25th Dec 2007 - 5th Jan 2008 Hawaii-Los Angeles
Every year my family and I go traveling around the world at least twice a year, once in the summer, once during the winter break and sometimes, during March Break. This time we traveled during the winter break from Christmas morning through New Year’s Day until Jan. 5.
We first traveled to the island of Oahu in the Aloha State of Hawaii where we played on the beach and took in the rays (or did we…?). We then flew to the city of Los Angeles in the Golden State of California to see friends and go up and down Bolsa.
To read the details just simply read my travelogue located just below this introduction. Enjoy!
December 25, 2007 - On the way
It was Christmas morning, very early, about 6:30 in the morning. I was peacefully sleeping when suddenly, my door opened, and I just lay there seeing if that person thought that I was still sleeping. It appeared to be a woman (I think I’ve seen her somewhere); she silently walked over to my computer. By now, I was upset by the rudeness of this person so I got up and I noticed it was my mother (we’ll call her Mom) and she explained: " It seems that our flight on United airlines was cancelled and we must immediately find a new flight to Los Angeles."
Well, while I was kept in suspense, I lay around some more. A few minutes later (that was fast) Mom told me we got a better flight to LA on Air Canada (whew!!!). Now that I could relax I went downstairs and had breakfast with Mom. We quickly got through this and my hyper Dad was ready too. Alex also got up, but did not have time for breakfast, so in a half an hour later we were ready to go. We called a cab, which already knew our address (no surprise there). Once it got here we set sail to the Toronto airport with our (you guessed it) Indian driver. As you might already know Dad was asking our driver about his life, job and cab.
After our embarrassing ride we finally got to the airport. We checked into our flight at Air Canada and headed straight to the gate. We boarded and went through a simple, direct 5 hour flight to Los Angeles air
port (LAX) at 10:00. Though luckily, the flight had good movies. Once we landed we had a feeling we’ve been here before, the inefficient carousels seem familiar (I must be imagining things). We now had to go check into our flight to Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines, and as soon as we did that, we had 4 hours to burn (ouch). We walked over to security and noticed some more inefficiency, and we realized that this was the same airport from our last trip! I burned time with my DS (which I could charge here) while Alex listened to her MP3. After what seemed to be ages, we boarded and unfortunately did not have any personal TVs! Though time passed by quickly and we got there at 2:00 in the morning, which was 9:00 pm in Hawaii. We took a shuttle to the car rental, and rented ourselves a blue Pontiac G6 (it looked pretty good). The weather in Hawaii was warm, but there was
a little rain, I was sure i would clear up by tomorrow (hmmm…).
We drove all the way to our hotel while viewing the wonderful friendly environment around us (the palm trees, the tourists, the ABC stores…) until we reached the Princess Kailuaua Sheraton Hotel (3*). It was really nice with a gingerbread town in the lobby. We quickly checked in and headed upstairs so that we could finally rest (we were exhausted). We settled in and slowly slept.
December 26, 2007 - Oahu
Today was a glorious day that seemed pretty sunny and dry (for now…).
We got to sleep in for a while until about 9:00. By 10:0
0 (yes we were very slow) we left the room to look for breakfast. We all felt in the mood for a nice bit of dim sum so we headed to china town. We couldn’t find parking so instead we just parked at a park (no pun intended) across the street. As we walked to the entrance we were embarrassed by Dad talking about a group of homeless. We entered through the grand gate and got lost along the streets. We asked directions many times until we finally reached our destination. The food was not that good; we would prefer Brampton dim sum instead.
We then roamed the streets of china town some more: buying bananas, drinking smoothi
es and buying new Hawaii slippers (made in Taiwan!) in this familiar place. After that bit of expl
oration we headed to the east end of Oahu. As we crossed over a corner we witnessed the beautiful sight of the mountains and the blue ocean. The road along this end was fantastic and as we drove we saw the odd rabbit head island and sea life park (the sign) until we finally stopped at our private beach that had the view of the rabbit head island. We scaled the beach for a good spot and settled in. The water was very rough and the waves could kill. I was brave enough to fight against it and I managed to jump past the shore waves and relax in the deep. Too bad Alex was too scared.
A
fter about 2 hours we set off again. At this time, we had time to burn, so we decided to scale the shores of Oahu, but first we had to stop by our familiar lunch spot (a delicious pick up diner). All we had was shave ice for the road and we set off again. We trav
eled far all the way to the north shore only stopping a couple times for beaches (one had turtles and we got to witness one waking up). After arriving at the north shore, it was getting late so we headed back to Waikiki.
