and the answer is.......

Two of you were right.... Hawaii!! The stuff in my hand is black sand from the Black Sand Beach at Punalu'u. One of the beautiful and incredible places we saw during our visit.
We flew to Honolulu (on Oahu) and spent two nights on Waikiki Beach.

(Sunset at Waikiki Beach!)

We toured The Polynesian Cultural Center and Pearl Harbor. The center was beautiful and very interesting, We learned a lot about the culture of six Pacific Islands (New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, Hawaii and Samoa).... their language, music, homes, food etc. We learned how to do the hula and found out you have to have special hips for that ! :-) We ate poi....once....and decided you have to have a special taste for that! The day ended with a luau... roasted pig and all!



(In case you are wondering....that isn't me!! ha!ha!)


(View from a canoe ride)

Pearl Harbor was very emotional for me. Especially when I learned of the men who survived the attack, but chose to be buried with their comrades in the waters of the harbor when they died later in life. Once you are inside the memorial, as a sign of respect they discourage talking and don't allow photos.


The third day, we boarded the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America. For seven days, we traveled to three more of the Hawaiian islands.

We saw a live volcano and visited the black sand beach on Hawaii. Both were amazing!

(That night as the ship left the island, we could actually see the lava flowing .... fiery red in the black night!)

(Baby palm tree.......talk about determination!)


On our first day in Maui we traveled the Road to Hana and saw beautiful waterfalls and incredible beaches. (And, don't tell the rental car people, but we picked up two college age hitchhikers from California who were hungry and exhausted!) Believe it or not, we took our camera with us that morning when we left the ship, but left the battery charging in the cabin!!! So, no pictures from that day. :-(
On our second day we visited Iao Valley and got a taste of the rain forest......we were there 15 minutes and it started to rain! We also toured the Maui Aquarium and Ocean Center where we saw the marine life that is indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands. J, being a real "fish guy" loved that!
On Kaui, we spent one day at the beach. J snorkeled about 150 ft from the shore while I sat on the beach enjoying the view......beautiful water, large turtles visiting the shore, bright blue sky, and children playing. And J saw a great variety of beautiful fish. The next day, we visited Wakimea Canyon, which was impressive (not as "grand" as the Grand Canyon, but pretty big!) and we saw wild chickens everywhere!The ship was great....wonderful service, delicious food, family oriented entertainment, and beautiful cabins.

It was the trip of a life time. I still have trouble sometimes believing that we were actually there....but I have pictures to prove it! Hope you enjoyed the tour!