So far everybunny is doing well, although there's no reports of new babies yet. However, there's still time for them to appear before we get back from vacation.
Every time we go on vacation, it's pretty much the same as everyone else's expensive 'Hawaiian' vacation except in reverse. Most times going on vacation involves multiple airports with multiple layovers. This time, we had a direct flight! Woot! Get on the airplane in Kailua-Kona, get off the airplane in San Diego. All of four and three quarter hours and we'd be on the mainland where we wanted to go. How amazing would that be?
Yeah, well, I guess the airplane didn't get the 'go directly to the mainland' memo. It did wonko things with it's compasses (did you know big airliners have four of them?) It didn't get wonko with all the compasses, just two of them. So, instead of heading directly to San Diego, we got shuffled off to Honolulu pretty much just like usual. Sigh! So much for our direct flight. HOWEVER! Since the airplane had the issues and it wasn't the weather or anything outside their control, the airlines put us up at the Sheraton's Princess Kaiulani hotel in Waikiki overnight. Kinda a detour, but at least an interesting detour.
There was dinner at the hotel's buffet, then sleeping near the top of a really tall building. Kinda spooky, I dunno if bunnies approve of the 28th floor of anything. Then breakfast buffet and back to the airport to finally get to San Diego. Fortunately, we'd had an extra day scheduled in San Diego before the cruise ship left the harbor so our Waikiki detour didn't disturb the cruise. Whew! However, before we go to the cruise ship, there was our stay at our next accomodations - the Dolphin Motel.
This is the next view we had outside the window of our next sleeping location. The Dolphin Motel is Very Bunny Approved. I thought I had a picture of the really friendly staff folks who helped us at the Dolphin Motel's entry desk, but I can't seem to find it. The Dolphin Motel is very clean, very friendly and inexpensive. Not overly fancy, but how much time do you usually spend in a motel room? I think the same folks have been running the Dolphin for the past forty years. They've got it figured out really well. They provide just what you need without excess frills that cost excess money.
The Dolphin provides a continental breakfast outside in the motel courtyard in the mornings. Not overly fancy, but enough for breakfast and saves time and expense of finding a bit of coffee and toast in the mornings. The Dolphin is about four miles from the airport and about six from the cruise ship terminal so it's in an especially great location for this trip. We also stay at the Dolphin Motel on the long layovers when we are flying from Hawaii to the East Coast and go through San Diego. Ever so much nicer than spending the ten hour layovers at the airport.
Since the Holland America Line cruise ships no longer have the extensive library that they used to, we shopped for some books to take along with us on the cruise. Sometimes it's nice to just hang out around the pool and read a book. So, on the advice of our friendly motel staff, we ventured off to the local bookshop.
We found out pretty quickly on this vacation that 'La Playa' means 'The Beach' so this is 'The Beach Bookshop'. It has a nice selection of new and used books so we were able to get a whole bag of books to take along on the cruise ship.
Very friendly and knowledgable staff folks at the La Playa Bookshop! Very Bunny Approved! Having acquired the last necessities for our cruise, (i.e. the bag of books) we then ventured off to the cruise ship.
For some reason, the first view of the cruise ship always seems extra special somehow. The taxi went along the harbor's edge so we were able to get a look at our cruise ship from a distance.
This is Holland America Line's 'Westerdam' ship. It's a 'Vista' class cruise ship which means it has about 1,800 passengers and about 800 crew. HAL ships are known for their excellent service and the staff is amazing. The ship is really nice, too, and the food is plentiful and very tasty. I think we gained about twenty pounds on the cruise. I guess that would be the same as carrying around four rabbits where ever we go?
San Diego looks different when seen from the deck of a cruise ship instead of out of a taxi window. Possibly because the cruise ship is about ten stories tall? Not only ten stories tall, but the swimming pools are on the top deck. I have no idea how they manage that, but I really enjoy them.
Cruise ships have certain events on board. They pretty much all start with a 'sail away' which is when you leave your first port. Some folks like to have certain things they do on their first sail away each trip. Generally, we like to be on the back deck and sometimes in the hot tub as well. A lot of folks will line the rail to watch the port recede in the distance as we start our cruise.
This is the beginning of a two week cruise. We started in San Diego and ended up in Fort Lauderdale going via the Panaman Canal.