Homeward bound

And that was that.  We had finished up our Hawaii adventure - and our trip around the world - with a final tour around the island of Oahu.  Now, all we had left to do was make it back to the mainland US, and meet up with our family in Saginaw, Michigan.

We headed back to Hawaii International Airport, where we discovered that our final flight, scheduled from Detroit to Flint (where Erin's dad and family would pick us up) had been rescheduled - a full 6 hours later than originally planned.  We asked if we could fly into Saginaw's MBS airport instead, and (once again) in part due to James's status with the airline, the gate agent made it happen.

This rescheduling, however, was no mean feat - and we stayed there at the ticket counter a good half-hour waiting for confirmation that we would be getting home sometime before midnight.  Finally, we were booked and ready to travel.  We stopped in the Delta lounge in the airport for some last-minute e-mails, and then trudged onto the overnight plane to the Seattle-Tacoma (SeaTac) airport.

Flight number 1 was uneventful, as was our second flight into Detroit.  We rushed to make our connection to the MBS flight, and were rewarded an hour later by stepping off the plane at MBS into the coldest weather we had felt for nearly a year.  Erin's dad Chuck, step-mother Theresa, and step-sister Stephanie were there to greet us, and after we bundled up in their car, we headed off to that most American of restaurants, Applebee's, for a much needed dinner.

Our last airline sunset for a while...

Tabitha takes her last flight of this adventure.

Our arrival in Detroit...it was cold and snowy, just as we had imagined it would be.

We went to bed that Thursday night with our bodies unsure exactly what time zone they were living in, but happy that we made it home safe-and-sound, in (mostly) one piece, and with almost all our "stuff" from the trip - minus a compass, some sunglasses, and James's Columbia hat.  Not too bad for first-time round-the-world travelers!

We cannot even begin to express how thankful we are that we were able to take such an amazing journey together.  We are grateful to all those who followed our journey via the blog - we hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did!

Since returning home, we've both returned to work and, while we are happy to be employed again (and to have the opportunity to pay off some of the credit card debt we accrued over the past six months), we're also a bit sad that we aren't still exploring the world together.  Maybe someday we'll embark on another travel adventure together.  Until then...

A Day in the Sun with Nappy!

Our day started early as we headed out for a Polynesian Adventure tour.  We left our bags at the hotel front desk, checked out, and got on the tour bus at 8am.  Our tour guide, Nappy, quickly introduced himself and started entertaining us with jokes as soon as we got on board.

Nappy (and Tabitha) graciously agreed to say hello to our viewers:

We made several stops throughout the day, which was fantastic because it allowed us to see many places around Oahu.  Our first stop took us to the beautiful Hanauma Bay, which is a marine life preservation district.  We saw many people snorkeling in the bay, and we could understand why - the water was unbelievably clear.  We were told that the bay is a great place to see turtles, although we didn't see any while we were there.

A view of the bay from the lookout point above the beach.  Isn't it magnificent?

You can see how crystal clear the water really was!

On the other side of the bay was a large green mountain.

Erin and James posed for a picture on top of the Hanauma Bay lookout.

Our next stop was the Halona Blow Hole.  Supposedly, when the tide is high and the wind is blowing, the waves crash into the rocks and shoot water up in the air like a geyser.  When we were there, we definitely saw the water crashing into the rocks, but we didn't observe any geyser-like activity.  Even without an active blow hole, the scenery was still amazing.

Tabitha perched herself in front of the Halona Cove.

This is where the geyser-like action is supposed to take place.

Our next stop was Nu'uanu Pali, which is a section of the windward cliff of the nearby Koolau mountain range.  Once again, the views were amazing. 

While driving to Nu'uanu Pali, we also passed Waimanalo Beach, which was stunning as well.

A view of Pali (which means cliff) from one of the lower trails.

On top of the lookout, there were lots of chicken running around - most of them had a lot of color, just like this one.

It wasn't long before we arrived at the Byodo-In Temple located at the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park.  We had flashbacks to our time in Japan, as we noticed the temple resembled several we saw while touring through Japan.  The Byodo-In Temple was created to commemorate the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii.  And, just like the temples in Japan, there is a large buddha inside, as well as a bell house right outside.

We felt right at home as we arrived at the Byodo-In Temple.

Another giant Buddha to worship.  This one, however, was lacking offerings, which was something we saw at many Buddhist temples in Thailand, China, and Japan.

The koi fish in the nearby pond were stunning to look at.



Yup, you guessed it, we used our tripod and timer to take another picture of ourselves!

