While all of us love those comfortable seats and bargain-priced meals at airports, not to mention the delights of missed connections or 8 hour layovers in Moscow, sometimes it's nice to go on vacation without boarding a plane.
As such, a roundtrip cruise to Hawaii from Los Angeles World Cruise Terminal, which is a twenty minute drive from our home in Redondo Beach, seemed like just the ticket for our next "someday" vacation.
Not wanting to make the trip too stress free, we decided to take the bus to the port.
We dragged our suitcases to Pacific Coast Highway, arriving at the bus stop fifteen minutes early in case our transportation arrived ahead of schedule, which I'm sure must happen all the time in Los Angeles. Just ask OJ Simpson.
Liliuokalani Gardens, Hilo
For those of you who have never ridden a city bus in L.A. County, keep in mind that while there is a bike rack above the front bumper, there's no place to store luggage, which means you have to figure out what to do with large suitcases (in our case, large enough to contain two weeks worth of clothes) in a crowded vehicle with a two-foot wide corridor down the middle for ingress and egress.
Yep, those "cramped" economy class airline seats with overhead bins don't seem too shabby about the time that reality sets in.
Nonetheless, we hopped on Metro Local 232 and headed up Pacific Coast Highway.
Black Rock on Ka'anapali Beach, Maui
Juggling our suitcases between the floor where our feet should have been and our laps proved to be an excellent full-body exercise program, and I'm thinking about boarding the bus with increasingly burdensome loads as a daily exercise regimen. Once I become an expert, you may be able to pay $59 to join my Learning Annex course, "Battling Bus Stops for a Better Booty."
When we arrived at the 110 Freeway, it was time to get off the bus, but we were still a few miles from the cruise port.
Surprisingly, you don't need a car to take the 110 Freeway, but you do need to haul your bags down the boulevard, across a popular intersection and then up about 120 feet to the elevated expressway to transfer to the Harbor Transitway 450 Bus.
You can wait for the elevator, but concerned about making the connection to the bus that comes along only once an hour, I hefted our two fifty pound suitcases while Julie lugged our "carry-on" bags up the stairway to heaven.
Cruising out of Los Angeles Harbor
That bus stop along the primary truck route for one of the busiest ports in the country turned out to be less tranquil and quiet, not to mention fresh smelling, than you might believe, so we were happy that we made our connection for the final leg with five minutes to spare.
The 450 bus doesn't actually stop at the cruise terminal but rather across the street, so after wrestling our bags off the bus, we still had to drag them across two intersections and through the terminal parking lot to check in and pose for that inevitable welcome aboard photo.
It takes four days to get to Hawaii from Los Angeles, so this isn't exactly a weekend escape. As such, it isn't surprising that this cruise doesn't attract many of the young and the restless. In fact, I felt a kid at the adult table on this cruise.
Cruising Into Kauai Past Golf Course
However, it turns out these old folks are actually just young hippies wearing perfect disguises. They love the Beatles and cheer for the opening notes of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
If you have a couple of weeks to relax, you can enjoy a few days in Hawaii along with lots of leisurely sea days coming and going for about the price of a traditional four or five night Hawaiian vacation once you factor in air, hotel, transportation, entertainment and meals, unless you stay in a crappy hotel where you spend your evenings watching TV and eating Spam straight out of the can.
As Mount Kilauea on the Big Island continues to erupt, why are volcanoes dormant on other islands of Hawaii, including Oahu?
Logically, you might think that the magma beneath Oahu simply stopped bubbling up to the surface, but the source "hotspot" that formed Oahu and the other Hawaiian islands remains very active. In fact, we saw steam from it the prior day at Volcanoes National Park.
The same hotspot adding acreage to the Big Island was once beneath Oahu, so you may next logically reason that the hotspot must be gradually sliding to the southeast. It's the islands that are actually moving, migrating northwest, as tectonic plates shift, slowly re-positioning not simply the most remote island chain on earth but all of the continents.
Eventually, the Big Island of Hawaii will be off the hotspot, which is already forming a new island of Loihi. That new island is currently 3000 feet below the surface but could be above sea level in time for your next vacation, assuming you don't plan to travel for about 10,000 to 100,000 years. Then again, perhaps Loihi will merge into the Big Island, as other volcanoes have over the millennia.
Cruising into Honolulu at dawn, it's hard to believe it is a slowly eroding mountain in the ocean, with the island above the surface once forming one side of a volcano.
Aboard Star Princess cruising across the Pacific, naturalist Don Hellstern had described how at one time what are now distant continents like Africa and South America once fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, as most children intuit looking at a map. Rifts formed, and the continents divided, gradually being pushed apart as tectonic plates separated. The plates also sometimes crashed together, pushing skyward mountain ranges from the slow-motion collision.