After about an hour we still had time left before dinner so we drove to (for me and Dad’s sake) to Wal-Mart Super Center to buy quality cheap stuff. After luckily grabbing a close parking spot we explored the very crowded and gigantic Wal-Mart. I quickly headed to the electronics for my Wiimote and Nunchuk while Dad went straight to stock up on Mauna Loa Macadamia nuts and chocolates. After what seemed forever we finally got together (no Wiimotes in stock) bought a boogey-board and a few snacks we went to pay. We thought there was no way there could possibly be anymore trouble, but no, there was. Dad insisted to go to a shorter line, which happened to be self service. Doing it ourselves is so long and inefficient that as we left we got charged an extra macadamia bag.
After finally getting out of that dreadful place we had to find dinner, so we went across the street to eat pho at Pho Saigon. The com tam was so-so and everyone else said their pho sucked. So after our long day we finally got to lie down and get some good sleep in our comfortable Sheraton room.
December 27, 2007
Today was a horrible day. The sky was grey, the ground was wet, the wind was harsh, the temperature was cool and Mom was complaining. Even though we all felt miserable we attempted to have a good day, so once it stopped raining we headed out.
Fir
st things first, breakfast, we wanted to find a nice diner, and we ended up in a familiar road, the road to my cousin Peter’s old house (good times). We went around the plaza and found an oddly familiar diner (I want spam and eggs with peanut butter cups) to have a nice American breakfast, which is what I had (egg, pancakes, and bacon). After that we walked around the international market nearby and bought many interesting souvenirs (two Hawaiian statues). Though Dad got lost twice, once at the food court and once in the bathroom, and once I looked for him, the girls found him. Well after browsing a little bit, we headed back to get washed up and got ready for a road trip.
We first headed off to Punch Bowl - a cemetery (sounds cheerful) to see the decorations (they were okay). We moved on around a beautif
ul mountain trail seeing the magnificent city and beach below. While there seemed to be houses along the trail, Dad would love to buy a house, but it is impossible because it would cost about 1 million dollars. Once we got down from the path we headed to a mall we have already been to (another familiar place!). Dad and I had to wait for Mom for too long with her shopping at Banana Republic with Alex. So we walked around for a bit and join the women later. When we met up we attempted to go to Gamestop to buy a Wiimote but once again, it was sold out and we lost Dad.
After giving up we were starving so we had to head back to Honolulu to get ready to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. When we finally got back we quickly changed and headed to the restaurant. Unfortunately, we had to wait 45 minutes so we walked around and hanged about in a mini mall. It was pretty small, but we looked around starving. Mom attempted to buy Aloha shirts, but we didn’t and the sales woman had a sour look on her face. When it was finally time to eat we were excited. Alex and I had delicious pasta and tacos while Mom and Dad had bad fish (ha ha).
We attempted to walk along Waikiki beach, but it started to rain (again) so we had to head home, but it was okay because we were really tired by then and couldn’t wait to sleep.
December 28, 2007
Today we slept in very late about 11am. So as we woke up we realized that it was still dark and cloudy (hmm…). Now we headed out to find some brunch at the same mini mall we went to yesterday (with the aloha shirts) to eat at the food court. Dad and I shared a sub while Alex had tacos and Mom waited a half an hour for noodles.
Once we finished eating (a long time) we first went to an ABC Store i
n the mall to exchange Aloha shirts (not the aloha shirt store) and buy a CD by IZ, a deceased popular Hawaiian singer with some songs from 50 First Dates (Somewhere Over the Rainbow). As we got out of the mall we noticed it was sunny (a miracle!) and we attempted to rush over to a beach on the east side but by the time we got there it turned cloudy (the cloud was waiting for us) so we spent a little time just sitting around and writing messages in the sand (names and cold Hawaii).
After staying in denial we moved on to the west
side where our soon to be new hotel was. We drove a long way through tunnels and over bridges to get to the end of the world… I mean island to a lonely beach.
The beach was very nice with mild waves and not many people around. I once again was the only person brave enough to go in the water and boogey boarded for a couple of hours, but it was still very fun. As it was getting into the evening we headed all the way back to Honolulu listening to IZ (You and I, and I and You, and all them two…). It was a confusion on where to eat, everyone wanted Japanese food, but Dad insisted on eating at the Japanese buffet Todai (our favourite restaurant during our second trip to Hawaii) which received very bad reviews from cousins after a two year hiatus. So we ended up eating at Todai and we were greeted with exactly what the cousins said lousy food. The sushi was warm, tasteless, not fresh and just plain yucky (but the tempura was still good). After our very disappointing meal for $120 we returned to Sheraton to sleep and complain that our taste buds were crying.
