Back on the ship... for the last time! Absolutely unbelievable.
I watched the ship leave port for the final time, and I felt very overwhelmed and actually pretty sad. I was able to watch the pilot hop off the ship and onto his boat; I talked to the people I always talk to at "sail time"; it's funny how quickly things become routine.
But! Hilo!
The big island was verrry different from Oahu. There are only 100,000 people on the big island (which is also the youngest island) and it really feels that way. There is less tourism on the island as well (Kona is the biggest draw, on the opposite side from Hilo). Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and the Kilauea volcano are all on the island (which is called Hawaii) and Mauna Kea is actually the largest mountain in the world if you measure from its base on the ocean floor. And that's your geography lesson for the day.
The plan was to pick up a car with 4 friends and drive around the island on the first day. We got off the ship earlier than anticipated and headed to the airport/car rental. When we got there, we let the spark of spontaneity take hold of us and we decided to rent the car for 2 days and spend the night in Kona. We hopped in our Chevy Impala and headed back to the ship to get overnight clothes, phone chargers, and malaria medicine.
We decided to take the Northern route to Kona and first stopped at the Akaka Waterfall. It was a very quick 1/2 mile walk between Kahuna Falls and Akaka Falls and we had flashbacks to the rainforest of Ghana while walking through the park. We had a pretty quick visit because we had a lot on our itinerary and it was already 1pm.
We stopped at this tiny, 50s style diner on the north shore of the island and had hamburgers. I'm sure we seemed impaired to the waitress at the diner because we kept saying things like "oh my gosh, they have HAMBURGERS here!" and "can you believe these napkins are FREE!" and "there's TOILET PAPER in the BATHROOM!" We were just excited to be in the US.
After a very delicious lunch, we headed back on the northern coastal drive which was stunning. We were lucky to have an absolutely gorgeous day to drive. Mauna Kea was on our left the whole time and at one point we found our ears popping as we increased pretty drastically in elevation for a bit. The total drive to Kona was about 2 1/2 hours, so it got a little long, but we stopped at one point to walk around the black rock/lava field. Many people spell their names with white rocks on the vast black stretch and we gathered some straggler rocks and did the same.
We arrived in Kona and decided it would be a great idea to find a hotel. I called hotels.com and told them our price range and where I was, and the guy had 2 options for me within minutes. He told us he was only putting down "2 people" so we could get the cheaper rate, and we had already told him there were only 4 of us (there were 5) so we were hoping we'd be put in the back tower of the hotel where nobody would see us. Nope! Holly and I waited a few minutes for check-in, and the woman felt bad we waited and was so filled with Aloha Spirit that she upgraded us to OceanFront View.
Our room was beautiful and we dropped off our stuff and made it downstairs in time to see the sun set. We took a walk down the street and saw the little downtown area of Kona. We decided to have a few drinks at the hotel before going out to dinner, so we stopped in an ABC store and headed back. We had a big balcony to hang out on, and within a few minutes of sitting out there it started to rain. This was funny because Kona only gets 10 inches of rain PER YEAR. They got about 2 inches last night. We stayed in and ordered dinner and then later went out to a bar.
This morning we wanted to try to get an earlier start. Sam had stayed in Honolulu to take the GRE and was flying into Hilo early in the morning. We had called him the night before and told him to see if he could change his flight to Kona, and he did! So he was downstairs waiting for us when we woke up and we all went out to breakfast. After breakfast, we had to make a stop at Walmart to get some snacks for a party we are all throwing for some students in a couple days, and we decided to get some lunch to eat later in the day. We had very limited time - by now it was 11:30am and we had to get back to Hilo by 4pm because Jodi and I were on gangway duty.
We drove a couple hours and got to a black sand beach on the south side of the island where sea turtles like to come ashore and tan themselves. We were fortunate to see them swimming around by the beach and we chased one along the shoreline. They are so big! And such good swimmers! It was a lot of fun to see.
I wish we could've stayed longer, but we really had to go. We drove a little ways further and finally got to Volcanoes National Park where Kilauea is. We arrived and went right to the steam vents. It was so bizarre to see these bursts of steam coming up everywhere around us. And it was HOT! We didn't realize how close we were to the volcano at that point, and we came up to an overlook and there it was. We were all taken aback for a minute. We agreed that it felt like we were on the moon. It was amazing.
We walked around the crater rim for a bit, and then headed toward the lava tunnel. There is this giant tunnel where lava used to flow and it's pretty far down. We hiked down there and walked through the tunnel. We had to head back pretty quickly though, because it was 3:15 and we knew we had at least a 45 minute drive to Hilo.
I should mention that in a very short period of time (about 20 minutes) we went from sea level to 4,000 feet elevation. The change in temperature was surprising. We got out of the car and grabbed for jackets right away.
We got back to Hilo and Jodi and I jumped out to be on duty. Sam, Chris, and Shannon went to run a few more errands and return the car. After we were done working, we went to the final ship bbq and had some dinner.
So there we are. My last entry about a port. Completely unreal. I can easily recall how anxious I felt in the week before I left for Virginia, and I find it kind of funny that I feel the same kind of anxiety now, a week before I arrive in San Diego. I'm ready to be home, but I am very sad to leave my friends and the ship. I can't believe I'll be at work next Thursday.
Anyway, coming up this week: students taking finals, lots of "end of the year" stuff, an extended family party, Archbishop Tutu is throwing the faculty and staff a party, our living learning team is having a party, my sea is having a party, the whole SHIP is having a party (the Alumni Ball on Friday, which we shall refer to from here on out as "prom.") Then we have a day for Reflection and Re-Entry, and then a day for Packing. And then I'll be in San Diego.
So I'll try to summarize some things this week, although I think we're all still too close to this to make much sense out of it now. And I will be seeing you all very soon...
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