Aloha!

I tried something new with two of my recent blog posts ~ I scheduled them 2 weeks before they were sent because I was on a wonderful adventure for the 10 days before Christmas. I’m so pleased the posts were sent out as scheduled.

But after that something went wrong. One of the two servers I use to send out my emails each week deleted my account and I’m no longer able to communicate with over 1000 quilters who were on that list. If you received an email ~ you’re fine. If you found this post another way but didn’t get an email, please contact me at , and I’ll add you to my new list. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks!

To continue 😊: I’m back and can’t wait to tell you about my trip (which did include a few quilt moments).

As most of you know, my husband was a corporate pilot and traveled all over the world during his 34 year career. Since he retired he doesn’t want to go anywhere. I still love to travel and I enjoyed leading quilting adventures for many years. But as I’m getting older I’ve decided I’d like to travel without the responsibility of leading the tours. So, Mike and I talked it over and decided I’ll get to do some traveling by taking each grandchild on a trip when they reach their senior year in high school. This was the year for the first of those trips!

Hanna and Will are our oldest grandkids and they live in Vancouver, WA. Hanna has plans to become a pharmacist and is doing very well in school. While the kids were here this summer we told them our plans and I asked Hanna where she wanted to go. She asked if she could choose Hawaii – and I replied “absolutely”! I’d had such a wonderful time on our Sew We Go Hawaiian cruise in 2019, that she and I decided a cruise was the way to go (click here for a post about that trip).

I flew to Portland on December 14th and had dinner with the family. On the 15th we hopped on a flight to Honolulu, spent a night on Waikiki Beach,

and toured Pearl Harbor the next morning. We both appreciated that tour very much.

From there we boarded the Pride of America and settled into our cabin. I was excited to find a quilt inspired by the flag of Hawaii near the main dining room.

That night the ship left Honolulu and took us to Kahului, Maui for a two day stop. We saw so much of that beautiful island, but none of the portion destroyed by the storm and fires. Our prayers are with all who suffered that tragedy. We were told that 75% of Hawaii’s income is made through tourism, so please don’t stay away. They need us to visit now more than ever.

Maui is lovely! Our first day we found a beach to hang out on, and simply enjoyed the warmth and beauty. The second we did a bus trip on the Road to Hana. Mike and I had driven this fascinating, and sometimes scary ride in 2000 with our son and his friend. They actually jumped off a waterfall at one of the stops! He and Steve conned me into letting them jump, and it was such a memorable part of the trip that I made a quilt block from a photo I took:

Hanna and I found that waterfall, and there were other crazy people climbing up to jump this time.

From there the tour took us to a black sand beach.

We’d worn our suits for such an occassion, but the breakers were quite big and only a few people were in the water. Hanna and I decided to wade out to about our waists. We giggled as we discussed what to do next, when a large wave made the decision for us ~ it knocked us off our feet and we went for a short swim. It was a blast 🌊!

After more fun on Maui, we sailed to the Big Island of Hawaii and explored the town of Hilo. This was our rainiest day and, when our excursion to Volcanoes National Park took us to the rim of a volcano, it proved to be our coldest time too. The mist made it difficult to see much in the crater of the Kilauea volcano, but the double rainbows dropping into it were beautiful!

Next stop ~ Kona. Kona is on the opposite side of the Big Island from Hilo, and it was our favorite port. Our ship was too large for the harbor, so we tendered into Kona on lifeboats from the ship. A fun experience in itself. Across the dock was a lovely cove where we snorkled (thanks to Jim who told me about this on our last trip).

While there we also found a quilt shop! They had delightful quilt patterns and kits, sashiko designs, yarns and craft supplies.

Hanna was as pleased as I was since we had both brought hand work to do on the plane and in our cabin at night, and she needed more embroidery floss.

Some of you might be interested in a quilt retreat the shop is hosting in February called Quilting on the Beach. They had samples from all the teachers for the retreat hanging in the shop.

Please click here if you’d like to read all about it!

From Kona we sailed to the island of Kauai’, and our favorite part of that port was our visit to Waimea Canyon. Mark Twain is quoted as calling it the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”, and it was breathtaking.

We were told the waterfall over my left shoulder is 800′ tall! Here’s a panoramic view ~ amazing!

On our last day we found a souvenir mall where we were able to do some surfing.

We were actually quite good at it – LOL!

We both agreed it couldn’t have been a better trip and I’m so grateful for our Hanna. I want to share one last photo. Each day we’d find a new towel critter made by our room steward Eston. Hanna really loved finding them on her bed. They all gathered for one last photo shoot.

Watch for a future post about the item beneath the monkey. It’s very special.

And with that I’ll say