Halloween, Hawaii Style in Waikiki

Halloween was the second night of my stay in Waikiki. Used the day time to explore Diamond Head, a 900 foot crater rising high above Waikiki. Overrun by huge Americans with sweat patches, but for a modest $1 couldn't really say no to the jaunt up to the top. Anyway, with views like this, think it was probably a good decision



Views along the southern shore of O'ahu, Hawaii.





From Diamond Head I caught one of the "crazyily" cheap buses that run towards downtown Honolulu and on to Pearl Harbour, past the airport. Studied it at school so was kinda cool to put a place to a whole wealth of random facts I think I can still remember... The place where the movie was set too I imagine...



Pearl Harbour, Honolulu

Still, though, this just doesn't feel like Hawaii. Traffic james galore, took over 2 hours to do a little over 10 miles. Could have ran it in half that time!!

In the evening went out with someone from the hostel for a couple of hours into Waikiki, got some interesting photos with all sorts of things, from bananas to Elvis:

Not sure if these people have quite got the idea of Halloween; that is, to be scary, ofcourse.













A really fun place to spent 31/10. Also, one of the only places I've really seen young people out and about in Waikiki. If I ever come back, think I'll avoid dressing as Jesus - one guy was getting some incredible banter.

O'AHU - Hawaii!!

Aloha!

Arrived after two fairly long flights (6 hrs 30 minues JFK to LA) then 6 hrs 45 minutes LA to Honolulu. Slept for 16 hours when I eventually made it to Waikiki!




I know as soon as I got to the gate at LAX that Hawaii was my destination. Row after row of patiently waiting 66 year old retired couples wearing short shorts, socks and sandals, and the obligatory bright orange Hawaiian shirt. Gate 47 B resembled an explosion in Dulux's manufacturing plant. But this was only a taste of what was to greet me at Honolulu International though. Straight off the plane I was approached and given one of those Hawaiian neck things, you know what I mean, them bright necklace things...then in baggage reclaim a band I can only describe as slimy played romantic beats as I waited to see the bag I left in New York. Thankfully it got onto my Hawaii flight OK. After a 5 minute dash back into the terminal (I had left my lonely planet guide in the trolley, Andrew trademark) I made it onto BUS 19, convinced the driver my bag (depth 40cm) could fit into the under seat luggage storage bin (depth 30cm), and tried to keep myself awake enough to follow the route using another of Lonely Planet's superlative maps. One of the more interesting moments on the bus was a stop where three old women got on, clearly far too intoxicated for women whose ages added together probably equate to the distance between Earth and Uranus. One of them, I'll call her Doris, said, and I quote, "oh son, give me your hand" as she stumbled up the bus. Without she would certainly have fallen. To be honest, the bus company wants to show less interest in the size of travellers bags and introduce a maximum ass width for American women. The women opposite sat down and instantly covered two extra wide disabled seats. It's just wrong. I was also sat opposite this Chinese man that fascinated me. He had the most awesome looking sandals I'd ever seen, little spines in them that look like they massage your feet, but then I looked at his toes, and he had two little toes. No kidding, literally two little toes, but one on top of the other, like double the height. I was fascinated. A little after 8 o clock I found the hostel, then bed. The first proper sleep for 36 hours!! In with an interesting bunch of Spaniards.



Waikiki!

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Lonely Planet calls this paradise, and it is in lots of ways, but still reckon it gets better than this. Here for another night, then on to the north shore to catch the big 30 footers and try my hand at surfing. Back down to Waikiki Sunday for the Val Nolasco half marathon. Monday it's off to the Big Island, a short 45 minute flight. Then a hire car (wahayy!), Volcanoes National Park & up the two biggest peaks (13000 footers), Mauna Kea and Mauna Lao. Now that will be cool, literally, there's year round snow up there!

Took a great run a few hours ago, 8 miles or so along the beach front, 4 miles out into Honolulu to Mauna Boulevard State Park. Stopped for a swim, the beach there is a mile or so long, but about 400m out into the sea the depth is only waste height so it's heaving with outdoor swimmers (below). Took a swim out there before running back. Would be great for triathlon training, apparently it's about 500m between life guard points so thinking I may give that a snazzle in the morning.



Perfect beach for outdoor swimming. Stretches over 1000m in length and has about 400m of waist height water in width.

32 States, 13618 miles, 64 days - The end has arrived...

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Top 50 pictures (20-50):
http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177905&l=76aa1&id=61205739

Top 50 pictures (1-20):
http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177906&l=44a45&id=61205739
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It's surreal to be back at the hotel we left from all those days ago. I remember Philip, our Trek Leader for the northern part of the trip, stopping the van for a brief second on leaving and saying, "take a look cause you aren’t going to see that for a little while." In the 64 days since we've covered 13618 miles, driving the equivalent of England - Bangkok, then back again, or another perspective is in terms of the distance being a van journey around MORE than half of the world.



Arriving back at the Holiday Harmon Meadow earlier today (above and below).



