Las Vegas, NV

Sorry guys. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas...

San Diego, CA

San Diego, described by the locals as 'American's finest city.'

San Diego is a beautiful town quite heavily influenced by their neighbouring Mexican amigos! There are Mexican restaurants everywhere, each claiming that they have the best tacos and margaritas in town. We tried two Mexican restaurants in our short stay here and both were somewhat disappointing. We went to the two recommended places but here in the USA they deep fry everything and then drench it with cheese and sauce. I couldn't eat most of the meal which is shown in the photo below, and after I ate my meal, I felt sick for hours. We ended up having to go back to the hotel so I could lie down. The second restaurant was much better cheese and sauce wise. It was more flavoursome and delicious, and the local specialty of fish tacos are pretty good (but not as good as Hawaii).

burrito...makes me sick just looking at it!

San Diego has a small downtown section which revolves around Gaslamp Quarter. It is a hub of restaurants, bars and boutiques. Then, there is Balboa Park. It's situated a little north of downtown and has lots of museums, gardens, performance spaces and a zoo.You can also sit and watch the planes fly in. They fly very low overhead as the airport isn't far from the park. 

Gaslamp Quarter

We went to most of the local downtown sites as we did't have a car and public transport is ridiculous here. It takes forever to get anywhere. You can walk across the trolley/tram tracks at any stop which is a little weird and you can get a 1 day pass for $5.00 which is super cheap. Here in California you can also take your pets anywhere. You can take your pet cat on the tram, or your pet husky on the bus. It's weird, yet SoCal! 

We didn't get to Mission Bay and Beach area which is their main surfing and beach drag. I would have liked to go but having only 2 days in San Diego, we had to miss out on something. They have a little old town section which feels as though you walked into a western movie. The road turns into gravel and there are shops and displays of how life used to be in the 1700/1800's, including blacksmithing and tortilla rolling demonstrations. It was pretty cool to see and there are not many places like this in major cities. 

old town

making tortillas

blacksmith

On Sunday we headed to Sea World. It was super hot and super busy as it's USA labor day weekend. We spent a big chunk of the day there, but I just wanted to see the killer whales. They are beautiful animals. I want to be a trainer and play with them, or the dolphins..either is fine! 

San Diego is starting to feel a lot more like USA - walking outside our hotel you see a massive super highway with Denny's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Macy's, Best Buy and of course Starbucks. Though it's still not quite as flashy as you can imaging New York to be.

That was pretty much our time in San Deigo...Next stop: Vegas baby!

Maui, HI

Our plane to Maui

We were greeted at the airport by this little guy...I will admit I was a little terrified about going on such a tiny plane but I thought, it's got to be safe...right? And right I was. It was a 45 minutes flight to Hawaii and being in such a small plane we were able to see amazing views of the islands and the pilots cockpit.

You can see from the pictures at the end of the blog that Maui is more of a secluded island. Although Honolulu was fun, Maui is so much more relaxing. It's a beautiful island with crystal clear water. We can go snorkelling just outside our apartment and watch the fish swim in the reefs. We spotted the official state fish of Hawaii...it's called the Humu humu nuku nuku apua ‘a. We can even watch the sea turtles come in in the morning from our Lanai (see picture below of our view from apartment.)

Our Lanai & view!

We haven't really been up to much in Maui. We have rented a car and gone for a drive to the north and south parts of the island but we have just wanted to relax before we start the next busy leg of our trip.

We went to a Luau last night which was delicious and pretty fun. We were greeted with Mai Tais and leis and shown to our tables by GP...our friendly waiter. It's apparently meant to be one of the better luaus throughout the islands of Hawaii. If you're not sure what a Luau is it's basically a Hawaiian feast and show. They cook a pig from the inside out by stuffing the pig with coals and burying it in an underground sandpit all day and dig it out just before dinner. Then after dinner there is a bit of a show. There is quite a bit of hula and too much upper man thigh. It's basically a Hawaiian history lesson.

The pig is under there somewhere!

there's the pig! 

Hula

man thigh... :S 

View of Honolulu from our plane.

Maui from our plane.

Sea turtle count: 1

We leave Maui Friday and will depart for San Diego. Stay tuned for the next instalment sometime after the weekend.

Much Aloha!! xox

Honolulu, HI

Jet-lagged with nowhere to go.

We left Sydney 6pm Thursday night, nek minnit, we arrived in Honolulu 7.30am Thursday morning. We passed customs by waving our fingers over a machine and next thing we knew we were cleared, ready for our American adventure.

Our body clocks were telling us it was 3.30am Friday morning, and with only a few hours sleep on the plane, we headed for our hotel with sleep in mind. Upon our arrival we realised that our check-in time was 3pm... We had about 6 hours to pass. Michael was in jeans, I was in tights and the temperature was about 30 degrees. We were tired, hot and had pretty much no idea where to go or what to do. To make matters worse, our togs were in our suitcases which were taken from us within moments of getting to the hotel.

We headed into town to try and find Michael some board shorts. Everything we found was either too short, or too long, or the pattern wasn't what he wanted. It was quite a stressful task and I could feel the jet lag getting the better of me. We decided to re-fuel with some delicious salad (without the double dressing option!).

We/I had had enough, so we headed back to the hotel and lazed around the pool. I had a nap and felt much better about life. We were able to check in around 2pm...hurrah!!

Our apartment was on the 36th floor and had pretty amazing views...day & night...

We pretty much just chilled in Honolulu. Walking the streets of Waikiki, trying out different coffee places and beer places. There was one place Michael found with over 100 beer taps. He was pretty much in beer heaven. We headed to Jimmy Buffets restaurant...father...are you impressed? which had many cocktails named after his ridiculous songs. We had a cheeseburger ("in paradise"), and it was delicious.

I'll be the first to admit I felt a little guilty about eating this cheeseburger. The chips, the sauce, the bacon, the cheese...it was delicious but I could feel my arteries clogging with every bite! So, we hiked!!

Diamond head is an old volcano on the edge of Waikiki. It's something like 700m above sea-level and the track isn't very long so it's a pretty decent short & steep climb. About 300+ stairs later, we reached the top.

Some of the stairs we had to climb...

\

After our hike, we made our way to Uncle Clay's house of pure aloha!... Shaved ice is apparently a Hawaiian speciality but when you mix that shaved iced with vanilla bean ice-cream...it is delicious. After a long hike up a steep mountain, we thought, we deserve these. Amazing...we may have worked off a quarter of that cheeseburger, but we definitely destroyed all our hard work with these delicious, tropical flavoured treats.

Anyway, that is pretty much Waikiki/Honolulu. We enjoyed our time there. It has a similar vibe to surfers paradise - pretty busy with plenty of tourists, lots of sirens/traffic, but with a relaxed, Hawaiian feel. I will leave you with some pictures below of the scenery. Stay tuned for the next blog...they will probably be coming more frequently. 

Waikiki

Fireworks every friday night on the beach

More fireworks