Aloha!
Ummm...so, did y'all know that Hawaii is absolutely amazing? This was my first visit (first, but definitely not last) to the 50th state. If the day was any indication how the voyage is going to go - I'm even more excited than I thought.

To start things off.... we have 5 Hawaiian students on board who shared a lot about the culture on the Islands the night before we ported. One of the students (Pua, one of my residents) even did a hula for everyone!

I woke up early (along with many folks on the ship) and went out to deck 7 to watch the sunrise and watch us sail into the port. Like many, I was excited to see that I had cell phone service! It was nice to be able to share that sunrise with some of you!

The process of clearing customs and getting everyone off of the ship was a long one. We docked at 7 am and I wasn't able to leave the ship until almost 10 as we are the last ones off. I was ready to run off the ship at about 06:15 though. =) Surprisingly I wasn't sick of being on here (it had only been 6 days), rather, just excited to start my day in Hawaii.

This process should be even more interesting at the other ports. Who knows what customs is going to be like and how long it will take to clear the ship. It will be a good test in patience as I know I'm going to be ready to bolt into Japan and it will be after 10 days at sea! I'm surprised that I'm not stir crazy on the ship yet. A good thing eh? I did think that I would be by this point, but it really doesn't bother me. Once we hit Japan there are only a couple of days at sea between countries until we go from India to Egypt.

Anyway, I digress....back to Hawaii.

The plan was to go to the travel agency with 4 other RD's as they all needed to buy rail passes for Japan (I'd already purchased mine before leaving). We were then going to head to Pearl Harbor after exchanging some American dollars for Japanese Yen. Well, the travel agent took a lot longer than we thought it would and by the time we'd changed our money, it was 11:30. We chatted with a cab driver who told us that PH would be about a $50 cab ride or an hour and a half ride on the bus. Considering we had to be back on board the ship at 20:00 and realized that it was Saturday of Labor Day weekend we decided not to go to PH as fighting the crowds would have taken our whole day. I was really disappointed that we didn't go, especially since I plan to visit Hiroshima in Japan in about a week, however, the day was great and I can't complain. =)

We stopped for a quick lunch at a place Joy really wanted to try called Eggs 'n Things. When she was here for a marathon last fall it had been packed everyday and she wasn't able to get in. Well it happened to be on our way to the international market, where we were headed so we stopped! It was quite tasty and I highly recommend it! After wandering around the international market for about an hour and a half we headed down to Waikiki beach.

The beach was AMAZING!!!! This is my postcard pict of it! We met up with some of the other staff there and spent a lot of time in the water. I LOVED the beach! The water was so warm it felt like bath water and I have been wanting to jump in since we've been on board! It was nice to finally get in the ocean! I asked someone yesterday if it was bad that I've wanted to jump off the ship about 90 times since we got on - just to get in the water! We laughed as he's wanted to do the same! Can you even believe how blue the ocean is? These picts sure don't do it justice!

After the beach we headed to a hotel down the street as there was a rotating bar/restaurant on the top floor and we figured that most students wouldn't be heading to that one! I had called Amy J and Heather K (both are friends from Creighton) and they met up with us there! Amy and Heather both live in HI and I haven't seen either of them for years! It was so fun to catch up with them and I really wish we'd had more time!

After that we started heading back to the ship - I picked up a small gift for each of the cabin stewards on my deck and a couple of grocery items (good night, Hawaii IS expensive). We got caught in the rain as we were walking...realized that we were a lot further from the port than we thought, attempted to hail a cab, finally got one, and made it back on ship - barely on time! (Yes, faculty and staff can get "dock time" as well.)

The security to get back onto the ship and the students were searched throughly! Naturally, we had a lot who were trying to smuggle on alcohol and we had to be there searching bags, getting them to dump it etc. I was amazed at the ways they thought to sneak it on and saddened that some of them spent so much time figuring out these methods and less time enjoying the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Hawaii. We probably dumped $500 worth of alcohol down the sink that night. What a waste of time and money. One student had even found a pair of hollow binoculars that doubled as a secret flask. Ridiculous. We saw it all - camelbacks, cases of bottled "water," nalgenes etc. I'm sure some of it slipped past, but I don't think much did.

As we finally got everyone back on board and headed out I was amazed by the serenity of the moon hitting the water and lighting up the sky. I don't think I've ever seen a brighter moon. It was the prefect way to end the day and seemed rather appropriate given the way I'd started the day. No picture that I took even remotely gave it justice