More dramatic changes have also happened. Giant asteroids sometimes smash into the earth, and one of those created such dramatic climate change that it wiped out the dinosaurs.
Even the earth's magnetic poles occasionally flip. This has only occurred about five times in the last ten million years, but we may be overdue for another pole reversal. Many people presume that human-caused global warming will inevitably cause coastlines to sink --- and perhaps they will --- but there also are many powerful, natural forces in play constantly. I like to think of humans being like fleas on a dog thinking through our actions exclusively we can change the direction the dog will run, despite greater forces that have been causing natural coastal and climate change for time immemorial.
While teenager Greta Thunberg was being selected Time Magazine's Person of the Year for skipping school to implore the United Nations to do something to stop the world from evolving, we had slightly less ambitious plans: take the bus to Hanauma Bay and snorkel, as we had planned on our prior visit.
After breakfast, we made good time and managed to reach our bus in the nick of time. This should have been the fastest route, but the alternative bus that went through Waikiki apparently filled what would have been our transfer bus, stranding us along with some Taiwanese tourists and a couple of homeless locals, arriving a half hour late only to drive on by without stopping.
As Wayne Dyer used to say, "You can't coulda-woulda-shoulda," so after learning Uber would be $20, we settled in to wait for the next bus, which was scheduled to be there soon.
All was relatively peaceful until four teen-aged truants arrived, listening to loud rap music while passing and puffing marijuana-packed vaporizers continuously. I am not a fan of cursing poems accompanied by thuds, but making it worse, the biggest kid who acted like the group's leader, kept skipping from one song to another before any had played more than a minute, with each lyric having more offensive language than the last.
When the bus finally arrived, I wasn't going to let them menace their way past Julie and the Taiwanese to the front of the line, so I strategically blocked their approach by showing them my back. "Corn Pop" and his pals might have been intimidating to middle-schoolers, but they were just kids.
It turns out we all made it on the bus, with the punks getting standing room near the front. They soon got off by the high school, glaring in the windows at the passengers as they walked past, giving special scorn to a teen in a Captain America hat.
In any case, we made it to beautiful Hanauma Bay, which was open and bustling with tourists. Tickets cost $7 per person, and no charge for locals.
Lined up and herded into an auditorium, we watched the mandatory video presentation to learn rules of visiting the park. Some people even listened before storming the exit doors on cue to hit the beach.
The beautiful sunny day made the turquoise water more inviting than ever, and we soon were snorkeling "where the humuhumunukukuapua'a go swimming by."
While the snorkeling turned out to be terrific, lots of tourists wearing fins flopped around in the water, often using the fins more as shoes to allow them to walk or stand on corals, which of course are living organisms important to the health of the bay's ecosystem. Nonetheless, I was able to seek out quieter places where I wasn't annoyed by inconsiderate novices. If you snorkel, don't walk on the coral any more than you'd tromp on a bed of roses or cactus garden.
A lifeguard came on the loudspeaker to order everyone out of the water.
Rip tide?
No, a monk seal was swimming in, and since this is his home that we were visiting, everyone made way for his approach.
We'd staked out a little shady spot behind some bushes next to the beach where we left most of our stuff, but mostly we spent time either snorkeling or standing with our feet in the water holding onto our cell phones and wallets.
When we became hungry, we decided to move onto the next part of our journey, paying to take the tram up the hill where we caught the bus to Duke's on Waikiki Beach, which has become a regular haunt anytime we go to Honolulu.
Julie had the Pulled Pork sandwich, while I went with tradition, ordering Duke's Cheeseburger, this time accompanied by Waikiki Brewing Company's English Brown Ale.
After lunch, we found an open patch of sand on the world famous beach in front of the Duke's Barefoot Bar, taking some dips in the water, for which we didn't bother using a mask and snorkel. We just relaxed there, content to be part of the world-renowned Waikiki Beach scene. As is another tradition for me, I eventually took a stroll into the shopping district, just to get some shade and people watch rather than actually shopping.
I spotted Island Vintage Coffee, which looked inviting with outdoor tables on the second floor of the Royal Hawaiian Center. We stopped in for their Mauna Kea Iced Coffee (coffee, gelato, caramel and black lava sea salt) on our way to the bus.
As we rode back to the ship, I mentioned that Sean Cleland, a musician on our Ostrich Music Group CD, had a gig that night at the Hilton Waikiki, and quite surprisingly, Julie said, "Let's go."
