If You're Going to San Francisco, Be Sure to Wear Clothes

Here and There
Pi Day

March 14, 2015

What do you mean I have to get off?

Just when I am starting to think I live here, they want me to pack up all my things and get off the ship. Nobody said life was fair.

Here's some mood music to set the tone for the next part of my story.
 

If You're Going to San Francisco

It's a beautiful day in San Francisco and the Embarcadero is humming with activity. Pier 27 is like an anthill with the old passengers getting off and the new ones lining up to get on in an hour or two.

As we ride off in our SuperShuttle we see cyclists in the dedicated bike lane, families at the Exploratorium, joggers, tourists in pedicabs, taxis, people walking dogs, people pushing baby strollers, and a crowd in that little park over there . . . What IS that? . . . No way! OMG!

Our Russian driver confirms it: "Over there, is nudists."
There must be 15 or 20 of them.  I think one of them was riding a bicycle. I think one, maybe two, are women, and the rest are not. I don't know whether this is a special treat for St. Patrick's Day, or whether it happens every Saturday. And I don't want to know.

We got to the airport without any further distractions and eventually boarded one of those planes with the smiling Eskimo on the tail. Right next to us is a plane with the Eskimo, but he is wearing a lei. Maybe I should be on that plane.

I said "Hola" to Mexico and "Aloha" to Hawaii, and tonight I will say "Camai" to Alaska.
Camai is Yupik for Hello and is pronounced chuh-MĪ (long i).

The Five-Thousand Mile Journey

Off the Coast of California 
March 13, 2015

to be completed

The Star Princess Bridge Club: Chris, Julie, me, and Ed

It's time to say Goodbye

Top Ten Reasons Not to Volunteer for a Game Show

At Sea

March 11, 2015

Marriage Match

We went to see an activity called Marriage Match.  We did NOT volunteer to be contestants. They recruited a newlywed couple, a "middly-wed," and a "nearly dead." The wives were taken out of the room and the husbands were asked questions about their wives, such as "Describe in detail what your wife is wearing." Then the wives were brought back in to answer the questions. After that, the husbands went out of the room and the process was reversed.  The audience had a great time. I don't know about the volunteers.

Well, I'm only going to list four of the top ten reasons. You will get the idea.

4. Your husband will announce that he would not want to be on a desert island with your sister - and your sister is in the audience

3. Your wife will declare that  the dessert that your private parts remind her of is wiggly, jiggly jello with fruit

2. Everybody on the ship will know that you had sex on a trampoline

1. Your husband will tell the audience that you are "underwear optional"

Ask Me About the Star Aft Art

Tittico, a tapestry by Maria Boldrin of Italy

Protea Series, by John Ng, U.S.A.

Apres L'Etude I and II, by Yonessi, from Iran

My favorites: Three Panel Coquelicots, by Don Li-Leger from Canada

The Ultimate Balcony Blow-Down

At Sea near Ensenada

March 12, 2015

UBB

Yay, the sun is out. Boo, it is 62 degrees with Force 6 winds. Today is the last day we can partake of the Ultimate Balcony Breakfast - a gift from our travel agent. We have been waiting for nice weather so we can eat the breakfast on our actual balcony, but it never happened. We could put warm clothes on, but everything would blow away.

Thanks, Debbie!

Ense-NADA

Can you spot the sea lions? I counted 8 of them.

We made a perfunctory stop at Ensenada, Mexico from 4 pm to 8 pm. It is a city of over 400,000, but there is not much there for tourists, but it has a spiffy new port and cruise terminal. Ensenada receives a lot of calls from cruise ships due to the Jones Act. It's not really the Jones Act, it's the Passenger Vessel Services Act, but everybody calls it the Jones Act. Both the Jones Act and the PVSA are antiquated federal laws designed to protect US shipping.

Lining Up Again

We happened to walk by the dining room at 4:10 pm. There was somebody in line already - for the 5:30 dinner seating! Yes, she was in line. She was not just coincidentally near the dining room. She was sitting on her scooter, parked facing the closed door to the dining room and she had her Kindle. 

At 5:00 pm there were maybe eight or ten people in line. I think they had just come back from the port and didn't want to have to bring their backpacks and shopping bags "all the way" back to their cabins.