 We made a stop for lunch at Kualoa Ranch, which is one of the major sites for television filming on the island (Lost, 50 First Dates, Jurassic Park, and currently Hawaii 5-0).  The ranch was extremely large (over 4,000 acres), so we didn't see anything that looked obviously familiar.  It was fun to wander around the filming location and try to locate things from television shows. 

A view of Mokoli'i island (also known as Chinaman's hat) from the ranch.

James standing in front of one of the dramatic mountain backdrops.

After lunch, we stopped at the nearby macadamia nut and coffee farm in Kahaluu.  It was great to see how the macadamia nuts are grown and shelled, but it was even better tasting the free samples of different nuts and Kona coffees. 

James attempts to crack open the shell of a macadamia nut.  He wasn't successful until he squished it with his foot.

Erin and Tabitha standing in front of some of the art carved out of the soft wood trees at the farm.

We also made a stop along the north shore of Hawaii at Sunset Beach.  Erin was especially excited to visit the north shore because it is the home of some of the biggest waves in Hawaii.  Many surfing competitions are held there, and when we were there, the waves were about 10-15 feet.  There were several signs warning people about the dangers involved.  Our tour guide even told us that we shouldn't leave the sidewalk because the tide changes can make the water come up much further beyond the shoreline than you might expect.

Tabitha tries to catch a wave at Sunset Beach.

We wonder how that picture was decided upon for this sign. 



The waves may not look all that big in this photo, but they were!

A trip to Hawaii wouldn't be complete without visiting the Dole Plantation.  Our last stop took us to the Dole Plantation where various types of pineapples are grown.  The grounds house a beautiful garden where many things (other than pineapple) are grown.  They also have a very large pineapple maze that you can wander through.

The entrance to the Dole Plantation was inviting and tropical - just as you might imagine a pineapple farm would be!

While we saw many Eucalyptus trees in Australia, we didn't see any quite like this one at the Dole Plantation.



There is nothing quite like ice cream made from fresh pineapples (or so we were led to believe).

At the plantation, there are many different types of pineapples grown - this is just a small sample of what they look like up close.

As our last day in paradise began to wind down, we realized that our journey was almost over.  We returned to the hotel, said goodbye to Nappy, and gathered our belongings as we prepared to go home.

A Relaxing Day in Waikiki

Today was another beautiful day, so we decided to spend it outside.  After eating a healthy breakfast at the nearby Subway restaurant, we headed to the beach! 

There were plenty of options for outdoor activities, and after watching other people play around for a bit, we decided we wanted to have some fun in the water too.  So, we rented kayaks for an hour.  Kayaking in the ocean is slightly different than kayaking in a small lake or a river.  We learned this the hard way.  About 5 minutes after we were in the water, we began to notice the coral reef near the top of the water.  We did our best to avoid it, but we both ended up getting our kayaks stuck on top of it, and James's kayak even capsized.  We attempted to paddle further out into the ocean in order to get out of the patch of the coral reef.  As soon as we thought we were in the clear, we realized we had gotten ourselves into another situation.  The lifeguard came out on a jet-ski and told us we needed to beware of the big waves that were coming through.  Heeding his advice, we began to navigate back towards the shore.  Within five minutes, we were scolded by a man from the kayak rental company who had paddled out into the water to let us know that we had gone out too far into the ocean.  At this point we only had about 10 minutes left of our kayaking adventure, so we decided to just head into the shore and return the kayaks.  While it was great fun, we were happy to return our kayaks after the hour was up.

Our kayaks waiting on the beach for us!

A view of the Waikiki beach from the kayak. 

James on his kayak before he capsized!  (The blurriness is due to a drop of water that was on the outside of the waterproof lens protector).

After kayaking, we relaxed for the majority of the day.  We had a picnic lunch on the beach, read our books, and may have even fallen asleep for a bit.  It was a perfect day!

These adorable penguins were waddling around outside the Hilton Hotel in Waikiki.  While we weren't staying there, we did see them as we were walking by.

Unfortunately, tomorrow is our last day in Hawaii.  We talked about how we wanted to spend the day, and we agreed to take a guided tour around the island. We saw a flyer advertising a Lost tour on the island, and because we were/are fans of the show, we wanted to do that one.  Surprisingly, the tour was more popular than we had imagined, and it was already sold out.  Instead, we opted for the second best tour, which would take us to many different spots on the island, including a few different beaches.  We're looking forward to our last beautiful day in Hawaii!

