Monday, November 30, 2009

Day 73 At Sea
















Kind of a quiet day.... The weather was marginal for the best part of the day. I did sit out for a bit but not enough. I did go to the disembarkation talk and farewell. It was the first one I have attended. It was well done..... I am having dinner tonight with my friends Marsha & Sam from Kentucky, should be fun...

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Day 72 At Sea














































Today was a fairly reasonable day. Oncwe you got past the high winds and the cooler temps (~70 degrees) it was nice. Fortunatley we had more sun than clouds which made it survivable… It was a pretty lazy day overall, as you can tell from the photo. You can also tell that I am fading fat in this coller climate. Tonight is our last formal night…. It will be very sad to see all (or most) of my new friends leave by Wednesday morning. We already miss Fran & Dave who left us in Honolulu.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Day 71 At Sea

Today certainly exceeded my expectations… Last night I was talking with the Captain and the weather looked pretty iffy. It was mostly sunny today albeit cooler than normal and very breezy but… there was sun! I got the paperwork done on my shipment from L.A. Yes, I am shipping a bag home. Time for a little spring cleaning… I seem to accumulate stuff along the way. Tonight I am giving my foot a rest and I may pack a little. Hopefully tomorrow will be another reasonably nice day.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Day 70 Hilo, Hawaii

It was still fairly dark when we arrived into Hilo this morning. The weather wasn’t looking too promising. I left on my Kilauea Hiking adventure around 8:30 this morning. It was about an hour’s drive to get to the Thurston Lava Tube where our tour started. The lava tube is quite large and it is amazing to walk through it realizing that lava once flowed through the same place that you are walking…. We then headed out to the Kiluauea Iki Crater for a 4 ½ mile hike across the crater and back up to the rim and returning. It was very interesting to me since the eruption here occurred here in 1959 when I lived in Hawaii. The showers made it a bit of a challenge from time to time for taking photos and trying to keep the camera dry. My foot throughout the day was a challenge, first to make sure I didn’t hit on anything, secondly to try and keep it dry and finally and unexpectedly to keep it out of the mud holes in our path…. The hike was good and our guide Joe was very informative. He was from New Jersey and he moved here 13 years ago. Listening to Joe I think he has gone native, he can never go back to New Jersey…… It was a good day despite the weather… Now we are headed to L.A. where this Grand Voyage concludes…..