Julie's Stuff

In two months this:



will have another 10 repeats and will be on the shoulders of my bridesmaid.

In two months this:



will be joined by a mate and be on the feet of the Boy.

In two months I will be about two hours away from being Mrs Boy :)  There's nothing like a hard deadline to keep you motivated!

... just resting.

I honestly don't know where the months go these days.  Well, actually I do know where they go - work, extracurricular activities (I'm taking French lessons in preparation for honeymoon!), wedding and honeymoon planning.  There has been much knitting too.  With two months to go, wedding knitting is in full swing.  The Boy is getting socks (well, duh!) - Falling in Love (rav link) in bright red Dream in Color Smooshy.  The Bridesmaid is getting a lace shawl - Hanging Garden Stole in purple Zephyr.  Unfortunately it's the middle of winter, so photos are few and far between.  I will make a concerted effort to take some pictures and put them up real soon now!

Wedding plans are going well.  Almost all the big stuff is done.  The last few remaining tasks include music, posting the invitations and getting the Boy's suits organised.  My dress arrived last weekend and I'm going to try it on this week (yay!).  There won't be any pictures on the blog until after the wedding though because the Boy wants it to be a surprise.  I'm having dreams about having to call people on the day because we forgot to send invitations, so I think it might be time to do something about them....

Pictures next time, and something else besides wedding talk too, promise.

Ok, so most of you have already probably guessed what the mystery project was, especially since it was quite clearly labelled in the In Progress section on the side bar, but now it can be revealed in all its glory:



It's the Peapod Baby Set (cardigan only) of course!  It fits Michelle perfectly.  She'll probably get a good couple of months of wear out of it.  Fortunately she's a small baby - I made the largest size (18 month) and she's two months shy of two.  Michelle was the recipient of the Ladybug Jumper, so the Ladybug buttons were a no-brainer.  She seemed happy with it at least (although her new favourite colour is yellow - pink is soooo three months ago!).  And it's rather tricky to get a non-blurry photo of an almost-two-year-old - there were many rejects....

Project details:

Pattern:  Peapod Baby set (no link - the pattern has been removed from the Knitting Daily site)
Yarn:  Bendigo Harmony Wool/Cotton blend in Rose.  Unfortunately this has been discontinued, so only two colours are left.
Mods:  My row gauge was off, so I did more repeats to get the right length, and did a few more buttonholes.
Comments:  A nice pattern and a nice yarn.  A shame that both have been "discontinued"!

My mother has requested more pictures of the Boy's boxes too.  I came home of Friday night to see this little tableau:



Four little boxes huddled around the heater for warmth.  According to the Boy the heat is necessary for the glue to dry properly.  I just think they're feeling the cold....

Where to start?  This is the problem with taking a holiday and doing the travelogue style posts for a while - I forget what regular posting is like!  So, how about we start with a bit of knitting, just to get back into the groove?  I finished Twist before we went away and started a mystery project.  The mystery project is going to stay mysterious for a little while (at least until I finish sewing in the last arm!), so I guess I have to talk about the next thing in the queue - Oblique:



Yep, that's one whole back done in about two weeks.  The lace patterns are fast to knit and easy to remember once you get going.  I've modified the length of it so it doesn't have the "butt hugging" effect that the original seems to have.  The Yarn is Valley Yarns Sheffield - it's really soft and lovely to work with.  I'm sure it'll end up a nasty pilly mess, but I'm trying not the think about it.  It's got 4 plys, so I'm hopeful it'll be OK....

The Boy and I have dubbed this year the Year of Organisation.  To this end, we finally figured out that the room that we've always called the "Library" (mostly because it's jammed full of bookshelves) could be put to a better use.  After hiring a skip to get rid of some junk and selling the sofa and coffee table that was in there, its new purpose is becoming more obvious:



The lighting wasn't ideal, but you can make out the important bits - that's my overlocker in there.  And the sewing machine behind it.  And that nice big empty table under the window sill?  Purpose built for my knitting machine :)  Yep, it's going to be a craft room!  It still requires some more tidying and, obviously, a chair, but it's looking closer to a craft room than it ever has before.  I think there might even be enough room in there for at least some of the stash!