December 29, 2007
This morning we had to get up early (ugh…) because check-out was at 12 pm. We woke up at 8 and quickly got ready.
Our first destination was once again the rabbit head beach. Before heading in we had to have brunch so we stopped once again to the diner next to the beach. It was windy at the time so we had to eat at the tables there; we thought it couldn’t be that bad. We couldn’t be anymore wrong! The dirty tables attracted flies all around .
Once we finally got
out of there we went to the beach where it was a little sunny. I only went swimming (again) but Alex attempted. I tried to boogey board, but it was dangerous, I practically snapped part of my board and I had a gigantic shore break, making me lose my best goggles (Dad complained). Only after about an hour a little rain started to fall so I was forced to retire. We were sad but hoped to find happiness at the west side where our new hotel was.
We drove a long time again, until
we reached the Makaha Resort which is a golf resort. At this time we were early so we couldn’t check in, so instead we went to a nice beach with rough waves good for boogey boarding. Though, I was really inexperienced so I felt embarrassed when the locals were doing so well. We didn’t do much; we just hanged around a while until check in. Once it was check-in we checked in and walked great distances to get to our room (it was in a large area) until we hitched a ride on a golf cart. Once we got to our room (finally) we took the time to rest a while and shower until the evening.
Once it was dark, we didn’t want to go out so we went to the hotel restaurant. The food was not very good (steak, green peas) and Dad made us eat inside the stuffy room with loud music being sang by Hawaiians. After our tiring day (I was exhausted from boogey boarding) we called it a day early and easily fell asleep (with blindfolds of course).
December 30, 2007
Today was a very special day, my birthday! I was so happy and excited because it was a sunny day (for my birthday gift)! Although one miserable thing happened, I was sick! During breakfast at the hotel, I felt very cold (brr…) and had goose bumps (another wonderful birthday present). We still tried to have a good breakfast.
So first, we headed off to an ancient Hawaiian temple, which was supposed to host dozens of peacocks; but no it hosted thousands of mosquitoes. There was a very rocky path around the temple, but we were to busy to enjoy the view, because out feet were killing (because of slippers). By the time we ran out, our legs were so itchy and red with mosquito bites.
After that disastrous episode we headed to the end of the world beach again. Oh wait, we didn’t get water, so Dad forces us to go all the way back into town to go to an Asian market to buy it. After that long hassle, we finally headed to the beach. On the way, just like in Honolulu, there were homeless people living in tents on the beach, and once again Dad talked too much about it.
Once we got to the beach, we planned to stay there a long ti
me. Alex and I played a lot on the boogey board, lying on the beach and playing in the sand. The beach itself was very nice and peaceful with only a handful of people and mildly rough waves. It was hours until we returned to our room,
about 5pm. We did not want to do anything more for the day so Alex and I remained in the room while Mom and Dad went to buy me a birthday dinner, KFC. Once they returned, we were greeted with disgusting, dry chicken, but good deep fried shrimp and scallop. It was an okay birthday dinner, but we could have done a lot better. We stayed in the room the rest of the night until we fell asleep at 10pm (yes, a very short day).
December 31, 2007
Guess what, today was another wonderful day, the end of the year (let’s hope it’s better than the other holiday recently). Today we were leaving Hawaii, but unfortunately for us, today was cloudy and miserable, again. We were still sad though about leaving Hawaii, since we would always miss the environment in this beautiful state.
Getting out of the hotel was tiring, there were no golf carts to hitch a ride on, so we had to lug our many luggage to the far away parking lot. After our amazing feats we checked out and started heading back to Honolulu. The ride was long, but not too long since we first stopped by Chinatown again to eat pho. We ate at the Pho next door to the very crowded pho since we were in a rush. Once again I had delicious com tam, while everyone else had delicious pho (I believe).
O
nce we finished our meal we rushed over to the airport because our flight was at 1:30 pm. When we got to the airport we still had time to spare, but as soon as we confidently lined up to check in, we were told to go through a long line up for Agricultural Inspection to see if Dad smuggled fruit over to the main land. It was a quick 5 hour flight that was no problem. Once we arrived at our wonderful, lousy airport in LA we picked up our luggage and hurried over to a waiting station for a bus from Sheraton to pick us up. When it came we took it to our hotel, and for dinner we had Fritos and macadamia nuts.
