Kona and Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii

Today I'm going to finish our last island in Hawaii.  If you have been following along we took this trip in October to celebrate our anniversary and both of our birthdays.  I'm so behind in posting about previous trips.  I still have two full weeks in England to finish.  Hopefully I will stop dragging my feet and get on with our travels.  We have cleared our home of Christmas so now I have some time to devote to our trips.

First up is our trip to Kona.  It was a very rough sea day as we approached.  You can hardly tell as we are viewing from high on the top deck of the ship!

This is as close to Kona as we got as the Coast Guard advised the Captain to not allow us to board tenders to visit the island.  This is a town that does not have a pier for such a large vessel so we were going to go on tenders ashore.  The swells of the ocean would have made for dangerous boarding of the pier from a moving tender.  We were disappointed, but understood that our safety is of upmost importance.  So we said goodbye to Kona and sailed on to the other side of the big island of Hawaii for a stop in Hilo.

That evening the Naturalist that was on board told the Captain if we sailed by Kilauea we may get to see some of the lava flow that still is active.  You may remember large damaging eruptions this past year from this sleeping giant!   As we passed the island in the evening we were only able to see smoke plumes from the volcano.  It was a lovely moonlit evening as the Captain guided our ship close by. 

The next day we were docked at Hilo.  We had booked an excursion to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.  This is an extraordinary "Garden in a Valley on the Ocean."  

This garden was founded by Dan and Pauline Lutkenhouse in 1978.  They purchased 17 acres of land and spent six years clearing the jungle and created a paradise of exotics.  There are miles of winding trails to take you down, down to the ocean floor.  The steep trail descends down 120 feet to sea level.  We walked the downhill trail and were delighted by all the beauty we viewed!

Come along with us as we walk carefully downhill!

The under story of trees and lovely waterfalls cool our spirits as we descend into paradise!  How in the world did these folks ever do this job is beyond my imagination!

Around every bend more and more lovely flowers growing happily in this tropical paradise.

As we reach the bottom, the under story opens and we reach a path to take along the ocean.

Lovely flowers everywhere and the gorgeous ocean pounding the lava rock formations.

If you want to take a lovelier walk, I don't know where it would be!

If you love orchids, this is the spot for you!  Hawaii is also known as Orchid Island.

The ocean and flowers certainly are two of my favorite things!  Yes, I'm in paradise.

I really didn't want to leave this beautiful spot, but we had to catch our ride back to the ship.

Oh, and we needed to climb back up that steep hill.  Oh no, I told Grayden he must hail a golf cart for me!  Yes, I wimped out and rode the golf cart back up!  

This trip was primarily to Hawaii and then one more stop.  I'll share that next! 

Our Celebration

October has always been special to me and my sweetheart.  This year is no different.  We are so blessed to have spent 51 years together as man and wife.  Married when we were young we are still able to enjoy spending special vacations to commemorate our long lasting love.  We decided to take a trip to Hawaii for our anniversary this year.  We both needed easy travel plans for our adventure this year.  So off we went on our two week trip to Los Angeles by air and then a cruise to the islands of Hawaii.  A cruise is always so relaxing and we both looked forward to resting as we cruised the beautiful Pacific.  

We arrived the day before our cruise, and made plans to stay on the Queen Mary that is now a hotel.  Having been on the Queen Mary 2, Grayden really wanted to visit the original. On a previous visit when our daughter was a one year old, she and I boarded this vessel within the first year of its docking in Long Beach.  It's been renovated and spruced up a lot since then.  We were not disappointed!  How wonderful to explore this historic vessel and spend an evening on board. 

After checking into our state room we marveled at the size and the Art Deco decor that has been preserved.  I'm not sure what class stateroom we occupied, but it is much larger than the ones we've occupied on other ships.

As I sat at this vanity, I couldn't help but wonder what faces of the past have stared into this mirror!

Upon leaving our stateroom we began to wander around this beautiful old ship.

Many famous folks enjoyed transatlantic crossings aboard the Queen Mary.

The Queen Mary is not only a floating hotel but quite a museum full of her history.

For all you Susan Branch fans (and who isn't ?) this little doll reminds me of Joe's Petey! 

We noticed that there are tours one can take and we decided it would be fun to take the "Glory Days" tour to learn more.

How interesting and informative our guide made the days of the Queen Mary's life come alive. 

The Queen Mary was a class ship full of opulence and over the top decor in the Art Deco manner.  She is especially known for her beautiful different tiger wood and inlaid woodwork.

Children enjoyed this playroom back in the day.  Even Princess Elizabeth played in this room as a child!

We learned that the Queen Mary was longer than the Titanic!  She carried over 750,000 troops during WWWII!  She was known as the Grey Ghost during that time as she eluded the German torpedos by out running them as she safely protected her precious passengers.  She was painted grey so she would not be recognized. 

Grayden really enjoyed this tour.  He worked for the US Navy his whole career.  We both felt honored to be walking along the same passages as the famous and the amazing soldiers who made their way from and back to safety.

The Queen Mary is still undergoing renovations as she is an old queen now.  I'm so glad that by staying with her we are helping to keep her alive a little longer.  

Our ship to Hawaii is parked next door to the Queen Mary so in the morning we walked over to our next adventure to Hawaii.  I'll be posting a little about that trip.  If you are interested, please stay tuned. ♥