On The Road

We are about half way through our trip home...

From Sydney we flew to Honolulu and spent 4 days in Hawaii; 1 day sleeping (jet lag - but we did see the sunset!), 1 day at the pool and at Waikiki beach (SPie loved the beach), and two days in rainy Hilo. We were scheduled to go on a helicopter tour of the volcanoes, but it was rained out. Instead we drove around the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (cool to see, but wet).

On Christmas day we flew to California where we spent 3 days visiting relatives. We were completely spoiled with home cooked meals and the most comfortable bed I think I've ever slept in. It was great to see family and to have SPie spend time with her cousins.

As we drove, we tried to stay off the highways and visit sites along the way. We went through a small part of the Sequoia National Park (most of it is closed for the winter), drove down the strip in Las Vegas at night, stopped at the Hoover Dam, spent 1/2 a day at the Grand Canyon and visited the ruins at the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico.

We missed a few things we tried to see. The Grand Canyon Caverns, Four Corners and the Navajo National Monument were all closed by the time we arrived. We also wanted to see the rock in Shiprock, New Mexico, but our timing was off and we drove through at night so we couldn't see anything. Most of these stops were things we picked off the map as we drove, so it's not such a big deal, but the Four Corners does bug me a little. It's only closed 3 days a year and we were in the area for one of them!

Yesterday we had a fun day visiting with friends in Albuquerque. We spent most of the day at the Explora Science Center which is full of hands on exhibits that were good for SPie, but also interesting to us.

...8 days to go before we are home