7 more days on the cruise ship, approximately 24 hours of studying for Erin and 100 hours of re-reading “Game of Thrones” for Marla, 4 workouts in the gym, 1 cousins dinner in Honolulu, and approximately 6,000 steps per day going from our room to various activities around the ship.
We have no idea how this week worked out in the budget since we prepaid for the cruise four months ago. At some point, we purchased a WiFi/drinks package and upgraded our room from an interior room to an obstructed view room (behind a life boat) that put us in the middle of the ship to help negate the motion of the ocean…but we’re not really sure how to account for that on a weekly basis to make it useful information for anyone. Let’s just say we’re even on the budget.
Walking around Deck 7 (The Promenade) of the Grand Princess three times is a mile. Unless there was a howling wind with ocean spray coming up and threatening to knock people over there were cruisers making the circuit from dawn til dusk. The best thing about Deck 7 for us was our very own “king of the world” view. The leading edge of the ship became our favorite place to visit with the blue blue Pacific Ocean in every direction, flying fish skipping waves randomly and the possibility of seeing dolphins, whales, or other sea life. (Apparently there was a pod of about 100 dolphins on one of our sea days to San Francisco but we weren’t lucky enough to see them).
Our stay in Honolulu was awesome! Erin took a surfing lesson and was very successful for a first time surfer! Her arms tired out about 30 minutes before the lesson was actually over, but she surfed at the famous Waikiki Beach! We met cousins Melanie and Brian for dinner, and while a great band played on the beach we got to know each other better. Brian and Melanie gave us on a quick tour of some of the historically significant places in Honolulu and took us to an amazing vantage point that showed off Honolulu at night. Very cool cousins dinner, will have to do it again soon.
We took an excursion to Pearl Harbor the next morning with 20 of our fellow cruise passengers. The Pearl Harbor visitors center and the memorial over the sunken Arizona was a must-see for us. This National Park book-ends our WW2 experiences on this Meander and it’s been an education like no other to physically stand in the places where history was made.
Next week ~ 2 more sea days, docking in San Francisco, prepping for the final month on the road, and our U.S. desert Southwest leg!
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