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Dallas

June 22, 2010 at 1:16 am | Posted in usa | Leave a comment

So, the trip is nearly over, but not without a last stop in Dallas (we had to stop through fliht-wise, but were excited to see texas briefly). We were only here for one day and we didn’t really do much except for get lost and accumulate over $20 worth of toll charges. It seemed like every road we went on was a toll, so getting lost and travelling up the same road 4 times wasn’t the smartest move.

This was my first taste of texas, and we both really wanted to try mexican food from texas. it was ok but im sure it’s better in mexico. As far as the city goes, it was just a big american city with nothing really that special to offer. agreed. my thoughts on dallas: why didn’t we just stay in hawaii?

Dallas’ biggest claim to fame is unfortunately the place where JFK was shot. The book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald took the shot has now been turned into a museum celebrating his life in office and also looking at the assassination and the investigation afterwards. It was interesting to see that the museum did recognise the conspiracy theories and gave arguments for and against. yep, the museum was really well done and the highlight of dallas in my opinion (oh, minus seeing my pals of course).

Some of the buildings were cool to look at. Dallas was used as the setting for a few classic 80’s movies because of the futuristic look of some of the buildings. hudson really enjoyed taking loads of pics of this one building that was in an arnie film. i didn’t get it. (actually it was robocop)

The book depository

The infamous grassy knoll

Well, the trip is over. can’t say we went out on a bang with dallas, more of a dud. at least it made us eager to get to D.C.??? bye-bye trip. bye-bye dirty clothes. bye-bye sketchy toilets. bye-bye exotic beers. bye-bye exotic fluffsters. bye-bye lonely planet. bye-bye blog.

Hawaii

June 22, 2010 at 1:15 am | Posted in usa | Leave a comment

I was kind of bummed to be heading back to the states, but luckily, hawaii doesn’t really count as the usa. we flew into honolulu, Oahu and took a three hour bus adventure to get to the north shore.

after extensive searching on craigslist we had found an amazing house near sunset beach and managed to convince the owner to give us a special rate.

the north shore is absolutely beautiful, especially the “8 mile miracle” where we stayed. the 8 mile is (obviously) 8 miles of beautiful beaches famous for both their surf and lack of tourists – the beaches include pipeline, sunset beach, Haleiwa, rocky point and a few others. the pic above is a view from the deck of our house.

we stayed in this cool surf house and luckily had the whole thing to ourselves. it was so nice and had gorgeous views (and a chill neighbor that gave us bikes and a car for a day)… a very nice way to ease back into the states. everyday in hawaii was so relaxing and wonderful. the beaches near us can get a little packed during winter (some of the main tournaments are held here) when the waves reach 30 feet, but this time of year we often had the to ourselves.

the water was clear and the waves were usually big – it was funny that there are two breaks. one is far out and surfable and one is extremely close to shore and makes the water deep just a few feet out.

even though we were only a few feet out, the waves were huge and so powerful that they would knock you off your feet, fun to splash around in though.

this is the beach that is right in front of our house. so pretty. it was really nice to be able to bike to all the nearby beaches and stores (except for the first day where we had to walk to the store… but i guess 2 miles of walking to get some food isn’t too bad when you’re in hawaii).

some church entranceway that really entranced hudson?!?

i believe this beach is called rocky point. the water was super smooth (although this is supposedly where a huge surf competition is held in the winter). the big draw here is obviously the amazing rock that sticks right out of the water. it was awesome to climb up and jump off (that’s a stranger doing the flip…) and reminded me of kloofing in africa and waterfall jumping in laos. the water was so clear you could see the bottom, which was nice. it was also fun to practive flipping off the lower rock.

It was great fun jumping off the rocks and loads of the locals do it. This one teenager was nervous before doing a backflip off the rock, so Kelly gave him a bit of encouragement (she gave him some shit) and he did it, unfortunately he flopped on his stomach and face and wasn’t happy.

the bus system here was really good, especially when we came across a nice driver that kept giving us free passes. everyone is chill in hawaii. on this one bus ride a few guys were playing their ukeleles and singing in the back. i think they should get to ride free.

we’re pretty cute, huh?

one day our funny neighbor/house manager lent us her car (with a few CDs of jack johnson who supposedly lives in the neighborhood). we took off and saw quite a bit of the island. i still like north shore the best.

this mountain looked kinda cool. there were also really cool little seafood shacks everywhere that looked tasty, but $12 for a sandwich just seemed to pricey after our days of cheap asian food.

the view from our house really was amazing and the evening breeze made the deck a perfect place to hang out.

we contemplated staying in hawaii longer. like for a couple months. would’ve been so nice and we should have done it, but really i think we just didn’t want the trip to end.

We were both so sad on our last day and just didn’t want to leave, to be honest who would, we had an amazing house with an amazing beach just minutes away, and it was so relaxing.