3TravelingSisters

After returning late from the luau,w e expected to spend an uneventful evening and get some rest before we got up early to head out to Kaua’I again; boy, were we wrong! First thing into the room, we discovered that housekeeping had taken Claire’s neck pillow out with the bedding. We could maybe see it as a simple mistake if it were white like the sheets, but it was a blue, odd-shaped pillow. A call to guest services was no help. Then, when Susan went to shower, she discovered that the room steward left us no wash clothes. In the middle of the night, we started smelling things and it was not nice… it smelled straight up like our room was part of the New York City sewer. Claire was having dreams about the smell. It ... read more

We woke up this morning and got off to an early start for a ship excursion in Kona on the Big Island. Kona does not have a deep-water port so we had to anchor out in the harbor and take a tender into a port for our excursion. They use some of the ship’s lifeboats for the tenders, so now, we can all say we’ve been in a lifeboat. Our excursion was an hour-long tour of the bay and harbor in a glass-bottom boat looking at the corals, fish, and other marine life of the island through crystal clear water. It was hot! After that excursion, the sisters did what we tend to do and made our own excursion around the island. Claire got a great deal on a rental car so off we went to ... read more

We started the morning EARLY because Pam somehow set her alarm for 4am. Thanks Pam. We all tried, but only Pam could go back to sleep. We all got up at 5:30 and headed to breakfast after getting ready. Afterwards we took a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car in long term parking. Today’s journey was to Haleakala Volcano. The drive is the world’s highest elevation gain in the shortest distance. It didn’t seem like that. Compared to yesterday’s road, this was a super highway up to 10000 feet. Yes, it was curvy but the road was wide and smooth and you could see around the corners of the switchbacks. At one of the visitor’s centers, Claire heard a lady say “boy, I feel nauseous and I was even driving”. Claire replied ... read more

We woke up this morning and had breakfast, then packed to head out. We left our luggage at the hotel. Our first stop was the USS Arizona Memorial. We were glad we went; it was a very moving experience. Our next was stop Manoa Falls. The description called for an easy hike. We figured we didn’t need to bring anything special. The hike started on a paved area, that then turned to gravel. We were happy and excited. Then the trail turned to loose, fist-sized rocks that were wet and muddy and the trail had a steep grade. The trail went on and on, up and up. At one point we had to cross a water mud pit on two small logs that rolled when you stepped on them. They should have warned us that we ... read more

Day 8 Mileage - 136 miles Guess what?? When we woke up this morning it was still raining. We called for a late check out and played Farkle until lunch… because it was raining. We watched the news and packed for the airport. While we packed, we realized we had some leftover food, water, and supplies. Earlier we had noticed that there were some homeless people living nearby in a park, so we stopped by and gave what we had to them. We always like to do this at the end of the trip. They seemed thankful. Since it was still raining, we drove around Fairbanks to catch some of the ambience. We were able to see the big antler arch, the giant painted steam pipes, and several statues. Afterwards, we decided to head to the ... read more