Aloha from Hawaii!
Bob & Sharon Heaton, along with John & Karen Malone are on a 15 day Carnival cruise departed from Los Angeles, California on Fri. Dec. 2, headed 4 days at sea to the Hawaiian Islands for 5 more days and then back 4 days at sea to Ensenada, Mexico for one day, completing the trip in Los Angeles on Dec. 17, 2011.
We had internet withdrawal on the days at sea! Even if we paid the exorbitant internet fees on ship, there was very, very spotty cell service at all, so we just waited until landing in the U.S. (Hawaiian Islands. 
Some may say being on a ship at sea for 4 days (plus the add’l. 4 days back) would be very boring, but, maybe you’ve never sailed on a Carnival cruise? The schedule is JAM packed with most every activity you could think of! Eating is what we do most, especially since there is every type of food you could imagine, & any quantity you would want, at any time of the day or night.
Bob & Sharon spent a lot of their time playing bridge. John is busy writing his court briefs much of the time & Karen likes the sun (when it’s out, 
as it is winter here in the Pacific west also.), playing Trivia games & attending various dance sessions.
Every evening after dinner, we all attend the variety shows on stage, whether it’s comedy, juggling, magic, or singing/dancing.
Some of us also use the miniature golf, the weight room, the bicycles and the walking paths. John spends a lot of time in the sports bar where everyone huddles to watch 16 or so TV’s for football.
The weather so far? 60, 70 & 80 degrees, some sun, some clouds. lots of rain. Apparently it rains all the time in Hawaii. One minute we are in ‘beach weather’. Another, we are scrambling for the towels to dry off from rain. It’s warm rain mostly, but the winds here ARE usually, well, rather windy. (How profound!)
Our first stop was on the ‘big island’ of Hawaii into Hilo, on the eastern coast. Today is stop # 4 and tomorrow will be our last day on the islands, where we head BACK to the ‘big island’ of Hawaii, but this time on the western coast in Kona.
Stop #2 was the island of Maui. The 3rd stop was Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii, but on the island of Oahu. As I mentioned, today is 4th stop, on the island of Kawaii, rhymes with Hawaii. The street names are all so strange, some hard to pronounce and many, sounding all alike that you could really get confused.
I’m doing more of a summary than an actual play-by-play description of our trip. Each shore excursion for us consisted of renting a van and touring the area on our own, savings hundreds, even thousands of dollars from the Carnival cruise excursion prices! We saw some waterfalls in Hilo, a pineapple plantation in Honolulu & the ‘Grand Canyon of the Pacific’ today in Kawaii. EVERY day, the whole trip, we see BEAUTIFUL scenes of tropical foliage, mountains and of course, the ocean and beaches everywhere! Some spots had small waves, others were quite high. We hit an annual surfing contest where the waves must’ve been 15 feet high, or more. Traffic was horrid that day, as people probably come from all around each year for that. (Waves are highest in Dec.)
Speaking of traffic, our least favorite trip was in Honolulu on Oahu. It’s a more metropolitan city with high-rises, businesses and WAY too much traffic, especially during the rush hour! Felt as if we were in LA or Chicago during their ‘jams’. It wasn’t fun. Prior to that, the drives around the island were as amazing as always.
More later. Being paged. Miss you all!