Vacation Travelogue-Hillsdale College Cruise to Hawaii-Day 9-Maui

We normally got up around 8:00AM, so we were able to stand at the rail and watch the island of Maui appear. As usual, it was a beautiful, sunny day.

We saw many of these kite-surfers all around the Hawaiian Islands. Lahaina Harbor had a few, with their colorful kites.

The Crystal Symphony had to anchor out at Lahaina, since there is no cruise-ship dock there. Here’s a picture of the ship, taken from the window of the ship’s tender that ferried passengers back and forth all day, about every 30 minutes.

When we arrived at the dock in Lahaina, we were greeted by the cutest trio of ladies, doing their hula dance to the music of a small band. They were just throughly delightful.

Aren’t they just precious? That was the best welcome we could have asked for.

We discovered, to our surprise and delight, that there was an amateur surfing competition going on close to the dock, so we stood with the rest of the spectators and watched the kids go out with their surfboards to compete. We saw 10-year-old boys, and girls in their competition. They were marvelous!

After we watched the kids surfing, we took off down the streets to explore the town of Lahaina. There is a nice city park a short walk from the dock, where we saw a bunch of the big banyan trees that seem to populate most of the Hawaiian islands. These were especially large, with multiple trunks. It’s too bad the locals can’t keep from carving their initials everywhere they can reach.

Hubby took this one of me, for scale.

Next, it was a walk down Front Street, to find a place to have lunch. And, boy, did we find a place! We came upon Mick Fleetwood’s on Front, owned by the rock-and-roll icon, and decided to have lunch there. We were seated on the upper level, where we had a nice view of the ocean.

Now, for all you environmentalists out there, we here in the Seattle area are in the thick of the “plastic-straw-ban” movement. Well, Hawaii is ahead of us! See what we drank our lunch libations with?

How about those nice, colorful paper straws! Very festive. And the best was yet to come. Fleetwood’s has live music, and there was a band playing for our lunch, and another hula dancer. Very nice lunchtime entertainment.

After lunch, we putzed around downtown Lahaina, and of course I took more pictures.

Across the bay from Lahaina is the island of Lanai, and multiple boats advertised day trips there.

Too soon, it was time to leave for our next stop, the Big Island of Hawaii. But on the way, we were treated to more beautiful scenery. In the picture below, that flat area is a big solar farm, situated on the other side of Maui. I guess you’d expect a tropical island to take advantage of their natural benefits.

Maui is described as the Valley Island, and you can really see that here.

So it was on to the next stop, Hawaii. Most of the journey was done at night while we slept, and we regretted not being able to see the journey. But Nature and the ship’s Captain had some interesting experiences in store for us.

Land Ho! Vacation Travelogue-Hillsdale College Cruise to Hawaii-Days 6 & 7 in Honolulu

Finally, on our sixth day out, we spotted signs of nearing land. I love transportation, and was thrilled to see a container ship on the horizon.

We finally saw signs of land.

Finally, we rounded the last headland and got our first glimpses of Honolulu.

The famous Diamond Head, an extinct volcano that almost stands for Honolulu. My readers may not know that, in 1962, my family pioneered the “home exchange” movement, when we swapped houses with a family in Honolulu for a month during the Seattle World’s Fair. My mother’s cousin was the managing editor of the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper, and he found a family that wanted to swap with us. Their house was in the Kahala neighborhood, on the other side of Diamond Head.

More views of the harbor of Honolulu, including its container port and city park. There was a whole fleet of tugboats, used to guide big ships into the harbor.

Surfers! Right in the harbor among the boats and buoys.

See the fleet of tugboats, waiting for work in the harbor. July is actually low season for cruise ships in Hawaii, and there was just one other ship in port when we docked on Friday afternoon. We didn’t have a lot of time left in the day, so we just took the opportunity to take the bus into town, to the famous Ala Moana Shopping Center. It has been there for many years, and I remember going shopping there in 1962. It’s a lot bigger now, and we were impressed with all the stores, and the many amenities.

The first place we stopped upon alighting from the bus was a little Japanese shopping area, which was filled with food sellers and tiny shops. Located there was a shrine, based upon the Asian Zodiac, with carved Buddha statues for all the animals of the Asian Zodiac. The statues were very intricately-carved, and before each stood a “charity box” for people to donate based on their sign.

