Exploring the Land of the Maple Leaf

Wow, so its been like almost a year since I got back from my USA trip, yet i haven't even finished up my blog. I wrote this a while ago, but didn't publish it. Its pretty much the end of the trip, minus Vancouver, Seattle and Honolulu part 2. I'm not going to write those bits, as it was just mindless shopping and getting ready to come home (much poorer than I began financially, but many times the wiser about life, cultures and other members of our human family).



Well after leaving Nigara Falls, I caught the train into Toronto, which is about 2 hours or so. The journey was made in the dark so I didnt get to see alot of the scenery, but a good time to get a bit of shut eye as I was up so late the night before doing my laundry since I was deperately running out of clean clothes! Once I got into Toronto, I found my hotel and settled in as it was in the evening and I hadn't planned much to do for that first night. I bought my dinner from the petrol station across the road (healthy, I know!) to eat in the room watching cable - I think it was something like Pussycat Dolls present Girlicious lol. I spent a bit of time on the computer and then it was time to catch some zzzzz's. The first day was a chance for me to go and get acquainted with the city itself and so I explored the Eaton Centre (it is a MASSIVE shopping centre!!!. I also tunnelled my way through the city in their underground PATH system which is amazing. You can literally wander underneath the whole city without even having to see sunlight or go onto the street - it is an absolute godsend considering the outside temperature was somewhere below freezing. I spend some time on the Rogers Centre tour, which is home to the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Argonaughts (their baseball and NFL teams respectively). The Rogers Centre is right next to the Toronto CN tower and about a block or so away from Air Canada Centre, which is home to the Maple Leafs (NHL). I also spent some time seeing Lake Ontario which is gorgeous with all the snow covered islands and footpaths. That was pretty much my day and I got to see the beautiful city sights.

The second day was a little more touristy, going up to Casa Loma which is some riddiculously huge mansion shaped in the mould of a castle build by some rich dude who started providing electricity for Toronto. He ended up losing the house because of bad debts only a couple of years after it was actually finished lol. Anyways, that was interesting to learn about the history of Toronto and then after a couple of hours there, I went and did the night lights of Toronto, revisiting the CN tower and also going to the Town Hall which is some wierd building shaped in the form of a dome and curved wings either side (see photo album...).

The last day in Toronto was spent exploring the more ecclectic villages in Toronto, namely Chinatown, and the Kensington Markets, while also going up north and visiting the University of Toronto which was next to my ultimate destination of the day, the Royal Ontario Museum (or ROM). It was half price/tight arse tuesday after 5pm, so I hung around my new fave place in Canada, Tim Horton's to have a Hot Chocolate. A warm drink is a requirement pretty much whenever you see somewhere that sell them in the cold weather lol. So i spent the night in the museum then when I'd seen all that I wanted, it was time to take a last spin in the PATH, passing Bloor St which is kinda like 5th Ave/Oxford St etc.

The next day it was time to hop on the train and begin the 3 day journey over the land of maple syrup...YUM!!!

Snow, ice and a waterfall...it has to be Niagara Falls!

After flying from Boston to Buffalo, we caught a cab over the border and into Niagara Falls, ON Canada. Because of the delay, we ended up arriving at the hotel just over midnight and so we were eager to check in. As we only had just under a day in Niagara Falls, we decided to go explore a bit before going to bed. The others decided to go to the casino while I braved the cold and walked along the falls in the moonlight to see the falls at night. Unfortunately, it was too late for the lights to be kept on, but I was still able to clearly see the falls through the night.

The next morning, I awoke to the falls just to the window next to the bed - an awesome sight! I spent a couple of hours in 20c below zero walking around the Niagara Falls National Park (back on the USA side). It was absolutely FREEZING and the water spray that was coming off the waterfalls would turn into ice and hit me in the face....

That afternoon, we caught the train to Toronto.


