The moment had arrived. It was time to board the cruise ship. True to Hawaiian custom, we were each presented with a flower or shell lei.
First stop--the buffet!! What a "sweet" welcome to all of us getting onboard the ship that day.
This is the grand staircase on the Norwegian Pride of America ship. I was so happy to see the beautiful Christmas decorations.
This was our cruising itinerary--which had to be altered due to the erupting volcano on the big island. Instead of spending a day in Hilo and the next day in Kona, we spent two days in Hilo and skipped Kona altogether.
We were told there were unsafe levels of sulpher in the air. Made us wonder how the people living on the Kona side were able to breathe.
Look at happy us when we FINALLY got our main course in the dining room. The food was delicious, but it took 2 1/2 hours to dine.
We were anxious to get to the early show, but none of us (except Glen) was willing to forego dessert in lieu of making the early show.
Sunday we were in Maui.
Glen and I didn't have an excursion or anything we were anxious to do, so we decided we would go to church. I am sad I didn't get a photo of us at the church, but I think Glen's white shirt and tie are indicative of our destination.
When we were in Hawaii 30 years ago with Steven and Patricia, the church we attended was an open-air church. This one had actual air conditioning in the chapel. No relying on island breezes to cool the congregants down at this building.
Once back onboard the ship, we changed our clothes and went to the game room where we did our Come Follow Me studies for the upcoming week. We finished just in time to go to the lunch buffet when it opened.
We couldn't get any takers from our group to go to church with us. They all chose to have a beach day.
We heard all about how big and delicious the macadamia nut ice cream hula pie was.
I enjoyed seeing my two youngest brothers sporting their festive Hawaiian shirts when we were waiting for the others to join us for dinner.
Amanda happily reported she won at Bingo and had to do the bingo boogie. Too bad we were somewhere else on the ship and missed her boogie.
The next day Andy, Amanda, Nani, Mark, Michelle, Glen and I rented a vehicle and took off into the jungle. We were in Maui for a second day and there was something this carload of people wanted to do.
But first, a stop for a little walk to view a waterfall.
We were admiring the very tall bamboo trees and learned how to use the panorama mode of the camera to pan upward to get a better feel for how tall the bamboo was.
Our ultimate destination was Jungle Zipline.
Everyone got harnessed and helmeted up and were ready to go.
I was only along for the car ride--not the jungle zipline--so I waited in the "lounge" while they were having their adventure.
Everyone had a blast and were happy they had chosen that adventure. We met up with the other four at dinner to hear all about their day's activities.
Dining service was a little better that evening and we were able to see the early show.
Because it was dress up night, that meant it was picture night. We took photos all around the ship that evening.
I wanted to stop at each of the places the ship's photographers were set up to get a family group photo. We were able to get one at the grand staircase.
We went to another backdrop and were told there was no way they could take a photo of all of us--"for safety reasons." WHAT?!?!?!?????
Wasn't it a lot less "safe" on the stairs than standing on the floor??
Then we decided to have just the siblings pose for a photo. It was an adventure in picture taking.
The photographer got after Glen for taking photos of their backdrop.
This photo makes me laugh as every one of us is looking at Mark who was making us all laugh with his hand posing.
We were bound and determined we were going to get a decent family photo some time that night. After all--that was the expectation since we were all dressed up for the evening.
First photo--all the girls. (Michelle, Nani, Kim, Amanda, Kathy, and Lorene)
Across the hallway were the handsome men. (Sam, Andy, Glen, Mike and Mark)
Then the magic happened when we quickly assembled ourselves on the stairs and asked a passerby to snap our photo.
SUCCESS!!! Cross that off our list! It turned out pretty fine, if I don't say so myself!!