Walking Around the Beautiful Island

Today we woke up to a beautiful blue sky.  We talked about going to the beach, but decided to head out and do some exploring first.  We wanted to hike up one of the old volcanoes, Diamond Head, as we could see it from our hotel.  However, when we got to the lobby of our hotel, we noticed a sign that said the volcano site was currently closed as they were improving the trails.  We were disappointed, but decided we were still going to head out today and get some exercise. 

 

We had a great view of Waikiki from our hotel room!  Erin is standing in front of the beach.

Unfortunately, we were unable to hike up the famous Diamond Head crater.

When we took the bus from the airport to our hotel yesterday, we had passed a few areas that looked as though they might be worth checking out.  So, we used google maps to help us navigate further west (or "ewa" if you are Hawaiian), back towards Honolulu.  Our first stop along the way was a Kmart.  It is difficult to fully explain how exciting a Kmart is if you haven't seen one (or anything similar) in quite some time.  We spent about 30 minutes perusing the Kmart and James even enjoyed some of the Little Caesar's pizza they were selling inside the store.

Kmart never looked better to us!

After our stop to shop, we came into Chinatown.  There are a great deal of Asian Americans living on the island (from Japan, Philippines, and China), so we weren't surprised to a relatively large shopping area dedicated to these cultures.  We wandered through Chinatown and even stopped in one or two of the shops to look around.

Like most major cities, Oahu has its own Chinatown.

This was a store in Chinatown - the picture only gives you a glimpse of how cluttered it actually was!

Our next stop took us to Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu.  We learned that the palace was once the home of King Kamehameha, but is now a museum open to the public.

A picture of the Iolani Barracks, which actually used to house the royal guards. 

Right across the street from the palace is another government building, the supreme court, also known as Aliiolani Hale.  We began by examining the statue of King Kamehameha that is outside the courthouse and reading the inscription about the King below the statue.  The inscription described the Law of the Splintered Paddle, which the King wrote.  The law states, "Let every elderly person, woman and child lie by the roadside in safety".

This statue of King Kamehameha stands outside the Hawaii State Supreme Court.

We went into the courthouse and learned a bit more about the first king of Hawaii.  We were able to wander throughout the courthouse, peering into the dark Supreme Court, and looking inside some of the smaller courtrooms. 

James tries to look the part of a Hawaiian judge...he's not very convincing, is he?

After exploring some of the historical sites in Hawaii, we decided it was time to take a break.  We headed into the Ala Moana Center, which is one of the largerst open air shopping centers we have ever seen.  We didn't realize how big the mall was until we tried to get out and got a bit turned around.

Inside the shopping mall there were small pools filled with large koi fish.

We didn't buy anything while shopping, but we did enjoy wandering through some of the stores, namely the Lego store and Sephora.  We continued to walk back towards our hotel, ultimately passing it as we decided we still wanted to check out Diamond Head, even if we couldn't walk up it.  So, we headed through Waikiki beach and the highly commercialized hotel area surrounding the beach, stopping to take a few pictures along the way.  We got about as close as we could to the volcano before hitting a gate that wouldn't allow us to go any further.

 

The famous Diamond Head crater.  It definitely would have been a fun hike.

The soccer fields where we live definitely aren't that scenic.

Tabitha poses in front of Diamond Head in Oahu.

It began to get dark, so we decided to walk back to our hotel along the beach.  We took of our shoes and rolled up our pants so we could walk in the sand along the beach.  It was amazingly beautiful as we were able to catch the sun setting over the Pacific ocean.
 

A very relaxing sunset over Waikiki beach in Oahu.

We eventually made it back to our hotel in the dark, but not before stopping at Subway for some dinner.  We had once again exhausted ourselves and were ready to call it a night.

Our 45-Hour Day...Literally

We woke up early today as we had to get to the airport for our flight to Hawaii, and knew we didn't have much time left in our last foreign country visit. We packed up our belongings, showered, and headed downstairs around 8am to the dorm cafeteria for our final meal in Sydney. Unfortunately, the schedule for breakfast was a bit different today because of the holidays – breakfast didn't start until 9am. So, we went back up to our room and finished packing before attempting to eat breakfast again an hour later. Erin made us some eggs and kosher breakfast meat at the frying station. Once we finished our breakfast, we went back upstairs and gathered our packs as we headed out. We had decided to walk to Sydney Central Station and then take the train to the airport from there. The station was about a 25-minute walk from the dorm, and the sun was already shingin and warm by the time we got started. The walk was uneventful, aside from a great deal of perspiration from both of us - due to our heavy packs, and the warm temperature.

