Cruising to Hawaii

Settle in and get comfy, like this lizard on a park bench in Hilo.   It was a long cruise, so I have a lot to share.

I was excited, but not totally surprised when, one August day I got a text from George asking what I thought about taking a 15 day cruise to Hawaii.  He is known for radical, awe inspiring travel plans.  I said yes, and went to the library to check out books about the islands.

So now we had a deadline of sorts, from which to make our fall travel plans.  We had to be in San Francisco by November 25th, so that we could get on the Grand Princess.  We traveled quickly up to San Francisco after we left Las Vegas.  We had a couple days to check out the area before we left.  We had to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

And, of course, we had to put our toes in the Pacific Ocean for the first time.  It was very cold!

The day we boarded the ship, we saw sea lions, in the wild, at Pier 39 in San Francisco!  It was an amazing, loud, smelly sight!  We could have stayed there all day. 

 

We also spent some of our waiting time, at the aquarium.

 

 

Mae and Daddy were petting some sting rays and checking out some starfish.

 

 

Do you see Mae in the bubble that's within the octopus' tank?  How much fun is that?

Before we knew it, it was time to board the ship!

 

 

Mae was in the pool, before the ship even left port!

 

                

 

It's such a shame that she doesn't like to swim!

 

There is always something going on, on the ship.  We had 4 days at sea before our first port of call.  One morning we watched a food carving demonstration.

As soon as it was warm enough, we put in a lot of pool time.

 

 

Mae also loved spending time in the kids' room.  Most of the children on the ship spent a lot of time in there, so it was the easiest place to play with your new friends. They taught some great lessons to the kids as well: sharks, space and sea turtles were some of the topics that they covered. 

 

 

Each morning that we were at sea, Mae and I attended a 45 minute Hula class!  Mae was the only child in the class.   The women were all very accepting of her.  Mae made friends with one of them. One of the last days of the cruise, we performed our Hula dance on the ship's main stage!  George took ukulele lessons on board.  He was part of the Hawaiian show.

 

 

There was a lot to remember, but I was very pleased with how much of the information Mae retained.  She learned as much Hawaiian vocabulary as I did!

 

 

We had to skip Maui, the seas were too rough for the tenders to safely take the passengers into port.  We spent the day at sea instead.  It was warm, so Mae swam with Daddy and played in the kids' room.  I was so very sick that day!  I had a fever and the worst sore throat I've every had.  The Dr. on board was able to get me back on my feet after one day in bed.

 

 

The first Hawaiian town that we visited was Hilo.

 

I just have to say, that I did not alter that picture in any way!  Doesn't that green pop? 

We visited the farmer's market.

 

We enjoyed coconut water and the coconut itself.  We should have gotten some papaya.  There was a large group of people digging in, they must have been delish!

 

 

Doesn't she look so worldly, munching fresh coconut ,in the middle of the market, with her backpack on?

 

 

We used the Hoppa Ona, hoppa offa bus to get around town.

 

 

 

All public transportation should have a potty trained scarlet macaw on board. 

 

 

The next day we got to go to Waikiki Beach!

 

 

 

That's me, eating my Hawaiian shaved ice while floating in my raft.  It totally, just had to be done. 

 

 

Mae had been telling everyone that she was going to learn to surf while she was on her trip.  Today was the day that dream came true!

 

 

 

 

Here she is heading out for her private lesson with her teacher and Daddy.    

 

 

It was great!  The teacher stood out where she could catch the waves.  George stood about halfway to the shore, so that when she jumped off or the wave died, he could help her back out to the teacher.

 

 



She did so well!  It was an hour lesson and she loved every minute of it.  She stood up a whole bunch of times.  Let's just say that she was way better than Daddy.  Here's a video of her in action.

 

 

http://youtu.be/X6a6hgDIwCc

 

 

Thank you to her teacher!  It was a wonderful experience, and pretty cool bragging rights to say she first learned to surf on Waikiki Beach.  George says if she wants to go pro, we'll follow her around the world on the surf circuit.  I don't know about that, but I can see a wet suit in her future.

 

There was more fun to be had.

 

 

 

 

We are clearly, beach people.  It was one of the best days of my life.

 

Our next stop was in Kauai.  We did some shopping and put in some more beach time.  Look what we found...

 

 

 

 

 

We found a naturally occurring "lazy river," created by fresh spring water that was flowing into the ocean. We all took turns going for a ride. Needless to say, Mae was best suited for floating down the river. She spent a good portion of the day floating down and then running back upstream.

After lunch, at a very cool, open air spot, right on the beach, we did more swimming.

There was too much sun for a good picture, but it gives you an idea of how cool this place was!

