Making our own excursion

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October 23rd 2022

Published: October 24th 2022

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3TravelingSisters

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coming into port

We woke up early, what a surprise (eye roll), and decided to go out on the deck and look at the stars. Not only did we see familiar stars, but we also saw shooting stars and the Milky Way. When the sun began to rise, we got dressed and headed to breakfast. We left early to pick up our rental car and tackle the Road to Hana. Susan drove and Claire navigated. The speed limit for the 55 miles we drove to get there varied between 15 and 20 mph. It was hard to even go the speed limit. Hairpin turns, one lane bridges, two lane roads the width of at most one lane, broken pavement, and blind curves were a real challenge. Believe it or not, they had “no passing” signs in places, really?!? It took all day to drive there and back, but it was beautiful and well worth the time. We enjoyed the silliness and time together just like our normal sister trips, and even stopped at Safeway to get food supplies like we normally do on our driving trips. We laughed and reminisced as we drove through rain forests with glimpses of waterfalls and stunning costal scenes.

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We passed by a school in Hana that was holding tryouts for the winter sport teams. We decided that they would have to leave school at 10 am to get to another school to play a 4:30 game, that is if they drove several cars. No bus could possibly navigate this road. If they played a home game, they would have a definite home field advantage because the other team would be carsick and worn out by the time they got to the school.

We took one of our “oh look let’s turn there and see what is down that road” side trips and found lunch at a roadside stand with picnic tables where we could see the red sand and waves. We had the BBQ chicken and ribs combo and a coconut cake loaf for dessert. We only got one meal to share and we were all full with leftovers. The view was fantastic.

We turned around at Wailua Falls on the far side of Hana, and switched drivers to give Susan a rest. Claire got the challenge of driving back. She even got heavy rain in spots to make the drive more interesting. We stopped

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at a State Park to visit the black sand beach and let Pam put her feet in the water, a must for all trips. Pam, for some unknown reason, decided to walk in up to her knees and almost got pummeled by the waves. Luckily, she only got wet shorts. During another rain break, we discussed that we had all of the components necessary to make a rainbow but we did not see one. Suddenly, our Hawaiian rainbow appeared, so of course we found a place to pull over and make pictures. Right before getting back to town, we stopped at a popular surfing place to watch the surfers.

We gassed up the car for the adventure tomorrow and left it in the parking lot at the airport. We took a taxi back to the ship to eat and get ready for another big day.

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