Hawaii

I walked up the gangway for the last time today.

Bittersweetness.

When we first pulled in to Hawaii on Friday morning, I wasn’t sure if I had another port in me.

I know that must sound ridiculous, but I promise you after a continuous amount of navigating and planning and running and a constant amount of sleep deprivation, there is an exhaustion that forms deep and becomes harder and harder to shake.

Which is exactly why Allie and I choose to spend our first day in Hawaii navigating a sub-par public transportation system to the beach in Waikiki, and it was just what we needed.

We napped on the beach for hours and ate hamburgers and called home and it was simple and wonderful and restful. Later that night, we met up with the girls to celebrate Brittany’s birthday over Italian food. Allie and Brittany went to see New Moon, while Lila and I had a coffee date (I’ll pass on vampires, thanks though) and we taxied back to the boat at midnight a very happy kind of exhausted.

Day two in Honolulu, Allie and I took the bus to Pearl Harbor, which was fascinating and completely worthwhile in light of my Warfare class. We had breakfast for lunch (because, really, what’s more wonderful?), and met up with Lila at the beach after her surf lesson. On ship time was early that evening in order to make it to Hilo by 8am the next morning, which we did successfully (and with no ruff seas, as they predicted).

Day three/day one in Hilo, a big group of us girls hired the most adorable tour guide (she’s a certified hula instructor, so she threw some impromptu hula performances in there for us as well) to take us around the waterfalls and Volcanoes National Park. Hilo is a sleepy town, and it was drizzly and gray during most of our time there, but in spite of the rain, the twelve of us had a fantastic time traipsing through lava tubes and taking in waterfalls.

After we dressed and got Lila ready for her date that evening (shh…don’t tell…she’d be furious at me for doing so…but she’s just so darn cute not to), Laurel and Leanne and Allie and I went to the most wonderful, dimly lit little place for dinner. We enjoyed crab cakes and girl time and good conversation before finishing off the night with a quick trip through Walmart (we thought we’d pick up some Teddy Grahams before finals arrive in all their full glory).

And as for our last day in our last port, Brit and Lila and Allie and I laid on a black sand beach, with our brightly colored towels in a perfect row. It was gray, and the sun was nowhere to be found, but we watched the waves come in and out anyway. After it became too chilly for beach time, we went to get Lila’s nose pierced (which looks most fabulous, if I do say so myself), and we ended our tenth country with falafel and iced tea and another beloved bus ride back to climb the gangway one final time.

Bittersweetness.

Love. Anna