Out last trip before the baby arrived, we decided to take the train to Boston for a four-day weekend.
USA
We’re in San Francisco!
Our little girl had her first flight with us to San Francisco just before turning 12 weeks old. We’re visiting for 5 weeks for Alec’s work before flying back to Sydney for Christmas.
Possum eyes! 12 wks, 4 days old in San Francisco.
Welcome Eloise Elizabeth Thomas
A big welcome to our beautiful little lady, Eloise Elizabeth Thomas.
Born at Mt Sinai hospital, Manhattan, New York, at 8:44pm on Saturday, August 20, 2011.
Weight 7 pounds, 2 ounces. 19 inches long.
We love you little girl!
Alec’s Birthday – Washington DC
We celebrated Alec’s birthday this year with a weekend trip to Washington DC for the National Cherry Blossom Festival.
The weather was sadly gray-er than originally forecast, but we still had a fantastic two days exploring the nation’s capitol.
First up was the National Air and Space Museum, where we saw cool things like the lunar landing modules, the first airplane, moon rock. We also checked out the American History Museum where I was delighted to see the original ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, and Julia Child’s kitchen.
We spent sunday wandering around the cherry blossoms and war memorials. The blossoms were in amazing abundance everywhere!
Happy birthday husband!!
Air and Space Museum
Cherry blossoms
California and NYC Trip
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.
Hawaii Shopping
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
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
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
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
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?