HAWAIIAN CRUISE FEB 2 - FEB 15 2013

Celebrity Century

To celebrate our 32nd Wedding Anniversary Dale and I went on a 15 day Hawaiian Cruise. Cindy and Stu Alleman joined us to celebrate their 35th. My parents initiated this cruise to celebrate their 60th Wedding Anniversary. But due to my Dad having a stroke and heart surgery 3 weeks before the trip, they were unable to go. We were so disappointed because this was a dream of theirs. We tried to bring back lots of pictures so we could share the trip with them.  We had a wonderful time seeing Hawaii for the first time. Our thoughts were on Mom and Dad and the purchasing of our new home (we had just started the paperwork two days before we left). So we immersed ourselves in many of the classes and activities on board our Celebrity Century Ship and had an amazing vacation.

First meal while waiting for our room

June, our Hawaiian ambassador taught us how to make five different leis

We went to a variety of shows each evening. Most were family friendly. We only had to walk out of one. We saw magicians, jugglers, the ship dancers, and some wonderful singers.

We spent a lot of time walking around the ship and working out at the gym so we would not feel guilty eating all the delicious food.

First of 3 formal nights

All 4 of us took Hula lessons from June. We even performed and graduated with honors. You will have to ask Stu and Dale about their moment of fame during that performance. We do have the video!!

Finally after 5 days we arrived in Honolulu and headed for the Polynesian Center. Our tour took us around the North Shore and we were able to see the Temple.  The different groups dancing and sharing their culture was fun to watch.  What a beautiful place to attend college.

We love the pineapple fruit drink they served in the store. Just perfect on a hot day.

Our snorkeling excursion off Oahu. On our way and back we were able to see hundreds of humpback whales. Some were quite close to our boat. This was the highlight of the trip. Oahu is one of the areas the whales have their babies before starting the 4500 mile trip back to Alaska to eat and gain weight.  

We also ran into a school of over 200 Spinner Dolphins. They swam right up to the boat, then jumped out of the water and spun in the air. It was an incredible sight.

Since it was Sunday we decided to take a tour of Kona.
This is a special place they call "place of refuge" Anyone who had violated the "kapu" of their people were put to death. If they could swim to the "place of refuge" they would be blessed by the big Kahuna and be allowed to live.

We passed this park on the way back from our tour around the island of Kona.

We walked around looking at the different symbols around the island. The view was spectacular.

Of course Dale took many pictures of the beautiful flowers we saw.

The unfinished painted church also on Kona. 

Rainbow Lookout Falls

A brunch they served at the end of the cruise in the dining room. The whole room was filled with food and beautiful ice sculptures.

On the way back we took ukulele lessons from Kola and Kunia. We were taught 4 songs

Flowers made from paper. I have to admit that Dale had the greater skill!

Each night we ate dinner with these two couples; Cindy and Stu and Jack and Cindy (from Florida). They asked to join us the 2nd night since we had 2 empty places at our table and they were unhappy with the people they had been assigned to. If they had known that they would spend 14 dinners with 4 Mormons they might have reconsidered. We ended up developing a great friendship with this couple.

The view we saw every night as we took our last walk of the day around the ship. Such an amazing vacation. Hopefully someday we will go back and see more of the islands.