The very last port... Hawaii

The very last port! It was a very welcome break from 11 days at sea.
I didn't have any expectations for the day - I was prepared to be
content just walking around town. Instead, I ended up having one of
the best days of the voyage so far! (And I have yet to hear of
anyone's Hawaii day that sounds cooler than mine!)

I had planned to spend the day with my friend Grace, and we met up
with our other friends Brynn and Amy, who were going snorkeling. We
started the day by going to Ken's House of Pancakes, which was a
delicious way to start the day. I had coconut pancakes, and for the
first food off the ship it was delicious! The restaurant was really
crowded with SAS kids and locals. After breakfast, we headed across
the street to a gift shop. We ran into some other friends who were
going scuba diving, and Brynn decided to go scuba diving with them.
We then went to a shop next door that provided rental snorkeling
equipment. The shop also provided two hour surfing lessons, so Amy,
Grace and I decided to give surfing a try! The surfing instructor
came to the shop, and he was a fantastic guy. Unfortunately, none of
us ever quite got his name - at one point I asked him to spell it, and
I still didn't quite catch it. We're pretty sure he kept giving us
different names. He was tattooed all over his face and his chest, and
was constantly followed by his little dog named Pip. He was a very
laid-back guy - exactly what I would picture for a typical Hawaiian
surfing instructor.

Our surfing instructor offered to give us a ride to the beach where we
would snorkel. It was a very pretty little black sand beach. The
water was quite cold, but braving the cold waters was beyond worth
it! All of the fish and the coral that I saw were amazing. There was
so much variety, and they were all very brightly colored. I was much
more impressed here than with Dominica's Champagne Reef. However, the
best part of snorkeling was when we saw a giant sea turtle! It was
the first sea turtle I had ever seen, and we were literally swimming
inches away from him. It was incredible!

Our surfing instructor picked us up around noon, and drove us downtown
and recommended a place for us to get lunch. It was a cute little
sandwich shop, and we highly enjoyed another meal off the ship. After
that, it was time to go surfing! We headed to a different, bigger
beach for our surfing lesson. For the first part of the lesson, we
each sat on the surf board (on dry land) and pretended to paddle and
stand up. After that, our surf guy announced it was time to hit the
waves. We immediately protested, as none of us actually had any idea
how to surf. "Don't worry, you'll figure it out," was all our surfing
instructor told us. So, with no clue what we were doing, we paddled
into the ocean. And promptly got beat up by the ocean. It was a lot
of fun, but surfing is hard! I kind of caught one wave, but I spent
most of the time getting hit by wave after wave and my surfboard. Our
surfing instructor later told us that the water conditions were pretty
rough for beginners... But it was still a great time. We also had
another sea turtle encounter here! There was another big sea turtle
who was just hanging out on the beach. It was pretty funny to watch
Pip check out the sea turtle.

After we were done "surfing," our surf guide took us to Rainbow Falls,
a waterfall that was nearby. It was very pretty, and we had a little
time to just walk around. After Rainbow Falls we got a ride back
downtown, and then said goodbye to our surfing friend. We got ice
cream and spent our remaining hour in port eating ice cream and
shopping. It was a fantastic day, and a great way to end my travels
for now. It's hard to believe that in less than a week I'll be home!
I've had an amazing semester, and I already feel like I need to
revisit every single port. I've made some really good friends, and
there are some people that I will really miss. However, I am excited
to return home. This trip has really made me realize how lucky I am
to return to such an amazing home!