Fwd: Aloha, Hawaii and San Diego

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Steve <tomlangjr@gmail.com>
Date: December 21, 2014 at 2:24:16 PM EST
To: tomlangjr.wc2013@blogger.com
Cc: Steve Dutton <s.dutton@ymail.com>
Subject: Aloha, Hawaii and San Diego

We first stopped on this Far East & Pacific segment of our world cruise in Alaska but after 72 days we were in Hawaii and so Tom wearing this shirt on Waikiki Beach sort of made sense.  It was cloudy early that day but the sun soon came out and so it was very beautiful in Honolulu.  We enjoyed our week's visit to the islands of the 50th State of the US and this included Hilo on the Big Island, Honolulu, Oahu and then Lahaina, Maui before sailing to San Diego.

Our main activity was shopping, however, and we joined our friends, Ken and Fred, in deciding which new iPhone to purchase, ha!  Would it be the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 6 Plus?  On the advice of a friendly Uber driver, we all chose to purchase the bigger one, the iPhone 6 Plus, and so far we all love our new phones. They helped us take some of the photos below, including this one which shows us enjoying the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. 

Being gone from home since September, and thus trying to catch the spirit of Christmas, we couldn't resist taking a photo of the tree at the mall in Honolulu and at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.  

But the lure of a walk along the beach proved irresistible and so we walked in the sand and enjoyed seeing Diamond Head in the background.

We stayed overnight in Honolulu on the ship.  The next day we sailed to Maui where we enjoyed seeing the famous Banyan tree in the downtown square of Lahaina.  We walked a trail that focused on some of the historic sites of this one-time capital of the Hawaiian islands and took photos of some of the beautiful flowers on the island.  We even spotted our ship anchored in the harbor as we walked the beach.  Next we had lunch with our friends at a local restaurant famed for its cheeseburgers.

The next five days we were again at sea on our way to San Diego.  We said "so long for now" to our friends, Gracie and Kelvin, who are scheduled to fly home to Tucson AZ once we arrive.  But we know we'll see them again on another Dam ship because they are frequent travelers just like us.

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