Diamond Head Beach Hotel Honolulu

... on the 15th or so), three days in Florence, 3 days in Rome (leaving Italy on the 29th of October.

Then we spend 5 days in Manhattan and 5 days in Atlanta and we'll be home on the 10th of November. So, send us suggestions, news, etc., and we will keep you updated, mostly on the food we'll be eating.

J

... when I last visited all those years ago. Between Jeff and I we found the right street and drove into complete darkness towards the mountains and away from the coast.......had we got the right place?

YES - there it was, a very nice resort in the middle of knowhere and after a ride to our room by golf buggy we were happy. Just a shame that Dan had fallen asleep in the car and slept through the whole experience.......oh well, always tomorrow :-)

... to get any change once you are done. The only problem was that some service stations make you key in the zip code of your credit card's billing address to use pay at the pump. I have a US Visa debit card so no problem, but I doubt an Australian card would have worked at these gas stations for paying at the pump. I think Chevron was one where they ask for the zip code, maybe some others too ...

... too.  Looking up clouds were starting to close in.  I wanted to hike it rain or shine.  Then the trail starting to go up with some ridiculous stairs that were falling apart.  No wonder there was rope to help you.  Then there were no stairs and rope only.  Well, I'm glad I took rock climbing and generally like to climb things.  Scott was always about a mile ahead of Mike and I.  He didn't even appear that tired ...

... day in paradise. Great blow hole on the east side of the island with people diving off the rocks (Can you guess if we joined in?) After making our way back to waikiki we spent the evening wandering around the town. Shopped for some upcoming birthdays and had dinner there in town. While out wandering around suddenly heard a scream followed by two guys running by seconds apart. Crazy enough the first guy had ripped a purse right off of a ladies shoulder and the second guy was her son ...

... the airport I was greeted by everyone saying "ALOHA" everyone was friendly and I was very excited after so many year of dreaming about going to America to have finally stepped foot on the USA ground and have the USA stamp in my passport




I found the bus stop which took me to my hostel that I was staying at I checked in to ...

... it was a very nice day, about 25 degrees. We checked into our hotel and then booked a massage for the evening. Waikiki beach is very pretty and the water is lovely, we spent the afternoon just relaxing and strolling around the area before having our massages and pretty much flaking out in bed. The next day (Wednesday 14th January), we slept in until 9 - the latest the whole trip - put our sunscreen on and ...

... our way home. I have no idea what time we got back or what time we finally fell asleep, but I recall suggesting we check out the balcony at one point and finding that the sun was up. Been a long time since that's happened! This all generally makes for a great night (which it did), but not so much a great next day. The gallons of water I drank last night helped, but ...

We took a cab from Marriott Waikiki and arrived at Honolulu Pier 2 around 11:35 AM. We were able to checked- in right away. I forgot the kids' passport in our luggage. We left it there when we went to Waikiki Beach and forgot to take it out. The only photo ID we have of them is the one from school. But they need the children's birthday. We just told them and they let us check in. On the way to lunch we stopped by the reception area and made a reservation for Teppenyaki at 6pm ...

... and daughter and six young tough army guys. The army fellas were acting all tough, but I could tell that they were a wee bit nervous. Was I? Hell no. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I felt more alive than ever - and its always been a dream of mine to swim with sharks. What can I say, I think they're wicked cool.  It was a fun week in Hawaii