We've been to 32 of the 50 states, despite a week of our trip being outside of the States visiting and travelling through two Canadian states (Alberta and British Columbia.) From cities of over 10 million to the wilderness of Wyoming which has the sparsest population of any US state - even over Alaska! Just an unbelievable journey:



New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, (CANADA), Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia (DC).

Just some of the big cities: Chicago, Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Orlando, Washington, New York.

National Parks: Badlands, Glacier, Yoho & Banff (Canada), Yosemite, Windy Cave, Yellowstone, Redwood, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Canyonlands, Arches, Carlsbad Caverns, & the Everglades.

May be the best way to look back on the trip is to pick the top 50 pictures - below are the top 20 (of the top 50). To see 20-50 click on the 20-50 link at the top or bottom.

******************************* TOP 20 PICTURES! ******************************



Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Canada. Top of Mount Fairview. 9001ft.



Alex, sunset at Grayton Beach State Park, Florida.



Times Square, NYC, New York State, by night



The Apple Store by night, Chicago, Illinois.



Grinnel Glacier Trail, Glacier National Park, Montana.



Grinnel Glacier Trail, Glacier National Park, Montana.



Swiftcurrent Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana



A squirrel at 9001 feet high above Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Canada.



Percy, same place, same height.



Banff, Banff National Park, British Columbia, Canada.



Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada - just before whitewater rafting the Kicking Horse



Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California



The gap between freedom and jail. A 12 inch metal door. Alcatraz, San Francisco, California.



San Francisco Bay sunset cruise, California.



Half Dome, 8000+ feet, that's a 4000+ feet drop. Shear. Yosemite National Park, California.



Fancy dress on the Vegas Strip - Nevada



High octane. The top of the Stratosphere, Las Vegas, Nevada.



Takako on Miami Beach, Florida.

Now not sure about these last two, think they could be top 20...?



Glacier National Park, Montana



Grayton Beach, Florida



***********************************************************************************
Top 50 pictures (20-50):
http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177905&l=76aa1&id=61205739

Top 50 pictures (1-20):
http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177906&l=44a45&id=61205739
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Washington DC

Full photo album:
http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177629&l=87fe7&id=61205739

Rain, Rain, Rain and more Rain.



Left Charleston with good weather, but by the morning (4.38am exactly!) the downpour started. And it, honestly, hasn't stopped since. Three days later now, just solid rain. Meant paying for an extra two nights hotel in Washington to avoid camping (everything’s soaked anyway, tents etc etc...) and just getting drenched looking around Washington!



The Whitehouse!



And sheltering under a tree outside the Capitol Building

Not really all that much exciting, for me anyway, in Washington. Tonnes of good museums, Holocaust Museum being one of the better exhibitions. Graphic but much needed. Slightly worried that one girl on the Trek had never heard the word Holocaust though. But apart from the usual touristy things the weather was just too bad to hire a bike and venture from it all.

Arlington Cemetery (Forest Gump) and JFK's grave quite atmospheric with all the rain. Got absolutely drenched through to the bone on the legs (completely dry on the top thanks to the magnificent Lowe Alpine!) Couldn't quite believe that they do a changing on the guard every 30 minutes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. On one shift three soldiers work for 24 hours solid. Now that's impressive.





JFKs brother's grave, a picture of JFKs grave itself is in the photo album

As we were expecting to be camping these last two nights in Washington we've still got tonnes of food, and more importantly, steak left over. So set up the kitchen in the trailer, and cooked the best rib eyes known to man:



Good to see the nation’s capital, must be the quiet time of year though, and with the weather not helping either the streets seemed to be remarkably quiet. Reminded me a lot of England, really miss getting lost though. This grid system is just too boring, and what's wrong with a roundabout? Stopping ever 50m for traffic lights is beginning to get too much!

Anyway, glad it's kinda all coming to end now. Really need a change of scenery and some independence. Great group, seen so much, going to pick out the top 50 and top 20 photographs and put them up on here and Facebook Sunday probably, but definitely need to get some warmth back. So bring on Hawaii!!



Full photo album:
http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177629&l=87fe7&id=61205739

Charleston, South Carolina

No pictures, just a short 3 hour visit. But managed to get a new book, finished a 1000 odd page beast and picked up Clinton’s My Life which should at least keep my going til Fiji. Bargain for $8.50.

As for Charlston, completely surprised me that it was a huge 10000+ student town. Reminded me so much of Durham. Went to the local park, tonnes of students out on the grass playing baseball, football and others sports. Everyone seems to run there too.

What a place to go to Uni, comfortable year round temps, small little town, close to Florida, makes me what to do a phd there!

Got back and went for a run. Typical US highway right outside the camp ground meaning to decent routes to take. For a change though found a building site, and strangely enough a half done tarmac road about the width of a athletics track, but stretching in a circle for about 650m. Perfect – lit up by street lights too. 5 x 2 x 650m, 3.55, 3.45, 3.40, 3.43, 3.35. So not too bad considering the humidity. With the half marathon a little over a week ago, feeling like I might knock out a OK time on that.