And the Boy's been busy too.  He decided a while ago that he wanted to contribute some craftiness to the wedding by making small wooden boxes to give to the guests.  Thanks to some very generous donations from some fellow Woodies, we have a stack of box making wood for free (turns out knitters aren't the only one with an online community!).  The whole process started this weekend, and the first box looks like this:



Come now, you don't think I'll be giving away the surprise for the few guests that read this do you?  I've dubbed this stage of box making the Borg Box for obvious reasons.   He made three carcasses this weekend out of a total of nine required.  Now all he needs to do is put on the lids, sand and french polish them and cut the tops off and attach with hinges.  It's rather like when you've finished knitting all the bits and all that's left is the sewing.  But, we've got 3.5 months to go so I think they'll all be done in time.  Hopefully....

It was time to leave paradise for another trip.  Our flight left at 0915, so it was an early start for the airport.  Yes, my mother was ready before we were (the Boy was still in the shower when she knocked at our door, bright eyed and busy tailed).  But, we made it to the airport in plenty of time.  Unfortunately the place that I'd thought we'd have breakfast at was closed for renovations, so we repaired to the Qantas lounge (which I didn't hold high hopes for - I had read poor reviews).  But, it seemed to have been recently renovated and although small it was quite nice.  Most importantly there was enough food to keep me from chewing my own arm off before we got to the plane.

And then, the plane trip.  The less said about that the better I think.  Let's just say that there were screaming children galore - Star Class isn't expensive enough to stop parents buying seats for their toddlers, and it was school holidays.  Ear piercing screams every 5 - 10 minutes over a 10 hour flight don't exactly add to the experience.  And the service was abysmal.  Call lights were ignored for 15 minutes at a stretch (I eventually got up to find a hostie).  I wouldn't discount Jet Star based solely on this flight - the service on the way there was excellent.  However, if you can afford it, buy a more expensive ticket just to filter out the kids.  So, let's just say we were pleased to be home.

We have realised that we're not good at the "home away from home" type of trip.  If we're going to be hanging around, we'd rather do it at home with all our things around.  We need stuff to do.  On this trip we were dangerously under-stuffed which had a tendency to lead to boredom.  We're also not big beach people (my swim tally? One.  The Boy's?  None), so being that close to the water is almost wasted on us.  We loved the view and the sound of the ocean, but we're both paranoid about skin cancer, so spending lots of time in the sun isn't for us!  We probably should have researched stuff to do a bit better - there is a lot to do on Oahu and I know we didn't do it all, but I forgot to pack our guidebook.  Big mistake.  Next time will be different.

Observations about Hawaii?  There's some things that we just take for granted here that don't exist there.  One of the big ones was the noise our walk signals make (bip bip bip bip...).  Over there, there's no noise at all so you have to look at the lights.  We thought that the little man on their lights looked odd, but then we realised that we've got no idea what ours looks like - we rely on the noise.  I've talked about the food before, but it was really brought home to me when we did a bit of grocery shopping when we arrived home and I had my first bit of Australian bread for over a week - I could taste the salt in it.  I was that accustomed to sweet bread that "normal" bread tasted odd.  Of course there are differences - that's what makes it interesting - but it was intriguing to see what we picked up on.

Overall?  We had a great time.  We're pleased to be home, but we miss the warms!

Today is our last day here  We decided to take off with Dodgey and drive around Oahu to see some more of the sights.  On our last trip we hadn't seen the North Shore, so that was our goal.  It's a beautiful day - the haze (which is in fact called "vog" - volcano fog) has gone leaving blue skies and fluffy white clouds.  The scenery is just beautiful.  Lots of beaches, lots of craggy mountains with tropical vegetation.  We stopped at a small, mostly empty beach side park for cheese and ham sandwiches before continuing on to the North Shore.  We didn't stop at the famous beaches - way too crowded for us.  We did spot surf through the cars though - the first decent surf we've seen here.  Waikiki beach is a beautiful beach, but it's not known for its swell!  

