Travel Archives - Page 58 of 65

California and NYC Trip

October 9, 2010 / New York Life, Travel, USA / 0 comment

I haven’t felt much like blogging lately, so this is a brief account of my recent USA trip. It was mostly for work, but I managed to squeeze in a trip to NYC and Monterey. Most of the trip, when I wasn’t working, I was catching up with friends and family.

First stop, San Francisco.

Catching up with Isis, Mansi and baby Maya.

Dinner at Greens Restaurant in SF with Jamie, Lisa and Isis.

One of Mansi and Jason’s Abyssinian cats.

Another of Mansi and Jason’s pets!

Filming an AdSense video with Victoria in Mountain View.

Drinking the Koolaid on campus.

Next destination, NYC! I stayed with Masa for a few days in Brooklyn.

View from the Brooklyn shore.

Making a new friend in the park.

One of seven bridal couples I saw having photos taken in the area.

View from the Metropolitan Art Gallery rooftoop garden.

Doing what I do best 😉

Goofing off with Masa.

Dinner with Janice and Calman.

Hello Jersey Shores!

At the Google NY office with Olah.

And Nadia …

… and Isa!

Then it was back to Mountain View…

On campus, taking in the sites.

Nom nom nom.

My friendly tour guide, Gus, and giant green Android.

Making a new friend! Meeting Zoe Pollock.

Alec met me in Mountain View. We were able to spend a long weekend in Monterey.

My favourite animals at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the jellies!

Drive down the coast to Big Sur. Amazing scenery.

Gorgeous water.

Gorgeous, jet-lagged, husband.

Beautiful!

Admiring the view.

The red woods in Big Sur.

Small husband…

Tiny wife.

Meeting the locals.

My brother and Michele drove down to nearby Carmel for the end of the weekend.

Back in Mountain View with the Ring family – Jeannette and little PJ.

Making more friends on campus! Meet Lola.

Birthday in Melbourne: Day 3

August 12, 2010 / Sydney Food, Travel, Victoria / 3 Comments

My birthday fell on day 3 of our Melbourne trip. We had a sleep in, breakfast in the hotel, and then sauntered off to the Tim Burton Exhibition. I’ve always admired his films, so seeing his artwork on loan from personal collections was quite amazing. I found it entertaining picturing him as an animator for Disney, seeing as his personal style is quite the opposite.

I felt most inspired seeing the exhibition, as Tim Burton has clearly worked extremely hard to get to where he is. For every success he has had, he’s had more than double the amount of projects go nowhere. His passion and skill have taken him to where he is, also his tenacity. It reminded me to be stronger and not give up on my dreams.

Hello giant blow-up scary person.

“Nananananananana BATMAN!”

My favourite quote of the day, overheard in the exhibition: “Did he do Shrek?” Lol.

After the exhibition we wandered around some more on the river banks until the sun went down.

The Yarra.

Very scenic.

As CBD as it gets.

Pretty bridge makes for nice photos.

Baroo?

It’s my birthday and I’ll pose if I want to.

And make my husband pose too!

Another graffiti wall.

Outside the ACMI building – such a cool design.

I lurve you blob!

Raaarrr!

We didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye, lol.

Run, husband!

Blobs make for handy seats too.

And then SHE said …

After much wandering, we had dinner at the very funky Fifteen. I love Jamie Oliver, so was keen to try his restaurant.

The restaurant was excellent. Stylish, great vibe, fabulous service. The food was really great, interesting recipes rather than the stock standard type, particularly for the veggo options.

What is down the stairs?!

Happy birthday to me! (This may have started out as “happy birrhday” …)

Another year older …

One more pose for the road. Happy, well-fed and slightly tipsy.

Even the restaurant had graffiti art …

I’m on a tram!

Back at the hotel – Alec and the frog, together at last.

I wore out my husband …

Thanks so much for the fantastic weekend away Alec 🙂 xox

31st Birthday in Melbourne: Day 2

August 12, 2010 / Family, Travel, Victoria / 0 comment

Day 2 kicked off with brunch at Di Bella in north Melbourne with an old friend, Dana, and her bf Karl, an ex-intern at Google and who joined our netball team while she was in Sydney. Dana moved back to Melbourne after her internship ended and is moving to Seattle in the near-ish future to join Google there, where I’m sure she will take the Seattle netball team to new heights of victory.

I enjoyed the breakfast at Di Bella immensely, even more so because we were introduced to Dana and Karl’s brunch technique of ordering food, then eating cake while the breakfast was being cooked. Breakfast of champions. Amazing.

Pear and chocolate danish. Divine.

