Been a while since I’ve done an update on the cruise so far, so I’ll wrap up all the islandy adventures now– we’re on day 13 of the cruise, meaning in 3 days we’ll be disembarking.
Last you heard was of the awesome helicopter ride in Kauai! That was day 3 of the islands– day 4 was in Honolulu, with tremendously tall hotels and really fancy stores (Burbury, Fendi, etc.) The biggest goal that day was to get to Waikiki Beach and float around in the water. But… the water was cold! Laying on the beach and walking around was what I resorted to– and the weather did get nice and toasty around 4 or so. So a minimal tan has been achieved on this trip 😀
Stop 5 was Maui– saw the banyan tree, walked all the way up and down Front Street, visited quite a few art galleries (really nice ones too– and fell in love with Todd White’s work), then saw the old guy on the street yelling all sorts of stuff to passersby, his Bible quite saggy and his guitar leaning against a fire hydrant (last year I couldn’t figure out where he kept it, now I know). No huge purchases were made, it was a day for browsing… and on Front Street, the store system goes like so: jewelry shop, ABC store, jewelry shop, art gallery, jewelry shop, Whaler store, jewelry shop, clothes, clothes, jewelry, ABC, jewelry, art, jewelry . . . and so on and so forth. Even with all the repetition, it was a nice stop to tie up the islands with.
The entertainment has been pretty good so far– the dancers are amazing, and the performers that they bring on have been really well (singers, even the famous ventriloquist Willie, with Lester). Last night’s show was the crew talent show, which was kicked off in an interesting way….
Walking to a seat in the theatre can be a bit of a challenge because sometimes you’ll come across a person or two who have fallen alseep in their seats and won’t move to let you pass. Last night, however, the social staff threw balloons into the crowd, then passed around empty balloons for everyone to blow up– and soon the air was filled with colorful orbs flying every which way! (elderly-friendly fun) There was a guy who hogged all the balloons and then tied them together (not as much fun as watching 5 bazillion balloons float about independently of each other), and then there was the grinch with the sharp pencil that popped all the balloons that came near him. And that was better than the actual show 😛

OMG!! (Oh man, GELATO) last night I had gelato (Italian ice cream) for the first time. “gelato al torroncino” or something I think it was called— so amazing!

Owned everyone at Balderdash and Pictionary today, maybe I’ll win some more free luggage tags today too 😀