The trip to Hawaii

I would have had a better time if I'd had someone about my age to pal around with, and go with on shore excursions. My cabinmate was nice, very pretty, young at heart, but was old enough to be my mother.

I'm a bit of a trainiac, and one shore excursion I signed for included a boat ride on the only navigable river in Hawaii, and a train ride. Wouldn't you know that that trip was canceled ... And of course I was interested in a luau. It was at the Kalamaku Plantation on Kauai. Turned out about 1,000 people attended the luau. I was seated WAY in the back of the huge pole barn, and it was late afternoon, and I don't see well. I couldn't see what was happening on the stage, and with all the chatter of the drunks I was seated with, I couldn't hear much. I ate a little then wandered around the grounds alone until time to get back on the bus and go back to the ship.

I did ride "The Liberty" at the Dole Plantation, and rode the train (with an actual steam locomotive) at the Kalamaku Plantation. The "Hanalei" was one of the passenger cars.

I got lucky in one instance. I love music, and had researched native Hawaiian music on line ahead of time, and bought some CDs. The first Sunday afternoon there, the hotel where I stayed was a short distance from an outside mall, not quite a flea market. I found a music vendor, and told the seller things I liked. On the only shore excursion that my cabinmate and I took together, I asked the driver about music. (I was always seated at the very front of the tour buses because of my eyesight.) He asked who I was familiar with, and I named some. He asked, "Do you have ...'s latest?" I said I didn't. He told me to wait a minute when we got back to the ship. Turned out that he was one of the producers for Na Leo ... and he gave autographed CDs to both my cabinmate and me!