Once we arrived to our beautiful Sheraton. We went to our room to rest, but spent half the night watching the New Years, twice from different cities! After a long celebration we finally fell asleep.
January 1, 2008 Los Angeles
Today was a very exciting day, the New Years, hooray 2008. We had a very fun day planned ahead of us, we’re planning to go to Universal Studios! Alex and I were so excited to go that when Mom and Dad got the car (a nice small mini-mini van) that we just wanted to eat a small breakfast, but no, we had to go to little Saigon on Bolsa St. to eat some banh cuon at some known restaurant. Though Dad was in for a surprise because it was closed (hahaha) and we had to go to a bad, yucky one (aww).
Af
ter our horrible meal, we considered not going to U.S. because it was almost noon, but we went anyway. We bought parking and parked at the parking lot Jurassic Parking (excessive use of park). We had to walk to the park and we used internet tickets to get in, but we got to take fingerprints for re-entry. The park was pretty nice with many different rides, effect theaters, roller coasters and scary houses. There was the House of Horror (which Mom ran out of and I bravely went through it) there was Jurassic Park rollercoaster, flame effects theater, the Mummy rollercoaster, the Studio Tour, Water World (a water theater), and many more. At one point I ate very buttery popcorn that mad me so sick that I could not eat when we left.
When we left, it was night time and we left to go to eat dinner. We drove all the way back to Bolsa St. to eat some Bun Boo (soup with pigs’ feet, blood and noodles). I was way too sick to eat so I just sat there and drank 7up. After that disgustingly sounding meal we returned to our hotel and finally got to lie down and settle my tummy.
January 2, 2008 - Little Saigon
Today will be a very Vietnamese day. This morning we planned to go to Bolsa St., a street with many Vietnamese restaurants and facilities. Though before we did, we stopped by Best Buy to look for a Wiimote and Nunchuk for me but unfortunately it was sold out. This morning Dad wanted to eat banh cuon at the restaurant that was closed yesterday. So after a lot of begging Dad managed to let Mom allow him to eat there will we ate pho next door from the restaurant. Our pho was really good and we also got a complimentary Vietnamese dessert (Alex loved it) that was delicious. Dad said that his banh cuon was delicious (probably not) and he also said that someone already paid his check (????).
We also dropped by a Vietnamese mall with no interesting stores for me. After that long, boring trip we went to a Vietnamese café called the Coffee Factory (they mass produce coffee) which Mom’s friend, Anne, owns. She wasn’t there when we came so we called and set up a date tonight to meet at her house.
So we had a lot of time left until then so we went to a very nice and large mall called Southern Coast Plaza in the OC. We roamed around for a while until we saw Gamestop which had Wiimotes in stock so we bought one but they were out of Nunchuks. Next store to that was the wonderful store Abercrombie (not and Fitch) and bought many wonderful polo shirts that I wear a lot today. At one point Dad was very tired so Dad and I returned to the car and napped for a while.
By the time the girls returned Alex had bought her prom dress and we were ready to go to Anne’s house. After taking so long to find the street we entered their small but cozy house. Anne had 2 daughters, Claudine (13) and Claire (5), and a husband (her third). Alex and I hanged around with the girls in their room and played video games for a while. I felt left out since I was the only boy.
After a while we left and set up dinner tomorrow. We were hungry at this time so we had to roam Bolsa for a long time. At one point Dad made an illegal turn and we got pulled over. The officer was nice (for a LAPD) and he even gave us restaurant locations. After that embarrassing episode we stopped by a take out restaurant called Lee sandwiches and bought a few banh mis. We returned to the hotel and easily finished the whole sandwich very quickly. We weren’t tired, so we bought a movie to watch tonight. It was Rush Hour 3 and it was better than we expected. After it finished it was late so we easily fell asleep.
January 3, 2008
Today we didn’t do too much. After Dad returned from his daily morning swim at the deserted pool, we set off once again to Bolsa. This time we went to eat banh cuon (AGAIN!). This restaurant was not bad, though the banh cuon was too thin and my soy milk is heated so much that I couldn’t drink it.
After that meal, we set off to the coast of LA to Seal Beach. We were expecting cute seals to wander the docks and beach, but no, we saw nothing except seagulls stealing fishermen’s bait. So after our boring walk along Seal Beach’s docks we headed to an outlet mall called the Citadel. It had a limited number of stores, and unfortunately for Mom, a small selection of shoes for me to purchase. After a little bit of wandering, Alex and I headed back to the car where Dad was taking a nap. Soon (meaning hours), Mom returned so we can finally leave the Citadel.
