Goodbye America...

Honolulu was a blast!  We basically spent 2 days just soaking up the sun on the beautiful Hawaiian beaches.  We knew this port wouldn’t be as adventurous as most because Waikiki beach is so touristy and fun on its own, but we took full advantage of the relaxation time.  We got into port on Wednesday morning and went to breakfast in Waikiki before figuring out our game plan.   I got a bit frustrated because we were traveling with 13 people and that’s just too many to accommodate everyone and get around easily.  It was a really good lesson to learn early in the trip though.   After breakfast we headed straight to the beach to claim our waterfront spot for the day.  The boys went surfing and the girls tanned on the beach and swam a bit.  While we were walking down the boardwalk a man who wanted to sell us tickets for an afternoon cruise off of Waikiki approached us.  I took the initiative later in the day of getting a group of 35 people together to go for the 2 hour boat ride.  The funny thing is, I ended up not even going but I heard that the other people had fun.  After a delicious Mexican lunch we checked into the Marriott to put our belongings down and freshen up.  Again, we had too many people in one room so I was annoyed by the size of our group, but it all ended up working out just fine.  We played music and relaxed in our room as the afternoon Hawaiian clouds rolled in off of the ocean.  That night we headed out to a cool local sushi spot that Mychaela’s parents told us about.  It really was a hole-in-the-wall place but had AWESOME sushi for cheap.  We took up half of the restaurant with our group alone.   The next day we woke up early and had a big buffet breakfast at the Marriott before heading out to do some errands.  The girls and I needed to buy a bullet train rail pass for Japan because we plan on going to Yokohama, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Kobe.  The Rail Pass is only sold to tourists so you cannot purchase one in Japan.  We also stopped by the International Market in Honolulu for a bit to get some knick-knacks to remember Hawaii.  We went back to our spot on the beach and lounged a bit until lunchtime when Mychaela took us to the Outrigger Canoe Club for lunch.   It was so nice getting away from the mass of beach-goers and going to a private beach and eating at the snack bar.  The six of us girls just relaxed the rest of the day until it was time to race back to the ship.   With one hour left until the deadline to be back on the boat we squealed into the pier and the line was so long!!  If we don’t swipe our card in before the ‘on-ship’ time we get something called ‘dock-time’ and that means that we are penalized 3 hours for every 15 minutes we are late and can’t get off in the next port until our ‘dock-time’ is up.  So, while all of your friends get off to start exploring the city you have to sit on the ship and wait.   Luckily, we made it back on board before 6pm were safe from the dreaded penalty.  Now we have 11 days ahead of us until Japan.  The weather should start getting colder and the seas a little rocky, but now that we have our solid group of friends and classes underway I am sure the time will fly by! 

 Miss everyone back at home… but not too much!
-Hillary ☺