Cesar and Oleksy  and Jacqi

Oleksy Kovalenko 

A busy night and we lose an hour due to time zone change.

Top 40

March 10, 2015

At Sea

Today was the special lunch with the Captain for the top 40 Most Traveled Passengers. Our table was hosted by Mario Alberto, the Purser. He was an excellent host and was a very interesting man. He grew up in Costa Rica, but now lives in Croatia. The Captain and the Chef de Cuisine both stopped by our table. The waiters were excellent. We enjoyed our lunch very much. 

It was like the difference between night and day, compared to our lunch on the Mexico segment. I'm glad we said something to Abigail, the Captain's Circle Hostess. She made sure we had a good experience this time.

Seafood Risotto

Halibut on a Banana Leaf

Rack of Lamb

Dessert

After dinner we watched The Theory of Everything on TV in our cabin. Allowing for the fact that it was based on a book written by Jane Hawking, it was still a powerful and inspirational story. I think I am going to try to read Steven Hawking's book.

Assisted Cruising

At Sea

March 9, 2015

Today is partly grey with moderate swells. The surface of the water is textured. The mood on the ship is: resignation (to the weather).

Being on this particular cruise is like living in an assisted living facility. The number of scooters, wheelchairs, walkers and canes on this cruise is the most we've ever seen. There are several individuals with severe multiple handicaps, including one person on a ventilator. Most of these people are unable to go ashore in the tenders, and most of them do not go ashore when we are docked. They don't allow scooters and walkers to be parked in the dining room due to limited space, so when you are going to dinner you will pass a "parking lot" of these devices near the door to each dining room.

There is an elderly couple who both use walkers, They have their walkers decorated with a multitude of rubber duckies and other tchotchkies. Wish I could get a photo. 

There are a number of accessible rooms on the ship. They have wider doors, they are larger, and the bathrooms are much more accessible. I have been told that you can't book these rooms uness you have a letter from your doctor - easy to create with a computer and printer - how would the booking office know? I have heard that some people who are very marginally disabled try to book these rooms because they are larger.

In addition to all of the scooters, wheelchairs, canes and walkers, there is a very significant subset of passengers who have problems walking. The most common issue seems to be a waddle. I would guess that 20 to 25 % of the passengers walk this way - mostly women. Less common is something that I would call a "goon walk" or "zombie walk" - mostly men. It is a stilted gait, the arms don't swing, the feet don't look right either.

All of this is one of the reasons we cruise so much. Who knows what the future holds? We want to see the world while we can still walk. We want to be able to go whale-watching in a Zodiac and walk around sampling different types of street food and hike to a caldera. Seeing the people who have mobility problems reminds us that we can't take our health for granted.

Anotther thing that makes this cruise seem like we are living in an assisted living facility is the "early diner" mentality. The dining rooms open for dinner at 5:30 pm according to the official schedule. We were down  in the International Cafe between 4 and 5 and we observed people starting to line up at 4:30. Honest to God. The dining room staff eventually opened up the doors shortly after 5. I don't know if they felt sorry for people who would have to wait in line for an hour, or what. Some of these people were the ones who had mobility issues, so why would they show up 60 minutes early to stand in line? Or even 30 minutes early? They have never run out of food to my knowledge.

When we are not on a cruise people will often tell us that it seems as though it would be cheaper to live on a cruise ship than in assisted living. We don't hear this so often on cruises. In fact, depending on what type of cabin you have and where the cruise goes and whether you can get a deal, it may be a little cheaper to live on a ship than in assisted living in an expensive part of the country. But if you are ready for assisted living you are probably not capable of living on a ship. You might be able to manage a short cruise if you bring someone along to help you. But the ship has the right to disembark you for any reason, and if they think you cannot take care of yourself or they cannot provide the medical care you need, off you go.

Ken went to a "navigation lecture," given by one of the bridge officers. One item of interest: the fire sensors can detect smoke and heat. When two sensors detect a problem, the system can pinpoint the location and automatically close fire doors to isolate the affected area. (You may remember that several years ago the Star Princess had a serious fire that started on a balcony. Since that time, sprinkler systems have been added to all the balconies on all the ships in the fleet.)