Netball yay 🙂

After brunch (and an unscheduled drive to the bus depo in Footscray to pick up the wallet Alec left on the airport bus – PS Sunshine street is NOT sunny people) Alec and I walked around Melbourne and ate more food.

I’d like a purse THIS big.

I love how Melbourne has random sculptures scattered around it. Like the giant purse. Or the men waiting for a tram.

Like CityRail in Sydney, trams can take a while to arrive. This poor fellow has been waiting a looooong time.

I practice my tram-waiting face while waiting for the tram, of course.

Melbourne also has a lot of graffiti art. I enjoyed the little alleys with oh-so-cool cafes, jam-packed with trendy Melbourne-ites, and covered with bright designs.

Even the dumpsters got the art treatment.

The husband loves a good alley.

The wife loves a good Tiffany store 😉

Lindt gets arty.

Birthday tulips! Thanks husband!

Melbourne Central shot tower in the middle of a shopping centre. So cool.

More graffiti.

Dinner at Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar for home-cooked, simple, Italian food.

After dinner it was off to Mary Poppins at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Alec was fabulous and booked us great seats with a package that included wine and a goody bag (ooooh more gifts!).

“Feed the birds, tuppence a bag!”

The show was fantastic. I wasn’t sure what to expect, so it surpassed any expectations I might have had. I adored Mary Poppins the movie when I was growing up, so the musical brought back lovely memories. The singing, dancing and set were all fabulous.

31st Birthday in Melbourne: Day 1

August 11, 2010 / Family, Travel, Victoria / 1 Comment

For my birthday this year, Alec took me to Melbourne. We were blessed with lovely weather. A full three days of sunshine, wheee! We stayed at The Olsen, a fabulous new hotel in South Yarra, decorated with the artwork of John Olsen.

I love this – I did take one home with me!

Stylish room with artwork by Olsen.

Morning light – hitting the shops.

We had a lazy Saturday morning before wandering down Chapel St to grab some brunch and shop. Fun for me, perhaps less fun for Alec.

Feed me!

Coffeeeeee!

It was then off to the Melbourne Museum to see Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition.

Who knew Melbourne would be so sunny!

The exhibition was great. It contained a lot of artefacts that had been recovered from the wreck as well as telling many personal stories of people who survived and perished. It also had sobering facts about the sheer number of people who died.

“I’m the king of the world!”

Snack time at Koko Black.

Nom nom.

One more coffee for the road.

Heating from the inside out. Brr Melbourne is cold.

Tasty pudding.

Mousse martini. Looks amazing. Made me feel ill afterwards.

Walking through Melbourne in the fading light.

Tram!

Hip hop dancers in Federation Square.

Dinner – a local Thai joint.

Yay, we’re in Melbourne!

Hawaii Shopping

May 29, 2010 / Hawaii, Shopping / 2 Comments

I wasn’t planning on doing a post on my Hawaii shopping, but Beverly wanted to see my purchases, so here we are. I reserved basically all shopping till the last day and went a bit berserk at the outlets and Alo Moana Centre. Thanks Alec for your supreme patience…

Honeymoon gift from the Hawai’ian mothership.

New charms from Juicy Couture.

This fab bag from LeSportsac was 50% off and served as my extra bag to bring my loot home.

Tissue and make-up pouch from LeSportsac.

Cute little money and travel pouch.

Little evening bag from the Coach outlet.

I love the logo.

Some interesting looking sandals from Crocs.

Overload at Sephora and Mac.

Urban Decay eyeshadow primer – it’s amazing!

Laura Mercier make-up – I’ve been wanting to try it for a while. So far, it’s fantastic.

Body wash from Philosophy. It smells fantastic.

My fave mascara from Fiberwig. Pricey, but looks great and doesn’t smudge.

Hawaii Honeymoon: Oahu

May 24, 2010 / Hawaii / 0 comment

Last stop – Oahu and shopping. Honolulu reminds me of the Gold Coast, so I like to get on and off the island pretty quickly. I’m sure there are beautiful areas on this island too, but it’s just so built up that I’m not overly keen to explore it. We spent a very short period here – two nights and one full day. Just enough to shop till I maxed my credit card out.

Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Honeymoon splurge gift.

Me and the Duke, we’re old mates.

Waikiki sends us off in true Hawaiian style on our last morning.

Aloha Hawaii!

Hawaii Honeymoon: Kauai Part 5, Ins and Outs

May 19, 2010 / Hawaii / 0 comment

Pretty much the only bad thing about Hawaii is the food. They have a lot of junk food, and most regular food is cooked the fattiest way possible. Throw in vegetarian and it’s a struggle to find anything to eat.