At this time it was evening, so we drove to the Coffee Factory, to meet Anne and her family for dinner. We decided (as in the pa
rents) to go to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant. Alex, Claudine and I each had different types of food, except for one similarity, the rice. The rice was roasted to be very crunchy, but it was still tasty. I felt lonely the whole dinner, because all the girls talked to each other and not me. After my boring, lonely meal, we said farewell in the parking lot hoping have our paths crossed again (it probably will happen). We returned to our wonderful Sheraton where we were greeted with a nice, comfy, bed.
January 4 and 5, 2008
Today is our last day in Los Angeles. We woke up late again, and once
we were able to get up, we checked out and hit the road. When I say road I mean Bolsa St. where we ate breakfast. Everyone had banh cuon (AGAIN) except me which I had delicious com tam. Next, we went to another Lee Sandwiches (with a restaurant) to buy some banh mis for the airplane and some delicious, traditional, Vietnamese desserts.
Now we drove back to South Coast Plaza to do some last minute shopping and time-burning. We left sick Dad (Anne’s husband coughed in Dad’s food yesterday) in the car to sleep and eat. I only joined in the walk around the mall to try and buy a Rubix Cube (I was obsessed with it at Anne’s house). Once we find one I ditched the girls and joined Dad in the car. After trying and failing miserably at the cube for hours, the girls joined us again. Now we were only a few hours away from our flight back home. Before we went to the airport, we had to stop by Dad’s favourite banh cuon. Alex, Mom and I refused to eat there, so stubborn Dad ate alone.
When Dad returned it started to rain. So by the time we arrived at Sheraton to wait for Dad to return the car, it was pouring. We then took a shuttle back to LAX, where we were greeted with wonderful news. Our flight was delayed so much that we would miss the connecting flight in New York. So we switched airlines (from Continental to Delta). The security line was ridiculous. Also our family was specially picked out and lucky for us, we get to have a search of all our belongings and our body.
When we finally got to our gate, Alex and I bought snacks and we took off for New York, or did we? We had to wait on the plane for another 2 hours before we could take-off. So obviously, at the time we arrived in New York, our flight to home had already left. Though luckily, there was another flight just a few hours away (what fun). Finally after hours of waiting we flew home and figured out that we were 8 hours later then scheduled (Di Trang was worried about her buddy).
Conclusion
I know I love Hawaii as much as every Nguyen, and I will always love it, but this third trip to Hawaii really discourages me from returning in the new future (this is probably not true). Still, this journey to this faraway State has had me yearning for an even better vacation that does not include rain, wind, losing goggles, delays, and friends spitting in our food. Even though this wasn’t the best trip (actually it is the worst) I will still remember this trip forever (bad memories implanted in my mind) because I got to spend time with my beloved family. Until next time loyal readers.
Every year my family and I go traveling around the world at least twice a year, once in the summer, once during the winter break and sometimes, during March Break. This time we traveled during the winter break from Christmas morning through New Year’s Day until Jan. 5.
We first traveled to the island of Oahu in the Aloha State of Hawaii where we played on the beach and took in the rays (or did we…?). We then flew to the city of Los Angeles in the Golden State of California to see friends and go up and down Bolsa.
To read the details just simply read my travelogue located just below this introduction. Enjoy!
December 25, 2007 - On the way
It was Christmas morning, very early, about 6:30 in the morning. I was peacefully sleeping when suddenly, my door opened, and I just lay there seeing if that person thought that I was still sleeping. It appeared to be a woman (I think I’ve seen her somewhere); she silently walked over to my computer. By now, I was upset by the rudeness of this person so I got up and I noticed it was my mother (we’ll call her Mom) and she explained: " It seems that our flight on United airlines was cancelled and we must immediately find a new flight to Los Angeles."
Well, while I was kept in suspense, I lay around some more. A few minutes later (that was fast) Mom told me we got a better flight to LA on Air Canada (whew!!!). Now that I could relax I went downstairs and had breakfast with Mom. We quickly got through this and my hyper Dad was ready too. Alex also got up, but did not have time for breakfast, so in a half an hour later we were ready to go. We called a cab, which already knew our address (no surprise there). Once it got here we set sail to the Toronto airport with our (you guessed it) Indian driver. As you might already know Dad was asking our driver about his life, job and cab.
