18-Night Hawaiian Cruise & Charleston, SC

We drove to San Diego to start our 18-night Hawaiian Vacation.We did a leisurely drive to San Diego, CA including visits with relatives along the way. At two stops along the way we found churches that had very friendly church families and very inspiring services. The first church was the First Baptist Church in Clarksville, AR where we also attended a Bible study. The second church was the Faith Community Lutheran Church in Las Vegas, NV. We do not gamble, but we had an enjoyable relaxing time visiting non-gambling relatives in Las Vegas.

The cruise consisted of 5 days at sea, 5 stops in Hawaii, 5 days at sea, and 1 stop in Mexico before disembarking in San Diego. We had a great time and saw/did many things we have not previously seen/done.

In the itinerary below the sites in Hawaii are city, island. Hawaii is the state and the island frequently referred to as the big island is also named Hawaii.

Cruise Itinerary

Sailing past Kilauea Volcano - The night we left Kona we sailed around the southern tip of the island of Hawaii. About 11:00 the area where lava was flowing from Kilauea Volcano came into view. We went out to the bow to view what we could, all that could be seen at the time was a faint glow where the volcano is. It was really cold and windy on the bow, so we went back to the cabin to see what we could through the window, luckily we were on the port side so we looking in the direction of the island. After a while we could see where lava was flowing down the mountain. The lava was not flowing all the way to the sea so it was not as spectacular as some have told us it was, but we think it was worth staying up until the early morning hours to see it. Because of the darkness and distance, our camera was not able to get good pictures.

Charleston, SC

After the cruise we drove the length of I-10 and spent some time in the southeast portion of the USA. Most of the time between the cruise and returning home we spent relaxing and visiting family & friends. As part of our traveling around we visited Charleston, SC.