Honolulu & Pearl Harbor

"Aloha," said our tour guide as we set out for Pearl Harbor from Honolulu (which means Sheltered Harbor in Hawaiian). Although Hawaii was not a state until 1951, it had been a U.S. territory since 1893, when the American forces overthrew the Queen Ruler and the Monarchy of the Iolani was abolished. We needed a naval base and Oahu seemed like the best place in the Pacific.

Honolulu is a melting pot of Polynesian, Chinese, Japanese, European and Native Hawaiians. The locals still speak mostly Hawaiian.

Today we opted for a morning tour to Pearl Harbor. As we all know the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941 which caused the U.S. to enter World War II. The attack devastated our Pacific fleet crippling or sinking 18 of our war ships (15 of these were repaired and reentered the War within a year). However 2,043 Americans were killed and 1,178 wounded, with many still entombed on the Battleship Arizona and Nevada. The visit begins with a film of the attack (which is only shown in Pearl Harbor) followed by a 7 minute cruise across the Harbor to the Arizona memorial. The Memorial stands atop the USS Arizona allowing you to look down and see the ship. As my picture shows, oil still seeps out on a daily basis. As well, the 1,100 Sailors still entombed in the ship will remain there as a permanent grave site.

This is a very solemn and sad place—everyone seems to gain respect as the visit progresses. You can almost feel the Anger and Fear of that December day when the U.S. lost it's Pacific fleet and the Japanese were running rampant across the Pacific Islands. It puts our present problems into perspective.

After leaving Pearl Harbor our tour guide showed us the windward side of Oahu before leading us to the Punch Bowl Military Gravesite. This is similar to Arlington Cemetery and is where the sailors and soldiers remains of the Pacific campaign were collected and buried after the war.

We exited the tour at Waikiki Beach for lunch and some beach time. It's a bit like Miami with Japanese--beautiful scenery, ocean and beaches. You can buy an Armani Watch or a $3 T shirt. I opted for the T shirt.

A Hawaiian barbecue on the ship celebrated our departure of the harbor for Vanuatu in the South Pacific 6 days from now. We'll have another Post then. By the way you can click on the pictures and they will expand to full size.

Hilo, Hawaii

Every day since Leaving L.A. the weather warmed up until it seemed to be stuck on 78 degrees. After 5 days and 4,000 miles the Rotterdam entered Hilo Harbor on the big Island of Hawaii. We really enjoyed the crossing from L.A. and have been very busy with a series of lectures on the Ports of Call, dance lessons (very basic), Watercolor (Tom), Cooking classes by Mr. Recipe (more on him later), cruise shows and the all favorite evening Happy hour in the Jacuzzi.
Saturday we rented a car and were off to explore the Island. Hilo is the wettest city in the U.S. with average rainfall of 128 inches. And the town has also had its share of Tsunami's, with the last in 1960 pretty much devastating the Ocean front town. It has since been rebuilt.

Our first destination was the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to see the Kilaue Crater. The road from Hilo climbs sharply through thick wet Rainforests to Park Headquarters. The Summit is 4,000 feet above Sea Level and has been bursting Hot Lava continuously for 14 years. The surrounding area is Black Lava fields and as our pictures show there is a constant Gas escaping from the Crater.

We drove the Crater Rim drive halfway and were turned back because of some Toxic Gases blowing in our direction—didn't need that. We drove to the Thurston Lava tubes which is a 500 foot tunnel of Lava which you can walk through before emerging back into a Rainforest.

Lunch time in Hilo found lots of Hippie throwbacks (kind of Super Surfer Dude types) and native Hawaiians making up the town. Much of Hilo's focus on this Saturday was at the beach where Canoe Races were in full swing. These are the large 8 and 10 passenger Canoes. Hilo is not so much a tourist town as it is authentic Hawaii. The Sunday Farmers Market was also in full swing and you could buy almost everything that grows or is made on the Island. Lots of fun but we wanted to visit a few of the many Waterfalls on the Island. Our first stop was Akaka Falls. You have to work to get to this one with a pretty strenuous climb up a series of winding steps and paths. However, the view of the Falls which drops 442 feet is impressive. If the Video works it will give you an idea of its size.

Rainbow Falls was next. It's a beautiful view which is surrounded by Lava Pools creating a Rainbow in the early morning. For us it was afternoon and getting close to happy hour which we did not intend to miss. So, it was back to the ship to close out a great day.
Our next Port of Call is Oahu for a visit to Pearl Harbor and Waikiki. We'll post that tomorrow.

Long Beach & Embarcation

“We’ll take the Beemer”. We had just arrived at the Enterprise Car Rental building at
Los Angeles Airport and the agent was showing us available cars. We were surprised when the Manager (who was distracted by what seemed like a personal cell phone call) said “OK” give them the BMW. So, it was off to Long Beach to check into our Hotel.
Arriving in Long Beach it was easy to see that this city had been improved over a number of years. This is the largest Seaport on the East Coast and the commercial and Cruise Ship port for L.A. and surrounding cities. Long Beach has done a terrific job of renewing itself and has built a series of seaport villages and entertainment venues along the waterfront. There are miles of bike and walking paths and after checking into our Hotel, decided to get some air. Under warm skies we walked the Shoreline Village and glimpsed the Queen Mary moored just across the Harbor. It reminded us a bit of the Titanic but we did not want to dwell on that prior to our embarkation in a few days.
We spent Saturday and Sunday relaxing and purchasing the Sundries we had decided to purchase in California as well as the most important item—several cases of Wine.
Waking on Monday morning we were anxious to be on our way. Getting aboard the Rotterdam was simple and quick. The ship is beautiful and the crew couldn’t be more helpful. After lunch we then faced the task of trying to fit 4 months of clothing into the drawers and hangars in our cabin. After a short time we decided it was time for a drink and the clothes could wait until morning. Anyway it was time for the Bon Voyage party on the Pool deck. It was a great start to our voyage.
Our first Port of Call is Hilo, Hawaii in 5 days and we’ll have an update to the Blog after the visit.

The Trip Overview

The Ship visits 40 Countries in 114 days and covers Hawaii, South Pacific, Asia, Middle East, Africa and the Carribbean. We fly out of West Palm Beach to Los Angeles on Jan 16 and spend the weekend before boarding our ship on Monday the 19th.

The Ports of Call

Click on the pictures to get a larger view. You'll see the names of many cities and ports that you are familiar with and many that you may not have heard of. We chose this cruise because it visits areas of the world which we would not be able to do on our own. As of today we will still be visiting Mumbai(pending any further incidents) and Mombasa Kenya. We were told that the Dutch Navy will be escorting the ship through this area of Africa.

We will be posting to this Blog after each Port visit and will include a summary of what we found to be most interesting (people, food, geography etc). We'll include those pictures we feel best tell a story of the area. We'll focus on providing pictures and information that are more local and less touristy.

Most important we'll try to make it Informative and Fun.