I am the official map reader, and I noticed that there was something labeled "Botanic Garden" on the way home, so I proposed a little detour.  The Boy agreed, so off we went.  We discovered a small, almost suburban garden that turned out to be put together by Harold Lyon of Lyon arboretum fame.  The Wahiawa Botanical Garden was created in the 1920s and was beautiful.  All the pics are up this Flickr photoset, but I'll include a couple that will resonate with the Australian readers.



Yes, it's a jacarandah flowering in April.  Just a reminder that seasons here are reversed even though it feels the same all year round.

Now we're back in the room trying to work out how to pack all of our stuff into our bags while watching the engagement cake challenge on Food Network, followed by Rich Bride Poor Bride....   Yep, high class TV here!

One of the mandatory items on most visitor itineraries is Pearl Harbour, and we are no exception.  There is a range of things to do there - last time we explored the Missouri, which was fascinating.  This time we opted for the Bowfin - the only submarine in WWII that did not suffer any casualties. 



We crawled our way through the belly of the sub, amazed that anyone could live on this thing, let alone work on it.  You wouldn't want to be very tall!  There were some bunks that I wouldn't be able to stretch out fully on, and there were bunks everywhere, including in the missile rooms:

 

We also enjoyed looking at the technology on the sub - typewriters and replacement vacuum tubes:

  

There was a submarine museum too where I managed to locate some yarn craft (possibly macrame?),



and some more technology - the computer was used to fire the Polaris missiles. 



Lots of stuff to see, and not too many people in it.  All the tourists tend to end up at the Arizona memorial, leaving the other parts of Pearl Harbour relatively quiet.

We returned in time for lunch.  We walked to get some good bread and came back to our room to have cheese (for the Boy) and salad (for me) on a Baguette.  Yum.  And then, inertia set in.  The Boy went to find the NY Times with success, and we were then going to go to the zoo, but instead spent the rest of the afternoon either on the balcony or inside once the sun got too hot.  I had a little nap, the Boy watched TV.  We have definitely gotten lazy - it's probably about time we went back to work.

Dinner was cook your own BBQ at the hotel next door.  Unfortunately there was live entertainment - good if you don't want to talk to the people you're eating with but way too loud if you want a quiet dinner.  Yes, we're getting old.  The food was good, but we didn't linger.  It would be nice to find a dining option here that wasn't either a chain, too loud or too expensive.  I'm beginning to think that cooking our own food really is the best option.

Today was more culture and museums with a trip to the Bishop museum.  We had all been before at various times, but the last time the Boy and I were here, the Hawaiian Hall was closed for renovations.  They had said that it would reopen in 2008 so we thought it was time to go again.  Unfortunately, the hall was still closed which was a little disappointing.  Apparently they're running a little behind - new opening date is Summer 2009....  There was still stuff to see and the highlight was, once again, the planetarium.  Having a guided tour of the night sky above a different part of the planet is always interesting.  Unfortunately it's very hazy today (apparently it's sulfur haze from the volcanos on the big island), so we won't get to put our newfound knowledge to the test tonight.  It's still an impressive place, and there is some nice vegetation around:



We brown-bagged our lunch today too - no more food courts for us.  Some almost decent bread, peanut butter and some ham and cheese made an excellent lunch.  Why we haven't done this before I don't know. 

This afternoon it was time for more shopping.  We decided to go farther afield and went to a Foodland that the Boy and I had discovered last time.  It's about a 30 minute drive away from Honolulu, so we bundled into Dodgey and off we went.  After one false start (the White Pages and the map lied to me), we found it and bought enough supplies for the next couple of days.  We're having a quiet night in tonight, so we bought some salad, meat and a disposable BBQ.  The plan is to sit on the balcony and watch the sun set, but the haze might make that a little disappointing - this is what the view looks like now:



It's not always perfect on Hawaii unfortunately.

