After braving our first LA traffic we parked both cars in some churchyard for $8 then cruised Hollywood Boulevarde naming all the stars we knew (like pretty much every other tourist stumbling along), bought T-shirts, spotted the Hollywood sign, lunched at Dave & Buster’s with bonus play cards to the attached arcade. We all piled in to the canyonaro to head out to Santa Monica Pier. Timing could have been better as we fought peak traffic and arrived as a ridiculous fog rolled in which made it freezing and reduced visibility to zero. We collected the other car and nic mum and me went to check in to our airbnb. What a nightmare! The place was super convenient to Universal Studios but the owner was kinda weird and we obviously weren't meant to be there. Never ... read more

Wayne, Kellie, Lucy, Nic, Jesse and Tasha grabbed the quick Travelodge breakfast and we dropped them at Pier 33 to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. Mum and I shared crepes at Pier 39 and went on a driving adventure. So much impressive architecture in the streets of San Francisco. Mum tried her first Churos from a street cart looking back at San Francisco from Treasure Island. As the rest of the crew arrived at Alcatraz they heard from an ex prisoner. They wandered around the island doing the audio tour. We all met back up again for a lunch of clam chowder in sour dough loaves or fish and chips on the dock. We went our separate ways again for some to take a cable car from the docks to Union Square. Then it was time ... read more

We headed to Pearl Harbour early to get entry tickets and the earliest we could get in was 1.45. To fill the day we headed to Hanauma Bay but it was packed, car park closed. We continued around the coast to Makapu'u Beach. The view and the water were perfect but the waves so dumpy close to shore that people were regularly getting smashed in mid-calf depth water. Wayne was everyone's hero as he found 2 pairs of random strangers' expensive sunnies and Jesse's glasses too. Back to Pearl Harbour for a tour and trip out to the Arizona. We had dinner at a tiki bar with some interesting cocktails to celebrate our final night in Hawaii. ... read more

Day 1 (such a long long day given time differences). A few hiccups with boarding meant lining up for literally hours and still not getting our assigned seats - I was warned about Jetstar's inconsistent customer service and that has revealed itself glaringly today. Still the kids found time for some quick airport yoga. We arrived at Honolulu airport in darkness and customs was fairly quick and staff there were lovely. Jumped on the big bus to Alamo car rental and set off in the canyonaro (actually an 8 seater Tahoe). We decided to check out the Ala Moana - a big open Shopping Centre with all those stores I've only ever seen on TV (Macy's, barns and noble, Bloomingdale's, Jimmy Choo, etc). We breakfasted there - New York slice for granma, chimichanga for Nic, Philly ... read more

On the Mekong... read more