Ben and Jacqueline's Blog

Having a great time in California and Hawaii!

I’m sitting in Maui at a place called Honokeana cove (in Napili on the west coast), having a beer and nursing a bit of a sunburn. It’s been a great first day in Hawaii, and we’ve had a wonderful trip so far!

We landed in LA last Saturday and were met at the airport by Jacqueline’s family who we were both really excited to see. By lunchtime we were enjoying ourselves in Old Town Pasadena, where Bubba (Jacqueline’s brother) and I were ’sampling’ some delicious beers in half-yard glasses. That evening we had Jacqueline’s grandparents, as well as some friends over for dinner whilst we tried to overcome jet lag. Jacqueline succeeded better than I did, since I decided I had to have an afternoon nap (probably in part due to the 80oz of beer at lunch) and then woke up at 3am.

The next day I was a little tired but had a great day, since we all headed to Olvera St in downtown LA where I hadn’t been before. It’s kind of like ‘little Mexico’ and it doesn’t feel like you’re in the US at all! I had some delicious chicken mole tacos, and a beer with lime and tomato juice to get the day going (Bubba is pretty much mexican and also made me try menudo which is tripe soup and I wouldn’t really recommend!)

That evening it was time for my next ‘first’ in the US – going to a Dodgers (baseball) game. We had great seats and the time flew by – in large part due to the Dodger dog and garlic fries that you have to have at a game. Allee and Jacqueline were all dressed up in the Dodgers merchandise but somehow we never made it onto the big screen, and Bubba even got accused of being Canadian for talking during the national anthem! Despite all our support, the Dodgers unfortunately lost to the Phillies, but at least it meant we were home in time to head out to meet some of Jacqueline’s friends at the Yard House (again!).

Monday morning Jacqueline and I headed off on our road trip – first stop Lake Tahoe to visit my storm parents, John and Shirley. We arrived at 2 and Shirley took us straight out for a lovely afternoon hike to whale beach where I got in the water but Jacqueline was a bit of a wimp and stayed dry – to be fair, we could see snow in the background and the water was a little cold. We then had a delicious home cooked meal, and John gave us some lessons in wine appreciation over a few bottles of wonderful wine!

In the morning the road trip continued at our usual hectic pace and we headed off to Berkeley to visit Jacqueline’s grandparents that live there. On the way, I decided that I was well overdue for my first double double animal style from In’n'Out Burger – yum yum!! We had a nice relaxing afternoon in Berkeley, and had a great catchup with Lou and Gita, before a delicious beef bourginon dinner and an early night which we were both in need of. We were however up at 6.15 the following morning to join Gita for her morning walk around Berkeley which really is a very nice area! The show had to go on after that, and Jacqueline and I were back on the road, although this time only a relatively short drive down to Palo Alto where we had breakfast with Susie, an old family friend, and had a quick look around the Stanford campus. It was really good to catchup with Susie (and for Jacqueline to meet her) since I hadn’t seen her in a few years.

After breakfast, We headed over to Sami’s place in Palo Alto. She is one of Jacqueline’s really close friends who is living in Palo Alto with her boyfriend Alex and they had invited us to stay. Sami took us for a drive to Los Gatos to see where she grew up, before we headed back to her’s for a celebratory glass of Champagne. We then headed into to San Francisco for some shopping, before dinner with Alex (at the Cheesecake Factory overlooking Union Square). Jacqueline had arranged a bit of a reunion with her triathlon friends at a cool little bar called the Tipsy Pig, near the Marina. Elliot, a friend Jacqueline met while studying at Cambridge joined too. We had a great evening, and really enjoyed catching up with everyone.

Jacqueline and I both love the Bay Area and would have loved to spend some more time there, but in keeping with our road trip, we were off first thing in the morning for breakfast in Santa Cruz, and then lunch in Isla Vista to reminisce about UCSB. Lunch was at Silvergreens where we had our first date, and we strolled around and saw the Bagel Cafe, and all the other places we used to frequent. We then headed to downtown Santa Barbara for a stroll and some more shopping, and then dinner at the beer cafe whilst we watched the LA Lakers play Orlando Magic and win to bring them closer to the NBA title, which was fun since I’ve never really watched a whole basketball game, and it was very close and went to overtime and was won in the last few seconds! After dinner, we met up with Morgan, a good friend of mine from Bali who is at UCSB, as well as his Dad who was visiting. We’d decided we wanted to get back to LA though, so we just had a margarita and a quick catchup before getting on the road back to LA. It was nice to get home!

Back in LA we just had a few nights before heading to Hawaii. Our first day, Friday, we headed up to the Camarillo outlets with Jacqueline’s mum, Bonnie, and sister, Allee, for some serious shopping before lunch at In’n'Out (I really love the burgers!), and then dinner at one of the Fisher’s favourites – a mexican restaurant that they affectionately call ‘Peter’s’ after the guy running it. We (and especially Jacqueline) got stuck in to some delicious Margaritas before heading out to Glendale to meet Jacqueline’s friends Nadia and Julia for some cocktails at Katsuya which were very yummy indeed. It was a fun night and we were both feeling like I needed some extra rest in the morning.

Despite how I was feeling, Jacqueline, Allee, Vikkee and I headed to the Getty Museum in Santa Monica in the morning which was really cool. We then headed to Old Town for lunch and some shopping before heading home for a rest. Jacqueline and I then had dinner with Amy and her boyfriend Brian at P F Changs for some Chinese food. Amy is a good friend from Singapore who lives in Pasadena, and we had a great time catching up. After dinner we met Allee, Vikkee and Ashley at the movies to see’the Hangover’ on Vikkee’s recommendation and it lived up to it! We laughed the whole way through!!

I haven’t mentioned it yet, but since arriving in California we had experienced the dreaded June Gloom and barely seen any sunshine, so in the morning, we decided it was time to take action. Vikkee was heading to Newport beach where she is at uni, and had heard that it was sunny so Jacqueline and I decided to go too. It was great to get a little sun, and have a wander around Balboa Island by the water. After a couple of hours there however, we headed to the Airport, because a friend of mine from Sydney, Kieran, was flying in to spend one night on his way to Business School in Chicago. As always, LAX was a madhouse, but we managed to find Kieran, and head home for a quick turn around before heading to one of Jacqueline’s good friend’s, Caitlin’s, birthday party. We had a great time and the party continued after we got home. We had to be up at 6 am the next morning to finish packing and head to Maui (and Kieran to Chicago).

That about brings me back to where I started – we flew in to Maui yesterday afternoon, and stopped in Lahaina (the biggest town on the west coast) for a yummy lunch, before getting to our Condo in a cute little cove called Honokeana. We just relaxed for the afternoon and did a grocery shop before Jacqueline, Bubba and I produced a delicious dinner of chargrilled Tuna Sashimi salad and bbq’d mango curry prawns. Today, we had a morning snorkel in our cove where there are lots of turtles – at one point we were swimming with at least 5 in 2 metre deep water – before heading to another bay (Honolua) for some more sun bathing and snorkelling and even more turtles. It’s so wonderful to be in the sun relaxing!

We’ll write another blog at the end of the trip to tell you about the rest of our time here, but we have an exciting few days ahead starting with diving at Molokini tomorrow, and hopefully some surfing.

Hope you’re all well. Check out the photos that we’ve put up so far!!

Ben and Jacqueline
xx

Posted under: Travel