Flight back to Hawaii 19 July 2012

19-20 July 2012
Flight back to Hawaii and last minute shopping before Kaylene and I fly out tomorrow morning.
After checking into the Ohana Hotel, we headed out again for some last minute shopping.

Had dinner at Denny's across the street having the same meal we had in LA, but on comparison the Denny's in LA was a lot better.

Friday 20 July

Wake up at 6am. Brush teeth and pack stuff away.
Looks like going to be a beautiful day.
7am lying in bed having FBed. Net is in and out.
8.15am head out to get Maccas to go. Get egg mcmuffin meal (hash brown, cup of cut pineapples, reg drink) Lily gets Spam, scrambled eggs, rice and hash brown. JT just has egg mcmuffin. Kaylene had to try the spam and eggs.

8.30am back at hotel. Scoff down breakfast.

8.45am check out
8.55am taxi pickup
9.20am get to airport. Self check in. Bags weigh 49, 44, 18 pds.

Say goodbye and go through security check.
Only 10am have 2 hrs to kill. Lucky shops are open.
10.30am buy le sportsac wheelie bag $315.

Chloe $99 ,75 ml $75, 50ml
Tahiti love or tahiti secrets spray VS
Pinkberry yo fro $6.44

Check out VS, then watch island entertainment.. Singers and dancers perform for travellers.

At the airport, after checking in, Kaylene and I had some time to kill, so we walked the shops and I made a very last minute purchase of a wheelie on-board suitcase, which we stuffed our junk food and other carry on items into.

 

12.02pm at departure lounge.

12.10pm boarding begins.

1.10pm take off
7.25pm arrived in Sydney and had Nathan and Daz come pick us up.
9.05 pm Saturday back home
.

Shopping, Honda Centre, Mainplace

Wednesday 18th July

Took the local bus to the Honda Centre to buy Justin's hockey gear. On the way back, stopped at the Giant Hockey Store.

Had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory

Then caught the bus to Mainplace for more shopping.

California Adventure 17 July 2012

Tuesday 17th July

It's 9.30am and we head to walk again to Disneyland. Half way there, Janet remembers that her iphone is on the bathroom cabinet, so she heads back to the hotel, while we continue walking. When we get there we wait for her at the entrance. She catches the bus back and it's just past 10am when we go in.

There are no more fast passes for the Cars ride. So we go to the Bug's life theatre for a 3D experience. Next we queue in the 45min lineup for Mater's hoedown. Check out Radiator Springs, and the Cars ride which has a line up of 165 min wait time and 50 min wait time for single riders. Luigi's tyres ride is also just as long. Head towards Paradise Pier and do the Boudin Bakery tour where you get to sample the bread and watch and see how it is made. Decide to have early lunch and beat the crowds, but there is still a line up to buy the clam chowder in sour dough bread.

After lunch we line up for the Little Mermaid ride, which is different to the one in Florida, but a lot of fun. Then we hop on the Jumpin Jellyfish, grab a Fast Pass for the Goofy Flight School rollercoaster and head to the Ferris Wheel and sit in a non swinging cart. Next we go grab a Fast Pass for the California Screamin roller coaster ride and then queue for the Toy Story ride which has a wait time of 50 mins. But it's a fun ride shooting at targets with 3D ammo. Go the the Grizzly River rapids and end up getting a fast pass to the World of Color, as well as the River Rapid ride. Walk through Condor Flats, try to get a Fast Pass but it clashes with the river ride. Miss the street parade and instead go to see the Aladdin show which turns out to be a full on live musical theatre show and takes nearly an hour.

We race out of the theatre and make our way back to Paradise Pier. Leaving all our bags with Lily, we run to get to the California Screamin ride. Kaylene rides with a guy in front, while Janet and I sit in the back. It's an awesome ride, and we managed the loop as well.

After that we need to make our way to the Grizzly River ride. Janet and Lily forgo the ride and position themselves to take photos of us. Kaylene and I wait to use our Fast Pass, seems there is a hold up with the ride and in that time, we um and ah whether to stay and wait. Just as we're about to go, they reopen the ride, so we head on down and into the boat, as we're the last to get in, Kaylene and I are stuck sitting next to the big gap and dreading the thought of getting wet. There are 3 young guys and a father with his son and daughter. I get a dunking from rounding a small bend and my top and hair is all wet. Fearing the worst as we head down the big slide, it's a relief when we don't get wet. As soon as I get out and meet up with Janet and Lily, I strip off my top and quickly put my jacket on. Kaylene is not as wet.