When it comes to navigation, they have redundant systems that use GPS. However, the bridge officers are trained to use sextants - just in case. The bridge officer also explained, during his noontime update,  how the Great Circle principle works and why ships seldom use Great Circle routes (because of strong currents and bad weather). Ships use the "rhombus method."

[Find out more]

I also want to mention the specialty pizzas that have been developed for Princess' 50th Anniversary. The other day we had a barbecue chicken pizza. Instead of tomato sauce it had barbecue. It was delicious. Today we tried a Thai Pizza. The sauce was a mixture of peanut butter and tamari, I think. I really liked it, but one piece was enough.

In the evening we went to hear the vocalist, Jacqi Michaels. She was very, very good. She gave a very energetci yet polished performance. She sang songs for the Silent Generation and songs for the Boomers. Everybody in the audience had fun.

By Guess or by God

At Sea

March 8, 2015

Eight Bells

Every day at noon an announcement is made from the bridge. First, someone rings a bell eight times. Then we get a report on the distance traveled since yesterday, our current coordinates and the current weather and sea conditions. Finally, we get a bit of nautical lore. Today the topic was navigation. In the old days they used stars, wind, currents, etc., but they often had to navigate "by guess or by God."

Today the weather is mostly gray and the sea is gray. The surface of the water looks fairly smooth. There is a considerable swell, but very little chop. This means a lot of rolling but not a lot of pitching. It doesn't feel that bad, but occasionally it's hard to walk in a straight line.

The Ship's Company

In the shipboard announcements, the term "the ship's company" is often used. In our case the ship's company consists of about 2600 passengers and 1100 crew members. The passengers consist of:

800 first-time Princess cruisers

630 Gold level

400 Ruby

530 Platinum

270 Elite

There are still a lot of people from Northern California, but not so overwhelming as on the last segment. A lot of us are from northern climates. This batch of passengers seems to be nicer and quieter than average. They don't have all the bad habits you see on cruises with lots of Elites. They don't slam doors, they don't shout in the hallways when you are trying to sleep, they don't cut in line, they don't try to get on the elevator when people are still getting off, they don't reserve seats, they don't hog seats in the public areas all day. I'm not saying they are never rude; I'm just saying they seem to be a little more polite.

Baby Boomers

The average age on the ship is probably around 70, though there are plenty of folks in the 55-65 range.  We have noticed a BIG disconnect between Baby Boomers and members of the Silent Generation, not just on this cruise, but on most cruises. We are trying to analyze the what and the why of it. The Baby Boomer cohort consists of those born between 1946 and 1964. The Silent Generation was born from the late 1920's through 1945.

As a general rule: The SG has different cultural references than the BB's. The SG got married much younger. They are now great-grandparents. Their world outlook is a lot more black and white than the BB's. The SG are financially conservative and frugal. They tend to be more politically conservative. The SG did not grow up with television. Their music is different. They dress differently. Their gender roles are much more strictly defined. If you see two SG couples talking, the women are talking to each other and the men are talking to each other.

It is more likely that an SG has had the same job all his/her life and the same spouse. They were rule followers. But when some of them reach a certain age, they don't feel obligated to follow the rules any more.

Thus, it is usally easier for us to carry on a conversation with someone 10-15 years younger than with someone 5-10 years older.

Daily Activities

Ken went to a lecture on Natural disasters in Hawaii (tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes). Our PhD scientist/lecturer is not the best and should probably spend more timegathering her facts before she lectures. And if her goal was to deliver a 40-minute lecture in 70 minutes, then she has succeeded brilliantly.

Tonight is Formal Night and most people have made the effort to dress nicely. Before dinner we went to the Captain's Circle party. Captain Nash gave a little spiel. He is a funny guy and better than some of the comedians.

The dinner in the dining room is always extra nice on formal nights. Tonight they had another one of their Chocolate Journeys desserts. It was a caramel-chocolate concoction - really really good.

After dinner we went to see a production show called Stardust. It featured popular songs from the 50's. It's not quite Baby Boomer music, but it is familiar to us and we enjoyed the show.

Whither Hattie?

Hilo, Hawaii

March 7, 2015

One of the first things we learned today was that the Hilo Hattie's store here in Hilo has closed for good. How can this be? Is this a result of global climate change?

