"Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States Of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by Naval and Air Forces of the Empire of Japan. It is obvious that planning the attack began many weeks ago, during the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace. The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American military forces, I regret to tell you that over three thousand American lives have been lost. No matter how long it may take us to over come this pre-meditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. Because of this unprovoked, dastardly attack by Japan, I ask that the congress ... read more

It was a couple of hours drive to Haleakala national park. It's the same park we'd visited on the Hana Trip when we walked through the bamboo forest, but as it's so big, today we were more towards the northern part which is more volcanic as opposed to the rainforest we were at on Tuesday. Bridget was our driver today and she dropped us to the visitors centre before parking the vans at the top and hitch hiking back down (something quite common here!) It was a lovely view already and we had a look at the Silversword conservation greenhouse which was experimenting with the growths of the plants with varying amounts of water. Apparently these plants exist nowhere else in the world and take approximately 50 years to grow before they die off. We had ... read more

Sleep still continues to evade me past 4am, and the cockerel (whom we've affectionately nicknamed Jan after Daryls Mam on account of how early she gets up at home!) woke Daryl up not long after that. We went for breakfast to our new favourite haunt, (and after 3 days in a row seem to have bagged the same table) before going to the chemist for some mozzie spray, seeing as my legs had been lunch for one of the little blighters in the night. We picked up some bits from the grocery store, and decided to get some beers in for later. Now I know this rehab degree has aged Daryl by 10 years in about 10 months, but since he's had some sleep, grown his hair and got a bit of sun on his face, ... read more

I was awake quite early again so was up and about before Daryl (this only ever happens on holiday!) the cockerel woke Daryl up at about 4am (I was already awake) but he managed to get back to sleep. Just after 7am we headed for the nice coffee shop we'd visited the day before 'Wailuku Coffee Company' http://wailukucoffeeco.com/about.html it really does seem to be the most popular place in this quiet town, it's always busy, but has a really nice feel to it and the food is good. We shared a fruit yogurt and granola pot and then had a breakfast bagel (Daryl had 2!) and a cup of tea. We returned to the bungalow to get our bags packed for our Road to Hana day trip. There were 2 minibuses going, each with 11 people. ... read more

Aloha family and friends! After roughly 28 hours total travelling we feel like we have travelled to the ends of the earth, but finally we are here in Hawaii. We checked in ok at Heathrow, and lucky for us, sorted all our baggage labels in London so we didn't have to check in each time on the stopovers. Daryl was asleep before the plane even taxied to the runway, and we managed to have a nice flight to our first stop in Chicago. Immigration here was a nightmare, and with less than 2 hours to our connection to LA it was pushing it. We used the automated machines for photos fingerprints etc only to queue up to have it all done again at the desk. Daryl was ahead of me and gave me a wave as ... read more