Pics:

Niagara Falls Feb 08

Boston, MA

Sorry for the little bit of a delay, but its been a bit of a crazy period getting home, starting uni and working again to pay off those annoying creditc card bills hahaha. Anyways, here is how the rest of the trip went (I'll be finishing it all off over the next week).

So after New York and saying goodbye to Daniel, we flew over to Boston, MA. On the flight there, we were told by the flight attendent that it was the 'greatest city in the USA'... right. We were a little delayed getting off the ground as a boy had pressed one of the buttons which released the oxygen masks from above and so we had to wait for the technicians to come onto the plan and re-set them. What we had thought would be a simple task ended up taking about an hour. When we finally landed into Boston, we caught a taxi over to our hotel, The Marriott at Copley Place to check in and drop off all our stuff. For lunch, we headed over to Copley Place to eat at the California Pizza Kitchen (the usual American chain restaurant style food). I then spent the afternoon wandering around Newbery St, which was where all the shops and the like were located.

The main reason I had headed over there was to find the Urban Outfitters because a pair of jeans I had bought didnt have the button on it lol. On the way over though, Raf and I were pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere of Boston, and I particularly liked how the city itself has a very european feel - you could easily think that you were in the UK or western Europe.

After a couple hours being out, i headed back to the hotel and got ready to go out to meet Sophie, my cousin. We ended up going to see Jumper (it was fairly formulaic, but enjoyable none the less) before meeting up with her friend and boyfriend to go to a sushi restaurant.

The second day in Boston, the others decided to have a rest day in the hotel so I ended up wandering all over the city, starting off with the public library and Copley square before catching the 'T' (trams) to Boston Commons where State House is and the start of the Freedom Trail. The arfternoon was spent exploring Boston by following the Freedom Trail. The next major landmark that really caught my interest was Faneuil Hall Market place where there are alot of stalls selling Clam Chowder and lots of nic naks. I didn't end up getting any chowder as I had just had lunch, so planned to get some later. I continued down to the aquarium area to see the harbour area, then caught the T to Seaport. I just walked around that area and saw the hotel we were supposed to stay at (it is a new hotel that isn't quite ready). When I went back to Fanueil Markets, all the stores had closed so I wasnt able to get any clam chowder!!! Oh well, gives me a reason to go back to Boston haha.

The last day, I toured around Harvard, MIT and also along the Charles River. We were flying out that night to Buffalo (upstate New York, near Niagara Falls), so had to head back to the hotel in the afternoon to check in.

Photos here:

Boston Feb 08

New York, New York!!!

A big hello!

So after hitting DC, we had a short (and by short, I mean a SHORT 30mins). During that flight, Daniel and I met some Aussie girls also on holidays and we chatted to them during the flight. Once we arrived in New York, we collected our bags and while doing so, some shuttle guy kept trying to get our business, but he was really shady and so we were really iffy about him. We ended up going with a reputable company, but it did not set a very good impression on our first day. We checked into our hotel in Manhatta - Midtown East. Then once we were settled, we were able to go and get something to eat before going out and doing a bit of sightseeing. Our first day was spend going down along 5th Avenue and hitting Rockerfeller Centre where the ice skating rink is. We then also continued to Time Square as it wasn't too far away from there. The girls were a bit tired and so they headed back while us boys continued on towards Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. That first night we were in NY, we had tickets to the Spice Girls concert so we had to go back to the hotel to get ready and head over to catch the train to Newark, NY. The concert was at the Prudential centre there. While it was pretty cheesy, it was all the hits of our teenage years. At the bottom of this post, I'll embbed some of the videos for all your enjoyment hahaha.