The weather was cool and sprinkly and 70 degrees. I know the temperature because we rented a car here. I also know that at elevation 4000 ft the temp was 57. That is where the Visitor's Center for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is located. It is on  a volcano named Kilauea. There are two other major volcanoes on this island - Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. It was too socked in to see the other volcanoes. Allegedly, there was a snowstorm yesterday on Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa, but we were not able to see for ourselves.

The visitor's center had some interesting exhibits, some knowledgeable rangers, and a nice shop that sold a lot of long-sleeved t-shirts to under-dressed tourists.

Kiluaea is active right now. Lava flows are threatening houses and roads. The lava is all on private property quite a distance away and not visible from the park.

We took the Crater Rim Road and arrived at a small parking lot where you could see steam vents up close and personal. People will throw money in any hole in the ground, and the steam vents were no exception.

Next we came to a lookout over the caldera. The last eruption here was in 1959. There was a smaller caldera inside the huge caldera. The small one was smoking. At night you can see the lava in the bottom glowing red, but not in the daytime.

Our next stop was the Jaggar Science Museum, at the end of Crater Rim Road. There was another lookout here, and an interesting small museum. I liked the volcanic glass called Pele's Hair. It really looks like hair. There are QR codes on everything so that you can listen to more details on your phone.

Tourists were just as bad in 1924.

Heading down Crater Rim Road in the other direction we came to Thurstin Lava Tubes, but it was too crowded to park. We continued on to the trailhead for Devastation Trail. There were only two other cars parked here, but we were met by a welcoming committee:

I wish I knew what these were.

We took a very short hike on Devastation Trail and arrived at another caldera. The trail name refers to the devastation caused by the 1959 eruption. There was a trail down inside the caldera and a lot of people were walking around down there. This is also an area where the Nene can be seen. The Nene is an endangered Hawaiian goose, and also the state bird. We did not see any, but I thought I heard some honking until I realized it was my pants legs rustling together as I walked. Oy!

Walking along this trail gives you a good idea of how long it takes for vegetation to return after an eruption. Very large fiddlehead ferns were well established in many places, but in some areas they were just starting to come back. They seemed to prefer little voids in the lava created during the eruption. Perhaps the large ferns were out of the direct path of the devastation.

Our drive back down to Hilo was uneventful. We decided to try the place recommended by the shuttle driver who took us to the car rental place at the airport - Ken's House of Pancakes. In addition to pancakes, this place has all kinds of local foods. It is your typical greasy spoon, so there is a lot of local color also. Ken ordered Kalua Loco (very flavorful) and I ordered Macadamia Pancakes. For dessert we had Macadamia Pie and Warm Pineapple Upside Down Cake (not as good as the PUD at Aloha Mixed Plate).

We took the car back to the airport and then caught the shuttle back to the ship. All the way back we had to listen to a Good Ole Boy bragging about the Jaguar he rented. Okay, that isn't quite accurate. He was bragging about himself because he rented a Jaguar. At least the ride was short.

When we were back in our cabin we went out to our balcony and were able to watch whales just outside the harbor. They were blowing and breaching and showing off. As we sailed away we witnessed quite a bit of whale activity just to the east of the harbor. This is one of the reasons we like balcony cabins.

Before dinner we went to a show called Words and Music. It was in the Vista Lounge, a smaller venue than the theater, and the perfect place to really enjoy the show. It was a tribute to Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein, and Somebody Lesser (who wrote Guys and Dolls). Clever staging and costumes, good choreography, and lively music.

At dinner we sat with the couple from the Isle of Man again, along with a couple from Saskatoon. We all talked about what we had done during the day. The Canadians told us they went to Walmart, Starbucks, Macy's and IHOP. I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "Why did you 

come on this cruise?" The Manx couple (have you ever gotten to use that word outside of the context of cats?) talked about how the Brits didn't always "get" American humor, and we talked about how we didn't get British humor.

After dinner there was a comedian named Tim Walkoe. He was about a C+ or B-. We thought about all the jokes the Brits would not have gotten: his joke about the Chrysler Cordoba with "Corinthian leather" (whatever that is) and the non-traditional colors of AMC Gremlins, a song about the AARP sung to the tune of YMCA, and his Beatles tribute - I Get By with a Little Help from Depends.  By now you may have deduced that the average age of the audience is OLD.

