Living On Los Angles Time

The Emerald ship was leaving Honolulu at 11:30 pm with a new captain at the helm, and that gave us plenty of time to wander around the city, pay for lunch and espresso at a small shop in a giant mall. The meal turned out to be one of the best of the trip, and that includes all the food on the ship.

Fresh

We also had plenty of time to rent large high power motorbikes that by no coincidence had very loud exhaust pipes, that made going through the tunnel to Diamond Head even more fun that finally being in the shade.  

Don't Try This At Home

Riding around we found a deserted beach with a homeless woman living in the bathroom, and cattle egrets working the grass area between the parking lot and the ocean, and that could explain how finding our way back to Chase Rentals  (Chase Rentals is highly recommended) through the one-way streets, Honolulu traffic, and giant high rise hotels, became more of a chore than it should have been. Yup blame it on the birds…

Australian Raven

At 10:30 or so the fuel barge untied and was pulled away and around 11:00 our new captain came on the loudspeakers and said we were ready to go, and then explained how the ship would thrust and turn, spin, and go on a reciprocal course out of the harbor.  After that the pilot would be put off and we would turn and head north east but we would go slow because Hawaii imposes a speed limit for environment reasons, and that is just what we did.

Aloha Tower

Next morning out beyond the speed limit the ship picked up speed, and kept picking up speed until we were going 21. Knots. The sea also picked up and the Pacific Ocean was doing its best to imitate the Tasman sea but couldn’t quite match the boiling cauldron like of the Tasman. It still made for a rocky ride, and that would have been okay except it kept getting colder and I fully expected that I would have to shovel snow off the balcony before arriving in Los Angles.

The snow never happened, and we arrived in San Pedro on schedule. The super shuttle ride was waiting at the curb when we hauled our bags over, and all the driver wanted was a confirmation number that I had and once he radioed it in on his phone he hefted our bags into the back and off we went to LAX.

The ride was for the most part smooth and we did arrive at the terminals, and departed Los Angles for more wide-open spaces, but I am sure that the shuttle driver when stuck in traffic was cursing all of humanity and especially the humanity blocking our way and doing it in a language that I haven’t learned yet…