This morning the Boy and I were on our own - we decided to go to Iolani Palace, and the easiest way to get there was to catch The Bus (no, really, that's what it's called - capitalisation intended).  Iolani is almost in the middle of downtown Honolulu and parking is difficult.  So, we left Dodgey's keys with my mother and went to The Bus stop.  We waited about 2 minutes before our Bus came and, thanks to the location announcements and my roughly drawn map, managed to get off at the right spot.  We got to the palace in time to get the next audio self-guided tour, which had the advantage of letting us into the first and second floors (ground and first floors for the Australian readers) which the regular admission didn't.  Neither the Boy or I particularly like pre-recorded tours, so we wandered around by ourselves, starting at the end and working backwards, thus avoiding the main group.  Unfortunately, like most of these places, there was no photography inside, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was beautiful.  Not as packed with furniture as Queen Emma's Summer Palace, but the Boy was still impressed with the woodworking and I enjoyed the history.  The exterior was beautiful though:



We decided that a quick stop off at Ala Moana for lunch and a new book for me was in order and quickly found the right Bus to take us there.  After some fairly ordinary pizza and a pasta salad with more oil than I normally eat in a week, we were ready to go.  Then, unfortunately, our run of good-Bus luck ran out.  We asked the information desk where to catch The Bus back to Waikiki and they directed us to a stop.  It looked right, but the Boy found a timetable that said they came every 30 minutes and we'd just missed one.  We knew there were other Buses that went to Waikiki so walked to the other side of the mall.  Several aborted attempts to board a Bus later, we finally found one that would take us to where we wanted to go.  About 25 minutes after we started looking for a bus.  We would have been better off skipping the mall - I didn't find a book to read, and lunch wasn't great.  Oh well, lesson learnt.

Tonight was the big birthday dinner night - a Luau at the Royal Hawaiian hotel.  We arrived at 5:30, received leis and Mai Tais and sat and waited for the show  It was definitely for the tourists - long tables, a stage, dancing, audience participation, the works.  It sort of reminded me of a modern Hawaiian version of the hotel in Dirty Dancing - the hired dancers getting the guests up and dancing, the singing host.  But, the dancing was excellent and the food was good.  Not as good as the buffet we had the last time we were there, but you're paying for the show really.  I did get some photos of the dancing, but the most impressive was a Samoan fire dance and unfortunately my little happy-snapper couldn't quite cope with that!  Here's what the standard dancers looked like before and after the sun set:
 

I think I'll leave the after-dark photography to the Boy and his big camera...

First things first, it's time to wish my mother a very happy birthday!  And to thank her for celebrating it in Hawaii!   We suggested taking her to Lyon Arboretum and she thought that was an excellent plan.  Long time readers of the blog may remember that the Boy and I went to Lyon on our last trip here and were very impressed with the place.  This time was no different.  We arrived just in time to take the guided tour (highly recommended if you do go - the guides tell you the uses of the plants which makes the place come alive).  We spent about 2 hours walking through the place taking many photos.  Of course there are many flower photos and many tree and view photos.  Rather than fiddling around, I've put them all up on a Flickr photoset so if you're inclined (and think that you can cope with more pics of the vegetation), here's the link .  But, here's a few to whet your appetite.



We were all tired after our morning adventures so repaired to Ala Moana mall for lunch.  The Boy has come down with a minor cold and was in need of more Dayquil, so we stopped at Long's to get some (that place is *huge*!), and we had a quick lunch.

Then it was over to the birthday girl.  Isle Knits has been on her agenda and I was more than willing to go with her.  We left the menfolk at the mall (the Boy needed to sit quietly and wait for the drugs to kick in, and wool shops aren't really Michael's thing) and my mother drove us there.  She purchased some 000 Addis for bead knitting, and I bought some Cascade Venezia Worsted in a gorgeous green colour.  I'm contemplating making the Gathered Pullover from it.  It's gorgeous stuff - soft and relatively tightly spun, and I'm looking forward to knitting it.  Of course, holiday wool doesn't count towards stash....