The next day, Daniel and I caught the ferry over to Ellis Island, not realising that the island that the statue of liberty is on Liberty Island hahaha. We did still get a good view of the statue but since we had time difference, that was enough for us and so we continued on to Wall Street and the World Trade Centre site. By the time we were done there, we had to head up to midtown as we had tickets to the Late Show with David Letterman. We had to arrive about an hour and a bit before the taping so that we could collect tickets and had a little bit of time for us to have lunch before lining up to get in to the show. On the show, it was Evangeline Lily (Kate from Lost), Marissa Miller (Sports Illustated Swimsuit Cover model) and also some country music singer (Paisley or something like that). After the show, Daniel and I got dinner in Little Italy before exploring it and Chinatown.

On the last day that Daniel was to be in the US with us, we went over to Central park after the now the day before and it looked absolutely amazing with the snow, mist and bridges along all the walkways. We walked around a little before going along down along 5th Ave (doing a little bit more shopping, including going into the AMAZING Apple store there). It was all we had time for an I headed off to the airport with Daniel so that he could catch his flight home.

The first last two days in New York was spent going to MoMA and also having a look outside of all the other museums (Guggenheim, MET etc). I then just walked all the way down from Upper East Side to SoHo. Before night fall, I had a tour of the UN building and it was really interesting to see how everything is all set and how it works. The chamber looks just like it does in the movies/news as does the ear pieces where translations are spoken through (only English, French, Spanish, Russin, Chinese and Arabic are translated in the UN). That night, I had dinner with my New York Relatives and English Cousin (Sophie) - all on my dad's side, in Chinatown. It was kinda like a bit family reunion as we rarely get to see each other they are always so far away!

The last day I explored Brooklyn (walking along the Brookly bridge, which is pretty cool) and also heading through the NYU area. I did a little bit of last minute shopping for souvenirs and such around the Time Square area before going back and getting ready to see the Lion King. The whole production was so spectacular with intricate details on the costumes and the music/singing was fantastic too. I was very glad that we got (almost) front row tickets, although we were a little too much to the right.

Anyways, that is all for NY. Next stop, Boston, MA - New England!

Till next time...
Alex

New York, Feb 08

Its D to the C, Washington DC...

Hello!

Wow, so it has been quite a bit since my first update on my US trip!

So I'll start from the beginning:

After doing 6 theme parks in 3 days, we needed to slow things down a little, but not TOO much as we headed up the east coast to Washington DC, the US capitol. After arriving in DC around lunchtime, we checked into our hotels and dropped off all our bags before heading over into the city. As Daniel was on a different flight from Orlando (he was orignally connecting through Newark, NJ), he had missed check in for his first flight by about 10mins and so was put on the later one, but because of bad weather in Newark, his new flight was cancelled and so was then re-routed through Cleveland, OH. He didn't arrive in DC until 4pm so I went to collect him from the airport and we went into the city. As the others had already started sightseeing, Dan and I ended up joining a night tour of DC to see all the main sights in the short amount of time that we had. We actually missed our first tour, so had too book a later one with a different company. Washington DC was absolutely freezing, with temperatures about -10c at night, because of the wind chill, it felt much MUCH colder.

In the end, we were lucky that we got to see all the sights such as Capitol Hill, White House, Washington Monument, the statue of Lincoln, The war memorials, Iwo Jima and all the other main attractions of Washignton DC. We didnt realise that DC would have so much to do, so it would have been good to spend a little more time in the city.

The next morning, we had to leave the hotel fairly early because we were going to hit NYC!!!

Washington DC

Can you have too much happiness in one place?!

Hello all!

So after hitting Miami, we had a riddiculously early morning getting up and going to the airport so that we could fly to Orlando. By riddiculous, I mean waking up at 4.30am in the morning and checking out of the hotel at 5am to drive to the airport in the rental car. When we arrived in Orlando there, we were met by Raf's Uncle (Gilbert) and his friend Alex. As it was only about 8am in the morning, we headed back to Gilbert's house to drop off our luggage and to get some breakfast to eat. as soon as we were all done, it was straight away to the Theme parks with the first day being Animal Kingdom and EPCOT. Animal Kingdom was fantastic, with the safari attraction by far the best. It was almost like being in the Savannah except that the commentry and acting was a little over the top - in true Disney style. EPCOT was pretty boring as we were not exactly wanting to go to somewhere educational on our trip.

The second day was a gain all theme parks, but we mixed it up a little and decided to go to the Universal Studio ones, being Islands of Adventure and also the main Universal Studio one. Islands of Adventure was absolutely awesome with some of the best rides i have been on - namely The Hulk and The Dragon. Universal was alright, but the main rides were experiencing 'technical difficulties' so it was pretty disappointing.

On our third and final day in Orlando, we went back to Disney world and hit Magical Kingdom which was almost exactly the same as Disneyland save for a couple of extra rides here and there. As we had already done it before, we went to a WalMart here and had a look around. I found it funny to find that WalMart sells Magnavox TVs, just like Kmart at work lol. We only spend a couple of hours in the Magical Kingdom as we also wanted to go to Disney Hollywood Park. There were two main rides there and also the end of night show Fantasmic which makes you want to be a kid again and watch ALL the disney movies lol. While at the Hollywood park, Dan and i also got some photos with a group of Cheerleaders as there was a cheer competition being held in the park i believe.

Well thats it for Orlando and the scrumtious IHOP restaurants (i would die happy if i just ate at an IHOP for the rest of my life....).

Till Next Time,
Alex

Orlando Feb 08

Welcome to Miami!

Hello all!

So after a bit of a rest couple of days in Houston, TX, we continued our trip and flew over to Miami, Florida. It was one of our longer flights but we were very happy to be back in warm weather. The temperature in miami was in the mid 20's (celsius, not silly fahrenheight hahaha).

So on our first day, we got settled into our hotel and also the surrounding area, sussing out Miami Dadeland Shopping Centre. Our second day was also pretty laid back. We picked up the Rental Car (a Mazda6) and headed to Miami Beach for the day. We also saw where they film Miami Ink, but it was a really small store and quite dissapointing really. The good thing about the day though was we found a healthy food store and had a really good lunch, not any fast food!

The third day we were in South Florida, we headed down to Key West in the Rental car. It took about 3 hours or so to get there, and the girls were less than impressed with the fact that there werent any 'proper' beaches for them to go swimming. We ended up just having lunch and walking around briefly before Raf and I tried the world famous Key Lime Pies. It is really sweet, but also has a strange tangy sensation. We headed back along the famous bridges and along the everglades during sunset and took some pretty good photos. I was happy that we actually got to Key West in the end and did find it pretty interesting as it was a quaint little town that had a lot of character.

Orlando is next on the list...
Alex

Miami Feb 08

Houston, we have a problem...

Howdy Y'all!

So after hitting Vegas, we headed over to Houston, Texas for two days. We arrived a little late to do anything the first day so just ended up having a really late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and walking around the mall 'The Galleria'. I was feeling a little crook from all the shitty food as we have been eating out EVERY meal, so i went back to have a early night. The next day, Raf and I rented a car and drove down to the Houston Space Museum. It was a little boring, except for the Tram tour which took us to Mission Control and also the Training Facility.

Once we were done at the Space Museum, we drove over to Kemah which was pretty cool. It's a little small town just on the outskirts of Houston on the Bay and it has an amusement park on it's boardwalk along the bay. We rode the Roller Coast before heading back into the city thinking to catch the Superbowl, but had the times wrong (that was my fault lol) so we had missed the first half. Gird Iron is a really boring sport...lol so we left to go to dinner at Chili's.

That was pretty much all we did in Houston, as it was a little bit of a boring town. But I am glad i got to see Kemah and its still good to go and have a look. I'm sure if we went to the Smithsonian museums and others it would have been good too.

Florida Next!
Alex

Houston Feb 08

Viva Las Vegas!

Hey guys!

So its been a little while since I've updated this, as we have been a bit busy haha. Anyways, so while we were in Las Vegas, we hit all the casinos - Bellagio, Caesars, MGM Grand, New York, Stratosphere, Treasure Island and the Mirage. There was way too much to see in the short 3 days that we were there, especially since we spent one of them going to the Grand Canyon, even though it was well worth it.

While we were in Vegas, we saw the Love Cirque Du Soleil show in The Mirage and also the American Superstars cabaret show at the Stratosphere. We also went out on two of the nights, one of them being Studio 54 in MGM grand, and the other at the Playboy Club in Palms. The others got into the Playboy club, but I didn't get in because I had sneakers :-(

Our hotel was absolutely amazing - and it helped the cause when we were issued the room keys and it had VIP printed on the front for front of line access at the MGM grand buffet lol.

Take a look a the photos below.
Alex

Las Vegas Feb 08

Its a BIG...BIG...hole in the ground!

Hey y'all!

In Miami at the moment, so I have three posts in backlog waiting to be published. Here is the first of three...

So after arriving in Las Vegas we did all the touristy stuff on the strip for the first day not so much in depth as we would be doing that in the next couple of days...

One of the days we were in Vegas, Raf and I headed out on a tour to the Grand Canyon, Arizona.
It took a couple of hours to get there, but it wasnt too bad as I was able to have a bit of a nap and we did get to see the Hoover Dam (where a couple of scenes in Transformers was filmed, for you playing at home...) and also a small town there which is literally in the middle of no where.

Once at the Grand Canyon, we stopped first at the Skywalk where although it doesnt look so spectacular in photos, even though it only comes out about 10metres or so, it was absolutely AMAZING! It was also pretty scary as I don't do very well with heights haha. After we were done at the Skywalk we continued onto the next stop at the Grand Canyon West Rim Indian reserve. It was here, that we had some traditional American Indian food and sat eating at what has to be one of the best tables in the world, just metres from a cliff face, falling into the Grand Canyon!

Well, you can see the photos for yourself, hopefully, I will post something up tomorrow for Las Vegas and then possibly Houston stuff too.

Speak soon!

Alex

Grand Canyon Jan 08

Hola, Amigos in Mexico!

Hello!!!

So during our first full day in San Diego, Raf and I headed down the boarder to Mexico on a tour. We didn't stop at first in Tijuana, as we were continuing down a bit further to the small resort town of Rosarito. It was pretty dirty and not very exciting, as the town was basically shut down since it is winter down here. The beach was also pretty dirty with lots of rubbish around in the surrounding blocks.

After about half an hour or so walking around, we jumped back onto the bus and continued to keep going down further south into the fishing town of Ensenada. It was here that we had some local lunch, of fish (in my case). Raf and I met some other Aussies on the tour, out of the 9 on our tour, 6 of us were Aussies hahaha. This included a mother with two girls aged 5 and 7, which we thought was really brave considering how dangerous and area such as Tijuana could be. Once we had eaten lunch, we had about 3 hours to ourselves and so walked around the city ourselves and saw all the fishing boats/fish markets before ending up shopping. the cologne and perfume was prety cheap there as were some of the surf clothing stores.

The last stop on the tour was Tijuana and we had half an hour to spend looking at all the tourist stores and liquor stores. The alcohol there was pretty cheap, but as people had told us it was a bad area, we didnt bring much cash and i didnt have anything left to get any tequilla! We did however, have free tasting and the best one we tried was the Peach one, but the coffee was apparently pretty good too.

Overall, our Mexican experience was pretty good, and not at all as bad as we had been told. No tacos or enchiladas either hahaha.

Ciao amigos!
Alex

Amigos head to the boarder

The OC drive and San Diego

Hello all,

So much to see, so much to do! It has been a little while since i updated this, but this will be a bigger update. For our last day in Los Angeles, Raf and I picked up the rental car and headed back to the hotel to pick up the girls and our bags. just as we were about to leave, it so happened that the electricity went out in the block, which ended up in our favour as that gave us an excuse to go out and see Hollywood Boulevard one more time and see the walk of fame again. When we got back to the hotel and packed the car with our luggage, we set of down the coast towards Orange County...THE OC! It took us about 2 hours or so to get to Newport Beach. Newport is a pretty big beach, with long stretches of sand and alot of little boutique shops/cafes. The sand however, probably isnt as white as it is back home.