We arrived at Sydney Central and bought our tickets for the train to the airport. As soon as we arrived at the platform, our train was there. We boarded the train and took our packs off, if for no other reason than to allow our own sweat to evaporate a bit. We arrived at Kingsford International Airport with plenty of time to spare, checked in our packs, and sat down with relief.

We flew on Air Pacific without a problem and wandered through the duty free store and the bookstore before eventually reaching our gate. We boarded our flight on time, and were surprised to be flying on a jumbo jet! Erin had never flown on a plan with two levels, so it was a new experience – which, made it fun. The flight was decorated for the new year and the fight attendants wore flowers in their hair. We enjoyed a nice glass of wine before eating our in-flight meal.

The Air Pacific snack of traditional Indian fare.

Our meal of chicken, sweet potatoes, and, of course, Fiji water on our way to Fiji.

The island of Fiji as we flew into Nadi airport.

Our Air Pacific jumbo jet on the Nadi runway.

Our flight was scheduled to make a layover in Fiji on our way to Honolulu.  Right on time, we arrived in Fiji with a warm welcome - a local band was playing a nice greeting as we entered the tropical island airport.  We immediately went through security once more in order to board our next flight.  To kill the time before we boarded our next flight, we wandered through the duty free stores and read our books.  We left Fiji around 10pm for our 6 hour flight to Honolulu.  We were very lucky that the flight wasn't full, so we had an extra seat next to us, allowing us to spread out a bit more and get some sleep on the flight.  Once again, we enjoyed free adult beverages on the flight and we began to agree that Air Pacific may be the "friendliest airline in the world."

Our first introduction to Fiji - a band welcoming passengers off of the flight.

James and Erin curl up on Air Pacific.

Sassava chips and Fiji water - no other way to cross the Pacific.

Around 6am we arrived in Honolulu.  During the flight we had crossed the international date line, and gained 21 hours of time.  So, it was a little like Groundhog's Day - as though we were reliving the previous day according to the calendar, although we weren't really.  We made our way through customs quickly and picked up our baggage.  Erin found the Honolulu airport to be especially disappointing as there was no one there to greet her with a lei - unlike every television show Erin ever saw that takes place in Hawaii.

Because we are still traveling on a budget, we decided to take the public bus to our hotel instead of a taxi or shuttle.  Unfortunately, we waited in the dark for the bus for nearly 40 minutes before it finally came.  But, the bus did tak us right into Waikiki near our hotel - which was perfect.  We were a bit too early to check in, but our hotel allowed us to drop off our bags until the room was ready.  We made a quick stop for breakfast and then hopped back on the bus heading for Pearl Harbor.  Erin hadn't been to Hawaii before, so she really wanted to see the Pearl Harbor museum - especially after visiting Hiroshima in Japan.  Going to both of these sites really helped provide more insight into what happened during World War II and the involvement of both the US and Japan.

Good morning January 2 - again!

Back to the tropics in Hawaii, outside the Pearl Harbor Museum.

A sea-to-air missle from the Pearl Harbor historical site.

Tabitha poses in front of the USS Growler.

Erin and James in front a Pearl Harbor memorial.

Tabitha poses on one of the Pearl Harbor displays.

After our time at Pearl Harbor, we were starting to get tired.  In reality, we had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep (if that) on the plane, and our bodies were starting to remind us of that.  We got back on the bus and headed back to our hotel.  We did, however, make a pit-stop at a discount clothing store called Ross, so Erin could buy an additional bathing suit (which she was able to find for only $10!).  Once again, we boarded the bus and took it to Waikiki where we finally checked into our hotel. 

We were shocked by our views from the hotel windows - and our room - and by how nice the hotel's location was.  Because it was a beautiful day, and despite our lack of sleep, we couldn't resist heading back down to the beach!  We lathered on sunscreen and walked down to the beach for some relaxation.  Erin ended up swimming for a bit, while James read on the beach.  We really couldn't have asked for a more perfect afternoon.

Downtown Waikiki as we walked to the beach.

The Hilton pool and Waikiki's sand.

James poses on Waikiki beach with Diamondhead behind him.

We near the end of our longest day on Waikiki...

As the afternoon sun started to disappear, we left the beach and went in search of a grocery store.  To our dismay, we couldn't find anything other than one of many ABC Convenience Stores that are literally on every block.  We bought some beverages and snacks and grabbed dinner from the Subway restaurant nearby.  We went back to the hotel and watched Sportscenter for the first time in months while we ate and relaxed before going to bed.