Category: Hawaii

Lazy days at sea continue!

Today we’re invited to the fancy Mariner’s Luncheon, for individuals who are repeat offenders with Holland America. We counted and Mum’s been on 6 cruises with HA, and I’ve been on 2. Mum would like to note that we get the same luncheon as those who have been on dozens of cruises.

There was champagne. As you can see, I was SHOCKED and AMAZED!

My starter was poached lobster on cucumber and decorated with other little goodies (dairy free!) There’s just one left here, because I got excited and ate the others right quick.

Our filet mignon mains: mine on the right with extra veggies and mo dairy; Mum’s is on the left with how it’s supposed to look with hollandaise sauce.

I got two desserts! And Mum got a treat plate

We don’t think we’ll be hungry for supper later! So we have a plan to go for a walk before we go.

At this very minute Mum is waiting for me to finish this post so we can watch the last two episodes of the first season of West Wing.

If you were wondering how lazy we were today!

I have gotten Mum addicted to “The West Wing” and we spent most of the day watching episodes. We’re on the first season. an interesting show, and also easy to nap with.

We also took an after-lunch constitutional around the Promenade deck.

Tomorrow we have to remember to go to the Mariner’s Lunch in the dining room we were invited to.

We got to spend two days in Honolulu, our last days in Hawaii. On the first day Mum and I went shopping and figured out the public transit system. On the second day, today, we used our knowledge of the busses to go to Waikiki to go swimming. Today we also decided we are going to move to Waikiki because it’s warm there, and we will go swimming every day.

Note 1: the public transit system if just like any other public transit system in the world, i.e. I figured it out with Google Maps. Except? that there was always a bus waiting for us when we wanted one, which is kind of weird, but certainly fortuitous.

Note 2: We went shopping at Walmart!

We are currently en route to Vancouver, having lifted off around supper time. We have plans for our final days at sea, including finishing our books, watching some dance shows, watching more piano shows, and we’re going for a swim tomorrow morning.

My supper was delicious tonight. I had some super rare beef with Thai sauce for a starter, and stuffed zucchini with tomato sauce and noodles for my main. Vegan choco cake for dessert. This dinner is in second place after the night of the filet mignon.

You might be thinking that I have a lot of photos to share after my first day in actual Hawaii. But I only have one. And a video.

The same as the photo only in video.

I slept in this morning, which is remarkable considering time zones (addendum to that, BTW, we were in Hawaii time yesterday, I was trying to change the time when I was asleep or something). But because of this, I didn’t have to wait long before the boat docked and we could get off (ok we did have breakfast first, too).

Then some time at the beach (see above) where we bobbed around in the big waves. The beach we visited had nice manicured lawns that nudged up to soft sand, and then nice warm water. I liked the soft sand, and , when I was in the water, the way the waves lifted me up. They were big waves and there wasn’t even a ferry or any big boat passing by to make them!

After beach time, there was some light shopping, and then back to the boat. I spent the rest of the afternoon on a lounge bed on the swim deck with a book.

Desserts update:

Mum reads my blog and commented that not everyone may know why I’m so excited about my Non-Dairy desserts.

Since I am allergic to dairy, it’s not often I get to have desserts at restaurants. Or o should say that there were a lot of years when I couldn’t have desserts at restaurant. Restaurants are getting better at having vegan treats lately, but there’s still places were I don’t have anything for dessert. This is fine because I’m usually full anyway. But it’s nice to have the option. (Also, sometimes if everyone else was having dessert, I would make do with a Bellini or margarita.)

So that is why I get so exited when the kitchen sends me a different dairy-free dessert every night, and sometimes two. And not just sorbets, either, which is very often the dairy-free/vegan option. Last night was pavlova, and there’s been cakes and puddings, too.

Also exciting is that it’s sometimes a surprise non-dairy dessert. In other circumstances, I might be worried about this, since I like to be sure something is actually non-dairy, but I trust this kitchen. It’s fun to see what our server puts down on front of me.

Photos are from our Alaska tour circa July 2022. I was obviously more organized about taking a photo before shovelling them into my mouth

I’m feeling better today, likely thanks to the lack of massive ocean swells rocking the boat all day long. It’s calmer today.

The daily informative lecture today was all about the ports we’ll be visiting in Hawaii. Very important.

I spent some time after lunch reading on a reclined deck chair with a view of the water. I read some but I also gazed out at the ocean. The ocean kept changing colours today: dark blue, blue-blue, indigo, periwinkle depending on the location of the sun and how much cloud cover there was; and then blue-grey when the sun was completely covered. Blue and silver with the sun hitting directly.

Photos of Dairy Free Desserts – a saga

I keep forgetting the take a photo before I start eating, but I’m improving.

OMG P.S. Looking out at the water at night is eerie. Beyond the path of the boat, and some whitecaps in the near distance, there is just black nothingness. Just black and nothing. Maybe a bit of a difference between the black ocean and black sky if that makes you feel better, but not really.

P.P.S. It’s warm here.