In the center of the mall is an artificial river, with koi ponds and a waterfall. I loved the colorful fish, easily visible through the clear water. What a beautiful, relaxing place!

And some human interest that I just couldn’t prevent myself from photographing. This little boy and his grandfather were enjoying the pond and fish.

We discovered that we could not leave behind signs of our home. See that Ben Bridge store in the background? They are based in Seattle, and I want to Synagogue with the Bridge children.

After doing a bit of shopping and getting the obligatory Starbucks Frappuccino, we went back to the ship for dinner, to relax in preparation for the next day’s outing to Pearl Harbor.

Saturday, we again boarded buses for the trip to our tour of Pearl Harbor, and the USS Missouri. The Missouri was where the Japanese finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, and we saw many landmarks of that historic occasion.

This was the entrance, and our first glimpse of the vessel. Not far inside the entrance and off to the left was this typical sign of WWII military bases.

From the dock you can see the Arizona Memorial in the background, but we could not go aboard, as it was closed due to structural problems. I could not get over that absolutely spectacular sky.

Our group, listening to our guide at the bow of the ship.

The deck of the Missouri was an excellent platform for photographing Pearl Harbor.

This was the Surrender Deck where the Americans and other allies accepted Japan’s surrender. This plaque commemorates the occasion.

After our tour of the ship, our Hillsdale group was treated to a catered lunch on the fantail of the ship, and a lecture by Victor Davis Hanson, on the weaponry of World War II.

After lunch, we boarded a launch for a trip around the harbor. It was the closest we could get to the Arizona Memorial that was closed.

Once back on land, we were free to explore the rest of the Pearl Harbor exhibit, which was extensive. Hubby instantly declared that he wanted to see the submarine, the USS Bowfin, which was available for tours. Going through my pictures, I discovered that I’d gotten an excellent picture of the craft, that really shows how long it is.

The tubes and other machinery in the torpedo room show you how little space there was in that vessel. Definitely no place for anyone suffering from claustrophobia!

Again back on land, here is more of the scenery.

That’s Plumeria, the state flower of Hawaii. I have fond memories of sitting on the grass in front of the house we stayed in, in 1962, with my sister, making leis from the Plumeria bush in the front yard.

Old Polaris Sub-launched Ballistic Missiles. Fortunately, there was no need to use them, and they essentially died of old age. Military readiness keeps us safe.

And I just could not resist capturing these two totally-unexpected tour vans parked in the Pearl Harbor lot. Who would have thought there were Polish tour companies? Well, it looks like there are! And, get the license plates!

One other structure that I was not able or willing to photograph presented itself on the way back to the city after our tour. It seems that the Hawaiians have drunk the same Kool-Aid as the Seattleites, and have been building a “light-rail” project between Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. And, just like Seattle, it is a long way from being finished, and way over budget. And the driver told us that the project has been dogged by all sorts of government corruption, resulting in lengthy lawsuits. Sigh, it sounded very familiar, and everything being more expensive in Hawaii, it will probably be a bigger drag on their economy than ours already is. The progressives who run both places never tire of their stupid, backward-looking transit projects that no one will ride but everyone will have to pay for, in perpetuity.

There was still some light left when we got back from the tour, so we walked a bit. Right on the same cruise ship pier is this Honolulu landmark.

And across the street is this beautiful tree.

As it had been a very long day, we re-boarded the ship and had a shower and dinner. Later in the evening, our ship pulled away from the dock, and headed toward Maui at sunset.

Next stop, Lahaina on Maui.

Vacation Travelogue-Hillsdale Cruise to Hawaii, Days Four and Five

By Day Four, we had gotten well into the routine of morning and afternoon lectures, broken up by an awesome breakfast buffet, walks on the deck when the weather permitted, lunch by the window, and just relaxing in the stateroom. Most of the time, it was too windy and cold on the deck to sit outside much, which was a disappointment.

Day Four began with a walk out on the Promenade Deck 7, with my camera, around 7AM.

This is the view off the starboard bow.