After our embarrassing ride we finally got to the airport. We checked into our flight at Air Canada and headed straight to the gate. We boarded and went through a simple, direct 5 hour flight to Los Angeles air
port (LAX) at 10:00. Though luckily, the flight had good movies. Once we landed we had a feeling we’ve been here before, the inefficient carousels seem familiar (I must be imagining things). We now had to go check into our flight to Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines, and as soon as we did that, we had 4 hours to burn (ouch). We walked over to security and noticed some more inefficiency, and we realized that this was the same airport from our last trip! I burned time with my DS (which I could charge here) while Alex listened to her MP3. After what seemed to be ages, we boarded and unfortunately did not have any personal TVs! Though time passed by quickly and we got there at 2:00 in the morning, which was 9:00 pm in Hawaii. We took a shuttle to the car rental, and rented ourselves a blue Pontiac G6 (it looked pretty good). The weather in Hawaii was warm, but there was
a little rain, I was sure i would clear up by tomorrow (hmmm…).We drove all the way to our hotel while viewing the wonderful friendly environment around us (the palm trees, the tourists, the ABC stores…) until we reached the Princess Kailuaua Sheraton Hotel (3*). It was really nice with a gingerbread town in the lobby. We quickly checked in and headed upstairs so that we could finally rest (we were exhausted). We settled in and slowly slept.
December 26, 2007 - Oahu
Today was a glorious day that seemed pretty sunny and dry (for now…).We got to sleep in for a while until about 9:00. By 10:0
0 (yes we were very slow) we left the room to look for breakfast. We all felt in the mood for a nice bit of dim sum so we headed to china town. We couldn’t find parking so instead we just parked at a park (no pun intended) across the street. As we walked to the entrance we were embarrassed by Dad talking about a group of homeless. We entered through the grand gate and got lost along the streets. We asked directions many times until we finally reached our destination. The food was not that good; we would prefer Brampton dim sum instead.We then roamed the streets of china town some more: buying bananas, drinking smoothi
es and buying new Hawaii slippers (made in Taiwan!) in this familiar place. After that bit of expl
oration we headed to the east end of Oahu. As we crossed over a corner we witnessed the beautiful sight of the mountains and the blue ocean. The road along this end was fantastic and as we drove we saw the odd rabbit head island and sea life park (the sign) until we finally stopped at our private beach that had the view of the rabbit head island. We scaled the beach for a good spot and settled in. The water was very rough and the waves could kill. I was brave enough to fight against it and I managed to jump past the shore waves and relax in the deep. Too bad Alex was too scared.
A
fter about 2 hours we set off again. At this time, we had time to burn, so we decided to scale the shores of Oahu, but first we had to stop by our familiar lunch spot (a delicious pick up diner). All we had was shave ice for the road and we set off again. We trav
eled far all the way to the north shore only stopping a couple times for beaches (one had turtles and we got to witness one waking up). After arriving at the north shore, it was getting late so we headed back to Waikiki.After about an hour we still had time left before dinner so we drove to (for me and Dad’s sake) to Wal-Mart Super Center to buy quality cheap stuff. After luckily grabbing a close parking spot we explored the very crowded and gigantic Wal-Mart. I quickly headed to the electronics for my Wiimote and Nunchuk while Dad went straight to stock up on Mauna Loa Macadamia nuts and chocolates. After what seemed forever we finally got together (no Wiimotes in stock) bought a boogey-board and a few snacks we went to pay. We thought there was no way there could possibly be anymore trouble, but no, there was. Dad insisted to go to a shorter line, which happened to be self service. Doing it ourselves is so long and inefficient that as we left we got charged an extra macadamia bag.
After finally getting out of that dreadful place we had to find dinner, so we went across the street to eat pho at Pho Saigon. The com tam was so-so and everyone else said their pho sucked. So after our long day we finally got to lie down and get some good sleep in our comfortable Sheraton room.
December 27, 2007
Today was a horrible day. The sky was grey, the ground was wet, the wind was harsh, the temperature was cool and Mom was complaining. Even though we all felt miserable we attempted to have a good day, so once it stopped raining we headed out.
