July 2019: Aloha!

Ahola, friends! Recently, we returned from an epic Hawaiian cruise. The cast of players was the four of us, my parents, the Vetschs, and Uncle Brian all in celebration of Oma & Opa's 45th anniversary. We are so lucky to commemorate the milestone in paradise and even luckier to have them in our lives.

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The trip started out with a couple days in Honolulu and we wasted no time...a tour of pearl harbor, a driving tour of the city, and a luau all in the first day! And I loved seeing Oma & Opa up front dancing to the Hawaiian wedding song, which coincidentally, was also their first dance! Speaking of dancing, I was so proud of J to get up in front of 100s of people to learn a hula.

We did have a relaxing morning on Waikiki before boarding NCL's Pride of America and sailing away. The first night set an amazing tone for the whole cruise...some great food and even better service (shout out to Blake from Baltimore!)

I woke up really early (sigh, time zones), though I'm so glad that I used the time and went for a run to watch the sun rise while we docked at Maui. That day was a private tour for the family and the first in a series of great tour guides, Gus. He took us halfway to Hana, stopping for a black sand beach, the best banana bread from Aunt Sally's, and a dip in a waterfall pool. By the end of the day, it was more like he was a member of the group who happened to know a boatload about Maui.

The ship stayed overnight in harbor and some of us took off early in rental cars for the other side of the island to catch a charter boat. Captain Kevin and Austin took us out to the backside of Lanai island for deep sea fishing and snorkeling. On the way, we spent a long time with a huge pod of Hawaiian Spinner dolphins. Besides the extremely-hard-to-bait-squid, the fishing turned out really successful. Nana caught a Hawaiian gray snapper (of course, it has a cool sounding Hawaiian name that I can't remember for the life of me) and Tanner caught another kind of fish that the crew were really excited about.

We woke up to find ourselves in Hilo on the big island where we took another whole family private tour, this time with Kala, another fantastic tour guide. He sounded like he could've been a Hawaiian Ben Stiller...stoic, funny and insanely knowledgeable. We visited another black sand beach, heard all about the drastic changes to the island since the '18 eruption (including the acres of new land added), hiked to two waterfalls, and visited Volcanos National Park. Even listing all that out, I'm impressed with how much we crammed into a day that felt so relaxed.

Overnight, we jaunted over to the Kona side of the island and did another private tour (notice a theme here), this time with Kahikina...who also is the local radio celebrity, "Polynesian Pirate." Also fantastic, in a totally different - radio hosty - way. All day locals were approaching him to chat about his show. He took us to a coffee farm, a restored Hawaiian temple, and a good beach for snorkeling.

Next stop was Kauai for a day-and-a-half. Many people have told me that it would be my favorite island. Evidently, many people know me well: That. Place. Is. AMAZING! Everywhere you look it's just dramatic. Every turn there is another adventure. Even the Marriott beach next to the port had waves for body surfing and 3-foot-wide sea turtles that were almost tame. The first day, some of us went on an ATV "Mudbug" tour...now, it'd had been dry for a few days, so it was more of a "Dirt bug" tour and so so so cool anyway. We cut through the jungle where they filmed many parts of Jurassic Park, drove through almost a mile long tunnel, ventured deep inside of a WWII bunker, and swam in a pristine pool below a double waterfall. Though the real anxiety came from getting back on ship, scraping off a ton of dirt in the tiny shower, and still making it to our dinner reservation.

Speaking of food, we'd heard mixed reviews going into NCL...personally, the highs were some of the best and the lows were merely good. The speciality dining was the most on-point, my favorite was the Brazillan steakhouse, which had the best lamb I've ever tasted and a filet that rivals any other. The service was 98% impeccable and where they messed up, they were quick to recover. And a crown jewel of a memory was the surprise serenade of Oma & Opa to honor the big 4-5. Some of the wait staff sang "Fools Rush In" to them as all the kids sat on their laps, drooling over the anniversary cake.

Now back to the trip summary: Our final day and hands-down the BEST cruise excursion we've done: a helicopter tour of the island. I got chills as we cut through canyons with the Jurassic Park theme playing. The pilot pivoted us through the deep red-rock canyon of Waimea Canyon. And we skirted the most dramatic of the dramatic, Na Pali coast. In fact, the moment the pilot pointed out the twisting hiking trail along the coast, Papa said, "Well, Bret's planning our next trip already." And, yep, Papa was right. 

The kids did awesome on the whole trip and it was amazing to see them play with the Alaska cousins. It's hard to be so far away from them and just so special to watch how they click right back into best friends mode. It's something that I never had with my cousins because they were a generation older and so it touches my heart in a very special way.

As I'm getting a chance to sort through the pictures and jot down my thoughts, I'm feeling a tad guilty. We were supposed to be honoring Oma & Oma's achievement (and any number of years in marriage is an achievement!). And, yes, we did, but their efforts to pull us together in paradise was such a special gift to all of us that I'm not sure we'll ever be out of that debt. All I can do is recount our adventures, tell a story with some pictures, and get to planning our next trip...oh, that reminds me, anyone want to hit Kauai?!