We're now firmly ensconced in our afternoon routine.  We're going out for dinner tonight (it's always nice to have that part of the day under control), and I think after all that walking we're going to sleep well tonight.

For some reason, today turned out to be shopping day.  Last night over wholemeal spaghetti and ragu at our place, we decided to go to the Ward Centre today.  My mother and Michael had agreed to be ready at about midday, so the Boy and I decided to do a bit of pre-shopping shopping.  The first order of business was Home Depot.  It seems that some of the "wow" factor has worn off - we only spent about 30 minutes or so there and the Boy was decidedly blase about the whole thing.  We did, however, purchase one thing that was on our list - a Weber BBQ chimney.  For some reason these have become unobtainable in Australia, and we knew that Home Depot was a stockist.  We had fun with the self checkout - the American accent and the helpfulness was a novelty!

Then we stopped at Office Max.  It was about the same size as a standard Office Works, but had a whole different range of stuff.  I managed to buy Scotch Tape refills (again, there seems to be a drought of these in Australia), and some really cool whiteboard markers (they have small erasers built into the marker tip - no more smeary fingertips after a workshop!).  Oh, and some purple Post-Its for the Boy.  We walked out with the Amex in a little bit of shock...

Back to the hotel to pick up the gang and off to the Ward Centre.  The Boy was eager to go to the Farmers Market - we'd found fresh fish and watermelon there last time and he wanted to repeat the experience.  Unfortunately it was not to be.  There was fish (Michael is cooking tonight), but the big market had closed on the 31st March after 56 years.  Sad.  Also, it turns out not to be watermelon season, so the Boy is very sad :(  However, he was cheered by the purchase of (yet another) very cheap woodworking book at Borders.  We spent some time in a fabulous kitchenware shop - we're still contemplating going back and purchasing a strawberry-shaped kettle, but I think even the overflow bag is starting to get a little full.

We returned tired and shopped-out.  We sat and had a little bit of tea, and I decided to go for a swim.  I wandered over to Waikiki with the soft sand and bobbed for a short while before deciding that I really needed to get out of the sun (lily-white skin + no sunscreen = pink Girl) - it was 4:30, so I wasn't too concerned but the Cancer Council does manage to imprint it's message.

For the last hour we've been sitting on the balcony feeding the birds corn chips, drinking beer and watching the sun set. 

 



In about half and hour we're going down to be fed fish.  It's a hard life.

After a brief consultation with my mother last nigh, it was agreed that we'd go to Queen Emma's Summer Palace this morning.    Unfortunately there was no photography inside the house, but here's what it looks like from the outside:



I'm not quite sure that I'd describe is as a "palace", but whatever works.  There was glorious furniture inside.  I could see the Boy planning his next project (it's akin to a knitter following someone wearing a nice cabled jumper).  There was, of course, photography allowed outside, and I got more photos of the tropical vegetation.  Can you tell I rather like the flowers?



But even more spectacular here were the trees.  And the orchids and staghorns growing in the trees.  Stunning.



We decided to keep driving a little way up to the Pail lookout where there were some incredible views of the other side of the island.  It was a bit windy, so we stayed for long enough to get some photos and headed back to Dodgey.



On our previous trip out here, the boy and I had driven across the island and had discovered a cookie shop on the other side (Chip 'n Cookie), and he wanted to go back so we kept driving through the mountains.  We were all hungry, so we had some lunch, then over to the cookie shop where my mother bought some actual cookies, and the Boy bought a stuffed Cookie doll.  My mother had spotted a bead shop on the way in to the parking lot, so, of course we had to stop in there too.  And we had success - beads were purchased that will be used to make a beaded rose for the Boy's wedding flowers.  Purple of course.