We rarely go out at night after returning to the ship, but the stars had aligned. We were both still full from our huge lunch and had purchased all-day bus passes rather than one way tickets which would have cost more, so we changed clothes and caught the bus back to Waikiki. Soon, Julie was sipping a Cuba Libre, while I had a Big Swell IPA at Hilton Waikiki's Lobby Bar.
Sean has been working regularly as a musician since we made that album ten years ago, and this year his latest album, "The Process Of," won Hawaii's prestigious Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Alternative Album of the Year.
As with many singer-songwriters, his lounge gig at the Hilton consists mostly of well-known covers, for which he uses technology to put down live tracks and then plays other guitar parts and adds vocals along with the underlying tracks. As he says, it helps pay the bills, and his versions are great for relaxing with a beverage.
No surprise, therefore, that Yamaha will sponsor his performance at the NAMM Show in Anaheim on January 15, 2020. According to the organization's site, "The NAMM Show is the global crossroads of the music, sound and entertainment technology products industries."
In any case, it's great to see that Sean continues to make his way in the music business, even if he no longer plays "Something Under the Sun," the beach-sounding, laid-back song with an odd guitar hook that Julie and I have always liked. When I went up to request that song, Sean smiled in recognition of who I was.
We had arrived about a half hour into Sean's set, and by that time he had played close to an hour more, so he soon took a well-earned break and came over to chat with us. He thanked us for providing encouragement early in his career and gave us a copy of his award-winning CD.
For a singer-songwriter, there's always the hope of a big break leading to worldwide acclaim, but recently married to Chelsea, who also loves to travel --- "Our goal is to take one big trip a year." --- happily lives his dream as a musician based in Hawaii. Sean understands that fame and fortune aren't necessary to enjoy a wonderful life.
On the cruise back to California, we watched the movie "Yesterday," an excellent feel-good film that makes that point very well.
What are you waiting for?
Start enjoying your life today.
There's a whole big world out there, waiting for you to discover it.
Volcanoes National Park On Our Sunny Day Visit in 2006
Whales frolicking off the port side welcomed Grand Princess to Hilo, just as our port lecturer had predicted, so we enjoyed a natural show with our delicious buffet breakfast.
It had been overcast much of our Pacific crossing, bringing the wind chill factor on the Lido Deck to the low 60's, or as Al Gore might call it, catastrophic global cooling caused by passengers on a cruise ship exhaling CO2 over the deep blue sea. Considering the port presentation touting whales off the port side cruising into Hilo had been repeated regularly on TV and the weather had kept many indoors, I was surprised that so few people apparently got the word.
In any case, as passengers gradually awakened from four days of hibernation (although unlike bears, cruise passengers don't miss any meals and do enjoy great entertainment), everyone seemed to be excited to arrive in Hawaii.
Julie Hopping On
The prior evening, our Anytime Dining table mates, a military couple from Virginia, had gushed excitedly about their planned helicopter tour over waterfalls and Volcanoes National Park.
We blushingly acknowledged we would be taking the cheap and easy Hoppa-On, Hoppa-Off Bus that stops at several sites, including Rainbow Falls, Liliukalani Gardens and, most importantly, Richardson Ocean Park, a volcanic-rock snorkeling spot.
For anyone visiting Hilo for the first time, a more extensive tour including Volcanoes National Park, which is certainly the most unique attraction of the island, or renting a car to do a self-guided tour there plus some of the great water falls and jungles, would be better ways to go. We, however, had been dreaming of snorkeling for months, and while not the express route, the bus would serve our purposes nicely.
Rainbow Falls
Once ashore and on the bus, we made a mandatory stop at Rainbow Falls to check out the lush parklands and waterfall, but we passed on downtown Hilo, the flea market and the Japanese gardens on our first lap around so that we could get to the snorkel spot.
Not believing the temperature could possibly be much lower than Hawaii's average of 75 to 85 degrees, I had ignored Julie's advice to wear a jacket. Fortunately, she had an emergency windbreaker in the backpack along with our masks and snorkels, because when we arrived at the black-rock beach, the temperature was still in the 60s.
River Below Rainbow Falls
Nonetheless, we had come a long way to snorkel, so I spit on my mask and waded in. The water seemed to be warmer than the air. Lots of beautiful fish put on a colorful display, but after about thirty minutes, I was becoming chilled. Just as I headed toward shore to let Julie take her turn, a five-foot long green turtle came up to say, "Cowabunga, Shredhead!
Actually, he didn't say anything, possibly because he wasn't a teenager who had encountered radioactive slime, but he silently invited me to follow him around to see some more fish.
How could I turn down a wise old turtle?
