This is my latest painting called the "Tropical Cove". In 2009 I went on a cruise with Norwegian Cruise lines, with my wife, Sonia and my wonderful Mother, Jewel.
Of course this is after the passing of my father and so we took Mom to ease her pain. We went from Cincinnati to Salt Lake City and then to Honolulu by plane. We then departed the Honolulu Harbor aboard the Pride Of America which is a beautiful ship with Norwegian, and awoke the next morning in Maui. Maui is amazing! The first day there we went on a dangerous excursion on the Road to Hana with our very talkative yet very knowledgeable guide "Surfin Sue." Sue knew everything about the Islands and the best surf places, the best places to picnic, the locals, the history and all about King Kameamea. She was wonderful! I highly recommend using a tour guide for driving this very treacherous stretch of road.
The next day we stayed on the ship and just relaxed around the pool and enjoyed the rest of our evening by feasting and enjoying the comedy shows. We then allowed the ship to rock us asleep.
Next morning we awoke to the wonderful sight of the big Island at Hilo! Such a wonderful sight to see. In the far off distance I could see a wonderful sight. At first it looked like clouds but the clouds were going up instead off floating off. It was the steam of off the Volcano on the other side of the Island! Wow! That morning we went to a beautiful state park and enjoyed the jungle and beautiful flowers. I have never seen so many types of flora and botanical beauties in my days of living. Then on our way back we found out about HILO HATTIES! Hilo Hatties is a great place to purchase authentic Aloha Shirts and Mu'mus!
Yes, they may be a bit more expensive but they are made on the Island by Hawaiians. The Hawaiian people make their living selling these items. Now something to remember is that if you should go to a Luau, it is very important to know what a wonderful, spiritual and happy family event this is.
Luau's are very family oriented and the locals will dress in their own family color. Like my family dressed in Purple. It's like they color code their families which is good because at the Luau that we went to in Nawiliwili they fed over a thousand people. So if you have your family color coded it's easier to find them should your become separated.
By the way always have your camera ready for a shot. You never know when the opportunity will make itself available.
Case in point, I was coming back from breakfast and noticed several people looking and pointing at the water about 100 yards out. I went to the railing and looked. To my surprise, there was a pod of whales playing in the water just off of our starboard side! Now this was a bit odd since normally the whales are there from January thru February and then go to Alaska for cooler waters. This was in June in the heat of the summer but there they were! I took a few picks but nothing special. Just a couple of lumps in the water from my vantage point.
I went back to the cabin and saw this older lady oblivious to what was going on because she was smoking a cigarette and reading a romance novel.
I asked her if she knew about the whales that were playing off the starboard side. Without looking up she mumbled something about whales not being here at this time of the year.
I said, "Ma'am, I'm not from around here and I'm not the brightest person on the boat but what I'm looking at is some very big fish flopping around out there."
She put her book down, frowned at me and looked over her shoulder to get a glimpse of a whales tail flopping in the water. She caught her breath and said, "Christ! There are whales out there!" She then jumped up and beat me to the door of the ship to get her camera.
Then we went to Kona which is on the other side of the Island and normally it is very dry her according to our guide on the bus. It rained almost all day. We saw a little church that tell us John Wayne used in one of his South Pacific Movies. We wound our way thru the hills to see the Coffee Plantation of Kona. What a wonderful place to taste test coffee. It was a two story building in which the restrooms were downstairs in the "basement". Also down there was a man making rum cakes! They were smelling so good. I looked at him thru the screen door and enquired, "What are you making?" He replied, "Rum cakes!" I said, "Really?" He sayed, "Have you ever tasted Rum Cake?" I lied, "No." He game me two small rum cakes. The rum was dripping thru my fingers down to my elbows. I being the fluffy man that I am, took a bite and was transported to Nirvana! I went upstairs and Sonia looked at me and said,"What have you got and where did you get it!" She took a bite and her eyes got big as her desire overtook her will to be polite. I told her that a guy was making them down stairs. I must have said it loud enough because a few minutes later there was a lady hollering over the crowd that there are NO free rum cakes downstairs! Oops!
We then got back on the bus and went to a Refuge in Kona that was mysterious as it were beautiful. There we wondered thru the park taking pictures and seeing people from all of the world. There were people there from Japan, China, Germany, America it was wonderful just to be there enjoying the sites.
We made it back to the ship and pushed off that night. We then came to a place in our journey that was dark and yet thought provoking. It was about nine o'clock that night and the entertainment director invited us to the Port Side of the ship. The passengers lined the railings to get video or to get photo's of the volcano lava falling into the sea at night. You could smell the brimstone it was so hot. We were about a quarter mile out yet we could see the lava flowing and bubbling. One could almost hear a pin drop because the crowd of people were hushed by the vastness of it all.
After passing that part of the voyage we went about our normal routines of going to the dinner clubs and enjoying dancing and karaoke.
The next morning we awoke with the crow of a rooster! Yes, we were in Kuwaii.
A few years ago a typhoon blew thru and smashed all of the Chicken coops and the chickens ran wild. Now the are mostly feral chickens that run thru out the Island of Kuwaii. Kuwaii is beautiful with its high cliffs and beautiful coves. Here is where we enjoyed two beautiful days and our Luau. The Luau was such a wonderful experience with plenty of pig, poi, lomi lomi to eat along with the fire dancers and singing. It was a story of their family and how they traveled to Kuaii from Polleneesia because of love. It was a very moving experience.
We returned to the ship and enjoyed the rest of the evening and awoke back in Honolulu, Oahu to finish the trip. Now for you golfers their is a golf package that is hard to beat so if you want to play some of the most beautiful golf resorts in the world this is the cruise to do it on.
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