Then we're off again to get to the Tower of Terror ride, so across the park we rush again. Lily forgoes riding on the tower, so waits for us with our bags outside, while Janet, Kaylene and I take the express fast pass route to the top. We manage to score the front seats, oh what fun, the group behind us haven't been on the ride before and are in terror of anticipation, expecially when we tell them it's going to drop and plunge down. Unlike the long ago, ride, this one seems to go down and back up and couple of times before it plunges all the way down. 

Disneyland 16 July 2012

Monday 16 July 2012

It's 9am and we head out to the lobby to get our ART passes, but the machine has run out of 3 day passes. So Lily says we walk, so we walk, it's like a 1/2 hour fast walk, 3 big blocks.
Kaylene decides to do Disneyland first, so we go in she leads us into Adventureland and the Tiki Room as there are no queues. Next on to The Jungle Cruise and then Tarzan's Treehouse. The Indiana Jones ride is closed, so we continue on pass Splash Mountain as there is a long queue and onto the Many Adventures of Pooh ride. Next we take a raft to Tom Sawyers Island and then back again.
Stop for lunch at the Stage Door Cafe, where Janet and Lily buy us Fish and chips, Chicken nuggets and a corn dog to share.

After lunch we go and try Splash Mountain again. We start queuing at 1.30pm, 2.15pm and we're still in the queue. JT has front row, then Kaylene, me and Lily, followed by two other girls. Janet manages to avoid getting her shorts and shoes wet, she does get splashed on as does Kaylene. My socks are a bit damp, Lily stays dry. We buy the Disney photo as a souvenir.

Next we walk past Indiana Jones ride again and decide to get a Fast Pass. Then we end up going back to Main Street to watch the parade. End up sitting in the sun, my bum is burning, so I end up sitting on our jackets. Janet sits on the tea towel we used to wrap our drinks.

After the parade we head to Tomorrow land. Space Mountain is closed, so we go line up for the Buzz ride. After that we check out Star Tours, another long line, so we end up getting a Fast Pass for Autopia. Head to Fantasy Land and do It's a small world ride then straight after back to Autopia where Kaylene finally gets to drive a car. Steering is a bit erratic and she's too fast for Lily and Janet to catch up.

Next we head to Toontown and check out Minnie and Mickey's house. The mouses aren't in the house :( but we just walk in and take photos. Check out Chip n' Dales treehouse, queue for Goofy's roller coaster ride and then head back to Fantasy Land to do the Toad, Snow White and Pinocchio rides. Wait times for these rideas are less that 10 mins. Miss the Peter Pan ride, as the wait time is more than 40 mins. Then it's back to Adventureland to do the Indiana Jones ride, on the way we get a Fast Pass for the Big Thunder Mountain railroad, we Kaylene and I come back to do, while Janet and Lily check out the shops.

When we finish our ride on the Big Thunder, the shops have closed and the Fantasmic show is on.  How to find Lily and Janet. They aren't outside the shop, Kaylene and I look in the crowds, get steered all the way up one walkway and the make our way back down another way. Decided to just stop and watch the Fantasmic show, before trying to find them. Doesn't help that they have our phones and bags. Finally find them and they say they went to check out the shops next door.

Make our way out with the crowds towards mainstreet and try to find a good spot for the 9.30pm fireworks but the views are blocked by trees and people. Finally make our way into the crowds and manage to see some of the fireworks. Follow the crowds down mainstreet and make it into the shops to do some shopping, buy my scrapbook album and two Disney glasses.

Get out of Disney and look for the ART kiosk. Should we buy a 3 Day pass, decide we can walk it, so we walk back to our hotel. Get back around 11.30pm and have a late dinner of shell macaroni and turkey legs. By the time we have our showers and get to bed, it's after 12.

Anaheim 15 July 2012

Sunday 15 July

After a sleep in, we head out to catch the bus to the Village at Orange. It's 10am and it looks like we missed it, so we have to wait another hour for the next bus. So we cross the road to Subway and get 2 footlongs to share as our breakfast.

When we do finally get the bus no. 50, it's $6 for the four of us for one way.

When we get to The Village, we cross the main road and go to Target first, looking for Kaylene's makeup and cosmetics as well as nail polish. Buy some socks, Lily gets some clothes and they also sell food and groceries, so we end up buying drinks and a punnet of raspberries..so cheap and so yummy.