I followed the huge turtle for another ten minutes, until he made a bee line out toward the surf, and I swam in to tell Julie everything she had missed. In case you're wondering, we usually snorkel separately, so one person can stay on shore and watch our valuables.
Richardson Ocean Park
Julie decided to use my rash guard along with the mask and snorkel to avoid getting any more stuff wet than necessary, so I was happy to don that crinkled windbreaker while I responded to cruise questions on my smart phone. Several other tourists came by and asked me about the snorkeling, but no one else went in the water to explore that fascinating undersea world.
Julie enjoyed equally great snorkeling, and the turtle came back to visit her, too, but with the sky threatening to encore some earlier light rain, we decided to head back to the ship for lunch.
2003
When the bus didn't come after 20 minutes, we phoned the tour company, and the manager came over in his van to take us back to the ship. We gave him a nice tip for the free private shuttle.
We found lots of other passengers onboard the ship. Some, like the military couple, had their helicopter excursions cancelled due to poor visibility and simply gave up. Others had walked off and then returned to the ship when nothing immediately grabbed their attention.
Japanese gardens near Kamehameha's favorite surf spot
No matter where you go, it is up to you to BETHERE. If your plans flop, don't flip off or out. Be cool with spontaneity, and discover serendipity.
Julie and I weren't through with Hilo yet, so we called the bus company to check the schedule. The same driver returned in his private van to pick us up. It pays to tip.
Statue of Kamehameha the Great
We headed back to see more of Hilo, including the statue of King Kamehameha, who conquered and united the Hawaiian Islands.
Kamehameha the Great loved to surf, as did other royal family members and athletes.
Hilo's overhead waves were epic in Kamehameha's time, but catastrophic tsunamis brought the twentieth century solution of sheltering the coast with a breakwall, which dissipates the energy of waves.
On the day of our visit, waves were virtually nonexistent on Kamehameha's favorite beach.
Wes Gets Zenlike (or at least has Buddha belly) at Liliukalani Gardens
Wailoa Park, where Kamehameha stands, replaced a Japanese fishing village, Shinmachi, which had been repeatedly devastated by tusnamis. The open space of a park is certainly a better urban planning choice than densely packed buildings for that flood zone, and it's a lovely place to visit.
The tranquil Liliukalani Park and Gardens nearby with its Japanese architecture and manicured grounds pays respect to the Japanese culture.
Bridge over calm waters
As a side note, several cruise passengers took the Hopp-On, Hoppa-Off bus as essentially a one hour tour of the island, snapping photos out the window and then heading back to the ship, which I think misses the point, unless you have serious medical conditions that prohibit hopping off to explore the stops.
If you go to Hawaii, get out and enjoy the lush foliage and lovely beaches. Maybe even talk to a turtle. On the coldest day, you won't get frost bite (at least if you stay near sea level), and you'll undoubtedly discover something beautiful.
Normally, our Princess Hawaii cruises anchor offshore of Lahaina and then tender passengers ashore. Julie and I have then taken the inexpensive local bus to our favorite beach, Ka'anapali, to spend the day snorkeling and relaxing in the sun.
Crown Princess, however, ported in Kahului, which is on the other side of the island.
Kahului has several advantages, which is probably why NCL Pride of America uses it for their Maui port, where they feature with an overnight stay (two days on Maui).
First, tenders are not required, which is easier operationally for the cruise line and also much easier for passengers who aren't bound and determined to go to Ka'anapali Beach or funky Lahaina town.
Granted, when we cruised on Pride of America, we went to the nearby airport and rented a car, which we drove to Ka'anapali Beach, making a few stops along the way. That brings us to a second advantage of porting in Kahului: it is close to airport rental cars, so you can take the famous Road to Hana or easily drive to gorgeous Iao Valley, which are considerably further from Lahaina, whether you drive or take excursions.
Which brings us to a third big advantage: Kahului opens up shore excursions with shorter van or bus routes for the cruise guests who unlike Julie and me are not set on Ka'anapali for a perfect beach day. Admittedly, our usual DIY bus trip is not too profitable for the cruise ship. And that is a big advantage for the cruise line: more potential revenue while opening new horizons for guests.
If you can see that Maui island viewed from the sky looks very much like a woman's upper profile, getting from Kahului to Lahaina would be starting at the nape of the lady's neck, proceeding just below her chin like a necklace, and then up her face to the lady's hairline, whereas getting to Lahaina to Ka'anapali could be accomplished by raising her eyebrows, if that really was a pliant face.
