A'a I ka hula, waiho I ka maka’u I ka hale. (Dare to dance, leave shame at home)

When we arrived in Los Angeles, the ship’s doctor asked us all to mask up for three days then everyone would COVID test. The results were good, and we were able to remove our masks if we wanted to. 

Since leaving Los Angeles, I have been taking hula lessons. It has been so much fun – learning the meanings of all the motions and gestures, and not caring if I look the fool. I really have difficulty with hand and feet coordination. The first song we learned is “We Know the Way” from Moana. I am so excited to teach the dance to my grandniece! Then we went on to “Going to the Hukilau” and “Little Grass Shack”, and now these songs have been stuck in my head for about a week. I guess it could be worse – "Mmm Bop" comes to mind. Damn, now that’s in there too.

Getting our Hula on...

As our instructor told us, the hula is an oral tradition to record Hawaiian stories. Each word in the song has a motion that goes with it. Once you get the gist of the story, you can anticipate the movements. But that doesn’t mean you can do it gracefully! But in a surprising turn of events, I. Don’t. Care. My usual shyness is gone. I have been having fun, and I even showed up for a performance in the main plaza with the Ukulele students. I’ve even been singing with the show choir on this leg. We have sheet music and everything, and 132 participants. It’s going to be a big show!

Day 20: Honolulu. I had a long day today. I went on a Pearl Harbor and Honolulu City Highlights tour. We were a bit late getting off the ship due to gangway issues, and finally got started. We went right to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. In December 2008, the National Park Service expanded the USS Arizona memorial area to include the whole Pacific Theater and call it the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, and then in 2019 changed the name again to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. I was able to walk around for a few minutes, take the boat to the Arizona Memorial, and watch the film about December 7, 1941. I was surprised at how much actual footage they had of the day, both U.S. and Japanese. Everyone was very respectful as we walked through the memorial. As the park ranger said, you are walking over a cemetery. The silence, the gentle lapping of the waves, stirred my emotions – sadness, gratitude, solemnity. What struck me most was that survivors of the USS Arizona are allowed to be interred with their shipmates. Their ashes are brought down by a Navy diver to the circular barbette that once housed gun turret 4. One of the Navy divers is quoted as saying, “It’s a large hole and we place the urn through and then you can kind of feel it release…I tell the family, when I feel that pull, it’s the ship accepting one of its own back.” Had to put my sunglasses on quick to hide the tears. I can only imagine the lifelong impact on the survivors, to such a degree that they wished to join their shipmates in the end.

We took a crazy bus ride up to the Punchbowl national cemetery (lots of twisty-turny roads), then a visit to the site of the Battle of Nu’uanu, the site of the last battle of King Kamehameha, uniting the Hawaiian Islands. At the time of the battle, many soldiers jumped to their deaths off the cliffside. Today, it is a quiet, peaceful place that overlooks Honolulu and the surrounding areas. We took a ride by King Kamehameha’s statue, then back to the ship so we had enough time for our evening adventure.

Views from the Pali Road

King Kamehameha Statue at the Hawaii 5-0 place.

That evening, I went with a friend to Germaine’s Luau, billed as "Oahu’s best backyard luau". We watched the unearthing of the roasted pig from the Imu, made flowers for our hair, and learned about the different hulas and customs from each of the islands. They even invited ladies up to learn the Hukilau dance. There were plenty of people on the stage, so I just danced along from the crowd and had a blast. The big finish was the fire dancers, which are always so fascinating to watch. The young performers were excellent and were dedicated to teaching us visitors about their culture.

Welcome to the luau!

Pretty flowers in my hair that I made!

I awoke on Day 21 as we were docking in Kauai. I couldn’t get a formal tour, so I booked myself a helicopter tour of the Na’pali Coast. Spanning 17 miles along Kauai’s north shore, the national park area is sacred to Hawaiians. Hawaiian legend says that power comes from a person’s bones, so if royalty dies someone can take their bones and take their power. This led to many royals being buried among the cliffs to be inaccessible. If you look closely, you may see some human bones in the cliffs that have been uncovered by erosion.

Can you hear the theme from Magnum P.I.? Cause our pilot played it for us on takeoff.

The beautiful Island Princess in port

We flew through some clouds and rain which were feeding so many waterfalls, and we saw many rainbows along the way (no rain, no rainbows!).

The Na’pali Coast is the backdrop for all the Jurassic movies, and the tour company I used was featured in the movie (their blue and silver helicopters had to have their Blue Hawaiian logo covered since the movie was set in Costa Rica). Words fail me when I try to describe the stunning views around every turn. Our hour was over much too quickly. I got the video from the helicopter so I could relive the exhilaration at my leisure.

I accidentally shot all my pictures in RAW only and I haven't had time to work on them, so here is a brief clip from the camera on the helicopter. So cool!!

I made my way to the Marriott hotel and had an early lunch at Duke’s, named for Duke Kahanamoku, who traveled the world introducing the sport of surfing. I had my first burger and fries in a month – Yum! I then wandered back to the ship along the beach. There are chickens everywhere on Kauai – there should be no fear of starvation; I think the chickens outnumber the people 4 to 1. I was very surprised to see how expensive things were, but it makes sense since everything must be shipped in. Gas on Oahu was over $5 a gallon. (That’s for my dad, who loves to know the costs of things.)

Sitting with the koi at Duke's

Chickens. Lots of chickens.

I started to feel poorly that afternoon, so I stayed in my room and lazed about. By the next morning, I was in the throes of a cold. I’ve tested twice and no COVID, but I don’t want to share my germs with my friends. The stars are with me in that we have five sea days until our next port, Tahiti, so I have time to recover. I brought lots of cold medicine, aspirin, and cough syrup. The weather has been conducive to laziness too – it’s been cloudy and raining, so I don’t have a lot of FOMO. But I am getting rather bored. I’m too tired to concentrate on a book or movie, but not tired enough to sleep. Luckily there is room service, so I don’t have to starve. But when I ordered hot tea yesterday, they brought everything but the teacup, so I think they are still training some of the staff.

I’m hoping to feel better tomorrow so I can go back to choir practice – we are currently working on the harmonies for Music of the Night.