The
2007 Hawaii Trip
was our 11th SSQQ Cruise Trip.
Starting in 2004, Marla began to organize two cruise
trips a year, a Destination Cruise and a Dance
Cruise. Every one of our Destination Trips
have been wonderful, but if you force me to pick the
best of the best, this Hawaii Trip was Numero Uno.
Although Hawaii
is one of the most famous vacation destinations in
the world, I had never been here before. I am
now a believer. With a beauty unmatched anywhere
else in the United States, a trip to Hawaii should
be on
every person's must-see short list.
You can't quite believe the beauty of Hawaii
from the pictures alone. Hawaii has it all -
beaches, jungles, waterfalls, river and ocean
adventures, plus volcanoes and mountains too.
Our trip was aboard
Norwegian Cruise
Line’s Pride of America, a
U.S.-flagged vessel staffed by American officers and
crew. It is a fairly new ship
with a maiden voyage back
in June 2005.
The Pride of America was a pretty ship. It featured a
ship-wide decor based on famous American locations
and themes. Every
dinner was a history lesson as the dining room was
decorated with pictures of famous leaders and
moments in US History.
Marla had sold the trip
based on how easy it was to see all the islands
using a cruise ship. Marla was correct.
Seeing Hawaii by cruise became a very economical way
to visit the islands. Our ship
functioned as a floating hotel.
It was not only cheaper per night than most hotel
rooms, but the savings in transportation from one
island to the next was quite a value as well.
I had
only two regrets on this trip. One regret I
have already mentioned - my frustration at not being
able to see it all! I suppose my other
regret was that there was no 'Core Group' on this
trip. Instead there were several sub-groups of
people who stuck together and more or less went
their own way. It isn't easy being pack leader
without a pack. But after Marla pointed out
how much fun everyone was having, I was able to put
my own 'group agenda' in my back pocket and go with
the flow.
There was one more
thing that irritated me. For us city slickers,
Honolulu offered all the traffic you could ever
imagine to keep us reminded of home. Nor were
the traffic problems limited just to Honolulu.
For example, anyone who took the mythical "Road to
Hana" can attest to long lines of cars following
some turtle moving at 20 miles per hour with
practically no passing lanes. Despite the obvious
wealth of these islands brought on by a steady
stream of visitors, it was surprising to see the
highway infrastructure lagging so far behind the
growth in tourism.
But these are just quibbles. Hawaii is
a Paradise indeed.
Before we start the Cruise writeup, let me
confess that I had an unbelievable case of
Writer's Block when it came to summarizing
this trip. It wasn't that I had trouble
finding things to say; in truth there was simply TOO
MUCH to write about!
In addition I was inundated with so many
great pictures! For starters, I
personally took 900 pictures. And I was
certainly not the only person with a camera.
So many people were kind enough to share! I
received contributions from Ken Ripper and Deborah
Kainer, Jim and Denise Duncan, Steve Gabino, Marsha
Gennusa, Keith Rein, Lin Mills, Andy Regnier, Gerald
and Virginia McEathron, Nancy Schweinle, Mike
Shannon, Mary Jane Covington, Mara Rivas,
Patty Pennington, Peggy McElroy, Penney and
Sorrell Warren, and Leroy Ginzel. In all I was
sent nearly 300 additional pictures. Almost
all of these pictures were wonderful!
Plus I bought a dozen books filled with more stories
and wonderful pictures of Hawaii. The thought
of doing justice to all these stories and all these
pictures was just so overwhelming that I just kept
putting it off till I had a block of free time.
Then it seemed like every time I sat down to start,
something more pressing would come along. So
now you know why it took over six months to finally
get up the courage to begin. Finally in
November 2007 I sat down and got one page done.
Then in June of 2008 I got another page done.
By the time I finish, the Hawaiian Islands might be
under water from global warming.
I hope you enjoy the story.
Rick Archer
|
Green Sand
Beach, Big
Island
Pride of America
Rainbow, Molokai
 |