One of only two decent places we found to eat was the Bubba Burgers chain on Kauai. The burgers look like cute little McDonald’s burgers – but they taste amazing in a way Maccas have never been able to master. They had a vegie burger made out of Taro, a root vegetable kind of like sweet potato. I was hesitant to eat it, but it was really good.

Inside Bubba’s – watch your burger get cooked on the grill by the local teenagers.

How cute are they? How good do they look?

Completely wrecked by our 2.5 hour hike and desperate for burgerrrrrrrs.

There are a some very well-placed waterfalls in Hawaii so tourists who don’t want to hike for an hour can still see the natural beauty without breaking a sweat.

Such as this waterfall, literally on the side of a road.

We found this pie stall on the side of the road. The pie maker had created about 15 types of fruit and dessert pies.

We tried two types, one of which was mango. It was the best pie either of us has ever eaten.

Also the best looking pie I’ve ever seen.

More fishies out the front of our hotel and at Poipu Beach.

Blurry photo courtesy of a dirty underwater casing.

Parrot fish!

In the hotel pool.

Last night on Kauai. Sadness.

So long Kauai, thanks for the tan!

Hawaii Honeymoon: Kauai Part 4, Kalalau Trail

May 17, 2010 / Hawaii / 1 Comment

Kauai is a small island. You can drive from one side to the other (on the one main road they have on the island) in an hour.

We took a drive along to the end of the highway, along the Coconut Coast and North Shore, stopping along the way at anything looking interesting. It was a gray, rainy day, but fortunately the sun came out sporadically enough that it was still a great day for our hike at the end of the road.

The USA is famous for their fruit pies – and we happened upon a little cafe in Princeville that sold slices of blueberry pies that made Alec exclaim in happiness – much to the amusement of the waitress who had never seen anyone so happy to buy pie before.

One very happy camper.

Princeville is in the shadow of mountains, which makes for a very dramatic landscape.

Just your average, run-of-the-mill location …

A short drive past Princeville we came to Ha’ena Beach Park, where we saw this amazing view…

Across the road from the park is the Manini-holo dry cave, one of several sea caves located in the area. The cave, which is about 300 yards deep, used to be much larger but the 1957 tsunami partially filled it with sand.

It doesn’t look so big …

Amazingly huge. The roof and walls have beautiful colours and details.

A little further down the road is the Waikanaloa Wet Cave.

We decided on a hike, despite the bad weather. We’d heard great things about the Kalalau Trail, which starts at Ke’e Beach and leads to Hanakapiai Beach. You can continue the walk further, but the mud from the rain made it a really difficult hike so we just walked the 3.2km to the beach and back again.

View along the hike.

Muddy!

Our final destination comes into view.

Alone on Hanakapiai Beach.

Alec has no idea this is the last photograph in which his 3rd pair of Oakleys will appear. Shortly afterwards, Alec took his shirt off, dropping his sunnies into the stream.

The beach is only accessible via the walking track, making for a peaceful destination.

Navigating back over the steam out of paradise.

Hawaii Honeymoon: Kauai Part 3: Waimea Canyon

May 15, 2010 / Hawaii / 0 comment

Waimea Canyon is the largest canyon in the Pacific. It measures 10 miles long, 1 mile wide, and more than 3,500-feet deep.

We took a drive up into the canyon to do a hike. There are a lot of hikes you can do – you could easily spend days trying to do all of the walks.

Stunning.

The view is spectacular.

The Fraggle Rock of foliage.

Completely wrecked. What, we have to hike BACK UP again?

Hawaii Honeymoon: Kauai Part 2, Up In The Air

May 12, 2010 / Hawaii / 0 comment

Around 90% of Kauai isn’t accessible by land, so the only way to see it is with a helicopter flight. We decided to take the Jack Harter Helicopter tour because they flew a Hughes 500 with the doors off for maximum photo greatness. I was incredibly excited about taking photos from the air – only to find myself squished in the worst possible seat because I was the lightest person on board – between a fat lady and the pilot, which left my arms pinned in a position like a T-rex. I put Alec in charge of the camera and enjoyed the view.

“I’m in a helicopter!”

The waterfall in Jurassic Park …

… is tiny compared to some of the other falls on Kauai!

Kauai is known as the garden island because of the lush landscape and tropical waterfalls. It is home of the wettest spot on Earth, as well as Waimea Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. While smaller than the Grand Canyon (it’s still massive, mind you), I think it’s actually more beautiful.

The amazing red soil.

Kauai is also famous for the Na Pali Coast – a stretch of coast that you can also only see by air or boat. It’s also stunning – cliffs, canyons, set against turquoise water.