Aue, Aue

We read the wind and the sky
When the sun is high

The beautiful color of the water portends something…
Boat day!

Yesterday was our catamaran day! The “no wiki” (no hurry), is a 50′ long, 30′ catamaran, with an 80′ mast. Captain Kirk (yes!) and his assistant Rob took us out for nice cruise to look at the island, and do some snorkeling in a couple different spots.

The shoreline of the big island is amazing. Rocky lava caves up close, and a view of just how big this mountain really is. There were a couple of cool spots they took us to specifically.

One was called “the grotto”. The surf was high enough that we couldn’t get in as far as the other little tour boat, so the pictures don’t really show it but there’s an entrance to a lava tube in there. The tube approenhly goes back about a mile. The roof used to cover most of the grotto as well apparently.

The lava tube is in the dark shadow right above the rope. Pretty impossible to see in the photo though.

We also saw a formation called “the red hill” which is an old Caldera that has a collapsed lava tube which makes a face which was thought to be that of the war god.

Look for the eyes, nose, and hair blowing to the left.
The less spooky side of the Caldera

We did some snorkeling near here which was pretty amazing. Big lava rocks about 10 feet under the surface, covered with coral. Not necessarily the brightly colored coral you think of from TV, but LOTS of it, and fish swimming around everywhere. Rob, our lifeguard and guide, dove down and through and underwater lava arch which was about 30 feet down.

Bevin tired out from snorkeling.
The clouds just sit on the island like a hat, not nearly as threatening as they look.
We can see our house!
It’s that one.

Here’s a couple of pictures from around the beat

There was really only one downside to this whole adventure: I’m not supposed to be this color.

That’s what comes of like 10 minutes of sun exposure between getting out of the water and re-applying sunscreen… Even with my hat. Reflection is dangerous, and the sun is a death laser.

We didn’t take Hei Hei on the boat, it seemed cruel. Matt’s poor abused legs really don’t need this sort of attention though…

Really fun day. I’m a bit sad we don’t have pictures of underwater to share, but I’m happy to be a person who enjoys doing the thing without having a camera strapped to my face constantly. 😎

The Laziest Day

Yesterday was shopping day, and being lazy sitting at the house watching the waves. We went to the farmer’s market and got some truly astounding fruits. Papaya, mango, and pineapple that have exceeded all expectations.

We also went to Costco. Which met expectations exactly.

Bevin would like you to know of the ham sandwich she made, which had hawaiian BBQ chips on it, as well as mango butter.
Sunset from the porch
The waves crash quite nicely just feet away.
“goodnight moon” said Hei Hei. Poor thing.

Tide coming in…

We have arrived at our home for the next 10 days.

View from our porch
Homecoming?

I wish I had been wearing sunglasses here for more than one reason… The sun is just as much of a death laser as in Texas.

At least Hei Hei isn’t suffering from his agoraphobia if he’s indoors.

Off to grocery shopping!

Long awaited parking…

It took about an hour of sitting on the tarmac to get to our gate. Apparently a small plane crashed and caught fire on the runway this morning and it threw the entire airport into chaos for the day.

It’s very Hawaii though. You get off the plane onto the tarmac, and the “gate” is a series of, well, huts.

Baggage Claim
The Terminal

A nice welcome really, sets the tone.

Now we get to wait an hour for our bags to be unloaded. It appears that they’ve got 2 guys to do all the baggage handling for the entire airport. Ah well, it’s lovely.

Existential dread

[ confused chicken screaming ]

Apparently a small plane crashed at Kona Airport this morning, so we’re parked on the tarmac for an undetermined amount of time before they can bring us to the gate.

*I* may start the Hei-Hei screaming soon…

Cruising Musing

I’ve gathered up some remaining pictures from the cruise, taken by both Bevin and Brian.

Apparently they both took the same picture from different angles while we were departing. We were standing on the highest available outdoor deck of the ship, available only to suite guests. Has a great view, but a bit windy.

Also very similar pictures looking back at Miami from the top of the stairs up to the suite bar deck.

We didn’t really take a lot of pictures while we were out and about in St. Maarten or St. Thomas. We were having fun poking around and we weren’t really thinking about blogging at the time. Sorry about that. Bevin did manage to capture this shot though, which is actually pretty emblematic of the general state of things.

Bevin took a couple of panorama shots! Click to enlarge for the full experience.

St. Thomas out the window of the suite lounge
St. Thomas from the starboard bridge wing. Downtown is way off to the right, over the island and across a bay.
St. Maarten from the starboard bridge wing.
Another St. Maarten 360 from the starboard bridge wing.
Sea day, sitting in the suite lounge.
At port in Miami, soon as we got on the ship.

I took this video at the ice show, you can see the projection mapping moving. It was actually pretty cool how they used the effects on the floor as part of the show, and the skaters were able to do some impressive tricks on such a small rink!

I also took a video of the ship rotating while we were docking at Coco Cay. Look at the island in the background to get an idea of how quickly we were spinning. Truly impressive how fast and how smooth such an enormous ship can maneuver.

A slightly longer view of our rotation, showcasing the speed.

Looking out the window on a sea day.
Another out-the-window on a sea day shot. Iced tea had been had.
Bevin taking random photos on sea days again…

Some have been curious about where our room is. Follow the red arrows. (Click to enlarge)

Bevin, exploring Central Park.
Central Park from the other end, and at night!
The poor creature that Bevin absolutely destroyed moments later.

We actually didn’t take pictures of most of the places we ate. One place I sort of wish we’d done so at was the Wonderland restaurant. Themed after Alice in Wonderland, it’s designed to be an experience of imagination, and there were some pretty creative dishes, however we were having more fun just enjoying it, so unfortunately we don’t have any pictures for you. If you’re curious, the web is full of pictures. They weren’t ours, but they’ll be close. (I found this one as a top result)

I will say that the deviled eggs served on a birds nest, under a glass cover filled with smoke was probably my favorite.

Bevin taking pictures as we’re preparing to leave.
Bevin taking last pictures as we prepare to leave.

Despite the TSA’s best efforts we managed to get home with our luggage.

Wristband is off, guess vacation is over…

Judgement Day

So of all the things about cruising we expected to blog about, urinals was NOT one of them.

However…

The hamster judges you.

The hamster judges you.

So, it turns out this is a bit of a theme. This lead to one of the strangest scavenger hunts ever…

That dog has the look of someone about to cause trouble.
That’s just hurtful.
One fears getting pecked.

Turns out it’s not just animals either…

It was nice to find one wasn’t overtly hurtful..

The only one that seemed positive… Until you read the background.

We actually actively avoided this one… Especially since everyone who used in failed to see the black blob as a dog on first look…

It’s.. Just awkward?

At the airport we found an entirely different sort of animals/bathrooms relationship.

The poor dog looks… Troubled.

So there’s your tour of the urinals of Symphony of the Sea. Betcha didn’t see that coming.

Let’s end this on a happier note. Towel animals!

When they started appearing in the garden area we were quite pleased.
This one took us a little puzzling about before we figured it out.
They slowly began taking over the stairs.
The full menagerie.

Still hanging out in the airport awaiting our flights, which are tragically late in the day due to cancelations several months ago as airlines re-planned their routes…

Bevin and Julian and already plotting their next cruise…