             

Mae and Daddy also played around a little with his new ukulele.

Then we walked back to the ship. It turns out that our amazing beach spot was only a few minutes walk from the port.

We spent our sea days on the way home taking it easy. There was pool time, bingo session, hula, lei making and ukulele classes.  Mae spent plenty of time in the play room with her friends.
 

This is my lei, as I was working on it.

Mae also went down to dance in the piazza most of the nights. She really enjoyed the attention from all the grownups. 

One night, her new friend joined her on the dance floor.
 

Some nights she'd draw pictures for her audience and pass them out.

 

We were very surprised how quickly the temperature dropped as we left Hawaii. Come to find out, the whole US was experiencing very cold temperatures. Mae really likes having "home days." These are days when she doesn't have to leave the house. On the cruise ship, this meant not leaving the room, unless it was to go get food. She did a lot of drawing and watched a lot of movies. She is really enjoying making movies of her stuffed animals with my phone. It's just the right size for her to hold in one hand, and move the toys with the other

The day that we arrived back in San Francisco was a bright, clear day.

Now it's time to go home and get ready for our next adventure!

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 











Las Vegas

We were on our way to San Francisco to go on our cruise to Hawaii, so we only stayed in Vegas for 2 full days.  One day we spent the day at the amusement park inside Circus Circus.

Oh the things I do for Mae!  Trust me, this would not have been on my "to do list."  We had a great day.  We bought an arm band so that we could ride the rides ALL day, and we did.  We were played out when we left.  It's very nice to take advantage of empty attractions, that don't have any lines.  We watched a few of the acrobat shows as well.  It was a fun day.

The next day we visited the Hoover Dam. 

This is one view of Lake Mead.

This one of the bridges right near the dam, isn't it beautiful?

The water level is so low!  The white rock is typically covered by water.  It was an amazing site, none the less.

We went home and hung out until just about dinner time.  We went "into town" to see the lights on the strip and watch the light and water show at the Bellagio.

So those were the highlights from our Vegas stop.  We traveled quickly up to the San Francisco area.  In my next post, I'll fill you in on our great cruise to Hawaii!

Zion National Park and The Grand Canyon

 

As we headed off to camp within Zion National Park, we knew that we'd be roughing it for about a week.  There are no water hookups at your site.  We weren't too worried about that.  You can fill up a fresh water tank that's under the RV when you pull into the campground.  Our campgrounds in NY were like this, so we thought we were prepared.  Well, Zion does not provide showers for its campers...anywhere.  We've never turned on the shower in our RV before.  No big deal, we figured we'd take fewer showers. We all showered,  being conservative, and we used all the water in our tank that first time.... so back to the water station we went.

We hiked the Lower Emerald Falls trail.

            

The water continually seeps through this sandstone rock, from springs.  Mae was not dressed quite warmly enough, nor would she put on the extra clothes that I'd packed.  George ended up carrying her back down to the truck.

Another day we had a very nice bike ride through a part of Zion and into town for lunch.   

 

 

The mule deer were so used to people that you could stand very close to watch them.  We did this almost every evening.

 

The Virgin River, which created Zion, ran right though our campground.  It was beautiful.

          

All of the famous hikes that you see pictures of at Zion, are not safe for children or not appropriate during the fall and winter (you have to hike through the river.)  Maybe we can try it when Mae is much older.

Mae still managed to earn her Junior Ranger Badge despite not exploring the park very much. 

          

We had to leave a day early to bring the RV in for repairs in Flagstaff, AZ.  Our last day was sunny and warm and perfect for playing some babies with your daddy, while having lunch.

Next we started our stay at a very nice RV resort in Williams, AZ.  We were all very excited to have a water hookup, a hot shower and wifi.  On top of that the RV resort is part of a hotel resort, so we had access to all of their amenities as well!  Yahoo!  Hot tub, indoor pool, fitness center, restaurants on site, talk about an upgrade!

We took the train to the Grand Canyon's South Rim!  Mae shared her Grand Canyon app with our attendant  (ABC Mouse, it is an interactive ebook, that has a very catchy song about the canyon.)  Our train ride was complete with outlawed cowboys, looking for gold teeth.  Luckily, Mae doesn't have any teeth right now.  :)

It was a great introduction to the Grand Canyon.  Our train attendant was very knowledgeable about the area.  We learned a lot, like the fact that there are volcanoes in Flagstaff!  Oh the things you learn when you travel.  

 

Once we got to the canyon, we had a few hours to walk around.  We hiked a 2 miles section of the South Rim, on the Trail of Time.  The National Park took rocks out of the canyon from different time periods, cut, polished and labeled them.  It was very cool.

