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A long flight on a 737 ( hought they were only local but we arrived on time and intact to Hawaii Oahu at 6.00am with little sleep. In the US we have hired cars and the first was this morning. Now for those who know her indoors you will understand my trepidation but luckily we have a Garmin gps to help us Anyway a quick drive brought us to Waikiki home of the famous beach . It doesn't disappoint if your looking for a typical American beach , all Baywatch and Prada. Great viewing nonetheless especially the beach volleyball.
Our first day we drove to the north shore to watch the surfer dudes on some of the biggest waves in the world. Well they weren't that high but someone decided to adopt dude language and signs which could have turned out badly as some are close to rude . Anyway on the way back we visited the bishop Museum which chronicles the history of Hawaii and very interesting it was. On leaving I visited the restroom and was locked in the facility whilst you know who said he'll find his way out don't worry. Much hammering of doors later I emerged to someone who was not in the slightest worried. Home to our hotel and another Tony Roma's.
Next day we spent the whole day at Pearl Harbour visiting the Arizona, Missouri and Blowfin ships. As with all things like this the Americans have produced a classy depiction of the event .You really have to question how it happened with all the warnings given .
Last full day on Oahu and lots of book uh Danno later by you know who we climbed the Diamond head and visited those other parts of the island .
Short flight of 20 minutes and we arrived at Maui. On the flight the secret Marshall catalogued all the flight personnel failings and then reported them on exiting the plane. I had visions of please come this way and spending time with some nasty people . Still we made to our home stay with Tom. Now a home stay means we got an apartment in his house. Very nice it was and he also provided a fresh breakfast every morning.
First day we went to the top of the 10000ft volcano and went for a walk. Next day we drove the road to Hana which is quite interesting in that the road is very narrow and American cars very large. The trip was worth it with lovely views of cliffs , waterfalls and forest. Our still dude, bro, whatever, man travelling companion wanted to see more surf action so we visited the north shore and found a beach with lots of dudes (and luckily a few dudettes) and plus of 20 foot waves. It was great fun and we would have loved to see bigger waves (allegedly on our day of departure waves as high as 80 feet were going to batter Hawaii). We also continued our whale of a time by going on a boat to see Humpback whales who breach regularly in front of you but never were you have pointed the camera. We also snorkelled with turtles (used the wetsuits finally).
Bye to Hawaii and hello LA. Limo to our hotel in west Hollywood and star spotting. Luckily at, this point our surfer buddy had disappeared to be replaced by a paparazzi persona. First day we took a grand tour of the city seeing all the hands, stars, bars, places were stars were discovered, died. It was really interesting to the see areas where the Oscars are held and how the street is transformed for the event - in summary the area is not the best but $30 million can transform anything. It's incredible how LA changes you, we saw two range rovers pull up in Rodeo Drive and when some one exited, shadowed by many guards, we were, all speculating as to who it could be. I said Steven Green out getting his groceries! Next day we cycled along Santa Monica , Venice and Muscle beach. Well the beaches are lovely but Venice and Muscle are dumps fully of druggies, winos and all kind of weirdo. To further emphasis this point we took public transport which really attracts the unusual.
Leaving LA in the next hire car was comparatively easy and we are now in Santa Barbara
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