with David's group. All had flights within 10 mins of each other leaving around 9pm HNL time.

The food prices were out of this world in HNL, even by airport standards. $22 for a Burger King combo. I ate at California Pizza kitchen and got 2 cheese for $19 each. By comparison I would get food at the Billy Goat Tavern at MDW for $10.59 for a beef & sausage combo.

Flight Itinerary
9:00p to 6:05a PHX (3027)
8:55a PHX to 2:20p MDW (3318)
3:50p MDW to 6:00p DTW (3719)

SUNDAY JULY 27

For the long HNL to PHX flight we sat Annie, Luke, Seth and then Sarah, Ben, Mark and then Mom, Anya, Dad.  The main goal was for everybody to sleep.  David's group was flying into LAX.  The Wachtel's were flying into LAS. 

I stayed awake long enough for the drink orders to come in and then tried to sleep.  I brought a long the head pillow to help.  This mostly worked.  I think I got maybe 2, 2 1/2 hours of sleep until around 12:45am. The full cabin lights came on and they asked if any medical professionals onboard. Seemed 3 different people answered the call to the back of the plane.  Someone was having an undisclosed medical issue.

I didn't really fall asleep again after that, stayed up and watched more Dune 2 for the duration of the flight.  They asked folks to stay put at PHX as paramedics would come on to assist individual with medical issue.  It looked like we were almost 40 mins early to PHX.

At PHX I toured the terminals and walked for about 35 minutes or get a start on my steps for the day.  They have big long walkways there at Sky Harbor.  We had a 3 1/2 hour layover there so plenty of time to kill before the end.  Mom and Dad went out and bought some breakfast.  Most of the rest of us just snacked.  With the long travel and changing time zones we really didn't know what meal to eat at any point today.

We left PHX nicely on time.  For the 2nd flight of the day we sat Sarah, Anya, Ben and then Luke, Annie, Seth, and then Me, Mom, Dad.  Anya and Ben both wanted Sarah for this flight.  In flight I finally finished Dune 2.  The first two movies were quite interesting with lots of good storytelling and visuals.  I finished the flight watching a documentary on Remembering Pearl Harbor.

At the end of the flight Ben was crying and we just couldn't figure him out.  Maybe it was the ears, maybe he was overly exhausted.  When the flight landed and we were waiting to deplane it became evident he needed a bathroom break so I rushed him to the rear lavatory.  People were very helpful to clear a path for me.

We arrived at MDW a few minutes early which was nice as we only had a 90 minute layover here.  The gates were very crowded so we sat along the window wall and put bags down.  We set about for food right away.  I made the walk from 'B' over to 'A' to hit the Billy Goat Tavern.  I got hot dogs for the Littles and beef sandwiches for Sarah and I.  By airport standards their prices were relatively decent.  

Ben was not feeling well at the gate and didn't eat.  I wondered if he was also a bit dehydrated and was pushing water.  He seemed to have a fever and so Sarah went to a store and found children's Tylenol.  In a rare event, we got A 16 for check-in for this flight.  When we checked in for the HNL flight we must have been one of the earliest to also get this later DTW flight.

We used this opportunity to get rows together a little closer to the front of the plane.  In flight to DTW I was continuing to get Ben to drink and he perked up a little bit to play math games on his phone.  

Thankfully we arrived at DTW on time and we had Jonah and Caleb arriving there to pick us up.  It was great help from the boys to give us rides both directions to make this work.  We finally made it home 7:30pm.

POSTSCRIPT

About 3 days after we got home there was a massive 8.8 earthquake in Kamchatka Russia that triggered Tsunami warnings for Hawaii and much of the Pacific.  It appears most of Hawaii got 3-6 foot surges and the damage wasn't quite as bad as it could have been.  We were fortunate to be home and not there while it happened.  I think it was July 20, a couple days after we got there that a Tsunami watch was issued because of a relatively smaller earthquake out of Russia, and nothing at all came of that while we were there.  In the days that followed major news outlets noted that the NCL Pride of America, our very ship, had left a couple hundred passengers in Hilo. They were on excursions and couldn't get back to port early when the POA was ordered by port authorities to leave  early due to the Tsunami warning.  Certainly  the ship had to do what was necessary for safety and being at sea was the safest.  It sounded like many passengers ended up sleeping on a high school gym floor.  There was debate whether NCL did enough (or anything) to assist passengers that night.  Sounded like the next day the stranded passengers were picked up when the ship was able to return safely to port.  We were fortunate to be on the week before this!