Aloha, finally!

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Finally after rearranging our flight to go through Sydney rather than Fiji we touched down in Honolulu a day later than planned but avoided getting stranded in Fiji. It was a 20 hour trip with our last flight being 10 hours but it went smoothly and Hawaii was lovely. We arrived very early in the morning but managed to check in shortly after arriving at the hostel. Dan had treated us to a studio, which gives us our own kitchen and we were lucky to have a flat screen TV with the highly addictive American cable!!! During the day we chilled on Waikiki Beach and in the evening tried to buy some food at the supermarket but couldn't find it so had a KFC, oopsie. Much better than the Australian KFC - urgh! Never have it in oz! The coating is all wrong and the chicken is more like road kill.

Day 2 we booked to go on a trip to Pearl Harbour, a definate plus to hostels...they have their own vans usually and so they dropped us off at the USS Arizona memorial for nothing and the memorial is free so cheap day! We always make a donation to the free places we visit though to keep them ticking over, was a very interesting place to visit and very moving. First you watch a movie of what actually happened and then you get a boat to the memorial where you have to be silent and pay your respects. The USS Arizona lays just below the surface but there are a few parts of the ship that are above the surface....nearly 70 years ago when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbour...900 souls went down with the Arizona and this attack was what bought America into WWII. Going back to the hostel in Waikiki was interesting....Blake picked us up and we were very soon pulled over by a federal cop. He checked out our van for a good 10 minutes before coming up to the Blake (the driver) to explain why he had pulled us over. Apparently the van had been reported as being seen in the car park before and Blake got quizzed for about 20 minutes about why he was here....it was a tad OTT to say the least! But was an experience!!!

Our last day of which we flew later that evening to Chicago via LA it was operation buy coats for Chicago...IN HAWAII! The shops along the Waikiki strip were all surfer dude shops. Great!!!! Dan (bravely!) asked a shop assistant if there were any other shops nearby and he told us about Ala Moana.....it is the largest shopping centre in Hawaii and the 14th largest in the United States. It was huge!!!!!!! Thank goodness for Macys where we both bought our coats.....well Dan's is a hoody but it has the softest lining! Very cosy for sleeping with on the mammoth plane journeys :-) In the morning of course we had to pay a visit to the much loved Denny's! The breakfast is 24hours and is amazing! This is where u can sample the American french toast, stakes of pancakes with maple syrup and best chocolate milkshakes! I love it how they bring out the remainder from the machine too! Dan was on the verge of being sick but it was great :-D Also if you wanna sample the American portions, you get a good idea of maybe why there is an obesity problem!!

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