Honolulu Landing - January 12

I woke while it was still dark outside to see the coastline of Hawaii. By the time I got on deck it was swarming with students with phones to their ears or talking excitedly on FaceTime. The shoreline was beautiful to see. 

It’s been just a week since the students boarded and everyone was excited to be on solid ground for the day.  Even more so, I think they were delighted to have access to mobile service and connect with home.  A few tears emerged as people connected with loved ones.

As RDs we assist with the immigration process if needed.  Everyone’s passports were taken as we boarded the ship, so there was a very efficient process of calling “seas” (floors) one at a time to pick up passports at one end of the large lecture room, presenting it to the Immigration officials who had boarded the ship and were sitting at the front of the room, and then surrendering it at the other end of the room.  Each passport had a number on it that corresponded to our SAS number so it was a pretty quick process the 700+ people -- thankfully.
Hawaii is a re-fueling stop, so SAS decided that no one was able to get off unless they were associated with a program.  It was good practice for us all to learn the ropes of disembarking and re-embarking while still in the US.  Lots of coordinating buses and people – a hyper version of our Service Day in Scholars.
My expedition was “Catamaran and Snorkeling.”  Each program has a “Program Liaison” who doesn’t run the program but is sort of the “mother hen” or chaperone--takes attendance, counts that everyone is on the bus, etc. but otherwise just enjoys the trip.  I had signed up for that role in Hawaii, thinking that it would be good to get the experience with a smaller group first.  Really, how many people could be on a catamaran trip?  Well, it turns out 40. 
 

So we were a cozy, intimate group of the boat and had the joy of riding along with the captain’s dog, Sushi.  Sushi was pretty laid back but occasionally would run to the front of the boat in her porpoise life jacket and bark wildly at another boat.  It was pretty cute.

 

From the catamaran we had a great look at the shoreline of the island and Diamondhead as we motored to the snorkeling area.

 

The real delight was snorkeling beside the boat and encountering several sea turtles who would swim by to the surface for a breath of air and then return to the bottom. Not surprisingly the coral looked like it had seen better days.  I suspect that we were at a tourist location – or maybe many of the reefs are suffering in the area. 

After snorkeling, we had a chance to put our toes in the water from the shore, followed by a very moving cultural presentation from a Hawaiian Cultural Practitioner who apparently is also an anthropologist at the local University. 

 

He started us in a circle to talk about the connection to each other and over generations linking his message to the meaning of the word Hawaii and Aloha and emphasizing the importance to the Hawaiian people of caring for each other and the earth.  It was quite inspiring. 

The last segment of the day was a trip into Waikiki for a quick, 1 ½ hour shopping spree.  Waikiki has all the high-end stores you can imagine right off the beachline so people were strolling around with their inner tubes and swim clothes in the midst of extravagance.  A Life Long Learner (LLL) and I made a fast trip to Longs Drug Store (which turned out to be a CVS in disguise) for her to get a passport picture and me to search for a calendar.
 

Seeing Christmas decorations hanging from the building in this tropical paradise seemed an anachronism until I realized that it is still early in the new year.

After scooping up the 40 students (most of whom were on time) we headed back to the ship, where I collapsed in the coziness of my cabin for a long FaceTime with Susan and Will who were valliantly trying to help me figure out how to upload my pictures from my camera.  It was a highlight of the day to just “hang out’ with them.  Later I learned that I was supposed to have been back on the gangway checking people in at that time.  Lol.  A mistake that was worth it.
And now we sail on to Japan.  This is one of the longest stretches without a port so perhaps I can describe ship life a little more in future entries.  Next stop Kobe on January 24.