Too Quiet?

Have you missed me? I know that I entitled my last post "Keeping It Quiet", but you might have noticed that I have been very quiet over the last few weeks-- too quiet! The truth is that we have been gone, cruising the Pacific and enjoying the sunshine of the Hawaiian islands. Our flight back to the east coast was anything but quiet; flying from Los Angeles to Atlanta on Saturday was one rowdy airplane ride full of Rams fans on their way to the Super Bowl! 😲 This was one scenario that we never, ever would have even considered when booking our flight late last summer. Timing is everything. We did have a wonderfully relaxing time away, catching up on some reading and taking in some movies that we had wanted to see. I spent the afternoons on board the ship working on some hand embroidery which I will show here soon. As always, Dorothy knew best: it is great to be home again, there's no place like it!

I will certainly miss English teatime in the afternoons, though. 

My latest mission includes searching for the ultimate scone recipe!

😉

Life is Good!

Floating...

Where in the world have the Goodneedles been? Floating. On a boat; a big one. We sailed out of Los Angeles on Monday evening, January 24, bound for the Hawaiian Islands. Little did we know that there was a surprise waiting for us; a big one, as big as that afore-mentioned boat!
My brother-in-law captured this moment, in the boarding area, when I discovered that he and my sister were sailing with us! Can you tell that this surprise was successful? We had a great time together. I am going to post pictures of our time away below, with little, if any, text; enjoy. I don't have any photos of the very long sea days across the Pacific, over and back, only of the port stops-- you can use your imagination, believe me there was lots and lots of water.

Sailing into Hilo on the big island of Hawaii, snow-capped Mauna Kea is visible. 

The original Volcano House hotel, at Volcanoes National Park, HI. 

 Dressed for dinner, still on Hawaii; my sister and I bought handmade leis from a local lei-maker.

Day two on the islands saw us on Oahu, at Pearl Harbor. Sadly, we were unable to take the small transport boat out to the Arizona Memorial that morning, the choppy water made passage unsafe. 

 Early morning of day three of the island tour saw us porting in the harbor at Nawiliwili, Kauai. 

Morning sunrise on day number four, over the island of Maui. 

 The massive Banyan Tree at Lahaina Park on Maui, this tree has sixteen major trunks supporting it.

There were signs here on the beach warning against cairn construction (rock stacking) but that certainly didn't seem to faze this gentleman. The one on the left here fascinated me, how did he do that?

Our last port day, the day before disembarkation in Los Angeles, was in Ensenda, Mexico. It was a windy and rainy day there. We didn't leave the ship, but enjoyed seeing some of the locals from our balcony; they were noisy too! 

Our last day together. My sister provided the matching T-shirts, commemorating our combined vacations.

We arrived home again in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, to another adventure; stay tuned. 

🌴~Aloha!~🌴

Life is Good!