Day 6 Transit to Australia

Just a short post here. Long plane trip and then they "gassed" us when we pulled into the gate. Australian pest control came on board, walked up and down the aisles and sprayed the whole plane with pesticide. We had to sit there for 5 minutes to make sure any insects in our carry-on luggage were dead before they would let us de-plane.
Took the train from the airport to the hotel at Circular Quay (pronounced key). Took 13 minutes and dropped us off a block away.
Bedtime!

Day 5 The Lazy Day

Our only real mission today was to see Pearl Harbor. Since Patrice's Dad was there when it was attacked, the visit took on a special meaning for us. The oil that's still seeping to the surface and the remains of the gun turret sticking out of the water made it all the more poignant.

Our afternoon consisted of a long stroll along the beach almost to Diamond Head and dinner at our new favorite Tiki Bar and Restaurant, Duke's  We especially like Duke's because the music, food and views over the beach are all good.  Although there's a wait to get in, we learned that the best tables, are right at the bar where there's no waiting.

Later tonight we learned that you can't print your boarding pass to Australia. I think we just forgot that all international flights require a check-in at the counter.

OK, tomorrow, there'll be no post because we'll be in the air about 11 hours.

Day 4 The Come On

We are about to go to a sales presentation. Yes, we ought to know better but this one seemed pretty harmless. More on that later after we return.....
Although this was a "come on", it was not as bad as we feared. And we did get a free dinner at a good restaurant and a tour of Pearl Harbor.
We are starting to warm up a little to Waikiki. We spent some time at the beach. And although I thought it might be fun to learn how to "hang 10", when I saw the size of these boards it seemed best to leave that to all the Abercrombie and Fitch models walking around here. Body surfing was enough for me.





The sidewalks of the main drag paralleling the beach are full of people (about 50% Japanese), vendors and incredibly high-end stores like Coach and Rolex. Their position seems odd given all the people walking around in bathing suits. And there are fun things to see like this parrot handler.

After dinner we saw a crowd gathering at one point. It looks like they were there to watch the sunset. Which with the steady on-shore wind, seemed pretty cool by then.

We are looking forward to seeing Pearl Harbor tomorrow.

Day 3 San Francisco to Honolulu

We took an uneventful flight to Honolulu this morning. It was not what we were expecting after spending a week in Maui a couple of years ago. Waikiki is Myrtle Beach with a higher price tag and taller, more densely packed buildings. Here is the view from our room on the 25th floor; You can see a church with a green roof at the bottom of this picture.

We took a walk on the beach and saw the surf and the waves crashing on shore.

Then we explored our hotel

Day 2:, Exploring Ghiardelli Chocolate and Fisherman's Wharf

We started this day with low expectations. The weather was supposed to be awful with heavy wind and rain. We got to Ghiardelli too early, amid a downpour and there was little open there. A number of the spaces there were under construction. So we had an early lunch in a nice dry cafe and things cleared up by the time we were done.
Our first stop was Fisherman's Wharf.

Sure it was touristy, but sometimes you just have to jump right into the flow of that kind of stuff.
We found two places there we absolutely loved.

 The first one was the Musee Mecanique; home of some really interesting turn of the century nickelodeons.

They had several dozen there similar to this picture and all seemed to be in working order.


Next I decided to take a tour of the WWII sub they had parked at that dock.



I  expected the tour to be pretty lame but was pleasantly surprised that my tour guide had actually been on board her during the Vietnam War and for a time was the Executive Officer. A sub is a great place to go on a rainy day.

And yes I had to ham-it-up coming down the gangplank.

Some of the tourist shops had gifts related to Alcatraz, which is clearly visible from the Wharf.

Looking forward to tomorrow when we fly to Hawaii.

Day 1: On the (very steep) Trail of Adventure and Serendipity in SanFrancisco's Chinatown

We arrived in San Francisco on time and Uber whisked us to our hotel near Fisherman's Wharf. Since we knew a storm was coming the next day, we hit the streets right away. We have been using this map to get around Ssn Francisco;  http://www.mapshop.com/Travel_Maps/Pacific_US_Maps/San%20Francisco/san-francisco-map.asp

Our first destination was a Chinese tea store in Chinatown.  It really made us feel like we were back in Shanghai. It is easily twice the size of Chinatown in New York City.

Our tea visit was very informative.  Our host told Patrice she was murdering her tea. It should not be made with boiling water, temp should be 180 degrees, not 212! She was quite a character and a pretty good salesperson.  It would take a pretty good spiel to get me to cough up 33 bucks for a quarter pound bag of tea. We ended up buying something less expensive as a souvenir.  You can see her in the picture at her tea tasting bar.

The streets of Chinatown are very narrow, but our next stop was reeeaaally tucked away in an alley. Our good friend Mary, the travel blogger told us about a place you can watch them make fortune cookies. We would never have found it if she hadn't told us about it..  Here's a picture of its unassuming fascade.. and the inside..


We walked to a restaurant that Mary recommended in Little Italy, but it was closed.  It was the steepest urban hike we have ever done.

On the way back to the hotel, we discovered a funky little bistro called Melt that advertised live jazz. We stopped for a glass of wine and got to listen to some great music. We struck up a conversation with a guy who played drums for Santana and we found out later he's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His name was Chepito Areas.

Part II Halfway Around the World to Australia and Back

Today we start our big adventure to Australia and NZ. The first leg of our journey takes us for a one day layover in San Francisco. Where tomorrow's forecast is for 2 inches of rain.

 We are shocked at crowds at the Charlotte airport early Saturday morning.

We also got our first exposure to Uber. Very slick and quick. But... If there aren't a lot of Uber drivers on the road, they multiply the fare by some factor. Ours was 2.8 times the usual $10 fare. 

It was a nice ride, he came quickly and got us to the airport in a jiffy.