Straight back and managed to steal some free wi-fi from some trailer park over the back. Excellent, love screwing over the manager of this camp ground, who earlier introduced himself as the owner and boss, and that we must be out of the pool by 8 o clock sharp, not a minute over…wolly…

Key West, Florida

Full Photo Album:

http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2176665&l=be015&id=61205739

Friday October 19th through Monday October 22nd.

Stretching out for 125 miles from the southern Florida coast line are a chain of small keys (islands) that make up the Florida Keys. Before making the trek down to the southern most point of the US mainland we camped a night at Flamingo, deep in the Florida Everglades (well as deep as you can get into them). We were warned about the bugs, so I coated my whole body in 100% DEET bug spray, two layers of clothing on my top, trousers, socks and shoes….despite humidity at 92% and an overnight low of 28. Had one bite on my hand. Excellent. That’s enough I thought.

Problem. In the morning before we leave a camp site, my job for the past 64 days has been trailer loader, a good job as it gets me out of food prep and cooking, as well as van cleaning. Also a good upper body work out in the morning and evenings. But at 6.30am, dawn, it’s playtime for the mozzies and 6 hours later when we got into the Keys I could feel my whole back on fire, legs, hands…oh it’s painful. They’d bitten clean through my t shirt and trousers. On my left hand alone, I can count 18 individual bites. I’m like a cheese grater. I’ll say one last thing, I could almost bear them, but they are in the most awkward places! All over my bum, so it’s painful to sit, around my ankles so it itches to run, walk or just wear shoes, on the palms of my hands, so it hurts to lift! Combined with a temperature that differs only by 4 degrees day and night, and thus constantly being sweaty it just about makes sleep impossible. Especially as I arrived back the other night to find my tent flooded by a thunder storm (though that has something to do with my extremely dodgy tent pitching.) Air conditioning has become my best friend; as soon as the humidity is gone the pain goes….wha hay!! Oh one quick word about the camp site, possibly one of the nicest, my tent is perched 5 feet from the Gulf of Mexico, can lay down at night and hear the water bobbing up and down, while heat lightening (no thunder) lights up the tent.

Pretty much everyone else is the same mozzie boat, just been trying to crack on. So we hit a $99 water sports day onboard Sunset, a brand new $1.8 million catamaran loaded with 2 waveriders (jet skis), a huge inflatable rock climbing blow up thingy, kayaks as while also tugging boats along for water skiing, knee boarding, and parasailing. All for $99 10am to 4pm. Brilliant.



Waveriders (as they like to call 'em over here), possibly the most fun I've ever had at 50mph. The boat is meant for 100 people, but there was just us on it, slightly out of season so had all day on these things....brilliant...

Really enjoyed it, did everything. Jet skiing was awesome, hit 50 mph, they’re limited to that, on the keys, made some crazy turns, had some races between us. Also tried out water skiing and nearly broke my cheek bone. Just as I thought mosquito bites and a stolen wallet were as bad as could happen I fell forward (yes forward), head submerged and the water skies into my face, fortunately only at about 10mph. And luckily not the forehead or eyes… Ibuprofen & Ice straight away, a black eye probably, but I’ll take that and forget I ever tried it.

Before:



After:



Owch.



Ice and Ibuprofen, but there was a funny side:



So back to the campsite and where I’m writing this now, Burger King. A triple whopper king size. I’ve never seen a burger as big as this before. It’s larger than the keyboard on this laptop.



Perhaps the best campsite we've pitched up at in terms of views - though Glacier National Park up in Montana was another fantastic one. Sunsets here took it though, I think...

Florida Keys, conclusion……just fantastic. It’s a different world, you’d never believe you were in America if you were just dumped here like Mr Bean. Quaint little streets more like a ski town, but just mega humid. Sea 80 degrees, like a bath, some of it less than a foot deep! This is exactly how I imagine some of the chain islands in the Pacific, hope Kiritimati and Hawaii are just like this – clear turquoise water, just minus mosquitos.

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Wrote the above the other night, but only just putting it up on the blog now (Monday), so we're out of the Florida Keys now, at some camp site by Cape Canaveral, absolutely gutted that we have to leave early tomorrow (500 miles + to cover) as there is a shuttle launch scheduled for 11.30 am tomorrow, but thing is, only 1 from ever 10 actually go on schedule and it just leaves too many miles to cover in too shorter time to get back up to NYC by Friday/Saturday...Nevermind, at least I'm avoiding the mosquitos at this camp site! Just taken about 50 free samples of repellant from the camp site shop! Not sure the lady was too chuffed, but hey, it's moisteriser too!!

Hit Miami Beach today:

Really liked these two shots of Takako I took:





Full Photo Album:

http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2176665&l=be015&id=61205739



Snorkelling at Key Largo, a protected coral reef