Aloha!! In only a few days I have managed to do 3 tours, get burnt nearly everyday, read an entire book and get seasick...

I left San Francisco on Sunday, a warmish afternoon, and hopped on a plane to Honolulu, a 5 hour flight. I was too excited to sleep on the plane, and it turned out to be a long day. I was met at the airport with hospitality, along with searing heat and humidity. I got to my hostel without any hitches, it's reasonably priced and very close to the beach and bars. Always a bonus! I had a quick wander around Waikiki, found something to eat, then collapsed in bed...

Monday I didn't end up doing too much. I got myself acqauinted with Waikiki and their shops (I needed to get my bearings), and also managed to get down to the beach to do some reading. I fell asleep reading, and I have the sunburn to prove it!! I booked 3 tours to do for the next few days, and just after dinner time here, I was so sleepy from the sun and the fact my body thought it was 3 hours ahead. I slept well!!




Tuesday, during the day was quiet for me. I hung out at the hostel for a bit, had a swim and did some shopping. It was really really humid, almost unbearably so, so I didn't get around to too much. My sunburn probably made me feel hotter than it was too. I went to a Luau that evening, and was the only person on our bus going by themsleves. I made friends with a few people, and after our 3 free Mai Tai's we were old friends. The Luau had some awesome dances, singers, it was just good fun. The buffet was something else though. They cooked a pig (well, we only saw one...) in a pit in the ground, and covered it with volcanic hot rocks to cook it. It was so tasty... And it was all you can eat. They got a heap of us girls up on stage to learn the Hula, that was amusing!! All the guys that had a girl on stage were called up, and stood in a line to the side of the stage. A 'puli-puli' line or something. Basically, we all got to kiss and hug about 40 men before getting back to our tables. Sorry Jeremy!! Needless to say, after all those Mai Tai's (I had some more, they were good) and I slept like a baby.

I got up like a baby too. I really struggled... Sore head, it was hot inside the room, and not feeling the greatest was NOT a good combo for an early start. Don't even get me started on the sea sickness... I chose an "Adventure Fun" cruise, snorkelling on the reef of Waikiki. Made friends with some Aussies (we're everywhere!!) and had a ball. Didn't like the boat too much, but the water was awesome. We went on a guided snorkelling tour, hosted by Biff (I kid you not) and saw a LOAD of fish, a sea snake and 2 turtles. Awesome. Back on the boat, after lunch we also saw a pod of dolphins. Got some pics and some video footage of it too!!

Tomorrow I'm going out with a bang. I have a long day, my flight isn't til 10:15pm and I have an all day island tour lined up. I'm looking forward to it. I'll get to see Hanauma Bay, Turtle Bay, the North Shore (surfing), Diamond Head volcano, sugar cane fields, pineapple plantations... I booked it this way so I can sleep well on the flight (fingers crossed). At least I'll be able to sleep well in San Francisco, back in my bed and knowing that I'm not missing out on sun and surf ;-)

And next week Jeremy and I have New York, AND Halloween. Big week, and one that I'm very excited about too :-) Will keep you posted ;-)

Phew! Yet another weekend out of the city... And what a weekend!!

On Friday we flew down to LAX, Jeremy following me about two hours after. We picked up our car (upgraded from a "compact" to a Jeep Liberty) and started on the long, peak-hour drive from LAX to Anaheim. We made it through the peak-hour, got to our hotel and signed in... I tried to have a decently early night, due to our *HUGE* day at Disneyland on the Saturday.

I could barely sleep that night, excitement and all that. I actually woke up earlier than my alarm, and decided to have an early shower. I dragged Jeremy out of bed, we got ready for our day and made our way to the park. I still can't believe that we got to the park by 8:30. And further still, the park didn't open until 9!! We spent half an hour waiting for the Disneyland people to let us past Main St, and the minutes dragged for me.

At 9, they removed the ropes and the crowds almost ran to the ride that they wanted to get on first. Luckily, we were toward the front of the crowd, and we made our way to Splash Mountain. There were *no* queues for it. We were seemingly one of the first few on the ride for the day. We got a photo taken, just as we were going down the 70ft plunge, but it's not digital. It's funny, trust me... You can almost see the moment that Jeremy crapped himself :-D

We made it to all the major rides and attractions throughout the day, only really missing some of the kiddie rides. Believe it or not, that's where the main queues were and the rides being not all that exciting, we felt that we could skip them and not miss out on too much. Saw the fireworks, 20 minutes of Disney magic, and Jeremy took a few videos of it. I'll get him to add a link!!

So, we lasted about 16 hours at Disneyland. I hate to think how far we walked that day... And on only a few hours sleep too!! Needless to say we both slept like logs that night, and for about 12 hours too!! On the Sunday we decided to go for a drive, and ended up in Newport Beach (home of The OC). Didn't end up taking pics, the weather was lousy that morning... I wanted to have a drive, so I ended up driving from Newport to Hollywood. A pretty decent drive, and mostly Freeways. I drove on LA Freeways!! (and I, no *we*, survived!!)

We met up with Jeremy's ex-bosses from Netspace (In the US for business...) at the hotel they were staying at. The Mondrian... Very nice, very trendy and apparently a fab spot for celeb spotting. We had dinner with them at the hotel restaurant (no celebs), and a few drinks at the hotel bar. Over dinner, we decided that the next day we should head to Universal Studios. Picking Rick and Stewart up at 9:30am meant that we would need to leave Anaheim by 8. I looked at the time, it was 12:30am and we needed to get home.

Universal was a little disappointing. Especially after seeing Disneyland only a few days beforehand. We did the studio tour, that was awesome. They were filming Desperate Housewives, Crossing Jordan and Next. I love that show, funny stuff!! Took a heap of photos, got soaked on a number of the rides and managed yet another day of wandering around a theme park. We left Universal and gave Rick and Stewart a lift back to their hotel, before we headed to LAX for our flight. When we got to the hotel bar, Skybar, I noticed a somewhat familiar face... "Undercover Brother", Eddie Griffin. I remembered him from Deuce Bigalow as the 'Man Pimp' TJ. Tried to get a photo, didn't turn out, but I saw a D-Grade celeb none the less!!

Anyway, we made it home in one piece, utterly exhausted. It's almost taken a few days to get over it all!! Anyway, that's what we got up to over the weekend... Busy busy :-)