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As many of you figured out, Joann, the boys, and my mom and step dad all went on a cruise to Hawaii. It was my first time to the islands as I’ve never really had a desire to go. We drove down to S. Cal Tuesday December 23rd staying at the Double Tree where they offered free long term parking for the cruises. On the 24th we got shuttled to the port where we boarded the ship. The itinerary consisted of 4 days at sea, 4 days at ports on the islands, 4 days at sea, a day at Ensenada, then back to Long Beach the next day on January 7th.

We stayed in Alhambra through the 8th to see a couple relatives and drove home Friday the 9th, taking only 8 hours with stops for the kids, opposed to the horrific 10 hour trip back on the 23rd due to accidents on I5 and LA traffic. BTW, after driving down there, the aggressive driving up here looks really docile

Having been on cruises before, I thought 4 days at sea was going to be incredibly broing as I don’t dance or gamble, so I took some home work with me . However, with the kids, even with my mom’s eager help, there was hardly any down time. There was always something going on. we got to see a couple shows/comedians but for the most part was in the room (AKA, “The closet”) by 9pm to try and get AJ, Tyler, or both to sleep. With a room with no outside light, it became increasingly easier for all of us to sleep in longer and longer. Getting back to the normal routing now is really hard.

While on the ship we consumed an impressive and not-to-be-disclosed amount of smuggled on alcohol and got more than our money’s worth of the soda and juice package we purchased immediately. Food was 24/7 but not for us. I knew what can happen on a cruise ship so starting on Christmas day, Jo and I started a daily 30-40 minute cardio workout on the elliptical machine in the gym. With that, I was able to return without gaining more than 2 pounds, if any at all. I will be keepiing this up here at home (Jo’s elliptical is better grade than there’s are) to hopefully get ready for this year’s season. Loss of 20 is the goal.

The first 3 days on the ship were really rough at sea, and the last cruise I went on was worse, this still produced sick passengers as well as crew. None of us got sick which didn’t surprise me as the boys never got car sick. There’s a few pictures of one of the pools which are 5 ft deep on one end and 7 ft on the other. You’ll see an approximate 2′ drop on one end when the ship rocks a certain way, then a huge splash when the water comes back. They closed the pool (never opened it) and eventually pumped the water out until the seas calmed.

Christmas on the boat was pretty good for the kids. There was even snow in the atrium where Santa visited and handed out presents to every child who visited. We had a few gifts for them in mom’s suite but much was here at home waiting for them upon return.

Our first stop was Hilo on Hawaii where we hopped a free shuttle to… yup! Friggin’ Walmart :angry: You’re kidding me right? 2400+ miles just to go where I could have been in 10 minutes here at home? So we got a few supplies that we under estimated and was off to look for old downtown and some walking around. There were some really cool looking trees where we hung out and let the boys run around.

The next day, the next stop, Oahu where we walked around a bit before getting a bit of time in at Waikiki beach. I got a glimpse of Diamond Head but not much of it as there has been hotels built blocking the view unless you’re out about 100 yards off the beach. Sorry, not taking the SLR or the PAS camera out there. Here Tyler wouldn’t get out of the water. He doesn’t know how to swim yet so he’s not out there like you’d think. AJ on the other hand, hates the sand in his toes so he spent most of his time on the blankets and shirts when needed

Next stop was on Kauai where I was done with “shopping” so we hit much less crowded beach and again Tyler spent the whole time playing in the waves lapping up on shore. AJ really started loosening up on the sand traveling and by end of our visit, had no problem walking around without his sandles on. Here they built a sand turtle, played with coconuts, and what have ya.

This was also New Year’s Eve. The build up on the ship was great and the decorations were a plenty. Tyler has been looking forward to it for months. He’s been talking about the count down and learning to count backwards from 10 down to 0 for some time. Well, when the time came, it’s like the guy with the mic was waiting for a break in the somgs playing because a song ended and he blurted out something and went right to 5-4-3-2-1…. :angry: . Talk about a let down! Tyler was so upset. The fireworks in Honolulu where we were off the coast was great to see. The skyline looked incredible with the linguring smoke dimly lit from the city or the fireworks. I didn’t think about bringing the camera so no pics of that.

Our last port was Maui where I guess I was overly clear about the fact I hadn’t actually seen any if the islands, a place where I probably will never return to. So we hired a taxi for 2.5 hours and he took us to a plantation where there was some really nice tropical plants and settings for pictures (there is where the black/yellow spider and spider monkeys are) and then to a valley in the rain forest for some great photo ops. Up to this point, I don’t think we actually ventured far enough from the ship to lose sight of it and that bugged me. I mean, we brought all our dive gear and it never left the suitcase :blush:

After 4 days at sea, we had to stop in Ensenada where I got a few gifts for friends and utilize a cocktail encyclopedia in my iPod at a Banana Club bar where I got a few pics of the kids and the waitress

Then, it’s back to reality. In a nutshell, with much detail left out, that’s our trip. There was few sport bikes on the islands so I snapped a pic of an R1 on one of our stops for everyone here and the F1 car was taken specifically for Paulo . We all know how he is…

The cruise was in some ways not what I’d normally want because of the boys but on the flip side, there was so much that I cherish because of the family that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Good to be back and online and now it’s back to work and catch up on the side work that I need to address.

I took 770+ photos and that’s not including my mom’s. So instead of picking out and converting certain photos, then uploading them one by one, I just flagged some (92 to be exact) and created a slide show. I hope you can muster through it and actually enjoy some of them.

Link: http://tjfdesigns.com/cruise/photos/
(Please note that because I didn’t rename the photos and they are from two different cameras, they don’t appear completely in order)

Happy New Year everyone!

Jim