Aloha

Greetings from the 50^th state, Hawaii.  We pulled into Hilo harbor around 0800 this morning to much excitement among the shipboard community.  Everyone was up and taking pictures and using their cellphones.  It took about two hours to clear immigration and customs and then the line to leave the ship went from the second deck gangway up to the fifth deck.

When Kelly and I finally debarked we headed out for a nice walk around the area, checking out a few local parks and eventually making our way to downtown Hilo.  We stopped and had lunch at Ken’s Pancake House and had a loco bowl for lunch.  It’s a Hawaiian meal comprised of two cups of rice, topped with brown gravy, a meat (I had the shredded pork) and two dippy eggs.  It sounds really weird but tastes fantastic.  

After lunch we walked around downtown and stopped by a few shops.  We had some Hawaiian shaved ice from a small local shop that had vanilla ice cream on the bottom and a mound of rainbow shaved ice on top.  Another hit.  We took the bus back to the ship and are now getting ready to see the nightlife.

Mahalo!