While we could have taken a tour bus along the necklace to take a catamaran to Molokini or done one of the other excursions that Kahului made relatively easy to reach, we instead walked from the port to a nearby shopping center to catch an Uber to Ka'anapali Beach. We were quite pleased to see that the beach, which had notably shrunk when we visited there in 2018 on what I've oft referred to as our "semester-at-sea" Princess cruise with naturalist Mark Harris, now has as much sand as I ever remember, and possibly more.
Because the ship ported on the other side of Maui's head, we didn't see many cruise blue-and-white-striped ship towels when we camped out in shaded sand near the Sheraton at Black Rock. So, that turned out to be a big advantage for us by porting in Kahului: fewer tourists at our favorite snorkeling spot. Of course, it cost a lot more time and money to get there and back, but it was still worth it.
Fantastic snorkeling as usual, and on this day we had at least three very friendly sea turtles swimming around the coral with us. We didn't see any whales on this cruise, but swimming around the point I was able to hear their song in the distance.
Lunch at Julie's favorite restaurant in the world, Hula Grill. Check.
We had time for renting a lounge chair in front of the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel to just savor the beach before catching an Uber on the other side of the lobby at that hotel, which we used as our access point to the beach, purchasing a pricey Diet Coke in the mini-mart there.
Just after we drove past Lahaina, our driver received an irate phone call from a guy who had left his phone in the Uber vehicle. He was yelling that he needed his phone NOW! Because we had built in an extra hour for our return, in case there was a long delay catching a ride, we told the driver to agree to meet him. So, we took a detour to the huge Banyan Tree in Lahaina.
The irate former-fare's wife was obviously mortified by her husband's tantrum, so she tried to give our driver a $20 bill, which he turned down. As we drove off, we told him that he should have taken it. We certainly weren't going to tip extra for him being forced to go out of his way.
Crown Princess was visible from miles away on the necklace road, a reminder of just how large these floating homes-away-from-home really are. While the drive had not been as easy as raising our eyebrows, it was a great finale in Hawaii for this cruise.
As Grand Princess cruised past the sun rising over iconic Diamond Head, Julie and I couldn't help but notice that Honolulu's shoreline must look exactly as it did around the time English explorer Captain James Cook "discovered" Hawaii (and the people living there) in January of 1778.
Only a few little grass shacks line the sandy banks along the aqua ocean. The handful of residents who call this paradise home subsist by catching fish and picking pineapples filled with that distinctive native Mai Tai nectar.
If you've ever seen the opening credits for "Hawaii Five-O" (either the original series or the less-plausible remake), you might understand that description of Honolulu is not exactly accurate.
In fact, Honolulu continues to evolve into an even more densely packed, modern metropolis improbably set in a geographically isolated string of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
As we exited the ship, we were directed to the shuttle bus by smiling Maui Divers personnel. We were soon joined by a dozen other big spenders and whisked off to their factory showroom.
En route, we learned that two couples on the shuttle lived in different retirement communities in the same sunbelt city. I don't remember what city that was, but the two couples yelled loudly back and forth about stores and cafes near their particular homes all the way to Maui Divers Design Center.
We went up an elevator to a little viewing room where we watched a short video about the history and culture of Maui Divers, an employee-owned company, before being led through a maze of showrooms slightly larger than IKEA where our group only bought about $18, 622.14 worth of black coral jewelry between us, making the free ride a great deal.
Actually, I felt sorry for the owner-employees, because I think they only sold one $8 open-your-own pearl before we all packed back into the shuttle bus for the promised ride to Waikiki Beach. Come to think of it, I don't think the couple buying the pearl was in our group.
I can only assume Maui Divers must expect the education to pay dividends in future sales, and indeed Maui Divers jewelry happens to be sold on the cruise ship. What a coincidence!
Once in Waikiki, we headed to the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach, where we plopped down on towels on the stretch of sand between the hotel and the ocean. On this sunny day, we lay there and read, taking occasional dips in the ocean to cool off.
When I became thirsty, I took off to get a Coke Zero, but when I found a purely natural, zero-GMO alternative native thirst quencher available at about the same price, I opted for that.
As I walked from the snack stand and tried to take a bite of my rainbow Hawaiian shaved ice, a big chunk dropped in the sand at my feet. I buried it with my toes, not unlike ancient ceremonies that plant a bit of the bountiful hunt or harvest in the earth to please a pagan god, but in my case this was to cover a blunder, not a religious rite to stop global cooling.
Julie questioned why I had indulged in this sugary treat an hour before lunch, but her concerns proved to be for naught, because an hour later, I was ready to eat.
Getting back to Captain Cook briefly, I should note that I'm not sure he actually visited Honolulu during his travels before being killed in Hilo, but he must have been hungry when he arrived in Hawaii, because he dubbed his discovery the Sandwich Islands.
