Here I am in Hawaii and one island closer to the end of this cruise leg.

Not letting grass/carpet/dirt linger under my feet I bailed off the ship on the tenders as early as it was possible.

looking back at the Solstice

There is this wonderful crafter/knitter/friend name of Jeri that I met last year on the Vision. She lives on Maui, other side of the island as it turns out. She played hooky today and came to meet me.

The rest of the day was packed with fun – after a stop at Boss Frog’s (dive shop chain) where I found a pair of goggles with + lenses which means that I actually can SEE under water we were off to the beach. Obviously, the dolphins had quit flipping around (paddle boarders – argh) and sea turtle had taken off before I managed to get the camera out but I still had a great time cruising along with my new mask and snorkel above the coral reef. Didn’t need fancy fish to have a good time.

When the waves started to get too rough to really see the bottom (sand stirred up) we headed to a local taco shop. The veggie & fish tacos were good, but the salsa were fabulous. Pineapple salsa, avocado lava salsa and about four others that I tried. The extra water I had packed was put to good use.

In the after noon we headed a bit down the coast and up onto a portion of the old King’s Highway which had an outstanding view of the water and some of the closer small islands.

We finished the day with shaved ice (which is not the same as sno-cones) and looked for potential hikes and snorkel trips for the morning. Turns out the government shut down means no volcano hike and the snorkel trips were all booked. Jeri dropped me off at the Barnes&Nobles. Apparently there are no Harry Potter fnas here since I was able to pick up several copies of the otherwise out of stock knitting mag. After finishing up email it was a pleasant mile hike back to the dock.