Fir
st things first, breakfast, we wanted to find a nice diner, and we ended up in a familiar road, the road to my cousin Peter’s old house (good times). We went around the plaza and found an oddly familiar diner (I want spam and eggs with peanut butter cups) to have a nice American breakfast, which is what I had (egg, pancakes, and bacon). After that we walked around the international market nearby and bought many interesting souvenirs (two Hawaiian statues). Though Dad got lost twice, once at the food court and once in the bathroom, and once I looked for him, the girls found him. Well after browsing a little bit, we headed back to get washed up and got ready for a road trip.We first headed off to Punch Bowl - a cemetery (sounds cheerful) to see the decorations (they were okay). We moved on around a beautif
ul mountain trail seeing the magnificent city and beach below. While there seemed to be houses along the trail, Dad would love to buy a house, but it is impossible because it would cost about 1 million dollars. Once we got down from the path we headed to a mall we have already been to (another familiar place!). Dad and I had to wait for Mom for too long with her shopping at Banana Republic with Alex. So we walked around for a bit and join the women later. When we met up we attempted to go to Gamestop to buy a Wiimote but once again, it was sold out and we lost Dad.After giving up we were starving so we had to head back to Honolulu to get ready to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. When we finally got back we quickly changed and headed to the restaurant. Unfortunately, we had to wait 45 minutes so we walked around and hanged about in a mini mall. It was pretty small, but we looked around starving. Mom attempted to buy Aloha shirts, but we didn’t and the sales woman had a sour look on her face. When it was finally time to eat we were excited. Alex and I had delicious pasta and tacos while Mom and Dad had bad fish (ha ha).
We attempted to walk along Waikiki beach, but it started to rain (again) so we had to head home, but it was okay because we were really tired by then and couldn’t wait to sleep.
December 28, 2007
Today we slept in very late about 11am. So as we woke up we realized that it was still dark and cloudy (hmm…). Now we headed out to find some brunch at the same mini mall we went to yesterday (with the aloha shirts) to eat at the food court. Dad and I shared a sub while Alex had tacos and Mom waited a half an hour for noodles.
Once we finished eating (a long time) we first went to an ABC Store i
n the mall to exchange Aloha shirts (not the aloha shirt store) and buy a CD by IZ, a deceased popular Hawaiian singer with some songs from 50 First Dates (Somewhere Over the Rainbow). As we got out of the mall we noticed it was sunny (a miracle!) and we attempted to rush over to a beach on the east side but by the time we got there it turned cloudy (the cloud was waiting for us) so we spent a little time just sitting around and writing messages in the sand (names and cold Hawaii).After staying in denial we moved on to the west
side where our soon to be new hotel was. We drove a long way through tunnels and over bridges to get to the end of the world… I mean island to a lonely beach.
The beach was very nice with mild waves and not many people around. I once again was the only person brave enough to go in the water and boogey boarded for a couple of hours, but it was still very fun. As it was getting into the evening we headed all the way back to Honolulu listening to IZ (You and I, and I and You, and all them two…). It was a confusion on where to eat, everyone wanted Japanese food, but Dad insisted on eating at the Japanese buffet Todai (our favourite restaurant during our second trip to Hawaii) which received very bad reviews from cousins after a two year hiatus. So we ended up eating at Todai and we were greeted with exactly what the cousins said lousy food. The sushi was warm, tasteless, not fresh and just plain yucky (but the tempura was still good). After our very disappointing meal for $120 we returned to Sheraton to sleep and complain that our taste buds were crying.December 29, 2007
This morning we had to get up early (ugh…) because check-out was at 12 pm. We woke up at 8 and quickly got ready.
Our first destination was once again the rabbit head beach. Before heading in we had to have brunch so we stopped once again to the diner next to the beach. It was windy at the time so we had to eat at the tables there; we thought it couldn’t be that bad. We couldn’t be anymore wrong! The dirty tables attracted flies all around .
Once we finally got
out of there we went to the beach where it was a little sunny. I only went swimming (again) but Alex attempted. I tried to boogey board, but it was dangerous, I practically snapped part of my board and I had a gigantic shore break, making me lose my best goggles (Dad complained). Only after about an hour a little rain started to fall so I was forced to retire. We were sad but hoped to find happiness at the west side where our new hotel was.We drove a long time again, until
we reached the Makaha Resort which is a golf resort. At this time we were early so we couldn’t check in, so instead we went to a nice beach with rough waves good for boogey boarding. Though, I was really inexperienced so I felt embarrassed when the locals were doing so well. We didn’t do much; we just hanged around a while until check in. Once it was check-in we checked in and walked great distances to get to our room (it was in a large area) until we hitched a ride on a golf cart. Once we got to our room (finally) we took the time to rest a while and shower until the evening.Once it was dark, we didn’t want to go out so we went to the hotel restaurant. The food was not very good (steak, green peas) and Dad made us eat inside the stuffy room with loud music being sang by Hawaiians. After our tiring day (I was exhausted from boogey boarding) we called it a day early and easily fell asleep (with blindfolds of course).
