After enjoying a buffet breakfast, including fruit which surely cancelled out all the calories from the bacon and eggs, we headed up on deck to find a chaise on which to lounge for a few hours. On all the cruises I've been on before people are out at the crack of dawn reserving their chair with a towel or magazine, so much so I've had to lie on the ground because every chair was taken, but here we had our pick of every lounger on the entire ship! Not sure if it's because it's winter or if it's because school is still in session but this is the least crowded cruise I've ever been on!
We whiled away the next few hours on deck, soaking up the 82F weather. Heaven! What wasn't heaven was the freezing cold pool but you can't have it all! Makes me slightly nervous about snorkeling tomorrow because I haven't found any warm water in Hawaii yet and haven't yet submerged any part of me above my knee cap!
After another buffet lunch (so much variety, so little time! I vow to have a salad before week's end! More fruit to neutralize the chocolate chip bread pudding!) we readied ourselves for our excursion. We mixed it up a bit and had planned an evening adventure which involved heading up to see the Haleakala volcanic crater at sunset. We had been warned that the temperature could be drastically lower at the top of the volcano so I came prepared. There was much snickering from Paul as I headed out into the sweltering afternoon with my sweatshirt, hat and gloves in hand! We'll see who's laughing once the sun has set!
It was about an 80 minute drive to Haleakala. As we wound our way up to the 10,000ft summit the clouds and fog really closed in. We were all a little skeptical about seeing anything at the summit, least of all a sunset. However, as we climbed to a higher altitude the sun appeared and the wind blew away the clouds to reveal blue sky. When we parked at the top and the bus driver opened the door he warned us to layer up. We could instantly tell that the temperature had plummeted, probably into the 30s, and the wind was unbelievable. Some people chose not to even get off the bus! We braved it but had to brace ourselves against it to even walk to the rim. It was so loud we couldn't even hear each other speak. We made our way to a building which we cowered behind as a windshield. We had an hour to kill before sunset but there was no way we could stay out so we all kept running back and forth to the bus to warm up. It turned out to be really fun though because we were all united in the misery/hilarity of it and we chatted and laughed with our cruise mates. When the sun finally dipped behind the clouds it was like a stampede back to the bus. By this time it was 16F! We were all wondering why we weren't sitting on the ship drinking cocktails instead of being in a howling gale at the top of a volcano!! As we descended the volcano around its many switchbacks we enjoyed the lovely orange glow on the horizon. Definitely a memorable experience.
Once back on the ship it was time for yet more food!! I'll spare you the details! Following that we took in a show at the theater and then it was off to bed so we'd be ready for snorkeling in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment