Dean &
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Hawaii--01/09: Part 1
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It was after the holidays, so we decided to take
advantage of a military flight going to Hawaii--besides, 1/2/09 was
our 6th anniversary. It was a long day of flying with a only a
refueling stop in San Diego. We started the day early, chased
the sun, and were awake for 20 hours!
Rainbows are abundant in Hawaii.
We enjoyed them all. >>
On our space-A adventures we're flexible. When
trips to Guam or Singapore didn't work out, we created a new
plan. Since we hadn't visited any of the other islands, we
booked a 7-day inter-island cruise.
We had a few days to spend
on Oahu, so I contacted my sister who lives on the north side of the
island and we arranged a visit--it had been many years since we'd
seen each other.
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We took the "Circle Island" bus to Sunset Beach to meet her.
Good to meet up face-to-face.
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We amused ourselves in various ways while we were waiting for the
cruise to depart on Saturday.
<< A very nice
sunrise breakfast next to the Officers' Club.
The playground equipment is different at the sub base in
Pearl Harbor. >>
<< We saw a
nuclear-powered submarine leave port. Impressive.
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We rented a little Chevy Aveo for a couple of days during the week and that made
it easier to get around town and between the bases. Hickam
Air Force Base, Pearl Harbor Naval Station, and the Sub Base abut
each other, but they are too widespread for comfortable walking,
especially when doing the bag-drag... This is why we have one bag
each when we are traveling space-A--we never know exactly
where we'll land and how far we have to walk once we get
there.
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One of our favorite places to spend time on Hickam AFB is the
Sea Breeze restaurant, beaches (above), and park.
The spit of land behind Dean in this photo is one of the
runways of Honolulu Airport, which is shared between the AFB and
the city. It's interesting to watch the planes take off and
bank right to avoid Diamondhead.
And then there are the sunsets...
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The Super Ferry passes by the Aloha Tower.
It may look small from this photo, but it was taken from the 13th
deck of our ship. We thought about taking this ferry to some of the
other islands, but it doesn't go everywhere we wanted to go.
But maybe next time... >>
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Finally it was Saturday and we caught an early
bus,
which makes a loop through the base, to the pier in Honolulu and
boarded the ship, a Norwegian cruise ship flying a US flag called
Pride of America, as soon as they'd let us on–around 9:30am.
<< We
checked out our room on the 11th deck and took a tour of the ship
while it was relatively quiet and empty.
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The New York-themed Skyline Restaurant with the pillars disguised as
skyscrapers.
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The Jefferson-themed restaurant with southern charm.
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There
were restaurants with other themes, too such as the Cadillac Diner,
with a 50s theme, the Key West Bar and Grill, plus 7 bars. We thought the
all-American themed restaurants were
cool, but we never ate in them. We liked the more informal,
eat-anytime-you-want, Aloha restaurant with its buffet-served
food. Delicious and abundant.
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Here is our itinerary. We left Honolulu at 8pm Saturday and headed toward
Kahului Bay on Maui. We were off
the ship doing something every day except the last half day at
Kauai. So you may need to come back here to reorient yourself
as we continue our adventure.
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On to Maui >>
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