Hi all,

We have been back in Australia for a few weeks now (feels like an eternity since we were sitting on the beach at Waikiki enjoying our last holiday sunset), and over the weekend I finally got around to uploading the best photos of the trip to Flickr.

You can check them out by clicking here!

We hope you enjoy… there is still 4 hours of High Definition video to edit – that might be done by Christmas at this stage!

Cheers,

Paul and Kerrina

Our time in Hawaii has been pretty laid back – basically a recovery week before we head back to work

Most of our time has been spent sleeping, eating, shopping, swimming, and sun baking.  However we have done a few little side trips whilst we are here.

We checked out Pearl Harbour and the USS Arizona Memorial which was pretty moving.  We then went on board the USS Missouri which is where the Japanese surrender in World War II was signed.

Paul went Mountain Biking on the other side of the island.  When he booked it he thought it would be just a nice ride through a valley, but when he got there he realised it is the valley where hollywood does a lot of filming.

Like Jurassic Park

Like Pearl Harbour

Like Godzilla

Like Lost

… and about 50 other movies or TV shows.  The scenery was spectacular, but unfortunately the ride was cut a little short due to the fact that the Lost production crew were there filming scenes for series five of Lost.

Whilst Paul was Mountain Biking, Kerrina and her family when for a bus tour around the island.

We all went to a traditional Luau and ate Pig that was cooked underground, and watched some attractive locals dance and run around in grass skirts.

Finally we have ate a few meals at Duke’s Bar at Waikiki, which has to be one of the best places to eat in Hawaii (and conveniently downstairs at the Outrigger where we are staying).  Duke was the guy that pretty much started modern surfing, and there are a few memorials around the place for him.

Today as I write this is our last day in Hawaii, and the last day of our holiday before we hop on a plane home.  Tonight we leave just before mid-night on our way to Auckland, and then back to Brisbane.  We totally skip Saturday 20 September this year due to crossing the International Date Line, which basically means we are back to work sooner than we really want to be!

We will post a few more photos up here when we get home… but for now, thanks for reading about our holiday and we both hope you have enjoyed seeing what we have been up to!

Paul and Kerrina

Today was pretty much a day lost to travel.

Our first leg was Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Las Vegas airport had been shut down earlier in the morning so there was a bit of a back log when we went to check in. Again we both got “randomly selected” for special treatment for going through security.

The flight from LV to LA is about 35 minutes, however we spent about an hour and a half sitting in the plane on the ground between the two gates. So all up it would have been almost faster to drive.

We had to change terminals in LA because we were switching airlines. That unfortunately meant we had to go through security again. Suprise suprise, when we pick up our boarding passes for the LA to Honolulu leg… guess what – SSSS – we are selected again for special treatment “at random!” We must be blacklisted or something!

The line for security was absolutely huge – people were complaining that they had been in line for over 90 minutes and were no where near the x-ray machines. We kept walking looking for the end of the line.

We thought we found it, and walked down the roped aisle, but as we got closer we realised that we had walked down the First Class express security line. We both played dumb (which we were because we still can’t figure out where the end of the line really was), and the nice TSA man let us through.

Once inside the terminal we still had another 5 hours to wait because our flight was delayed an hour – which meant we made it to Honolulu late in the evening.

Kerrina’s family decided to fly out for a week in Hawaii when we booked our trip, so when we arrived they were already at the hotel waiting to greet us.

Today was a relaxing day were we got to explore around our Casino and lounge by the pool.

We woke up pretty late and headed across to the Bellagio to enjoy the highly recommended buffet over there.  After about 25 minutes in line (it is that popular!) we headed in.  It was great and we would recommend it to others as well.

After lunch we hit the shops looking for a few good deals.  Planet Hollywood is right beside the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre.  It is one giant loop that would have somewhere between 200 and 300 shops, from your cheap tourist stuff right through to your expensive jewellery.  They even have indoor rain storms every 30 minutes which are pretty cool.

We then went to lounge by the pool in the sun.  There were a few VIP tents across the pool from us.  At first we didn’t think there were many celebrities around – there were a few black guys that looked like NFL players but that was it.  But as the afternoon went on a few that we recognised showed up.

There was the daughter out of Gilmore Girls – can’t remember her name, but she was there with here entourage of similarly skinny and nuclear white friends.

But just as we were about to leave you will never guess who showed up… MINI-ME!  Verne Troyer, the guy that played mini-me in Austin Powers was beside the pool with his posse.  We were both surprised by just how small he is – he really is about the size of a baby.  He looked even smaller when one of the suspected NFL players went to shake his hand.

