LA Pictures

Here are a few highlight pictures from LA

We stayed at a hotel called "The Farmer's Daughter" - it had a cute country theme


They gave us a fruit platter for our anniversary :)

DH's old ship, the Halibut

View from DH's old office (it had to be rough, eh?)


The Coast Guard building - his was the corner office about where his head points...

LA Lifeguard boat - LA County Lifeguard aka Baywatch

Malibu - one of the best "rights" in the world to surf

Me by the Hollywood sign - we hiked a little by it.

Me with downtown LA in the background

The huge city!!

We're on O'ahu

We're on O'ahu!


I definitely have mixed emotions about being here. It was sad leaving Australia, but it's good to out of the cold. It's good to be in Hawai'i, but it's hard not being in Hilo.

We now have wireless access, at least when we visit Fourbucks, I mean, Starbucks (home of the no-less-than-$4 drink). Here are some pictures from Australia, in completely random order.

DH and I with a wallaby (a kind of kangaroo!)
DH and I with a sleeping koala. Did you know they pretty much just eat eucalyptus leaves all day, which makes them kind of inebriated?
Cousins Cheryl and Peter and their family - on their farm in a town pronounced "Murgee-bullock" just outside Melbourne
Fiona, DH, and I across from the Sydney Opera House
DH and Ben after a COLD surf session at Cronella, outside Sydney (but they're hotties!)

Melbourne!

We're in Melbourne! And we had thought it was cold in Sydney - not so! It's even colder here! Dh and I are getting really good at layering and at rotating the three sweaters that we each brought so that it doesn't look like we're wearing the same outfit every day...

Ok, to highlight what we've done in the past week or so... we have:
- gone to the Blue Mountains
- travelled along the coast from Sydney to Melbourne, taking 3 days to do so
- found a city to retire to : Narooma
- spent a night at Lake Canjola and seen wild kangaroos/wallabys (don't ask me the difference)
- spent a night in Narooma - including eating fish & chips at a local restaurant, eating fresh fish from a fishermens' co-op, checked out surf, found an Australian Volunteer Coast Guard station
- seen a town called Tilba Tilba
- crossed the Sea Cliff Bridge - it's pretty cool!

Of course I have pictures from all of the aforementioned events, but I'm still using the relo's computer, so I can't post them. Maybe once we get back to the states I'll have better luck getting a useable wireless signal.

Australian words that don't quite mean the same thing they do in the States:
- bush : means forest, wilderness
- napkin: diaper
- serviette: dinner napkin, the thing you use to wipe your mouth when eating
- dodgy: sketchy, shady, slightly dangerous; as in "that neighborhood is a bit dodgy"

Relaxing day in Oatley Park

Today we intended to have a relaxing day - before we head out of town and down the coastline... so we slept in a bit this morning. We went for a walk with Fiona and Ash the dog to a local park. We saw cool birds - kookaburras and some other things that I forget the names of...

We packed a lunch and headed out with Peter, Fiona, and Tom to the West side of town to a kind of a zoo. It was great! We saw crocodiles, snakes, and tasmainian devils - yuck! scary! And we also saw my favorite things - koalas, kangaroos - and we got to pet them!

Ok, heading to the store. More later :)

Fun day in downtown Sydney

General notes:
- This is the first time I've crossed the International Date Line, and I'm continually confused what date it is
- Also confounding me is the whole driving-on-the-other-side-of-the-road-thing. Every time we get into the car, I have to think about which side to get in. Also, it kind of freaks me out when making big turns...
- It's really cold here! Not snow/Chicago cold, but coming from Hawaii it's quite cruel.

Highlights from Saturday:
- DH going surfing
- Seeing the bridge and the Opera House from several viewpoints
- Visiting the Watson Naval Base and checking out the gorgeous chapel
- Having afternoon tea with Fiona's mom and stepdad
- Watching an Australian team beat the New Zealand team in a game of rugby (a big deal for Australia - and no, I still don't really understand rugby)

Highlights from Sunday:
- Going shopping at the market at the Rocks (the historical part of downtown)
- Seeing the Opera House up close
- Taking the ferry across the harbor

I'm really not sure how to upload pictures... I can't get wireless here, plus my battery is running low (different electrical system here)... Hmmm. I'll have to work on it. Maybe when we go to Melbourne.

We're in Oz!

We arrived yesterday afternoon and were greeted by Peter and Fiona at the airport. They took us to their home in Oatley Park. Last night we went to the Oatley Pub where son James works and had some of Peter's homemade pizza - delicious!

We're not too jetlagged, just a few hours off... only this morning both DH and I woke up at 4:30 am - oops! Fortunately we got back to sleep quickly!

We headed off to Cronella beach today and less than 24 hours after stepping off the plane, DH got to go surfing with Ben! Fiona and I wandered up the beachwalk - it's gorgeous!

Well, we're off to see the city of Sydney this afternoon! I'm using Ben's computer as mine isn't catching a wireless signal... hopefully I can post pictures sometime...

Aloha!

Last few days on the Big Island

We've had an exciting last week on the Big Island - DH's family arrived on Monday and the last of them left today. The movers come tomorrow to pick up our stuff, and we leave bright and early on Thursday morning. Here are a few highlights...


The entire family at the Waipio Valley Overlook







Chad, Ashley, DH and Sean hiking out to the Green Sand Beach













DH holding some green sand












Green Sand Beach - we were there by ourselves and had tons of fun!!

We bodysurfed in the waves - DH and Sean are really good. Chad, DH, and Sean proved their manliness by running down the steep sand hill - Chad is the king of the hill though.







Ashley, Sean, and DH by Onomea Bay (one of the best places to find sea glass)













Sean, Ashley, DH and I drove up to Mauna Kea to watch the sunset. We were also treated to see silversword - even silversword in bloom! It was beautiful :)

I was really excited to finally see it in bloom - I had seen silversword on Haleakala when I visited Maui with my parents, but the flowers are gorgeous!! Now when I wear my Sig Zane Kupapalani pareu it's extra-special!











Beautiful bloom of the silversword













Bottom of the silversword plant - can you tell why they called it a silversword?













Silversword in bloom with Mauna Loa rising above the clouds












Venus? Some planet glowing while the sun fades into the distance as viewed from Mauna Kea

















My surfer boy catching a wave