Hilo

Woke up Praising God for this wonderful awesome experience. No hangover and felt refreshed and ready for a walk around deck. Everyone aboard is friendly like I said and is willing to make friends (except for the younger dudes who seem a bit aloof) Maybe they are on their honeymoon and are preoccupied with other thoughts.

Great chances for speaking about Jesus and our Mission Church we have started at Trinity. For instance there is a teen center on board and I talked with the girl who was in charge and it seemed to be a mission of hers to suppor t youth and keep t hem entertained and out of trouble. She had worked previously with Girls and Boys Clubs in Ashland Oregon. She agreed with my statement about the need to work with "at risk" kids and have a place where they could go and get help with homework and also have fun.

The rest of the day we stayed on board after the ship docked in Hilo on the Big Island. We explored, I signed up for the Internet Cafe. Bonnie was tired and went to the cabin and enjoyed some zzzz's. We both had lunch at the Buffet restaurant named Aloha Cafe.

I spent the afternoon by the pool rela..x...in' and taking naps now and then to recover from the time change and lounging in the jaccuzi.

Wow! this is the life!

We cruzed all night and got rocked to sleep by the rolling of the boat.

Sailin'

So safely down in Honolulu on the island of Oahu we proceeded through morre security to finally get on board the "Pride of America". A beautiful ship.

Everything I mean everything immaculate and beautifully designed and in the cabin very nice and user friendly with courteous staff. Everything is first class and you feel like Kings and Queens.

The first night was fun-even with the jet lag. I had my first drink on board a tall Daxquiri (strawberry) that kicked in and had me joining in the Karaoke singing. This had a twist to it-all the cruise directors stall were picked one by one to sing songs picked by the audience and it was like a Gong Show where you could gong them if you didn't like their rendition. I gonged one young man and was challenged by the MC who handed me a microphone and asked why did I do that?. I told him I was from Idaho and sang in a church choir and couldn't tell if he was a tenor or a soprano. the songs I picked them to sing were "I'm so excited" the Pointer Sisters and " Love, Love me do" by the Beatles of course.
A fun evening. I do remember chasing around the night club floor after this male singer with a baseball bat trying to bat him before I gonged him ( I forget why-that Dacquiri was tall and potent)

So ended the evening at sea.

! Aloha and Mahalo !

Great Flight with United------Boeing 767

Saturday 28th.

Hurray! Today we will be in Honolulu----all being well.
After a good nights rest at the Hotel in Aurora we made it quickly to the airport and checked back the rental car.

Denver Intnl is a super airport. It is NE of Denver and sits on its own with excellent access and well planned for quick movement from terminal to the three concourses. There is an underground train that is swift and moves people easily without a lot of walkingcarrying heavy bags The check in was much faster than SLC. Maybe because it was United or that it was Saturday with less traffic being a weekend. However it was good experience at Denver airport compared to Salt Lake. The whole day went alot better and everything went smoothe as silk. I felt like God was smiling on us and blessing us. Getting on board the United Boeing 767-300 which seats 269 was a breeze compared to the Airbus because of the twin aisles and 2 seats outboard near the windows.
I know you all are fascinated by this stuff (I was a Boeing employee so I feel compelled to praise their excellent design)

Back to the subject. Getting there is half the Fun!!?

The flight was 7 hours. You go thru 4 time zones so it makes for a long flight but they did a good job of providing plenty to do what with movies and beverages and lunch.Take off was just after noon and we arrive Honolulu at 3:04pm. We had 2 lady drivers up front. After the rather bumpy landing and we were safely parked at the gate and all the passengers had dis embarked I asked the Purser if I could go up front in the cockpit and talk to the pilot-he said yes so I was allowed to talk to her about the heavy landing She said she forgot about the rather strong 15 knot cross wind which took away the ground effect under the aircraft and caused premature touch down (any landing is a good landing if you walk away from it)

I would guess her age at about 50 to 55 quite mature. She was a Senior Captain. The other pilot in RH seat was much yuonger a tall brunette. The stewardesses were also mature; a sign of the downsizing of teh airlines and retaining older service employees. They all said they had lost much of their pension and therfore had to continue working.

More later.................

packing, packing, packing........itinerary

Wednesday

It snowed. It thawed.
Checked the website for carry on luggage rules at http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/9-25_updated_passenger_guidance.shtm I was rather alarmed when I read that all liquids, gels and aerosols must be specially packed in 3 oz original unopened cans or jars and placed in a qt sized ziplock bar until Bonnie informed me I should put all those things in my checked baggage.
I packed and unpacked and then packed again ----6 times. Whew!

Thursday

Day before we leave on vacation. Sorry so busy didn't blog, 'cus too busy----more on Friday.

T-4 and counting

My good friends Chow and Jan Felix who live close by (in Potpourri) own a wood splitter. I have a lot of wood to be split to get us through the winter up here in Greentimber. Oh yes, for you newbies.....Hi! Us means me Nigel and my lovely bride Bonnie who is going with me on this cruise around the Hawaiin? islands in just four =4, days.

I was up really early today. 4am. Don't know why, just couldn't sleep; lots of things to get done before we leave. Wondering where to put all the wood when it is split. But it is nice and peaceful when I get up early. I like to read a book as I drink that first cup of coffee. So, I am reading right now "Dialogue With God" by Mark and Patti Virkler. This is pretty new for me. The concept of talking to God and hearing an answer from Him never entered my head until quite recently.
I am a very analytical minded person (dominant left brain) and this dialougeing requires using your right brain.

Today went well for me. I took our old Ford pickup over to the Felix house to pick up the trailer with the wood splitter and pick up Chow and Jan and come back home to our big pile of wood (thanks all who helped to get that wood in the forest a week ago, that was fun!). Anyway we got all that wood blocked so it goes in my fireplace.

It's 11 o'clock and I am really sleepy. So.......to be continued tomorrow

Night everyone.
and God bless.