When I get home I am going to add a link to Jimmy Buffet's song, Volcano, but you can hum it to yourself now if you know it.  Here it is: "Volcano"

If I Lived Here I Would Have a Papaya Tree and Eat Local

Lahaina, Maui

March 6, 015

The first thing I saw when I looked out towards Maui was a beautiful rainbow.

Listen to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

It rains a lot in the mountains and then the wind blows little droplets of water out towards the shore so that when you are near the shore and you look up towards the mountains and the sun is just so, you will see a rainbow. In fact, you can often feel the drops of water when you are several miles from the place where it is raining. Because it is so windy. Like today.

We anchored in Lahaina Harbor today around 7 am. We wanted to wait a bit until the crowds died down before we tried to get on a tender. The truth is that the crowds never die down, but that doesn't stop us from believing it could happen. We went down to get our tender tickets at 8:40. After a short time we were called to board a tender. Our ride to shore was very choppy - about the roughest we have ever experienced aboard a ship's tender. Usually they will not try to use the tenders when it is too rough because it is so hard to load and unload the tenders - but after missing Kaua'i, I guess they didn't want to miss another port. I wouldn't say they threw caution to the winds, so to speak, but maybe they pushed their conservative envelope a bit. I think we had Force 6 winds today, in case you were wondering. 

All this wind and chop made the ride to Lahaina slow. When we got there we had to wait about 15 minutes for the rental car van. Then we had a 15 minute drive to the rental car office in Kaanapali. Elapsed time from leaving our cabin to getting behind the wheel in the car: 1 hour +. Is this worth it?

Did I mention that it was windy? It was also about 71 degrees and threatening to rain, so our best laid plans to go to the beach today had to be abandoned. We decided to drive around Kaanapali instead. Kaanapali is a large PUD-type development consisting of golf courses, timeshares, hotels, and condos. It is very pleasant to drive around there, but it does have a vibe of entitlement and gated community and haole. 

We parked near a beach access point and got out to look around. By lucky coincidence, it had just started raining, so we got to see what Kaanapali looks like in the rain. There was some kind of a flea market going on nearby, so we walked over to see if there was any good stuff. They had the same type of stuff you see in all tourist-driven flea markets, but more expensive. Some of the stuff was maybe a little more artsy and a little less souvenirish than we had seen elsewhere, but still . . .

In addition to hand-blown glass, and hand-thrown pottery, and ugly things made out of cut up license plates, there were handmade soaps and lotions. I heard one of the lotion vendors talking to some ladies: "Are you by any chance from Alberta? Wow, what a coincidence. Did you know that we sell more of our lotion to people from Alberta than anywhere else?" Marketing genius at work, I guess. Or eavesdropping.

We didn't stay long - it was cold, windy and wet. We decided to continue driving to Kapalua and then turn around and take the coastal route back. Not a whole lot to see there.

Next we went to the Hilo Hattie's Outlet. Woo hoo! (Not really.) It turned out to be a bust, so we had dessert - HH's "famous" pineapple whip. Pineapple flavored soft-serve ice cream. Not bad.

That made us hungry for lunch, so we started to drive to a fish place we had seen earlier, but when we passed a beachfront place called Aloha Mixed Plate, we knew that was where we had secretly wanted to go all along.

(In Hawaii, a "plate lunch" is a popular menu item. It consists of some sort of meat or fish, often Teriyaki-style, plus a couple of scoops of sticky white rice and a scoop of macaroni salad. A mixed plate is a plate lunch with three kinds of protein - in this case beef, chicken, and fish.) 

It was windy and cool, all the seating was outdoors, but the view of the water was so nice, I put on my pullover and acted Alaskan, and toughed it out.

We orderd a Mochiko chicken plate lunch and a Loco Moco. (A Loco Moco is a hamburger with grated carrot and other stuff mixed in, with an over-easy egg on top of it. The burger sits on a pile of sticky rice, and brown gravy is poured over all of it. And a side of macaroni salad. When in Lahaina, eat local.) Ken had a local beer that was made with a lot of wheat and a bit of passionfruit.