We stopped along the trail to rest and take in the sights.  Mae wanted to draw quite a few times.  This particular time, she drew a tree that was growing alongside the trail.  We talked about how it is an artists prerogative to draw what they choose in any setting.  Most people would have drawn the canyon, I love her unique way of thinking and seeing the world.

We also stopped often to take video messages for some of our family and friends.  Here is one of them.  The Grand Canyon, presented by Ranger Mae

http://youtu.be/GByHUwX_SpU

 

 

 It was a little disappointing to not be able to see the Colorado River.  I was kind of under the impression that we'd see lots of water.  Another misconception corrected.  Mae was under the impression that she'd be taking a mule ride into the canyon and riding the rapids.  The raft ride will have to wait for warmer weather.  We can do the mules during another trip, maybe next year.  We would have to be there really early in the morning.  Our campground is an hour away, so we'll have to plan accordingly if the mules are going to happen. 

 

the only glimpse that we had of the Colorado River our first day

 

I so want to know what this tunnel if for!  I kept expecting to see a trail leading into it... but I couldn't see anything from the Rim.  Does anyone know where it leads?  I'm totally intrigued... but not enough to have googled it yet. 

 

 

 

 

 

The teacher in me sees an amazing writing prompt!  Right?  Feel free to print it out and use it in your classroom.

This is a view of the Bright Angel Trail.  It's the trail down to the bottom of the canyon for people or mules.

 

We found that it was pretty hard to capture the essence of the Grand Canyon with our photography skills.  Here's the best one I managed to take.



 

On the way home on the train.  Our attendant asked if any of the children would like to come up and use the microphone to tell a joke.  Mae was very excited to do it.  It could have gone either way in my opinion... but she nailed it!  Here's a link to the video.

http://youtu.be/KrgF_vVTDfw

We drove back to the Grand Canyon one other day.  Mae and George both had colds while we were in the area, so we spent a lot of time just relaxing at home and in the resort.  We picked up Mae's Junior Ranger booklet, and did as much as we could, but it wasn't enough to earn her badge.  We can do it next time we are there.

As we were driving through the park that day we saw these deer running through the forest at the edge of the road.  They were so fast, and so big, and such a dark brown.  We were going to ask a ranger what type they were.  I looked through Mae's Junior Ranger booklet, and there they were... ELK!  So cool!

Beware of elk when leaving work, if you work at the Grand Canyon!

One day we visited The Grand Canyon Deer Farm.

I'd read in the paper, that you could walk among the heard of deer, and feed them out of the palm of your hand.  It was a dream come true for Mae.

She talks, all the time, about owning a farm when she is older.  When we were there we did talk about the animals' needs for a lot of space, if they can't be in the wild, so that they can be happy and healthy.

 

 

 Can you see the look of giddy happiness on her face?  She walked away from the herd, and these two followed here.  We didn't even have any food.

 

 

 

As she stood there, petting this one deer.  The heard slowly came over to surround her. 

 

 She looked up, and realized she was in the midst of all the deer, and she in awe.

 

 

She still doesn't have any food to offer.

 

Mae wore one of my gloves the whole time we were in with the deer.  She was afraid that one would bite her while they were eating.  They were very gentle nibblers.

 

 



 

This deer actually unzipped her vest!  She thought it was fantastic, and wanted to make sure that I shared it on my blog.

 

 

 

The farm has an assortment of animals, mostly in the deer family.  We spent a lot of time in with the goats as well.  Mae seems to really like their laid back attitude.  She spent a lot of time with one at the St. Louis Zoo too. 

 

 

She called him Goat-uh.

She also investigated how he chewed.  She said "the pink rubber thing is pushing all the food up."  We talked about it, and she realized it was his tongue. 

 

 

 

On our last full day in Williams, we did the Polar Express.  It was amazing, and very well done.  They refurbished a train car from the 1920's to be a replica of the train in the story.

 

 

 

 

 

She got to visit with Santa and tell him what she'd like for Christmas.  She told him about a stuffed tree trunk, filled with small stuffed forest creatures.

 

 

They had a beautiful room set up, where you could visit with Mrs. Claus and write your letter to Santa.  Her note said "I'd like what I already told you about, and a Sofia doll, and a habitat for Rudolf.

 

 

 

 

We had time to have a dinner at the buffet before our train.  This fireplace was in the dining room.  I just had to pose her for a photo shoot!

 

 

I was quite a bit "snap happy," I had to share this one.

 

 

 

This was our first glimpse of The North Pole through the fogged up window.  Santa boarded the train and visited with all the children.  He gave them each their own silver, Polar Express, bells.  Mae came right home and put hers in a special place.

 

 

May we all believe.