Wanting to be authentic to Cook's legacy, I enjoyed the ultimate Hawaiian sandwich, a cheeseburger in paradise. Well, actually it was a cheeseburger at Duke's, but it tasted great with lettuce and tomatoes, mayonaise, ketchup and French fried potatoes, big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer.
Most of the afternoon, we continued to enjoy the sunshine on the beach. I took a walk around Waikiki at one point. I crossed the street to where the funky International Marketplace used to be. It has been razed and is being replaced by a modern shopping mall anchored by Saks. A couple of doors over from that building site you'll find Jimmy Buffett's restaurant. What it lacks in beach access it tries to make up for with specially priced happy hour drinks and live music, but I didn't stop in this time.
I decided to walk to a different icon's business, Trump Tower Waikiki, for reasons that baffle even me. In any case, it gave me a specific destination as an excuse to walk through the hustle and bustle of the world class shopping district. This attractive, hip downtown apparently attracts far more people on a sunny day than beautiful Waikiki Beach itself. And they were spending money freely to buy Prada bags and designer clothes and to sip lattes or expensive wines. I am not a big city person, but this chic, modern one is special.
With terrific restaurants and sparkling night life, there's another world after dark, but the lure of the ship's free dinner and live entertainment (plus the free afternoon Maui Divers shuttle back to the ship) could not be resisted, despite the fact that the ship would stay ported in Honolulu until 11:00 PM.
That is both the delight and dilemma of cruising. To free, or not too free? That is the question.
I dreamed last night that while walking to a cabana on a beautiful lagoon, I noticed dead carp laying in the sand. As I took a seat on the overwater platform, I looked down in the royal blue water to see colorful tropical fish. Instead, I saw only charcoal-gray fish floating lifelessly near the surface.
No one wants that future.
While not the environmental apocalypse of my dreams, gorgeous Hanauma Bay was recently closed due to high bacteria levels in the water.
Unfortunately, that happened to be the day Julie and I took the public bus from Star Princess to go snorkeling there.
From the moment we arrived, the dearth of people on the beach below signaled that something was wrong.
While not intentional, the source of the bacteria was human waste, not from careless city sewage treatment but from storm runoff that carried with it excrement from cesspools and to a lesser extent from animals (mostly urban pets) and homeless people. We face similar challenges along the Southern California coast.
Regardless, we made the best of our time there, taking in the panoramic views and then reading about the assorted fish and coral of Hawaii at the Hanauma Bay Visitor Center.
The ranger working the desk said it was unlikely they could get staffed in time to re-open if the marine biologists sampling the water gave an all-clear that afternoon.
Back on the bus, we passed Coconut Island, where our eldest child Gina and her husband Laszlo attended a Marine Biology semester together as part of their undergraduate Biology majors at UCLA. In fact, that is where they met.
Before long, our city bus had returned to Honolulu's busy suburbs.
Oahu is the most populous Hawaiian Island by far.
As with the rest of Hawaii --- and the United States for that matter --- most of the people cluster together in big cities, which for Oahu is world famous Honolulu, while most of Oahu remains rural.
I cannot say I've seen much change in Honolulu's population density, and a quick internet search revealed that Honolulu now has a population of around 400,000, up only slightly from my first visit fifteen years ago.
Thirty years ago, the people count was 365,000, and even back in 1961, when Elvis performed in a charity concert for the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial and his movie Blue Hawaii was released, the population had already reached 300,000.
Not exactly the Population Bomb leading to "THE END...and by the end I mean the utter breakdown of the capacity of the planet to support humanity" before 1985 forecast by Dr. Paul Ehrlich. Honolulu's reality has been almost nothing compared to the very real devastation of Pearl Harbor in WWII.
In all fairness, perhaps the alarmist rhetoric of Dr. Paul Ehrlich and his disciples should be credited to some extent for positive adaptations by humans, who unlike static models can choose to change our own destiny. In any case, hyperbole like that is why I no longer take similar alarmist environmental rhetoric as gospel truth.
Most scientists work to stop the worst possible scenarios from unfolding. For example, as an epidemiologist, our daughter Gina, works backwards from a negative outcome like heart disease to see how environmental factors like neighborhood walkability might positively change future results.
In any case, Waikiki Beach seems no more crowded than it did the first time we went to Duke's for a cheeseburger, and the burger served to us in 2018 still tastes as good as ever (definitely not Soylent Green yet!).
While we didn't do anything other than hang out on Waikiki after lunch, it is always a pleasant way to spend a day.
