Blog 3

It is January 29, 2010 and I, and the rest of the passengers aboard the MV explorer have departed from Hawaii and have set forth for a twelve day journey to Japan. This morning as I type this out, I am getting used to the ever-present rocking of the ship once more, which I seemed to have taken for granted on Hawaiian dry land, no big deal, though; I'm sure I won't even notice in a few days.

The first day in Hawaii, we were docked in Hilo on the big island.(This is actually what they call it – the big island), I got off the ship and headed on down to a beach called Richardson, which turned out to be mostly rocky and less sand, though we made it pretty fun either way and all the kids seemed to end up there. I did some climbing around on the igneous rocks there and cut up my feet pretty badly, one big slice on the bottom of my heel. But it was gonna take more than that to stop me from enjoying my time there. I kept on exploring and found a sea turtle that was literally swimming laps in a small pool. I broke the state law and went to go touch it, it was worth it!

For lunch that day, we went to a Mexican restaurant, I know Mexican in Hawaii, right? But I wanted some chips and salsa damnit! We all enjoyed a margarita and had a really fun waitress. A less rocky beach was right across the way, so we got a case of Carona's and me and 6 others, including a kid named Cory, who was celebrating his 21^st birthday did some drinking on the beach. It was just like any Corona commercial you've ever seen, except with black sand. The 7 of us, or so; played some red light- green light, had chicken fights, (me and a girl named Taylor dominated), and buried each other in the sand. My bed still has sand in it from that one. Most everybody that night went to the SAS sponsored Luau, which I heard was a bust and I'm glad I napped through it. That night, the word got out for all the under 21-year-olds that they were not carding at a bar called Margarita Village. So naturally, all flocked there. I got there once I had rolled out of my nap, showered, and then flew solo. I ended up buying a generous amount of drinks for more than a few people to cheers to the voyage, after I made a deal with the bar tender. (Don't get mad Mom, I'm a natural business man, just like my father).

The next morning, I woke up around 10:30 and set off alone again. I spotted two girls who I had seen from the boat and caught up with them. I spent most of that afternoon with Dani and Melinda; two nice, southern Californian, good-looking girls, one was a kappa, and they both were… I think half-Asian. The three of us had lunch at a Hawaiian burger place with a very nice middle-aged waitress who was just the epidemy of Hawaii. She was Hawaiian looking, very nice, kinda dumb, and looked like she was acquainted with maryjane. She was a very sweet lady though, somehow she had messed up the bill and Dani's meal was on the house. We left her a nice tip and set off for downtown Hilo on foot. We saw so many cool looking trees, including a humongous tree that I decided to climb the vine high-school-gym-rope style. I dunno why, but that tree was the coolest part of my day. We got to down-town Hilo and I got a snow-cone and the girls actually met up with some locals they had met the previous evening and left with them in their windowless, white, molestation van. (I-shit-you-not) This was their plan the whole time though, and I thought it would be better that we parted at that point, don't worry I've seen them both on the boat, since then, and they're still intact.

I got back to the boat the day after and lounged out on the pool deck until the sunset with my pike buddies from other schools. That night we would depart for Honolulu and be there the