My Passport’s Travels

No more Navigators,Captain Mickey kicked us off! But, we do have the final map for the cruise!

Now it’s time to say, “Goodbye”… We were up and ready to disembark well before Red Mickey tags were called. We had cleared Customs in Vancouver, so we literally walked off the ship, went next door to pick up our luggage and let a porter guide us past the craziness of 1800 passengers hitting the streets into a cab. Our taxi driver dropped us at the airport where I went to pick up our car. We had booked through National, so it was easy peasy until I got to the Emerald Aisle. All they had available were midsized sedans, nothing that would hold 3 people and all their luggage for a two-week trip. They quickly changed my reservation into a full sized SUV, I picked out my Toyota Forerunner and I headed out! (Picture from later in the day!)

I picked up Mom and Eve, then we hit the road – to McDonalds! (We had missed breakfast on board – the initial announcement said that everyone was cleared to go ashore, but then as we got to the atrium, it was corrected to be just the walk offs.)

We turned on our trusty Shaka Guide for a Grand Circle Tour of Oahu and hit the road. We skirted the outside of Honolulu to catch Interstate Highway 1. (Yes, Oahu has an interstate highway! Politicians figured out that if they could get the US Gov’t to approve an interstate highway, then the US Gov’t paid for the upkeep of the road. LOL!) The highway takes you through the mountains in a long tunnel and out to the Windward side of the island.  We passed a couple of the stops on the guide (things we had done last time we were here), but found a couple of new-to-us great spots!  We started at Tropical Farms – a macadamia nut outlet. (While it was honestly mostly for a restroom break, we did find some fun souvenirs and tasted some interesting macadamia nuts.  I do not recommend the sour cream and onion ones.)

We continued down the road to a park with a view of Mokoli’i island on one side and the cliffs surrounding Kuala Ranch (used in many movies) on the other.

At another lookout, we learned about a rock arch, but the parking was really bad so a ‘drive-by’ picture was the best we could do.

We passed the Mormon Temple, a lovely white building, based on the description of Solomon’s Temple in the Bible. (We didn’t stop, so please enjoy this picture from GoHawaii.com)

Around this time, we all started flagging, so we let the guide continue to talk us around the North Shore, but didn’t stop until we got to Hale’iwa, a little town with great shave ice!  I went all in and had a rainbow shave ice with ice cream on the bottom, sweetened condensed milk poured over the top, and sprinkles!! One of their best sellers!

We decided to throw in the towel, though, and stopped using the guide and allowed Google Maps to find us the fastest way to Aulani – especially since we had just been texted that our room was ready!  We have a garden view studio, which is exactly what we got. After the stateroom for the last 10 days – we have a mansion! Complete with towel animal!

Eve took a little downtime in the room, and met the bellman who delivered our luggage. Mom and I went to explore a little, making our way from the gift shops, past the lazy river, to the beach and back to the pool bar outside the Ulu Cafe. Eve joined us there for pre-dinner drinks (not the Cadillac Bar, but it will definitely do!). We even saw a SWA plane making it’s final approach into Honolulu!

We had a lovely dinner at Malahiki, one of the on-site restaurants. They offer a pre-fix menu with three courses.  It was all great – but the roasted pineapple cobbler with coconut gelato was especially good!

After the long day, we collapsed, tomorrow’s the last full day of vacay.