Isn’t this just the Deep Blue Sea? I really could not get over how blue the water was in the North Pacific. Achingly Blue.

Look! You can see the curvature of the earth!

This is part of the mechanism that lifts lifeboats into and out of the water. I took a bunch of pictures of all the equipment on board that is there to ensure that everyone gets off alive in the event of a disaster.

The first lecture of the morning was by historian and journalist John Steele Gordon, who spoke about the economy under Obama, and under Trump. He spoke to a rapt audience, and took spirited questions later.

Next came Walter Russell Mead, Wall Street Journal columnist, discussing the US, Israel, and the fate of my Jewish people.

The final morning speaker was our friend Michael Walsh, whom we met on the Alaska cruise in 2016, and had dinner with on this cruise on the first evening. His talk was on Politics and the Arts, about which he writes in his newest book The Fiery Angel. Walsh is a delightful guy, and we met him and his delightful wife, Kate, often in our strolls around the ship, mostly after dinner at the Avenue Saloon.

After lunch, was the lecture we’d all been waiting for. Michael Ramirez, political cartoonist, spoke and showed pictures from his book “Give Me Liberty or Give Me ObamaCare”, which was a riot. He had his audience laughing and groaning in turns.

Mild-mannered-looking gentleman, but his wit is biting, and he knows just where to hit Liberals.

In the afternoon after the last lecture, I again walked the deck looking for likely pictures.

My readers will know my love of clouds, and I sure found some beautiful ones on this cruise.

Oh, yeah, and there’s the Pool Deck, where many passengers spent hours getting a tan. See that gazebo on the left? They had a band playing there in the afternoon.

The big lecture attraction of Day Five was Patrick Caddell, the self-described Democrat pollster, opining on what has happened to the Democratic Party. I have already done one post on his talk, and I can’t really say much more, except that his lecture brought down the house. He got rousing applause often during his speeches. He deserved it!

We also heard from Roger Kimball again, and Victor Davis Hanson, who spoke on the Second World Wars. This was in preparation for our arrival in Honolulu, home of Pearl Harbor. Mr. Hanson spoke without notes, which was very impressive.

I admit that I took my camera to all the lectures, and sometimes I’d just point it at something in the room and snap. The Galaxy Lounge was the place all the Broadway shows were staged, and I was intrigued by the complex lighting arrangement on the ceiling.

Late on this day, things started to get stormy outside, and we hit some fairly rough seas. I said many times during this voyage that we were getting great balance practice! It’s a wonder more people didn’t fall when the ship was pitching and rolling around. When was the last time you took a shower on a moving vehicle? That’s an experience in itself!

Looked at from this angle (looking down from our veranda to the Promenade Deck below), the water looks almost black. Isn’t light wonderful? That’s the last of Day Five.

Vacation Travelogue-Hillsdale Cruise to Hawaii-Days Two and Three

Sea days were lecture days on the Hillsdale Cruise, and the first two helped get us into the standard daily routine of morning lectures, lunch, afternoon lecture, and free time. Monday the 16th of July introduced us to the lecture hall, known aboard ship as the Galaxy Lounge. Here we all are that first morning of lectures.

The first talk of the morning was by Victor Davis Hanson, Distinguished Fellow, Hillsdale College (and distinguished classical historian). His subject was “The Current State of the US Military”, and as usual he held us all spellbound. Today’s military has been subjected to differing rules, regulations, and budgets depending upon who is president, and the discussion was spirited.

Next, we were treated to a talk by the President of Hillsdale College, Dr. Larry Arnn. Everyone on the cruise was very familiar with Dr. Arnn, and we enjoyed his speech. Dr. Arnn has always been one of my role models as a Good Person.

His was the last lecture of the day, so after listening to Dr. Arnn, we adjourned for lunch, and a free afternoon exploring the many wonders of the Crystal Symphony. Not far from the Galaxy Lounge is the ship’s Casino. On sea days, you could hear the merry jingling of machines and the hum of conversation from the casino whenever you passed near.

Sometimes we would have lunch in the Silk Restaurant, an Asian-flavored venue. I loved the decor there, including a wall of art most unusual, and pretty furniture. They also had some vertical gardens that lent a natural touch to the space.