Once again I was taken aback to find the shopping centers and storefronts near Waikiki (from which the beach cannot be seen) host hundreds of times more tourists and locals than Waikiki Beach itself on even the sunniest of days.
In recent years, the area has been upgraded to be among the toniest districts on the planet to people-watch and be seen buying chic fashions or sipping foamy lattes, which is apparently more highly valued by these urbanites than the renowned beach.
The city fathers are happy to give the people what they want in a case like this.
Approving new construction and redevelopment projects that consumers readily support with new tax dollars is a no-brainer for politicians looking to fill city coffers amd campaign war chests.
My life experience is primarily in California, not Hawaii, but politicians everywhere seem to be cut from the same cloth.
They like to find a parade, jump in front and pretend they're leading it.
Besides, Honolulu's skyline ceased being grass shacks scattered among palm trees long ago.
At least they've built beautiful structures redeveloping Honolulu, though I'm sure there's a strong argument about gentrification from an opposing viewpoint.
The inevitable result?
"You pave paradise, put up a parking lot."
That obviously doesn't carry all the negative connotations my generation once inferred.
Working to resolve catastrophic global warming crisis is another stroll down easy street for the political class.
By taking any action, they can take credit for doing the right thing, and it cannot be proven they didn't make the situation better, as long as they claim that it would have been worse had they done nothing.
While there are other factors in play beyond human contributions to climate change, greenhouse gases always seems to become a popular scapegoat any time natural disaster strikes these days.
Most experts agree that Pacific islands, including Oahu, are not themselves significant sources of those greenhouse gases, although volcanoes certainly can be. Pacific Islands, however, face some of the most immediate dangers from global warming.
Having been in Disneyland's asphalt parking lot in the early 1960's when most of Orange County was still covered by orange groves and strawberry fields, I can state without fear of contradiction that man-made heat sinks like concrete buildings and parking lots have hotter surface temperatures than trees and ponds, and if you combine enough together to build a big city, it stands to reason that thermometer readings would be warmer than before.
If some combination of greenhouse gases and overdevelopment do in fact contribute to warming the climate, I still wonder if warming leads to more negatives than positives.
Keep in mind that the warming reported since the 1970's brought longer growing seasons and helped fuel the green revolution, counteracting Ehrlich's prediction of mass starvation.
But now, a new environmental movement has risen against Monsanto and other agribusinesses that led the green revolution to feed the world because their methods are "unnatural."
It's hard to know which side of the environmental movement is which, much less who is right.
In the final analysis, our most significant vote will always be how we conduct our own lives, and hopefully enough of us will act in ways to make ours the best of all possible worlds.
During the port talk aboard Caribbean Princess for Reykjavik, passengers received an overview of places we could visit on our own.
Reykjavik is the capital and largest city in Iceland, so you'll find plenty to do, including museums, public art, restaurants and the eye-catching HARPA Concert Hall within walking distance of Skarfabakki Cruise Terminal.
The guide on our Viator excursion mentioned Flyover Iceland, a cool virtual reality experience similar to the Disneyland California Adventure ride. He added the caveat that it gave him motion sickness when he brought a blind date there without knowing exactly what the ride entailed.
Taking public transportation from Reykjavik opens more distant possibilities, like the Blue Lagoon, waterfalls and black-sand beaches for a DIY experience.
Julie and I pre-booked a Viator Excursion to South Iceland. Upon departing Caribbean Princess in Reykjavik, we were directed toward a parking lot for independent tours.
With many excursions having similar names and a plethora of tour companies, it seemed a bit chaotic. A very popular excursion from Reykjavik is the Golden Circle, but several sounded a lot like ours. We eventually zeroed in on someone from the local tour company handling our trip for Viator. We were informed that our coach had not arrived yet.
At least we found some nice views in the parking lot.
A few minutes after the scheduled departure time, our bus finally arrived. We found a pair of seats for the ride.
This was not specifically designated to be a shore excursion, so other tourists were aboard by the time we climbed the steps, and we still made a couple of other stops to pick up more guests.
Driving from Reykjavik, we observed steam venting up out of the ground from geologic hotspots, though we failed to snap a good photo of that while driving. In Iceland, cities are intentionally built in proximity of these hotspots to take advantage of geothermal energy.
Vent below a more dramatic waterfall.
The natural steam turns turbines that generate electricity, and hot water is piped into the cities to heat homes and provide hot water to the taps.
The hot water is not for drinking, but of course there is a cold water tap for that. Fresh water cascades down mountainsides, presumably a combination of melting snow and rain.
Our first stop brought us to Skógáfoss Waterfall.