After Target, we head back across to JC Penney, have a look at the shops in the block. Go to Walmart to buy noodles and drinks, they have the brush set here, so we also end up buying cosmetics here as well.  Then to JC Penny and check out mens wear, but end up buying bras again. Then into Sears where I get some Jewellery and Lily buys some clothes. Walk the food court area, but don't end up buying any lunch.Then we go to Sprouts to buy some fruit (blue berries, raspberries, bananas, pineapple), lettuce and cucumber and snap pea chips and kettle chips, sweet onion and bbq. Walk to bus stop to catch the bus back, but while waiting we open a pack of the chips and they taste good, so I rush back to buy another 2 packets.

When we get back to the resort, Lily does the laundry, while we watch TV and catch up on the net. Lily also ends up making 3 min noodles for dinner.  After dinner we spend a bit of time figuring out what we'll wear to Disneyland tomorrow.  Don't end up with a uniform, so we just wear what will be comfortable in.  Decisions made, showers had, it's time for bed if we want to make an early start tomorrow.

Hawaii - LA - Anaheim 14 July 2012

Saturday 14 July
Lily has the alarm set for 4.30am, we're all up and ready to check out by 5.20am. The cab is set to pick us up at 5.30am. We checkout and wait for the cab in the lobby. The cab comes on time and takes us to Hawaiian Airlines for $25, the meter registers $28, Janet pays the cabbie $30.

At the airport, it's a self-checkin system, but they have staff to help. You need to enter your ticket confirmation number, then follow the prompts to confirm, accept seats and weigh the bags, then the staff print off the baggage labels, slip them on the bags and then we need to take it to get scanned, and then after scanning, need to take it to be put on a conveyor belt to get put on the plane. Go through immigration, need to show passport and boarding pass, then through security, scan hand luggage and need to take shoes off.

6.45am and we're in the departure lounge.
7.15am the gates open for boarding and 8am our flight departs. You need to pay to watch movies and listen to music. We get a complimentary snack (peanuts/mixed) and drinks after takeoff. At 10am, they serve a complimentary breakfast of scrambled eggs with edame beans, rice and corned beef wrapped in tortilla bread and a large muffin. Sleep on and off until we get to LA around 4pm.

As it's a domestic flight, there's no need to go through any checks, just need to collect our bags from the carousel and then go out door 2 to wait for shuttle, which is suppose to be a big white bus that says Disneyland Resort Express. It looks like we missed the 4.30pm pickup and we wait for an hour for the next one, a sign of things to come.

We're finally on the road to Anaheim and it's 5.50pm, the bus driver tells us it's will take an hour to get to Anaheim. When we get to Anaheim, the bus makes a stop at the Disney Hotel where our tickets get checked and we get handed our return tickets. Then the bus driver takes us to the hotel after stopping at some other hotels for other people.

It's 6.30pm when we get to the hotel, but our room is still not ready, so we wait outside the pool gates. When we finally check in it's 7pm. The room is pretty big, with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms a kitchen and lounge. But it's pretty smelly and from the carpet cleaner who was outside our door we take it he has just been in and steamed cleaned the carpets. Lily and Kaylene share the room with single beds, Janet takes the main bedroom and I take the pull out lounge bed. The closet in Janet's room is big enough to fit all our bags and room to move. There is free wifi with password. We assign one bathroom as shower and the other for toilet.

7.30pm we head out to Denny's on the corner, which we walked passed when the bus dropped us off at the bus stop. We order 3 mains and ice tea, but the ice tea is just that tea with ice in it, not like lipton ice tea drink. Janet orders a lemonade. After dinner we go check out the liquor/corner shop across the road, where Lily buys some chips and then head back to the hotel.  In bed by 11pm.

Hawaii 13 July 2012

Friday 13 July 2012

It's our last day of shopping, I get up at 7am, but sleep in until 9am, as the rest are still sleeping. Today we're out the door by 9.30am. First stop Gap and we all buy things. Then go to the food court for an early lunch. Lily buys Bibimbap, while I buy Chicken and Steak Teriyaki plate and Janet get's pho.

After lunch we go to Old Navy, Janet pays for our buys. Go to the Post Office to buy some stamps for postcards, then whilst on the ground level, into Lush so that Kaylene can get her lip scrubber, then back to American Eagle to buy more coloured shorts. I then split and go to Ann Taylor, while the others go into Nordstrom to see if they have Tom Toms for Kaylene. Meet back up and Lily also has a look at Ann Taylor and ends up buying clothes there. On the way back to the Hotel we pass shops having their sidewalk sale, and end up buying lots (18) of O.P.I. nail polish which is on special and is far way cheaper than Aussie prices. $7.50 plus tax, so say $8, where as you'd pay $20 for one in Aust.

