Honolulu-Last Day on the Islands

We hopped off the ship, grabbed a taxi, and headed out to visit Pearl Harbor. The ride cost four times what a lyft cost. One of the seatbelts wouldn't buckle, the driver barely acknowledged us, and the ride caused us all to be motion sick. We decided taxis are not the way to go, but we did arrive safely.

We spent several hours at Pearl Harbor. I walked away deeply saddened. At what point is humanity going to stop throwing away the lives of our boys to settle political matters? Visiting the mass grave of victims of war left me with more questions than answers. Wars have been fought for millennia, but do we have to keep doing it? I'm not questioning the necessity of the US entering WWII, I was just left questioning why societies offer our youth as a sacrifice to their need for more power. 

The memorial is beautiful and important. It's also gut wrenching.

We were able to visit the USS Arizona. Standing in the memorial I watched people snap pictures and exclaim over the bits of the ship still visible in the water. All I could think was we are standing on the grave of  almost 2000 teenagers. Those poor babies and their poor families. 

We left the memorial, a little more knowledgeable, and a lot more solemn.

We headed back to the ship to grab lunch and maybe a quick nap.

After eating, a couple members of our party wanted to go back out. This led all of us to manning up and donning our swimsuits.

We ordered a lyft and headed to Waikiki. Alexis wanted to stop at the Lego store for some mini figures and Becca headed across the street to the famous beach. 

I did pause to snap a picture of this mosaic in the mall. Look at that beautiful chicken! After our quick stop at the worlds largest outdoor mall to visit the Lego store, the rest of us crossed the street and ended up here.

The beach and park were stunning. I'm used to parks being along rivers or maybe even a pond. My Idaho brain found it almost implausible that a public park was along the beach!

We did a little swimming, but the beach was rocky and the sand a little rough. The further out into the water, though, the smoother the sand, and you could wade out forever before the water got deep. We had a lot of fun just swimming and reading.

I, of course, took more pictures of plant life. Banyan trees are amazing!

And of course, more chickens. There aren't as many chickens in Honolulu as we saw on the other islands, but there were still around.

After heading back to the ship to rinse off the beach, we walked down to a luau that we had purchased tickets for.

We made leis and leaf head bands, played with rhythm instruments, learned a couple dance steps, and then we ate. The food was amazing. The fruit was tender, the roll was soft (and also purple inside), and the dessert was amazing. We ate our fill and then sat back and watched the show.

It was very hard to get good pictures of the show, but it was beautiful. Watching professionals hula is amazing, add a Hawaiian sunset in the background, and you have an ideal evening.

The show ended with a fire dance, and we slowly headed back to the ship. We were exhausted, but happy.

We found two little ducks hiding in a stairwell on our way to our room, and Alexis set them out so a child could find them.

We then crawled into our ever-loving chicken filled beds and slept the sleep of the exhausted.

Kauai

Before heading to Kauai we learned a little about the island. For many years it was home to  endangered jungle fowl. In 1992 a hurricane came down the middle of the island, leaving mass destruction behind. The entire island was without power for three months, and rebuilding took years. During that time, people were not very concerned about their backyard chickens and many disappeared. Turns out the chickens were living wild and breeding with the jungle fowl. Now the island is covered with chicken/jungle fowl hybrids that are protected, as it's impossible to determine which is which. Warning: there a lot of chicken pictures coming up.

The day dawned, we woke up, got our stuff together and quickly caught the shuttle to another car rental desk. Twenty minutes later we were driving around the most scenic place I have ever been. And it was full of little chickens. We just spent the day enjoying the sights.

He was waiting for everyone to get off the ship

Hard to see, but at least a dozen chickens running around the field during a soccer game.

A stop for coffee, shave ice, and bathroom. Plus chickens.


We did not feed the chickens


The views were awe inspiring. Several movies have been filmed on this island. No surprise there.


The lighthouse was closed, but we still enjoyed the view.


And I took a picture of something besides chickens. These are Nae Nae Geese, and they only live in Hawaii. See, not chickens.


The drive home was breathtaking.





We stopped at a gorgeous beach. The waves were too rough for swimming but the surfers seemed pretty happy.







We had a little time before we needed to head back to the ship. and we had a car, so once again we headed to Walmart.

Walmart chickens

Second Walmart of the trip. My mouth is smiling but my eyes show the real story. My soul has died, and Walmart is holding the weapon.

We returned the car and headed back to the ship to rest. Three days of non stop tourism was exhausting, and we still had one day to go.

Maui

Day Two of Hawaii found us in Maui. We watched the beautiful sunrise, grabbed our purses, hats, snorkel gear, and reef safe sunblock. We were ready for our next adventure. 

We started by walking to the bus stop, taking the bus to the airport shuttle, then getting on the shuttle that took us to the car rental counter. 45 minutes are we got off the ship, we were driving around the island. 

Becca had found a beach called Charlie Allen that was fantastic. It was a smaller beach, and therefore less crowded.

The sand felt like sugar, and we could snorkel right at the tide line. This is when we discovered that snorkeling made Alexis very, very nervous. She did persist and spent a good ten minutes snorkeling, before deciding there were other things to do. I enjoyed snorkeling until the waves started pushing me closer to the rocks. I was trying to swim backwards, as I didn't want to disturb the sea life. Alas, the waves won and I ended up stepping on a sea urchin. The urchin was fine, but left me with a throbbing toe. The purple dots eventually faded, my toe is still attached, and I did not gain superpowers.

We spent the rest of the morning enjoying the warm ocean and velvet sand.

We did eventually get hungry, so we headed out looking for food.

We had to grab some shave ice, as we were in Hawaii. It was soft as snow.

Apparently, the chicken also gets hungry. We did not feed this chicken, or any other, despite their cuteness.

 

After swimming and eating, we did a little bit of shopping in an outdoor market.

It was a beautiful area.

There were beautiful koi,

and lots, and lots of

chickens.

We smuggled a couple fluffy guys home with us. But we did not feed them. We are good tourists.