ALOHA

Today was our first day in the 50th state if the USA (Hawaii 50)!

We had a very long day of travel from Brisbane to Sydney then a bit of a wait in Sydney then on to Honolulu. As usual I didn't sleep at all on the flight and for some reason the plane was SUPER cold! More than other OS flights we have taken.

When we arrived at Honolulu airport it was like half of Japan had also decided to come to Hawaii for a holiday and the immigration queue took well over a hour to get through! When we got outside we met up with our greeter who forgot to give us our lei greeting and took us to the shuttle bus.

We arrived at our beautiful hotel, the Outrigger Reef on the Beach. It was recommended to us by our dear friends Cat & Kyle who stayed here last year. It is a really lovely hotel & the room is HUGE and has everything we need :)

As our room wasn't ready for a early check in we went to get some lunch :) First place we went to ..... The Cheesecake Factory! Was so good but I forgot how HUGE the servings are in the USA! I was very happy that I got my strawberry lemonade :) 
Second stop...the Apple store in Waikiki. Tony was served by a Apple employee wearing beige cargo shorts & thongs! We thought it was pretty funny!  

Went back to our hotel & thankfully our room was ready as jet lag had set in & I was not in a good way. Once we were in our room we slept for about 4 hrs. That always fixes my jet lag, just a short 4 hr sleep & I am good to go in any time zone!

Next stop...Sephora where I was once again overwhelmed by choice and how cheap thing are there! I'll skip the part where I tell you how much I bought there shall I?

We found a market place that had lots of interesting (and crappy) stuff for sale. We found a family of Tiki carvers and bought our very first Hawaiian tiki :) He even engraved it for us.



There is another tiki stand where a sister & brother team sell and make tiki's where we are going to buy 2 masks to hang on the patio wall. I am going to have to put my "Jan's haggling" hat on to strike a deal with this lady! I also found a giant Pineapple at a stand where they make you a pineapple drink INSIDE a pineapple! We are going back there to get one this week! 
You would not believe how much pineapple stuff there is here ! I am in Pineapple heaven! Even our bed head at the hotel has pineapples on it ! 

After the markets we had a late dinner & I had my first ever Pastrami Rueben sandwich. It was goooood! I discovered I actually don't mind  sauerkraut :) We also got our cocktail on !  


Its been a long day so for now we say Aloha & goodnight :)

Oh PS, Mum my new kindness attitude is working out great so far. Especially with waitstaff, no one seems to ask them how they are ! 

Bec
xx