5pm we head back to hotel to drop off our shopping and then head back out again. Decide to go to Bubba Gumps for our farewell dinner. $110 for 4 entres (mains) and 2 drinks. Shrimpers Heaven, Captain's Fish and Chips, Shrimp Skewers and vegetables with rice, Spicy Shrimp with rice and a house salad (mainly lettuce with shredded carrot, croutons, cheddar cheese). After dinner we check out the terrace level, there are quite a number of restaurants up here. Then we head back down to the Post Office for Janet to send her postcard back to Fiona. On the way back to the Hotel, we buy more nail polish. Walk through Macy's, and buy some bras and jewellery before closing time.

It's 9pm and by the time we shower and pack, weigh and repack, it's like 11pm. Again Janet is the last to bed and keeps me up again. We've got to wake up early but I end up sleeping at like 1am.

Hawaii 12 July 2012

Thursday 12 July 2012
Wake up at 8am and get Kaylene to wake up as well. Head on down to the swimming pool but unlike yesterday, it's cloudy and sprinkling with showers and sunshine. Kaylene goes to sleep again. I try to sun myself but it's a bit cool, have the towel around me. Decide to go for a quick dip and then out again, dry off and it's time to head back up to get dressed and go shopping again, change of plans, going sightseeing to Chinatown instead.

10am we head down to the lobby, where Janet calls "hello cabs" to arrange transport pickup to the airport for Saturday. Then we walk to the front of the AMSC to catch the bus.
11.20am we get the bus 19 to Chinatown $10 for the four of us. We get off at the border nearing the canal and walk to the pho place. There is a small line up, so we queue as well. 11.30am and we're having medium bowl of rare beef pho noodle. It comes with a big plate of sprouts, basil and sawtooth.

After lunch we walk to the Oahu Marketplace, but don't go in, Janet buys bananas at a shop across from the marketplace. She also buys a skinned pineapple. We walk through the Manakaua Marketplace and check out the seafood, pity we don't have a kitchen. They have a tank full of live frogs for sale as well. Kaylene can't believe her eyes..ugh. In the chinese shops in the Marketplace, Lily buys chinese red packets. Walking past a bakery we look inside, but no more char siu buns left, only the boring buns are left. Walk into this other chinese store where Lily buys a small steamer rack and some more red packets.

1.30pm and we catch the bus 20 back to Waikiki, again $10 for the four of us. Get off at the back of Kings Square and walk through the International Marketplace (go to toilets). Then walk down Kalakaua Avenue to the Duke Kahanamohu statue. Then back up to Forever 21 and do some more clothes shopping there. Go into the upstairs of Le Sportsac and buy 2 shoulder bags and 1 wallet and then use the wifi outside the Apple shop.

Around 6pm we stop and sit and watch some of the entertainment on offer at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center. Buy some souveniers from the ABC store, some drinks and chips. By this time we're thinking of dinner, so we head on down to the Cheesecake Factory, but looks like they're busy, so we backtrack to the food court and Lily buys a burger to share, whilst Janet buys food from Panda Express. Have dinner and then catch the bus back to the Hotel. Get back around 8.30pm, and Kaylene suggests we go to Walmart again, I say she can go, I'm staying, no one goes, so we try to have an early night but get to bed by 11pm.

Hawaii 11 July 2012

Wednesday 11 July 2012
Sharing a bed with Janet, I didn't sleep well, but was up at 8.30am with Lily's alarm. It looked like a nice day, but decided to go back to bed and slept in til 9.30am. Missy was still sleeping at 9.57am.

10am and I'm waiting for the others to get ready. We then head on down to check out the pool on the 3rd floor before going to AMSC.We check out Macy's and they are having a sale on, Lily buys some clothes from the big girls section which is on the same floor as the luggage. Macy's has a 50% off sale on selected suitcases. So we check out the Samsonite ones and Janet ends up buying one... bargain. We ask them hold it for us as we continue shopping. We head out and Kaylene and I buy clothes in Pacsun and Hollister. Walk past Shirokuya and their Japanese food hall which has lots of sushi and tempura - will have to come back. Catch a bit of the free hula show which began at 1pm
and then go to the food court to get some lunch, seeing as we didn't have breakfast. I buy 2 Chicken teriyaki plates and stir fry vergies and Janet gets a chicken pho. Lily buys drinks for $2.

After lunch it's back to more shopping. By the time 5.30pm comes around, we've hit Forever21, Aeropostale, American Eagle and Banana Republic and finally make it into Sears where the others use the toilet. Then we check out Hallmark and Gap. As we're walking past Shirokuya again, we buy a couple of takeout boxes, pick up the suitcase from Macy's and head back to the hotel.