After lunch, it was time for a tour around the Promenade Deck. At the bow of this ship is a “fitness garden” of outdoor equipment for people to take a turn on as they stroll the deck, as well as lifeboats and other safety paraphernalia. The sea and sky were beautiful this day, too.

Tuesday’s morning lectures were by George Neumayr, Contributing Editor of the American Spectator, and Nick Lloyd, Professor of Military History at King’s College, London.

This is Mr. Neumayr. We met him at dinner on Sunday and we enjoyed his talk.

Mr. Lloyd gave three lectures on his specialty, World War I, which were very informative.

Tuesday’s afternoon lecturer was Roger Kimball, Editor and Publisher of The New Criterion. His new book is very colorfully-titled, and available for purchase later, signed by the author. Many of the tour’s lecturers had books for us to buy, which we did!

Tuesday afternoon I did my tour around the Promenade Deck and took pictures, as usual. It looked like the weather was going to get stormier, so I took every opportunity to get outside. My readers will know that I have a fascination for the water and the sky from the ship, and I took many photos of the ever-changing sea.

This is the end of Day 3, Sunset on Tuesday.

Vacation Travelogue-Hillsdale Cruise to Hawaii, Day One

Last month, Hubby and I took a 16-day cruise to Hawaii on the Crystal Symphony, with Hillsdale College. We left from San Francisco for the round trip on Sunday, July 15. We had four days at sea going each way, which were filled with lectures by a variety of conservative speakers. I’ll be chronicling our voyage with a post per day. Herewith, Day One of our Cruise Vacation.

We boarded the Crystal Symphony on Sunday afternoon, and had to wait for a couple of hours until our stateroom would be ready. So we took some time to stroll around the deck, and, like the picture-taking fool that I am, I shot dozens of pictures of San Francisco Harbor from various vantage points. It was a bright, sunny day, with a brisk wind blowing, which you can tell from the whitecaps on the water. Gulls and pelicans flew around, and there were many sailboats and other watercraft plying the waters.

Above is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

How about those pelicans in formation!

We left port promptly at 6:00PM, to the strains of “Wonderful World” sung by Louis Armstrong. This vessel escorted us from our berth into the harbor.

Everyone recognized this famous place, Alcatraz Island.

We said good-bye to San Francisco. Then, we passed beneath this landmark.

Once we had our luggage safely stored in our stateroom, we met some friends (who we had not expected to be there) for dinner in the Waterside, the main dining room. Our friend had managed to corral some of the Hillsdale speakers, so we had a very pleasant meal in the company of Michael Walsh, Nick Lloyd, George Newmayr, and Tim Caspar from Hillsdale. What a great way to start the cruise!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! (Dem) Pollster Pat Caddell Agrees with Rush Limbaugh!!

I am currently on a cruise ship, the Crystal Symphony, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, heading east toward Mexico, in the company of a large contingent of Hillsdale College supporters and employees. On our sea days, we have been presented with a group of the best speakers known to conservatives. Self-identified Democrat Pat Caddell has treated us to some inside secrets of the polling universe, and we have been often startled by how conservative he actually sounds. In fact, I have been pleasantly surprised at how many times he has seemed to agree with my Hero, Rush Limbaugh, about events taking place in the US recently.

Nearly the first idea he expressed, that “the sovereignty of the US has been hijacked by the Political Class against the American People”. Funny, but Rush has been saying this for years. Mr. Caddell cited results showing that 70% of Americans have expressed the opinion that the country is “in decline”, and that today’s children will not be as prosperous as their parents are. He says that the political class has all the power, and uses it to make their own rules-there are essentially separate codes of conduct for the political class, and the rest of the people (to whom they are supposed to be answerable).

Here is Caddell’s Law: The Wisdom of the American People in the aggregate cannot be denied. Pat notes that the elites are allied with the mainstream Press in telling the People what they should think. Again, another place where he agrees with Rush Limbaugh, who has been discussing this for nearly as long as he has been in the public eye. And he agrees with Rush that today’s Democrats and bureaucrats are attempting to nullify the results of the 2016 presidential election that brought Donald Trump to power. He even used the same word to describe what is taking place! Both men, one a staunch conservative, the other a Democrat, have described the same actions of those who believe that Trump’s election was illegitimate, and that he is mentally unstable and unfit for the high office to which he was elected.

