Day 7 – Honolulu

We were up bright and early and headed for Honolulu. Our friend Louise met us right aside t he terminal and off we went to check things out in Honolulu. Top priority for me was to find some flowers to take pictures of. Louise took us to the Foster Botanical Gardens. I’ve known Louise since we were best friends in sixth grade. Hate to put it this way but that’s over half a century. What a fun surprise that Louise greeted us each with a fresh flower lei.

Always knew Louise as a kid was a bit amazed of her knowledge of ‘everything’. She knew just about every plant we saw and the history of it. More importantly, she knew the real, long names of each one. It truly was beautiful. I took lots of pictures and was in awe of all we saw. My favorite plant was one that is the oldest plant on earth – here before dinosaurs, yet surviving the dinosaur. I don’t think I’m as smart as Louise, I can’t remember the common name. It’s beautiful with big, unnoticeable spikes on it. If you touch one you have a real good idea why the dinosaurs left it alone.

We left the gardens and went to The Pagoda. It’s great having a local show you around. This place was gorgeous and unfortunately – closed. We walked all through it though on small walkways which have water underneath where a huge number of Koi and some other large fish swim. We were sorry it was closed but then headed to The Willows. It was similar to The Pagoda. Looked like lots of office Christmas party lunches were being held. The buffet was superb. Many items I’d never heard of – lots of pork, curry dishes and the expected roast pig.

We left there to go to the Punchbowl. It’s a huge memorial – so beautiful. Ernie Pyle and the astronaut are buried there. There are no more available plots there.

Louise had a meeting in the afternoon so we said our ‘goodbyes’ – ooops, I mean our “Aloha’s”, hugged and hoped we’d be able to come back to visit again.

Donna and I then walked around the marketplace close to the ship.

Evening – we had a great buffet onboard.

Went to sleep early. Tomorrow – Kauai.

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific