Today was our final day in the US and Honolulu delivered a fantastic day to finish off the holiday. We woke up late and spent the morning in bed with the windows open, watching trashy American chat shows. As soon as I was able to peel myself out of bed and got to a point where I looked decent to go out, we walked over to Ala Moana shopping centre to spend the last day doing what is America's true national sport – shopping! Some last minute purchases and the discovery of a great Japanese supermarket (sushi, teriyaki, tempura and Calpico soft drinks) to have lunch in, we spent the remainder of our budget.
It was back to the hotel to begin packing our bags and taking stock of all the items we purchased and collected over the last 9 days before watching a little bit of MTV and going down to the local IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for dinner. That is one thing that I will not miss about the US, is the disgusting food that is served throughout the country. Nothing that is served at restaurants of fast food outlet tastes remotely healthy, with everything being cooked in fat, over salted or sugared, preserved and artificially flavoured. That along with the need to tip waiters/waitresses which in essence just adds 15-20% to the total bill. Why can’t they just pay them more, charge more for food and do away with gratuities. Our final meal in the US of A over, we came back to the hotel after some shopping in the local ABC store to get some last minute things and an early night was ahead as we had to be up early the next morning to head to the airport.
We were checked out and at the pick up spot for the airport shuttle by 5.30am in the morning and at the airport by 6am (brought back memories of flying with Dan to Rome from London Luton on RyanAir *shudder*) and checked in ready to come home. As a final dramatic twist, our flight was delayed by an hour and a half due to the late arrival of the flight coming in from Sydney, so that meant we didn't end up leaving Honolulu until about 10am (we were scheduled to leave at 8.15am). The flight ended up being quite enjoyable, save the fat Bogan sitting behind us, and we did find out that Natalie Cook was again on our flight, so she must have been in the US for the same amount of time we were.
Its good to be home for the week – no need to worry about where to go for dinner and all that, but I’m excited to head off to my second favourite city in the world on Friday! ☺
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