Honolulu to Lahaina

 The dinner cruises depart Aloha Tower

 The famous King Kamehameha Statue

 Iolani Palace, now a museum

Approaching the Arizona Memorial

 The aft gun turret base, still smelling of oil seeping

Inside the memorial

Hawaii state capitol building

Queen Iolani statue

Departing Honolulu for Hilo

Daimond head in the background

Fireboats greeting us in Hilo

Mauna Kea from the harbor on a clear day in Hilo

After docking late at Honolulu Harbor we waited for the crowds to thin out and headed into town, looking for the post office and internet access.  We found the post office just four blocks from the ship in a building across from Iolani Palace and mailed a package back to Bellevue.  Walking a few more blocks brought us to the Aloha Tower which has really changed since Jetfoil Days in the 1970’s, with lots of pricey shops and a few places to eat.  One of the coffee shops offered internet access when purchasing coffee, so we spent some time paying bills and updating the blog.  We shared a taxi into Waikiki with Craven’s and ended up at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for lunch and Mai Tai’s.  Dinner on the ship was nearly empty, with many guests sampling the BBQ on the Lido deck.  We decided to pass on that.

The next morning we departed on our shore excursion to the Arizona Memorial, which included stops at Punchbowl National Cemetery, downtown, and then to Pearl Harbor.  The tour of the Arizona Memorial was sobering as we reflected on the lives lost and that my Dad had survived the sinking of the battleship California on that “Day of Infamy” in 1941, nearly 70 years ago.  All the accounts we had read about that day fell into place seeing the actual sites.  Most of the people were respectful at the memorial.  There were several Pearl Harbor Survivors signing autographs, but we did not get a chance to talk to them with the timing of the shore excursion.  The new museums and film presentations were well worth the visit, but we wished we had even more time to look at them in detail.  The drive back to the ship was long due to traffic jams, but included at detour though Chinatown.

The Westerdam departed Honolulu at 1700 and we headed for Hilo under sunny skies.  Our entertainment this evening was a ventriloquist who had appeared on the David Letterman show and he was pretty good.  The seas and wind increased overnight as we approached the Big Island of Hawaii, but the skies were clear as we headed into Hilo Harbor, docking before 0800. We were surprised to see the “Zaandam” tied up, but found that rough seas off Lahaina had forced a detour to Hilo.  We are hopeful the seas will subside for our planned visit tomorrow.   The top of Mauna Kea was visible until about noon, and then the skies clouded over and rain showers arrived.  Taking a taxi into town, a distance of about three miles, we walked around the old town that survived the Tsunami of 1946 and went to the museum, which had been a bank before the tsunami.  We watched the video presentation in the old bank vault and then headed back to the ship for lunch.  The rain showers discouraged us from further forays into town.

On Friday morning we were able to get ashore quickly and are sitting in a Starbucks sipping iced coffee while we update the blog.  This evening when the ship departs Lahaina we head south for French Polynesia.