Los Angeles

Its been a while since I had time to update what we've been doing. So I will have to try to remember as we are now in Seattle. LA - everybody told us not to bother, its big, crowded, polluted and dirty - but it wasn't. It was great. We stayed in Santa Monica at a very plush IYA and visited many a famous thing. Disneyland (see the separate entry) was my highlight but we also did a city tour of the rich and famous. You know, on your right is famous person's house, or at least one of them used to live there etc. It was exceedingly dull after about 5 minutes. Although the houses here generally are really interesting; a far cry from a brick veneer box. We went to Hollywood Bulouvarde and saw the stars names on the pavement, and took pics of LA from the lookout and saw the Hollywood sign. At Rodeo Drive, also pretty dull, we had a chat to a couple of union members on a pickett against a company that was paying carpenters less than the bottom wage. It was quite a contast seeing them protesting in such an affluent place.


We did have fun though when we hired a couple of pushies and rode along Santa Monica Beach through Venice Beach and Muscle Beach (where Al flashed his muscles) and visited the Venice Canals which were a collection of canals with the most beautiful and unusual collection of little houses, like dolls houses, all along them. The gardens were exquisite.


We also tried the "World Famous" hot dog from a vendor at Santa Monica Pier (our first American Hot Dog) which defies description in the worst possible way. eeeerrrrgggg!!!!! I will post some pics later.


We took advantage of the Hostel guided walking tour of Santa Monica with Colin, a british expat. The most interesting thing was a display of crosses put out by the Viet Nam Vetrans for Peace. Every sunday they put a cross on the beach for every American soldier killed in Iraq. They have picture displays of soldiers and civilians and a tally of all those killed and injured. It was very sad and very moving.

When you wish upon a star......

Today I discovered that I actually have an inner child, she is about 7 and was so excited about her wish to go to Disneyland coming true that she cried when she saw Micky Mouse. Yes its daggy but true and I know they're only people is suits but there I was saying to Al, "Oh look, look its the fairy god mother, look its the White Rabbit, its Pinoccio, Oh look there's MICKY MOUSE". I kept saying " I cant believe it; I'm in Disneyland. I was laughing and crying all at once. I had a wonderful day.


We arrived in Los Angeles on 16 April in the late afternoon. We spent the first day orienting ourselves and booking in for things we want to do. We are on a mission to improve our travelling skills. We have of course blown the budget big time and so have decided to prepare our own meals where possible. We went to this fabulous organic food market called Wild Oats, in Santa Monica near the youth hostel. The hostel is like a 5 star hotel. We intended to only stay 3 days but have extended for 5.

Aloha Al

Al has gone troppo and bought himself a Hawaiin Shirt. I love it.

We have had a lovely time in Honolulu but as travellers we are pretty disorganised. We spent 10 days there and didn't manage to get to the Peal Harbour Memorials. We did go scuba diving and we had windsurfing lessons at Kailua Beach where I stupidly got burned to a crisp. However, I did manage to get up on the board and sail; OK it was only for a nanosecond before I fell into the water but I did it at least 50 times.


The grand finale of the stay was a trip to a Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Centre. I thought the concept of the centre was really interesting because the money made by the centre goes to supporting Polynesian students to attend university; paying for their board and tuition. The centre was a theme park of polynesian culture that went all day and we finished with the Gala show Horizons at night. It was an all singing all hula dancing, fire twirling spectacular. I have to say that the hula boys were as incredible and beautiful as the hula girls.

The Goat takes to the water.

I went scuba diving. Can you believe it!!! I was petrified but did it anyway. We practised in a pool and I was really crap at it, couldn't swim in a straight line and went floating bum up to the top.
After about a half hour practice we got on a boat and went out to the ocean ( unfortunately I have no photographic evidence) and I jumped in and went down about 10 feet along a rope and then couldnt pop my ears, felt freaky so went back up. Fish were looking at me and the water was warm and clear but it was very choppy and I was later told by experts, like my darling husband who was so proud of me for doing it, that it was not a good day for a first go. I then sat in the boat staring at the horizon for the next hour to avoid sea sickness. It worked. It was the first time that I ever sat in a boat on the ocean and didn't chuck. Anyway, after this experience I reckon snorkelling will be a breeze.

Aloha; we got here

Well, we finally made it. I thought I'd never get excited but now I am. We arrived in Honolulu on Wednesday and got to the hostel with no probs. The hostel is clean, cheap and one street from Wakiki beach. We spent the first day sleeping because after 9 hours on the plane with no sleep we were wrecked.

Today we ventured out to get some basics and get our bearings. We went to the new Safeway to buy lunch and breakfast stuff and couldn't believe the choices; they even sold wedding cakes!!!! Check this out:


We also went to Ala Moana shopping mall, which is the biggest thing we'd ever seen and most of the shops were way out of our price range but lovely to look at all the same. We have both agreed though that one day doing shopping in malls and supermarkets is about enough. We want to get active regularly on our trip. So tomorrow if all goes well we will go sea kayaking and I am going to have a go at snorkling and maybe even a free scuba diving lesson. This is very adventurous on my part as I am an earth bound Capricorn and Al (a Pisces) has been encouraging me to go beyond my comfort zones.

Have Tickets Will Travel; Ready or Not

Finally, we have the tickets; paid for; its going to happen. We leave for Honolulu on 9 April. Were spending 7 fun filled holi-days there and then we are off to Los Angeles on the 16th. After having a severe look at the budget we will definitely be frugalling. I have been surfing the web for el-cheapo places to stay and we have booked in to the exotically named Polynesian Hostel Beach Club in Honolulu and a good old Youth (ha!!) Hostel in Los Angeles. Isn't it exciting!!!!!! and TERRIFYING. I don't ever remember it being so scary when I was 23. In the meantime we are off to Strawbella to pick up sticks and slash the grass which must be up to my armpits by now as it hasnt been done since December.

Fairly bounding through the hoops

Believe it or not we have successfully leaped through the American hoops and are now the proud owners of 5 year American Visas. This is great because we don't have to do this again for another 5 years YAY!!!! and while the money hangs in we can stay longer than our initial plan of 3 months in the good ol' USA.

Of course, we did have to wait about four hours at the consulate and Al was sent to a conveniently located Doctor in Maquarie Street to piddle in a bottle to confirm that he hadn't consumed alcohol since 1985 ($176 later). We had a lovely trip planned to see the Queen Mary in Sydney Harbour but after stuffing about for hours we were buggered and decided to head home.