Quick Surf, goodbyes and off to San Fran

Saturday September 24, 2011

Last sun up in Waikiki, and Ryan was promised a surf if he could get himself up early enough, so we had an hour in the water which was a nice way to end our trip.  We got back, and got into the packing in ernest, as we were out the door at 11:00 for the airport.

Paid our respects to the Duke for the last time

We cashed in our receipts we had collected at the ABC stores (you get a gift depending on the amount spent, and we had enough for a couple of gifts)

 

Last trip to the ABC store

  

 

Last walk out the entrance to our hotel

 

We arranged for Mark from Hawaii23 to give us a lift to the airport, and again, he was great service, and we highly recommend using him if in the area.

 

We got to the airport, checked (and paid $25 each) our bags with Hawaiian Airlines 22 to San Francisco.

Our plane almost a green light

Ryan killing time with a game

 

Where are our bags, 4 tired people here…

A little over 5 hours in the air, and 3 hours lost in time zones, had us in late local time, and we were all tired and needed to get some sleep for our city tour in the morning

Hump Day Holiday planning

Wednesday September 7, 2011

I had the luxury of spending some time researching some of our destinations that we are heading to in 10 days time.  That’s right, 10 sleeps!  We are starting to get a little excited here…

So our itinerary is:

Waikiki   17/9    –    24/9

San Francisco   24/9  –  29/9

Coastal Drive   29/9  –  2/10

Disneyland  2/10  – 5/10

I have been reading through our lonely planet guides

Street view on google maps has been fantastic to get a sense of the places we are visiting. The statue of Duke is close to where we are staying.

And reading online forums such as Trip Advisor has been invaluable to find out answers to the many questions we had.  It is at this forum that I found the blog posting of Sydney Shop Girl, whose blog I find it hard not to go to for my first reading of the day.

We went to Disneyland in December 2009, and it has certainly had an impact on the kids. I recently bought a book for Tegan on the Hidden Mickeys of DL, and she is looking at building up a score sheet for us all to see how we go.

I love this photo of Tegan from our last trip, she just looks in awe of her surroundings.

Today’s song of the day seems very apt, being an Aussie band (who have since changed their name to Howling Bells)  Waikiki – Here comes September

10 sleeps, can’t wait!