With a height of about 200 feet and width about 82 feet, Skógáfoss is one of the largest in Iceland.
We took our guide's advice and began by walking up about 500 steps to the top. That felt like an accomplishment in its own right.
It's an incredible vantage point of the Skógá River cascading down the mountainside and also the chance to view vast expanses of the Icelandic countryside, including domesticated farm fields.
Going down steps is always easier than walking up, but with lots of new climbers approaching and some rushing down, it requires some caution.
Back at the base of the falls, we appreciated the views and that feeling of raw power that waterfalls imbue, plus the mist.
This spectacular site has been used in movies and TV, including Thor: The Dark World, the second episode of Vikings and as a backdrop for a kiss of Daenarys and Jon Snow in the final season of the globe-trotting Game of Thrones.
Yes, Iceland is a strange and beautiful place, a good choice for visually impressive settings.
I imagine much of the world has evolved from this stage of what Iceland is now.
Earthquakes are not unusual in Iceland. It's like Mother Nature is giving birth daily.
Large volcanic eruptions in recent years have created enough soot in the air to stop all flights to and from Europe.
A volcano's large scale lava lamp show subsided not long before we began our trip, so I know some travelers were disappointed while others were relieved. Just as in Hawaii, many locals check it out for themselves.
Our guide, who was actually Hungarian, came to Iceland originally to study environmental biology. He said he went with friends to view the volcano from a relatively safe distance when it began erupting.
We could see ash still prominent on Sólheimajökull Glacier, which was the second big stop on our excursion. It was an entire blanket of ash, but it certainly made it look a mottled dark gray.
This glacier has receded dramatically over the last thirty years due to rising temperatures in Iceland due to climate change. With all of the steam venting up through the earth's surface and volcanos erupting, my guess is that temperatures deep in the earth must have some impact on that, but many experts blame manmade global warming.
In any case, it is a fact that the glacier has been receding rapidly since 1995, with expert estimates at 50 meters per year.
Between 1970 and 1995, the glacier actually expanded by 400 meters, but from the 1930 until 1970, it receded 1,000 meters. The video linked here describes what has been happening. I recommend starting at 14 minutes in.
As the expert being interviewed acknowledges, melting of glaciers and warming would likely be positive in many ways for Iceland.
On this particular day, we were blessed with such a day as we arrived for lunch on our own in Vik, a small town near a black-sand beach.
Rather than going to one of the pricey restaurants --- all food in Iceland is expensive --- we went to the grocery store to buy a ready-made sandwich and soda for about $14.
We split that as we walked to the beach.
It was a beautiful day, but we wanted an afternoon coffee before boarding the bus, so after a few minutes, we headed back to a little cafe for a short break.
Still, I felt a bit sorry for our fellow excursionists who spent their lunch break indoors when we had seen such great beauty in Vik.
We drove to another even more dramatic black-sand beach not far away.
I have to say that it was not more beautiful than the views we saw from the first beach that so many had only seen from a distance walking out of the shopping center to the bus. But it was also clear why this black-sand beach was featured prominently.
At Reynisfjara Beach,we walked over to a cliffside with a quartz-like jagged side.
Atop that cliff, Puffins had their nests.
Julie did a pretty good job catching the little birds in flight, but they're not nearly as large or friendly as penguins, so it was hard to see the colors.
I could never differentiate on any Puffin the identifying colorful beak that set really them apart, but I liked the effort.
Still, it was fun watching them take off, land in the water and then sometimes fly back to their clifftop home.
Easier to see were the slower moving Oystercatchers, which are also mostly black and white, with easily identifiable orange bill and feet. More sociable, one seemed to almost pose with our guide in the parking lot of our next stop.
Our final big stop for the day was the one Julie had high on her bucket list, Seljalandsfoss waterfall.
What made this so unique was that we could walk under it.
As we drove through the green Iceland countryside between stops, we saw lots of beautiful little horses.
Not as tall and a little stockier than what we would consider normal horses, they're able to withstand the cold winters and were used for many years as farm animals and for transportation.
These are actually horses at Vik's beach, not along the drive.
Near the end of the day, our guide mentioned that restaurants in Reykjavik have excellent steaks, whether lamb, beef or horse. At first a bit shocking to our American sensibilities, it does seem to make sense for Iceland, with its cold winters, and it provides a rationalization to continue raising horses in the modern, mechanized age when their utility has waned.
As we re-entered Reykjavik, our guide also mentioned some good places to watch the sunset.
At 10:49 PM, Julie got a nice photo of the sunset from out balcony aboard the ship, another terrific place for sunsets that we're blessed to experience frequently.
