Exploring Oahu, Hawaii... day 2

Out of the house by 9:30am. We drove over to Diamond Head Crater where there is a popular hike to the top.

Parking was $5.00, so we found a spot right at the bottom for free, and walked up to the main parking area. Good thing too, because it was full. Some people were in line for a spot, and others were turning around to head back down.

Exploring the island of Oahu, Hawaii

Slept like a rock last night!

Whenever we do time zone travel, we always try to put ourselves right into the time zone of our destination as soon as possible. So other than the nap we had when we arrived yesterday, we stayed up until 10:00pm last night which would have been extra late. For the most part, jet lag does not have too much of an impact on us.

Because we were extra tired, we slept right through until 6:30am.

Hawaii... first impressions

We've only been here half a day, so first impressions are exactly that! We realize that we are only here 3 days, so even then we're not giving it much of a chance. And, of course there is more to Hawaii than just the island of Oahu where we are.

Weather... well, maybe it's different at different times of year, but right now, it is hot and humid. Highs of 86F (30C) and lows of 70F (21C). And humid. Did I mention humid??

Goodbye Australia, Hello Hawaii

Hawaii is a special place, because it is truly "the 50th state" for us! Yes, we have now been to all 50 of the United States.

We've also been to all 32 states of Mexico, as well as all 10 Canadian provinces and two of the three northern Canadian territories. (One day we will make it to Nunavut!)

Last day in Australia

Wow, we've had a great stretch of weather here in Sydney to end our time in Australia. Ever since we arrived here last Tuesday, it's been decently warm with clear and sunny skies! Could not have asked for better.

There is so much to see and do in Sydney. Yes, a lot of it is geared towards expensive touristy things but we found that we had no trouble using up our time just sightseeing the free stuff.

More views of downtown Sydney

We relaxed for the morning because Ruth wanted to see the sunset from downtown on the other side of the Sydney Opera House. So we didn't leave the cottage until after lunch.

We figured that because it was a Saturday, the train wouldn't be very busy. And it wasn't busy at all... because it wasn't running!

Exploring downtown Sydney, Australia

We left the cottage at about 10:30am. A bit of a late start, but we wanted things to warm up enough that we didn't need to carry sweaters with us.

We walked the 2 minutes up to the Kogarah train station, and stopped in at a news stand to buy two Opal transit cards for the public transportation system here.

Not every day you see six lions...

Another beautiful day here in Sydney, Australia. Sunshine, and a high of 21C (70F). Perfect.

We are staying in the suburb of Kogarah. We are located about 5 kms (3 miles) from the airport, and about 13 kms (8 miles) from the main downtown area.

Saying goodbye to Bundy and Joyce

Yesterday afternoon, Garry flew up here from Melbourne to pick up Bundy and Joyce. He arrived at 4:00pm and brought along a couple of bottles of wine to share!

Ruth made dinner for us all, and we spent the evening chatting and drinking wine.

Last night was in fact our "last night"!

Our last night sleeping in our Australia camper, that is.

Does anybody else think that two and a half months went by really fast?! Man, it's a good thing we always have another adventure around the corner... wouldn't want to get bored or anything!

Today (Tuesday), we had to drive into Sydney.

Big blowholes in Kiama!

We headed into the town of Kiama this morning. It's a really pretty area, and with the rolling hills and green grass leading down to the sea, we think we could definitely spend more time here.

Unfortunate that we've only got the day, but it is what is is!

Only two more sleeps in the camper!

Well, things are really winding down now... we've only got two more nights sleeping in the camper!

Overall, it's been a good trip. But we will get into a little more detail in a future post, including our overall expenses and how we might do things differently next time.

I am not impressed...

I dropped the camera today, and yes... it is messed up.

The camera was in the case. It only fell from a height of about a foot and a half, and it only grazed the corner of the dinette seat before landing on my foot. I honestly thought it didn't hit anything hard enough to have caused a problem.

But I was wrong.

Severe, damaging winds

We knew the winds were coming. We had seen the forecast, and they were calling for severe, gale force winds starting Thursday night. But the winds actually picked up earlier than that.

We had been trying to get to a state forest campsite, but the route we took became a private road. So we settled for second best and simply parked in a hydro corridor beside the forest road. Not ideal, but with the winds the way they were we didn't want to drive any longer, and we didn't want to be parked under any trees!

Have never seen so many whales!

What a great day we had.

It started off cloudy and cool, and it kind of deteriorated when the wind picked up as well. But the forecast still called for clearing skies so we drove over to the village of Currarong and the Abrahams Bosom Reserve Park where we planned to go for a hike.