In Caddell’s talk on the polling business today, he started by describing how the media’s polls are biased, and ignore responses that are counter to their anti-Trump narrative (thus presenting false results). Bingo! Another area of agreement with Rush! He pointed out the colleges, like Marist and Quinnipiac, that have started their own polling operations, and how their student poll-takers are subtly influencing the answers they receive from those they poll. Remember now that most colleges in the US today are strongholds of progressivism, safe-spaces, snowflakes, and Trump-hatred. And he also noted how often media and college polls over-sample Democrats. Bingo again! Rush has been mentioning this for a long time, that this artificially lowers the ratings of Republicans, and understates the actual popular support for President Trump.

Caddell also notes how the media do minute-by-minute polls when the Republicans are doing poorly or in the midst of a (often media-fueled) scandal; but they go silent when the Conservative party is doing well. Bingo! Rush has mentioned often how the press kept the heat on President George W. Bush, and misrepresented the economy as doing worse than it actually was. Our speaker went over the whole Benghazi scandals, and how the media and the Obama Administration perpetuated lie after lie after lie to deflect attention away from Hillary Clinton’s culpability for the deaths of four of our American diplomats. Bingo!! More agreement with Rush!

Mr. Caddell says that the media are telling us which “truth” we may know, and they suppress the Truth. He thinks, and our audience agrees, that the press are making themselves the enemy of the American public. He emphasized how the advent of 24-hour TV news coverage has expanded the power of the media, and enabled them to literally destroy a law-abiding American’s life and career. Remember Joe the Plumber, whose life was turned upside-down when he was seen as not supporting the previous president? He notes that in the 20th Century, the press deferred to presidents, and did not ask tough questions. Now, they try to destroy the duly-elected president!

Rush has often discussed how the Press does not report what happened, but what they Want to happen, and Pat Caddell is in agreement with that. Mr. Caddell also discussed how in times past White House correspondents for major media organizations were experienced veterans of years in the news business, while today’s “reporters” are raw college recruits, with little knowledge of the way the White House should be covered. They mainly report on events that coincide with their preferred narrative, and ignore things that don’t. Bingo! Another agreement with Rush.

Mr. Caddell also discussed how today’s news-readers sound exactly alike when reporting a particular news story, to the extent of even using all the same words and phrases. Triple Bingo! Rush Limbaugh has had his experienced production team producing montages of all the news readers expounding on the same subject, and you can plainly hear how everyone sounds exactly alike! In fact, those montages are the best part of Rush’s demonstration of how today’s media operate.

So, Mr. Pat Caddell, when are you going to finally admit the obvious? Isn’t it time for you to leave the “dark side”, and come out and admit that you are not really a Democrat, but a Republican? If you do that, and join us, you will discover that we conservatives are real people, who work for a living and appreciate all work and workers. We conservatives do NOT attempt to destroy the lives and livelihoods of those with whom we disagree, we reason with them and try to help them see the light. We clean up after ourselves, and don’t leave the mountains of garbage behind at political rallies like the “progressives” do. And we welcome new people-the best conservatives are reformed “liberals”. You have already seen, over the past week on the sea and in Hawaii, how friendly we are. Join us!

Michael Ramirez Says, Today:

Celebrate!!!

RamirezLiberty

Calling-all-RushBabes

A Conservative Oasis in a Desert of Liberalism

Category: History

Vacation Travelogue-Hillsdale College Cruise to Hawaii-Day 9-Maui

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Land Ho! Vacation Travelogue-Hillsdale College Cruise to Hawaii-Days 6 & 7 in Honolulu

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Vacation Travelogue-Hillsdale Cruise to Hawaii, Days Four and Five

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Vacation Travelogue-Hillsdale Cruise to Hawaii-Days Two and Three

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Vacation Travelogue-Hillsdale Cruise to Hawaii, Day One

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Extra! Extra! Read all about it! (Dem) Pollster Pat Caddell Agrees with Rush Limbaugh!!

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Michael Ramirez Says, Today:

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August 2018
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