I'm back. It was good, I guess. However, I don't think I'll be taking a cruise or formal tours alone again. It's just too awkward to be alone among all those couples. If I'm going to go alone, it's better to be alone.
The first three days were in a hotel on Waikiki beach. I bought a bathing suit. Just can't resist swells and surf and salt water, even though my legs embarrass me every time I let them out in public.
Then to the ship. It was huge. Long lines everywhere. Too many people. But my room was nice, and I enjoyed my balcony, and the jaccuzzi/hot tub. And don't let anyone tell you that you can't feel a big ship moving. The first night, it was like riding a carousel horse - a carousel horse who likes to slam you into walls occasionally.
Then to the islands. I liked Maui best.
I had been worried about visiting "the big island", because of the trip there with Jay just before his fourth surgery destroyed him. We had stayed in a hotel on the water in Hilo, and just behind the hotel there was a little island (Diamond Island?) you could get to on a footbridge. He and I went out to the island every evening, and waded in a little tidal pool, and watched the sun go down. I half did and half didn't want to see that island again.
I had signed up for a tour that included Rainbow Falls, the volcano park, and a few other things. I was worried about how I would feel seeing many of the same places again without him. But the ship was docked quite a distance from the hotel and the little island, so my chances of seeing that spot were slim to none.
Now here's the weird thing.
The buses for the tour left the dock at 9:30 am. On the graph I had made up at home when I scheduled the tours I had clearly marked the start line at 9:30. Then on the ship, I had gone through the tour booklet and noted the start times in ink to make absolutely sure I didn't misread my chart. I wrote 10:00 am right on the 9:30 line for this tour. The morning of the tour, I double checked, and I swear I read 10:00 in the tour booklet (a later check verified that it did say 9:30 in the booklet).
I missed the bus. By a half hour.
A ship security guard felt sorry for me, so he phoned the bus driver to find out where they were, and then he drove me to meet the bus, in his own car (Yes, I tipped him well. He could easily have just said "Too bad".)
We arrived in a parking lot next to the hotel Jay and I had stayed in, just as the tour group was reboarding after having visited Diamond Island. !!!
Note that the first stop in the itinerary for this tour was Rainbow Falls. Diamond Island was never mentioned. No one on the tour had been aware they were going to stop there. It turned out that some spot at the volcano that was planned for later in the day had been unexpectedly closed to buses, so the tour operators had substituted this stop at the last minute.
The next stop was Rainbow Falls. Jay and I had visited those falls only once, but at the lookout spot there was a particular tree that we loved. When we got to the falls, I looked up the path and saw that tree, and I started crying. I didn't go up with everyone else, and I don't think anyone noticed, but I know that from my reaction to the tree, I would have completely broken down if I had gotten close to our little island.
It was good that I was a half hour late for the bus. There was no way I could have made myself see 10:00 all the places it said 9:30, because there was no way I could have known the island stop was scheduled.
I think Jay was with me, knew I couldn't go there, and was watching out for me.
He's still taking care of me.
~~Silk
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