7-8pm we have dinner at the hotel. Lily tries on some of our clothes which we've bought and then we head out again. Go into Bath and Bodyworks and end up buying hand sanitizers. By the time we come out the shops are closing again.

So we head on down to Walmart again. Coming back, we find we can't walk through the shopping centre, they have cordoned it off and we're told we need to go out through the front carpark street level. We do but then end up climbing some stairs and making our way back through the carpark to the hotel. Another late night.

Hawaii 10 July 2012

Tuesday 10 July 2012
6pm Mark takes us to airport and drops us off. We've got 3 bags, 2 Kathmandu roller bags and the Samsonite hard case.

7pm Hawaiian Airlines checkin at counter. Lily is not in the same section as us, so lady tries to arrange a reseating, but asks her to enquire at gate counter. Which she does when we get there and manages to swap seats so that we're all seated together. Sit outside to fill in immigration forms, before going in to customs and security. For once I don't get frisked. Have a look at duty free, then head to gate to wait.

9.35 pm Takeoff
10.10pm they serve a meal. There are problems with the entertainment system which requires them to reboot it. I have personal problems with the screen freezing after having only watched an episode of Glee, so decide to sleep the rest of the way.

10.30-11am Arrive at Honolulu Airport. We have to sit in the plane and wait due to immigration backlog. And boy is there a backlog, when we get to customs/immigration at 11.30am the lines are backed up. Have to take fingerprints of both hands, and photo of face as well. We don't get out until 12.30pm Janet rings the guy she has arranged to pick us up. He tells her to wait on the median strip where taxis pickup. A guy called Sam picks us up, he's a Mandarin Chinese guy who doesn't say much. Traffic into Waikiki is bad, crawling on the freeway.

We get to the Ala Moana hotel around 1-1.30pm, but can't check in as the room is not ready, so we leave our bags with the bell desk and go to the shopping centre, which is up the escalator to the 2nd floor and out on the balcony and walkway across to the car park of the shopping centre and into Macy's. Look in Macy's but don't buy anything, then head to food hall to get a late lunch. Buy 3 dishes at Cafe Little Siam: Shrimp Pad Thai, Thai Beef Salad and Shrimp Glass Noodle salad. Lily pays for lunch. Janet buys 2 Jamba juice fruit drinks. After lunch we shop some more. Head into Sephora, where Kaylene buys makeup and we buy perfume, then to Victoria Secrets to buy some hand and body creams and sprays, after which time we head back to hotel to check in.

4pm checked in and we all have a nap, until 7.30pm when we head back out to get dinner at Bangga Bangga: Shredded beef with rice, natto, rice and egg, and just natto, raw fish with rice, my shout - natto is a sticky soybean fermented food. I think it's an acquired taste - next time I'll just stick to the shredded beef with rice and no natto. Janet buys iced tea with pearl, but more like ice tea slushi with pearl - nice on a hot day. After dinner we look in Williams and Sonoma, by this time the shops were closing.

Walked to Walmart as Janet said they open 24 hours and they do. Bought Bindy's makeup, some xyron refills and cricut blades. Shopped until 11pm, then walked back to the hotel via the AMSC. Stopped at Apple store to facetime Daz, but music from the nightclub was too loud. Walked back to the hotel, took turns to shower, facetimed Daz and Evan using the internet via Evan's router. Got to bed at 1am.

Vale to Judy

On Thursday 5 July I got the sad news that Judy Edye had passed away.

On Tuesday 3 July I held a SU workshop and Sue had mentioned that Judy was not well and had been taken to RPA hospital and was in an induced coma. On Thursday morning I got a call on my mobile phone. Thinking it was from Philip Edney, a former library manager, I called back and was surprised to get Patrick Condon, the library manager of Burwood Library on the other end. He told me that Judy had passed away, maybe from liver failure/cancer, not too sure, but she was gone.

I first knew Judy when she was the  casual Toy Librarian at Burwood Library, she only worked a few days. Then she became a library assistant and use to work the night shifts with Carol on Tuesday nights. First at Drummoyne and then when they closed Drummoyne, at Burwood. She was in the children's group and would help with storytelling.  She was always so well dressed with makeup and some wild wigs. I remember even borrowing a wig from her, but I don't think I ended up wearing it.

Her service was held at Macquarie Park, North Ryde on Wednesday 11 July. Burwood Library was closed for the day so that all staff could attend. I was unable to attend as I would be in Hawaii. I hope she has gone to a better place. May she rest in peace.