A little liquid Aloha - note map of Hawaii on the top right

We enjoyed our lunch so much we decided to split a piece of pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. I would have to say that this was the best pineapple upside-down cake I have ever had.

After lunch we thought we should at least put our feet in the ocean. The temperature had gone up a little and we imagined there might be less chance of rain if we drove in the other direction, so we headed towards Kihei. We passed several beaches, but they were either too small or had no more parking spaces, so we turned around at Olawolu and headed back towards Kaanapali. We used a different entrance and found a tiny parking lot by a beach access point and took a two-minute walk to the beach.

It was a very beautiful beach: scenic, clean, wide, and uncrowded. 

Tip 
How to find an uncrowded beach:

Look for a beach that is very windy and has cold water.

We did achieve our goal of getting our feet wet, and then we quickly retreated before our legs got blasted away by the blowing sand.

We returned the car just in time to catch the next van back to the dock in Lahaina. During this trip we learned that the 5:15 ferry to Lanai had been cancelled due to the rough seas. We wondered how the Princess tenders were doing.

By the way, if you are going to Maui, try to avoid using Dollar Rent-a-Car. I will eventually be providing a full explanation on TripAdvisor, so I will not go into it now.

There was a huge line for the tenders so we elected to walk around in Lahaina for a while. This was not logical. We were well aware that the line only gets longer and longer as it gets closer to the time for the last tender. But you never know. I went into a quilt shop to see if I could find a nice pattern for a Hawaiian-style quilt. There were some nice ones, but all of a sudden a little voice reminded me that I already have more quilt patterns than I can ever sew in my lifetime, so I left that shop empty-handed. 

When we got back to the tender line, we waited 35 minutes to board a tender. Elapsed time from the time we got in line until we reached our cabin home-away-from-home: 1 hour+. Was this worth it?

Upon returning to the ship we learned two things:

1) At around 11:30 or 12:00 this morning, tender service from the ship to the shore had been suspended. A number of people who were in no particular hurry to get off the ship were ultimately unable to get off. (A few days later we spoke to one of the ship's officers. He told us there had been some concern on the bridge over the possibility of hundreds of passengers being stranded on Maui.)

2) Shabbat services were not listed in the schedule, but we were supposed to know that they would take place at 5:15.

There was a crew member from India at Shabbat services. He told us he was Jewish. Everybody else there was older than we are. They were so surprised to learn there were Jews in India. They were just as surprised to learn there were Jews in Alaska.

Guess what . . . The ship was over an hour late leaving Lahaina because of the slowdown with getting people back to the ship. Guess what else . . . we skipped dinner tonight.

After not eating dinner we went to hear Paul Tanner, a vocal impressionist. We didn't like him and we didn't stay very long. Enough with Tom Jones already.

Shabbat Shalom!

If I Lived Here I Would Drink POG Every Day

Honolulu, HI

March 5, 2015

We woke up as our ship was sailing into the harbor. As we docked we could see Diamond Head from our balcony.

When we went down for breakfast we walked outside on the other side of the ship. The first thing I saw was a pair of small tourist submarines being towed somewhere. Then I looked up and a saw a rainbow over the mountains. Then I looked down and saw a fuel barge right next to the ship. The fuel barge was spotless - one of the cleanest vessels I have ever seen.

After breakfast we walked off the ship and headed towards 'Iolani Palace. On the way we passed one of the famous gilded statues of King Kamehameha I, so we stopped to admire it and take photos.

We realized we were in front of the Hawaii Supreme Court so we went inside for a look around. It is a beautiful building with lots of marble and a stained glass ceiling.

There is a small "judiciary history center" on the first floor. A small theater has five short films that you can watch by touching a computer screen. I picked a film about land law. It was around 10 minutes long. 

At one time, the land was commonly owned by all the people and individuals had rights to use the land. This changed after contact with the outside. Europeans and Americans wanted to be able to own land, so a new legal system began to emerge. I think the Hawaiians got the short end of the stick.

The museum contained exhibits about the Hawaiian judicial system and a full-size replica of a courtroom from 1913. I thought it was interesting that they used to pick juries based on the parties in a case. If both sides were Hawaiian, the jury consisted of twelve Hawaiians. If both parties were haoles, the jury was all haoles. If one side was haole and one side was Hawaiian, the jury had six haoles and six Hawaiians.