After Newport, we continued down the coast, crossing the river near Balboa on an Auto Ferry and then drove to Laguna. The town at Laguna was much about that same size as Newport, but didn't have the small town charm.

When we got to San Diego, we checked into the hotel and headed for dinner. The first day, Raf and I went down to the boarder while the girls had a pamper day. More about this in the next post. The second day in San Diego, we went to Sea World and saw all the whales, dolphins, penguins and other animals, capping off the day with the Shamu show 'Believe'. I then headed into the city downtown area by myself, exploring the CBD and also the wharf area.

The last day was a bit of a rest day, staying in till about lunchtime and then going into the city to go shopping at the Westfields there in San Diego. I spent a bit more money in all my favourite shops hahaha.

Till next time,
Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?

Alex

San Diego

Driving down the OC

City of Angels

So we packed our bags, jumped into a Town Car and headed to catch our flight to LAX. On arrival in the city of angels (and stars), we checked into our hotels and then walked around the local area around the hotel, Hollywood. This included the Kodak Theatre, Chinese Theatre, Walk of Stars etc. Also headed up to Universal City to have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe there.

We spent the first full day we had in LA visiting the happiest place on earth. We saw all the lands (toonland, adventureland, critter country, tomorrowland, fantasyland, new orleans square, frontierland and mainstreet USA). We went on most of the rides and it was good as there wasnt much people around, which meant next to no queues. One negative though, all the staffmembers are not exactly happy and chipper as you would expect....but the atmosphere more than made up for it.

On the second day full day, we headed off to the Hollywood Hills/Beverly Hills to try and see some celebrities. Did a little bit of shopping on Rodeo Drive, and also went over to Santa Monica and Venice Beach as well as a little bit of sightseeing downtown.

Tonight, we had dinner at a restaurant called Ketchup, it is financed by the one and only Ashton Kutcher. We also lined up go into a club called Crimson, but Raf wasn't well at all so us boys ended up coming back while the girls continued their night out. We will be driving down to San Diego tomorrow, so fingerest crossed we have no incidents going down!

Tipping over here has been the biggest pain in the arse! I'm sure that all the tour guides and waiters are hating us right now as we give the worst tips ever. But if they don't reach our standards, they arent deserving of a tip now are they...! lol

Will post again down in San Diego.

Lots of Love,
Alex

City of Angels

R.I.P. Dave Burnett 03.12.85 - 22.01.08

Dear Dave,

To say that reading about your passing on the SMH website while overseas as a shock is an understatement. Described as a Young Labor star and an all round great guy, I couldn't have written it better myself.

I will miss you at the dinners, Every last Tuesday (or other date picked) for our monthly chinese dinners will bring back the memories of your bright, cheeky and competitive personality. I will miss comparing our AFL tips, and your banter, especially between you and your mother.

I am sure your parents and everyone who knew you was extremely proud to have had you in our lives, and I hope that our paths will cross many more times.

Check out those Chinese restaurants where ever you are and book me in for the last Tuesday of every month when I get there.

Missing you already.

Lots of Love,
Alex

Leaving my heart in San Francisco...

Yesterday was a black day, with the death of Heath Ledger and Dave Burnett. To lose one wonderful person from this earth is hard enough, but to lose two great Australians is indescribable. My deepest sympathies go out to both families. To the Burnetts, my thoughts are with you. Dave, you will live in our hearts and minds forever.



Hello all!

So we have spent our two days in San Francisco and are now down in LA. While we were in San Francisco, we had a lot of fun seeing the sights, and also experienced some unsavoury aspects of the city too.