Now after a brief afternoon nap I'm contemplating the important question of the day -  what's for dinner?
Turns out what's for dinner is pasta at our place.  Nice and easy.  But, the Boy has gone to buy cheese (and bacon for breakfast) without his wallet.  I'm wondering how long it will take him to realise that he's forgotten it....

Today was a very lazy day.  My mother and Michael flew in at 11am, so we went to meet them at the airport.  We found a carpark, bought some leis (mandatory for Hawaiian greetings), and found the terminal.  Unfortunately we managed to find the domestic terminal and it took some hunting to find the international arrivals.  Their plane had already landed, so I was worried that they had gotten out and were aimlessly wandering around waiting for us.  Bu, they weren't anywhere to be found, so we waited.  It seemed that there were still people coming out from their flight, so I figured we were safe - they were still in the airport maze.  After about 15 minutes or so they finally came out.  It turns out my mother has no finger prints, so she got taken into the "back room".  I'll let her tell the story!

We drove around for a while trying to find the car rental place so that we could add my mother and Michael to the registered drivers list.  Suffice to say that Thrifty is not in the same place as all the other car hire places, and that putting on a broad Australian accent helps when the exit you've taken ends up being the entrance to a military base....

Back to the hotel and the Boy went for a walk in search of bread.  He found a St Germain bakery that had french sticks that didn't have high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient, so we had some of that with some fresh peanut butter for lunch while we waited for the new arrivals to get cleaned up.  Then we headed off to Ala Moana Mall where they did some grocery shopping and the Boy and I bought some tea towels at Williams-Sonoma (we bought some here last time and they're great tea towels, so they were on the list).  Michael faded, so we brought them back for a nap and, I suspect, an early night.

I'm watching "The Garlic Food Challenge" on the Food Network and typing up the trip diary while the Boy goes to Borders in search of a notebook.  We are contemplating what to do for dinner, and are tempted to go  over the the Hilton and see what they have to offer.

A little later...

We have returned from dinner with very happy bellies.  We spent a quiet few hours sitting on the balcony reading our books and watching the sunset.  It had cooled down just enough for it to be really pleasant.  For dinner we did wander over to the Hilton and had fabulous Japanese.  The sushi was freshly made in front of our eyes, I had udon noodle soup (which quenched my Vegemite craving), and the Boy had tempura.  This may have been a lazy day, but it was also a great food day!

As I wrote yesterday, we hired a car.  After driving it for about 30 minutes, we named it "Dodgey" (it's a Dodge, so it was a no-brainer really).



Today we took Dodgey for a drive.  Our goal was the Dole Pineapple plantation, but thanks to some fairly poorly signposted roads (ie no big signs saying "this way to the Dole Plantation") we got a little lost.  But, we saw some sights anyway.  We ended up almost at the end of the road and saw some pretty impressive mountains:



I consulted the map and worked out how to get back to our destination.  We arrived to find a very large carpark, a shop and some small gardens.  The gardens were very pretty:



We didn't do the organised tour of the gardens, and nor did we do the Plantation Train tour (too many screaming children, too commercial).  but, we did get lots of photos of growing pineapples:



A quick snack (chips and some pineapple - all bread products avoided for fear of cake-like qualities) and we left.  I had consulted the map and discovered that there was a premium factory outlet centre almost on our way home that also contained a Lowes (a very large version of Bunnings).  The only way I was going to get the Boy to go shopping was to entice him with hardware, so we did Lowe's first:

 

Then, a quick stop at Borders (just a woodworking book for Boy), and I was starving.  There was a Mcdonalds across the road that promised bathrooms and familiar (if not great) food.  We were fed and watered in quick time and I was happier.  Then, we hit the shops.  Joggers at a quarter of the Australian price for the Boy, sunglasses for me (my old pair is unfortunately at home and I was getting a headache from the glare).  And then, we'd had enough.  Back to the hotel for a cup of tea and a quick blog.

