Thanks for reading.

A short while later we were home.

It was a fantastic holiday. We're still talking about it, with each other and all of you. It was a real holiday, not an adventure like the one which started this blog or a journey of research and discovery like the last. We had fun and we saw new things, met great people, had a lot of fun. In case it wasn't obvious, we ate well.

Rather than bore you with stories of reading a book in the ocean breeze, I'm just going to drop a bunch of our photos from Maui, and say thanks.

Thanks to everyone who's been reading; it may not seem like much but when I log in and see that people are staying in touch with what's been written it gives me a little boost to write another entry. So thanks, all of you, for coming with us. I hope you had fun.

We went for a walk in the morning

Cocktails instead of lunch/dinner

Until next time, take care.

Do you like pineapple?

Woke up in New York and a mere 20 hours later we were in Maui.

Pretty much this the whole way around

We stayed on the island's north coast. A shuttle from the airport took an hour and we arrived bleary eyed and dazed, not at all ready for the stream of information the woman at the counter had prepared for us. Maps, guides, local attractions, resort rules, beaches...

"Hey, do you guys like pineapple?"

A little surprised we answered we did. We did like pineapple.

"I have a pineapple for you, wait here."

We had it for breakfast and it was incredible. We bought another later that day.

Avocado burger at the Gazebo

In fact for us, Maui was the perfect end to our trip. We walked to the market and stocked up on fruit and vegetables to eat on our porch and did very little except walk on the beach and drink cocktails in the evening.

Beaches like this

Yeah we were sad to leave New York but we were so so happy to have temperatures above freezing for a couple of days. We could look out across the beach from our room; in fact we could see all the way to the next island. In the morning we walked in the shade of the mountains and in the evening we watched the sun set over the ocean.

It was hard to fault the views

The island's volcanic origins meant the coastline was bay after sheltered bay, the sandy beaches protected by long rocky outcrops. The beaches were different to the ones we know at home; no slogging it for five minutes across the sand to reach the water. Out of the hotel and into the water in thirty seconds.

Milk costs a lot. That's the price of living in paradise.

For a place that neither of us had wanted to visit before the trip, Hawaii has become a place neither of us can wait to visit again. But next time we would want to see more of everything and probably achieve more than sitting in our hotel room and reading.

Sunset at Maui

Not that there was anything wrong with that.

The rains of Waikiki

When we booked Honolulu as our first stop, we didn't plan for rain. Rain is what we got, though.

Rain and a view.

We spent the morning of the first day darting between doorways and through malls, trying to find a dry path from the hotel to the beach.

I could never remember the way to the beach, even though it was right there.

We came up with a plan to manage the time change - stay awake until midday, sleep for a little while, and head out for dinner. By morning we would be on Hawaiian time.

Alison was excited - her dream of all filtered coffee, all the time, was coming true

The plan was a good one. The time difference from Brisbane to Honolulu, and the eight hour flight, combined to make the change pretty easy on us. It took a little while for our body-clocks to catch up, and we had dinner quite early.

Dinner was at Cheeseburger in Paradise because of course it was.

James was excited - his dream of all cheeseburgers, all the time, was coming true.

After dinner it had fined up enough to finally walk along the beach. Waikiki beach is dominated by hotels and shopping malls, but a short stretch of beach between Diamondhead Crater (the subject of the next post!) and the high-density buildings provides beach access for the regular punter.

Far; crater. Near; punters.

We took the opportunity to explore the maze of stores and hotels and eventually found ourselves at what appeared to be the pool of the Sheraton hotel, which nobody attempted to stop us entering and which did not even have a fence (in Australia you would be fined so much). Perched in illicit deckchairs, we got some photos of a stunning sunset.

Pictured; stunning.

With no attempt made to eject us from the premises, we resolved to return the following evening for a sunset cocktail. But our first day in Hawaii was done, and we retreated to our own hotel.

The Oregon coast

After three months of solid drinking I had a hangover coming, and by God I got one that overcast morning in Oregon.  The Skeptic and I struggled out to breakfast and back, then we tossed our stuff into Maggie and made for the coast.

One of the great folks we had met the night before had suggested we head to the Oregon coast to see the Haystack.  I begged the Skeptic to drive out so I could sleep in the back of the car.  I regret this; I missed one of the best drives of the trip, through forest and along rivers.

Haystack Rock is the third biggest monolith in the world.

The coast itself was worth seeing; not the bright sunshine and white-sands sort, but the clouds and white-caps.  A foreboding sea.  The best kind.  There was also some kind of giant sand hill but if you've been to Fraser Island it wasn't all that impressive.

This is what happens when you order onion rings.

We ate at the Pelican (this has very much become the brewery tour of the West Coast), and hit the road again, making for Rice Hill.  Rice Hill is about 45 miles south of Eugene.  There is nothing in Rice Hill.