Aloha Hawai'i Ku'u One Hanau

Aloha Hawai'i, the sands of my birth. Words can't explain how good it feels be home again. The sound of the waves crashing in the night to lull me to sleep, the stars at night, the green trees, the beauty of the mountains and the warmth of the sea. I am me again. Complete, in a sense, because I am home.

It's also nice to be reunited with Ohana. The nephews and nieces are growing so fast and mom and dad are still as loving as they always were. It's nice to "make trouble" to dad, and take the kids to the beach, and wake up in the morning to mom's hugs before she goes to work. And of course HUKILAU CAFE. Lehua still knows that I like to order Corn beef hash with scrambled eggs and coffee (on the down-low)!

I'm so grateful for my Timmy. I'm so lucky to have him in my life. He is truly my best friend. I'm so happy that I can share my family and my world with him. And I'm so blessed to be so LOVED.

I could say it over and over again. There's no place like home.

Australia

day 2

Woke up at at 5am to go to the airport. Matt drove us in the rental. On Jet blue your carry on bag can't be more than 7k! ridiculous! got on the plane and sat in the middle of Tim and a blonde lady. The three of us were laughing at the air hostess' welcome speech. She told us to "chillax" and then when she gave her "goodbye" speech she told us, "we know it's a pleasure for you to have us on your flight." lol. it was so funny.

Arrival in Melbourne. Such a beautiful city. So many random pieces of art architecture. There were these cool Oval things over the freeway. Old looking english buildings. We were picked up at the airport by Tim's friend Ryan and his beautiful wife Fabi. She's brazillian. We had brekky on Chapel St. It's famous for it's many cafes AND shopping. We then went st. kilda Acland street to buy me a swimsuit. Got to go to woolworth's (aussie grocery store) it was pretty cool to see the different things and brands they have. BUT EVERYTHING IS SO EXPENSIVE! After that we got dropped off at our hotel. The bloomfield. An old english building with a kinda frenchy look inside. Nice small comfortable room.

We got a call from tim's friend Adam, and he wanted to have a coffee with Tim. He came with his wife Tammy and picked us up. Tim had ANOTHER coffee. lol. Aussie's are obsessed with their coffee. It's too strong for me. But I could get used to if I was a big coffee drinker. We had a nice sit in the sun having water and coffee, and it was nice to be warm and to see Tim catching up with his closest mates. MATES.

We got back to the hotel and Tim wanted to lay his suit out on a hanger. he opened up his stuff and realized that he had left his suit pants back in sydney. HAHAHAHAHA. I couldnt' help rolling with laughter. He's always forgetting things. But he's so cute when he does it! So he left to go back to chapel street to do some shopping. While he was gone I tried watching Aussie Tv. not much good was on. We probably don't get the best stations here in the hotel. but i did find Bewitched on tv. So i watched that while i ironed my dress and prepped my wedding outfit. Tim came back and said he'd have to go back to the store to pick up his pants. They were being taken up.

We went for a swim in the pool on the roof. it was nice and the water was cool. I went with Tim back to chapel street, picked up his pants, had a chicken bacon ranch from Subway, and caught the Trams in Melbourne back to the hotel. We got ready for the wedding and were running a little late. Got to the ceremony right at 4:30 when it was supposed to start.

We looked all the way to the end of the park, and there was the bride with her bridesmaids. She looked beautiful! And the groom looked very handsome as well watching his bride walk all the way across the park towards him. it was a very dramatic and suspenseful entrance! Once they got close the DJ started playing the Braddah IZ version of "What a wonderful world" I had to count in my head to 100 so I wouldn't cry. The officiate was a bit weird, and she sounded like a gameshow host. lol. We went to the reception and there I watched everyone consume a ton of alcohol. did a little bit of dancing with my sweetheart. The food at the wedding was good too! AND THEN at about 11 we went home. It was a good day. And I'm loving Australia so far. There's a lot of nice greenery around and big parks. And it's nice to be back in the Summer weather. And best of all to be with my honey! He's the best!

Australia

Part 1 - Day 1 - Bye bye Tokyo! Hello Australia!

As usual, TnT was running around like chickens without heads trying to get all of our stuff packed up and trying to catch our bus to the airport on time. I had to go to the post office last minute to send my guitar, pull clothes out of the dryer, clean, throw out more stuff, do bed sheets. It was RIDICULOUS! I didn't have time to take all my rubbish bags out or empty my refrigerator. But luckily I have such good friends who said they would take it out for me. (kiele, crimson) AND we made it just fine! We got to the airport, waited in line for what seemed like FOREVER, and then we had to deal with our overweight bags. They wanted to charge us $300 extra! We threw out some stuff and got it down to $170! Just when I started to think we were good to go, the ticket lady asked me for my Australia Visa reference number. Tim had told me previously that I didn't need one and not to worry about it. But that wasn't exactly true. So then I had to go run to an internet cafe and fill out the form online, then pay $20. My card was declined so I had to run back to Tim and get his. FINALLY that was done and we were checked in. GOOD NEWS... They bumped us up to premier economy! We were both starving, got some quick ramen, udon and then hopped on the plane. Lots of space in premier economy, and the BEST service! I made friends with a flight attendant named Gary and he was so sweet! He started talking to me after I used the bathroom, gave me some water, AND THEN he went upstairs to business class and brought back... banana cheesecake in a passion fruit sweet sauce! It was sooo good! He also gave me and Tim complimentary quantas airlines sweatpants and t-shirts! I got to watch INCEPTION on the plane and a little bit of the movie Megamind. I really enjoyed it. The flight went really well, and fast. And it was such great service. QUANTAS.

Anyways. We got into immigration and Tim went ahead of me because he is a local. I had to fill out my arrival card still, when I realized I didn't have an address to put on the card. I started worrying and freaking out. But then, I remembered seeing a tourist book, so I grabbed it and put some random hotel address down. By the time I got back to the immigration line it was SOOOOO long. And of course I was grumpy and tired. It took another half an hour for me to stop feeling so overwhelmed. And when that was over I looked around and realized where I was. And it was BEAUTIFUL! The trees the buildings, the rain falling from the sky while the sun peaked through the clouds, the warm air. I felt so good!

We got to Nige's house and I met Matt, Tim's older brother. I was nervous at first but he was so sweet and welcoming. It's fun to see Tim with his closest and oldest friend. We went out for Brekky and i had aussie french toast which wasnt that impressive. next time i will try bacon eggs poached! We had a nice view of the beach from where we had breakfast.

We went to dmv in aus called RTA. Tim had to renew his license. Then I went to a salon and got a good deal on a leg wax, brazillian, and a mani-pedicure! it was a pretty good deal. But the brazillian was PAINFUL and it wasn't executed as well as I thought it should've been.

We went to the mall looked for dress and bought a camera instead and some makeup. By then we both just wanted to get to the beach. The weather was being crazy. It was pouring rain, and then really hot and sunny, and then it would pour again.

We went to beach and Tim went out for a surf. I was still to tired and the water was to cold to go in. I'm glad I didn't go in the water. A NE wind (i think) started to blow really strong and it blew a ton of blue bubbles (aussies call it blue bottles) into the beach. I'd never seen so many! There were hundreds of them!!!

Tim came in from the surf and didn't get stung. We both decided to lie down on the sand for a little bit and then we knocked out. It was the best!

For dinner we ate at a place called Icebergs. It's a swimmer's club on the beach that's famous for swimming in the winter. Once a year they swim in the cold water and throw icebergs in! Crazy aussies. lol.

Matt, Tim and I @ Iceberg's