Ah, and a wrap up of yesterday too.  We had dinner at Denney's (it was on the list - there's a scene from The Santa Clause...) and came back just in time to see some fireworks put on just for us by the Hilton across the way.  And here's my first Youtube outing:

April 18th 2008

And so it's time for another trip to Hawaii, this time to celebrate my mother's birthday.  This is a nice family tradition :)  This time, the Boy and I chose to fly Jetstar Star Class, rather than put up with economy (I don't mind that much, but the Boy's 6'6" frame doesn't fit too well in economy seats and he's not fond of roughing it in cattle class anyway).  So, we got to the airport and 20 minutes later we're sitting in the Qantas lounge drinking free champagne, and we've got a good view of the tail of our plane:



I'm enjoying this trip so far!  Friday afternoon seems to be relatively quiet at Sydney airport, so we got through customs and security in record time.  The Boy is now out hunting for a powerpoint adaptor (why we didn't do this in the weeks before we left I don't know!).

We have two days alone before my mother and Michael arrive, so we're going to pick up the hire car and go shopping.  I'm prepared with a printout of my Google map which shows where we're staying, where the closest Safeway is (according to the Aloha Knitters group in Ravelry it has a make-your-own peanut butter station...), and where the LYSs are (and where the tool shops are for the Boy).

April 18th 2008 - on the plane.

We were thrilled to discover that Jetstar Star Class has plenty of leg room for the Boy and adequate service.   The Boy is not a great flyer - he needs to know the engine type before we take off (apparently one out of the three brands has a tendency to fall off...), and after some discussion amongst the cabin crew we got an answer (favourably - they use GE engines) and all was well.  I doped him up on Travelcalm pills and a couple of glasses of champagne and after a few games of Uno he was snoring away.  I slept for a few hours too - it was nice not to be cramped up like a pretzel.  We woke up at around 2am Sydney time to be served warm cheese and bacon rolls and juice (warm, not half-frozen!) and to see a lovely sunrise from above the clouds:

 

April 18th (still!) - on the ground

We zoomed off the plane (one of the advantages of being up the front), but we had to wait for a while for one of our bags (no priority baggage unfortunately).  But, once we got our bags, we waited for about 5 minutes for a shuttle bus to take us to the car hire place where we picked up the car and we were off to the hotel.

Fortunately we're staying in the same place we were in last time we were here, and we both remembered how to get there (the map supplied in the car wasn't a huge help, and we'd forgotten to pack the map we bought last time).  We arrived, listened to Mark at the front desk blather on about customer service (he claims he was trying to "slow us down", I just wanted a shower quickly), and finally made it to our room.  Level 13 - beautiful view! 

 



I showered, the Boy showered and we decided that the first order of business was to get some groceries.  I took the map of the Safeway location and off we went.  After some wrong turns (the one way streets can be tricky!), we found it and were suitably impressed with it's size.  2 hours and $200 later, we were stocked up.  Cereal, bacon and eggs, bread, cheese and turkey, kosher salt (something we can't get in Australian and we've wanted to know what it is), and other miscellaneous supplies.  Yes, we did make our own peanut butter too.  They had hoppers full of nuts and you picked one to turn into butter.  We chose the organic unsalted peanuts, which made very good butter.  Back to the room for a quick lunch and a nap (for me) and a walk (for the Boy).

I woke up at 2:30pm to find that the Boy had found a decent map and had purchased some wireless internet access (woo hoo!).  We decided that we had enough time to hit some shops, so off to Isle Knits and Woodcraft.  I purchased some Tofusies (for the boy), and some Maisey (for me).  The Boy purchased some glue brushes and something else that I don't really understand.

Isle Knits was great!  It's a very small room on the 14th floor of an office tower, but the owner was really helpful (assuming "helpful" translates to "putting yummy stuff into my hands and saying "feel this""!).  I could have bought far more, but I'm attempting to to spend all our holiday money on wool.  I'm fairly sure the Boy felt the same way in his woodworking shop

We return to our room happy and tired.  The Boy has gone for a walk to try and wake up a little bit, then we're off for an early dinner and early bed.  It's been a long Friday!