Almeda Hitchcock, the only woman lawyer in Hawaii during the monarchy.

We crossed the street to 'Iolani Palace - the only royal palace on US soil. After buying tickets we watched another short film before being escorted over to the palace. The number of visitors is carefully limited to preserve this treasure. We had to wear shoe covers inside and we were given audio guides to listen to as we wandered through the palace. The Palace was completed in 1882 and housed Hawaii's monarchs until 1893 when the monarchy was overthrown. The Palace is an ornate Italian Renaissance Revival style building. The luxurious interior is reminiscent of European palaces of that era. 'Iolani Palace had electricity before either the White House or Buckingham Palace.

The Hawaiian royal family enjoyed a very lavish lifestyle, traveling to Europe and Washington, DC, and entertaining foreign dignitaries at the Palace. In all the portraits and photos they are dressed in Victorian-style clothing. Their china, silver, and crystal came from Europe. There was nothing celebrating traditional Hawaiian culture in the palace.

I wonder what the common Hawaiian people thought of all this extravagance. I wonder if the Hawaiian kings and queens thought they had to act like the European royalty in order to be taken seriously as a sovereign nation. I wonder if they tried to live like Europeans because they were insecure about their non-Western culture. I wonder if they just did it because they enjoyed the money and the good life. I wonder if it was what everybody expected. I suspect it was a combination of all of the above. I do believe King Kalakaua and Queen Lili'uokalani fought for their people and loved their land. Queen Lili'uokalani wrote the famous song Aloha Oe and King David Kalakaua wrote the song that became Hawaii's state song, Hawai'i Pono'i. (Click on the links to hear the songs. If you are inclined to skip Aloha Oe, don't. I really recommend that you watch it.)

Queen Lili'uokalani

The role of the US in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy is embarrassing and shameful. After US Marines went ashore in Honolulu, an act that some have considered illegal, Lili'uokalani was deposed and the Republic of Hawaii was established by a group of European and American businessmen. After two years of political turmoil, the Queen was arrested and imprisoned in a bedroom in 'Iolani Palace. Eventually the US annexed the islands and set up a territorial government.

After our tour it was time for lunch, so we walked to Chinatown. I had previously looked up some places on TripAdvisor. Some of them were food trucks or takeout places. We wanted a sit-down lunch, so we went to a dim sum place on my list. When we got to the address there was no restaurant. It was more like a dumpling factory. There were some street people on the corner who seemed to be doing a drug deal, so I wanted us to get out of there as fast as we could. 

We ended up at the Little Village Noodle House where we had eaten last year. It seems very authentic. There are items on the menu that you don't see in most Chinese restaurants, such as beef tendon soup. We had more standard fare. It was good, but nothing to write home about. The place is noisy and crowded and seems to get a lot of tourists. Some kind of movie or TV show was being filmed on the street just outside, so we had something to watch while we were eating. We didn't see any actors, though. Mostly, it was just technical people standing around looking self-important and a lot of trucks full of mysterious pieces of equipment. 

On the way back to the ship we stopped at Walmart to get bottled water and POG and some other odds and ends for our cabin.

POG = Passion-fruit, Orange, and Guava juices

Then we went to a little plaza where there was free wi-fi. It's easy to spot these places because you will see crew members from the ship sitting around with phones and tablets and laptops. I wanted to use the free wi-fi to upload some more photos to my blog and correct the dates on blog posts, but it was so slow it wasn't worth it. Even the ship's wi-fi is faster.  So at that point we decided to head back to the ship and maybe get some sun by the pool. Honolulu is such a great port because the pier is RIGHT downtown. You can walk to a lot of places.

We never made it to the pool - it was too windy. But we did see another rainbow from our balcony.

At dinner we sat with a couple who were to be getting married the next day on Maui. (They were older than us.) They showed us photos of their Hawaiian wedding clothes. Very nice. 

After dinner we went to see The Imitation Game. I liked it but I would like to see Benedict Cumberbatch (I love that name) play a role other than a genius with Asperger's before he gets typecast.

Sailaway wasn't until 11 pm.

Full moon over Honolulu.  Happy Purim!