On the first full day that we had (we arrived from Honolulu about 10.30pm at night in Oakland and got into San Francisco about midnight...), we headed into the city centre and went shopping at the very hip and luxurious Westfields San Francisco. I went a little nuts shopping, hitting my all time fav Abercrombie & Fitch and a couple of the other stores. The dent in my card was a little bit much for an hours worth hahaha. Moving on, we caught the cable cars down to Fisherman's Wharf where we had a look at some of the souvenir stores and ended up having lunch at none other than the WORLD famous Hooters. Check out the photo lol. We then had to check in for our Alcatraz Evening Tour and went on an audio tour before walking about ourselves. there were some great photos to be taken of the city and Golden Gate Bridge. That night, we had some Italian for dinner and then headed back to the hotel.

The second day we had in San Fran, we woke up fairly late after a late night up watching the Aussie Open and headed into Market St, in the city to once again catch the cable cars, but this time to Lombard St (the zig-zag flower street, minus the flowers cos it's winter). We headed accross to catch a bus down to Hippie Central, Haight-Ashbury where we walked around some stores for a bit and then went down to Golden Gate Park. The girls were a less than impressed with all the Pot smokers around the paths in the area close to the Haight-Ashbury side, so we walked a couple of blocks down to catch a bus to a tranfer point, connecting to get to the point overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.

Once back in the city, we split up as I had dinner with my cousin and aunt while the others did a little more shopping and watched 27 Dresses.

We are now in a Severe Weather Warning declared LA...so keep you posted with whats happening.

P.S. Daniel, hope you like the photo of the News van on the side of the road. I have some crackers from today, and should have a some other good ones when we go on the Hollywood homes tour.


Take a look at some of the photos from San Francisco: (click on photo...)

San Fracisco USA

Aloha from Hawai'i!!!

Hey all,

So we arrived in Honolulu, Hawai'i yesterday morning and once we got off the flight and into the city, we left our bags at the hotel and headed out to have a look around the city. Once we had checked into our hotels, we changed and went for a swim and a bit of a tan. For our first night on Holidays, we went on a sunset cruise on a catamaran with an open bar. One of the potent Outrigger Cocktails were enough for me, but Nat, Aims and Raf had a second cocktail. We got off the boat all a little messy and headed back to the hotel to change and go to dinner. We ate at Planet Hollywood and went to a bar called Mooses - $2 drinks until 11pm. Beat that Star Bar...

On our second day, I bought my new macBook at Ala Moana shopping centre (it is HUGE!) and then once we had lunch, we headed off to Pear Harbour. We went able to go onto the USS Arizona Memorial because the tickets had sold out, but we still had a look around the memorials etc. Tonight's activity, we went to a Luau to eat, drink and have a generally good time. Tomorrow we are heading to Waikiki before our flight to San Francisco.

Until Next time...

Aloha!

Honolulu USA

A Walk with the Animals

Shauntelle, Andrew, Tori and I went off to the Zoo for the day and went to see all the lovely (some smelly...) animals!

Personal Highlights was Shauntelle's rendition of "Dingo's got me baby!"

Fun times!!!

For photo album, click HERE

New Years Party!

So it's taken me a little while to get the photos up from the K-Krew New Years party (which was originally supposed to be the xmas party, but got postponed because of poor management skills on my behalf hahaha).

We played two games each, and had a total of three lanes all to our selves. In lane one was the boys who were artfully skilled in bowling, even when they had had a couple of drinks too many. How they got more points than anyone else in the other two lanes is beyond me. Lane two saw the Lay-By girls battle it out for top honours. Much laughing was to be had AT them hehehe. The final lane was a mish mash of the S&V crew plus Miled, who took things a little bit too seriously (we love you Miled!). Totally a polar opposite was Maria, who unsucessfully (or in her mind, successfully) psyched us out in the final bowl.

Enjoy the pics!


For pics, click HERE