After dinner we went to the show we booked a few days ago – a magic show by Steve Wywick.  It was pretty good, however we had seats in the second row which meant you could kinda see how he was doing the illusions.  The icing on the cake was being able to hear the chains they used to drag in a lear jet when it was supposed to “appear out of thin air”. 

We then headed back into the casino.  Kerrina had a punt on Roulette and did pretty well, pretty much tripling her money.  Paul sucked and lost it all (all $20 bucks).

This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand. 

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.

Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.

Today we headed to downtown Seattle.

In the morning we hit the Pike Place Markets for a few hours. This is where you might have seen the fish mongers throw the Salmon around. We were just in time to see them through a few around which will look great on video – but we forgot to take any stills to share with you at the moment

Pike Place is one of the better markets we have been to. It is pretty big, however the quality of the goods is top notch. Kerrina could not get over how cheap and how pretty the flowers were.

Across the road from the Pike Place Market is home to the very first Starbucks store. We poked our head in for a quick look – because Pike Place has some heritage regulations they can’t change the store too much, so surprisingly it is a Starbucks that is actually a good coffee shop, instead of those cookie cutter Starbucks you get in Australia.

After spending the morning downtown we jumped onto a ferry to do a cruise on Lake Washington. They call it the “Bridges and Billionaires” cruise, because you see a couple of bridges, and the homes of Seattle’s wealthiest – including Bill Gates (picture of just a bit of his house below), a heap of Microsoft executives, the guy who started Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, the guy that started Costco, Starbucks, and more. It was a pretty nice cruise, and gave spectacular views of Mt Rainier in the distance.

After the cruise we made our way back to the hotel in the middle of nowhere for the last time

Today we had planned to head north up to Everett to take the Boeing Factory Tour. Instead we traveled south to Boeing Field to take a look at the Museum of Flight.

In hindsight the strike at Boeing was a good thing, because we would have otherwise missed out on a great museum.

We took an hour long tour through the main gallery. The tour showed the rapid evolution of flight, from the Wright Flyer, through Air Mail to the first passenger services… the military and to the fastest plane in the world… a variant of the SR-71 Blackbird. Whilst Kerrina tried to stay interested, Paul absolutely loved it.

Then we jumped across the road to the Air Park. Here they have the last Concorde ever to fly, and the Boeing 707 that used to be Air Force One – the one that JFK and presidents of that time used. Kerrina was quite excited to walk on Air Force One.

Unfortunately the Concorde was closed to visitors for two days for cleaning, so we missed out on taking a look inside that one.

Today was the earliest start of our trip! Checkout at 5am to get on the 5:30am bus from Vancouver to Seattle.

The only saving grace of this trip was that the bus had wi-fi – so we could catch up on all the news at home using Paul’s iPod!

On our Journey to Seattle we were lucky enough to enjoy a land based border crossing into the United States. Being of other than US or Canadian citizenship – they let us go first. Not that it really made a difference, because our bus was held up by two suspicious looking folk on our bus. Actually they weren’t that suspicious, just that something in the computer meant that they border protection guy had to do a 60 minute interview with them. Bummer.

The good news was that the bus drive told them to get the next bus – so we continued on towards Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle mid morning. It was then we realised that our travel agent had booked us into a hotel no where near any of the good stuff. In fact our hotel was right beside the University, about 6 miles out of downtown.

And to top it off, the main reason why we came to Seattle was to do a tour of the Boeing Factory. But our good friends at Boeing decided to strike 3 days before we arrived – which meant ALL TOURS CANCELED! Talk about a bad start to a city!

That being said, the weather was really nice, so we sat on the grass at the bottom of the Space Needle for a while before going to the Experience Music Project.

The EMP was one of the best museums we have ever been into. Plenty on the Seattle music scene that has brought us folks like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and The Presidents of the United States of America, as well as feature on Jimi Hendrix, and a room full of guitars which documents the evolution of the instrument through the ages. Highly recommended for anyone! The highlight was the guitar “sculpture” in the middle of the museum. They had a few guitars rigged up to play automatically in the piece, which you could listen to with headphones at the bottom – was really amazing!

After that we grabbed a late lunch before finding our way to the hotel in the middle of nowhere.

Today was really our last full day in Canada – so we decided to take a day trip a few hours up the road to Whistler. Whistler is a great little town – however they should probably call it “Little Sydney” because all you could hear was Australian accents.

Obviously as it was summer there wasn’t much snow around. The mountains and ski lifts had been taken over by at least 500 mountain bikers taking advantage of the perfect weather.

We both agree that Whistler would be a great place to come back to in the winter. They are going to host a lot of the alpine events of the 2010 Winter Olympics there… so we made sure we checked out the ridiculously overpriced merchandise, and the visitor centre.

In hindsight, I would have looked much more aerodynamic if I took my camera bag off!