December 30, 2007
Today was a very special day, my birthday! I was so happy and excited because it was a sunny day (for my birthday gift)! Although one miserable thing happened, I was sick! During breakfast at the hotel, I felt very cold (brr…) and had goose bumps (another wonderful birthday present). We still tried to have a good breakfast.
So first, we headed off to an ancient Hawaiian temple, which was supposed to host dozens of peacocks; but no it hosted thousands of mosquitoes. There was a very rocky path around the temple, but we were to busy to enjoy the view, because out feet were killing (because of slippers). By the time we ran out, our legs were so itchy and red with mosquito bites.After that disastrous episode we headed to the end of the world beach again. Oh wait, we didn’t get water, so Dad forces us to go all the way back into town to go to an Asian market to buy it. After that long hassle, we finally headed to the beach. On the way, just like in Honolulu, there were homeless people living in tents on the beach, and once again Dad talked too much about it.
Once we got to the beach, we planned to stay there a long ti
me. Alex and I played a lot on the boogey board, lying on the beach and playing in the sand. The beach itself was very nice and peaceful with only a handful of people and mildly rough waves. It was hours until we returned to our room,
about 5pm. We did not want to do anything more for the day so Alex and I remained in the room while Mom and Dad went to buy me a birthday dinner, KFC. Once they returned, we were greeted with disgusting, dry chicken, but good deep fried shrimp and scallop. It was an okay birthday dinner, but we could have done a lot better. We stayed in the room the rest of the night until we fell asleep at 10pm (yes, a very short day).December 31, 2007
Guess what, today was another wonderful day, the end of the year (let’s hope it’s better than the other holiday recently). Today we were leaving Hawaii, but unfortunately for us, today was cloudy and miserable, again. We were still sad though about leaving Hawaii, since we would always miss the environment in this beautiful state.
Getting out of the hotel was tiring, there were no golf carts to hitch a ride on, so we had to lug our many luggage to the far away parking lot. After our amazing feats we checked out and started heading back to Honolulu. The ride was long, but not too long since we first stopped by Chinatown again to eat pho. We ate at the Pho next door to the very crowded pho since we were in a rush. Once again I had delicious com tam, while everyone else had delicious pho (I believe).
O
nce we finished our meal we rushed over to the airport because our flight was at 1:30 pm. When we got to the airport we still had time to spare, but as soon as we confidently lined up to check in, we were told to go through a long line up for Agricultural Inspection to see if Dad smuggled fruit over to the main land. It was a quick 5 hour flight that was no problem. Once we arrived at our wonderful, lousy airport in LA we picked up our luggage and hurried over to a waiting station for a bus from Sheraton to pick us up. When it came we took it to our hotel, and for dinner we had Fritos and macadamia nuts.Once we arrived to our beautiful Sheraton. We went to our room to rest, but spent half the night watching the New Years, twice from different cities! After a long celebration we finally fell asleep.
January 1, 2008 Los Angeles
Today was a very exciting day, the New Years, hooray 2008. We had a very fun day planned ahead of us, we’re planning to go to Universal Studios! Alex and I were so excited to go that when Mom and Dad got the car (a nice small mini-mini van) that we just wanted to eat a small breakfast, but no, we had to go to little Saigon on Bolsa St. to eat some banh cuon at some known restaurant. Though Dad was in for a surprise because it was closed (hahaha) and we had to go to a bad, yucky one (aww).
Af
ter our horrible meal, we considered not going to U.S. because it was almost noon, but we went anyway. We bought parking and parked at the parking lot Jurassic Parking (excessive use of park). We had to walk to the park and we used internet tickets to get in, but we got to take fingerprints for re-entry. The park was pretty nice with many different rides, effect theaters, roller coasters and scary houses. There was the House of Horror (which Mom ran out of and I bravely went through it) there was Jurassic Park rollercoaster, flame effects theater, the Mummy rollercoaster, the Studio Tour, Water World (a water theater), and many more. At one point I ate very buttery popcorn that mad me so sick that I could not eat when we left.When we left, it was night time and we left to go to eat dinner. We drove all the way back to Bolsa St. to eat some Bun Boo (soup with pigs’ feet, blood and noodles). I was way too sick to eat so I just sat there and drank 7up. After that disgustingly sounding meal we returned to our hotel and finally got to lie down and settle my tummy.
January 2, 2008 - Little Saigon
Today will be a very Vietnamese day. This morning we planned to go to Bolsa St., a street with many Vietnamese restaurants and facilities. Though before we did, we stopped by Best Buy to look for a Wiimote and Nunchuk for me but unfortunately it was sold out. This morning Dad wanted to eat banh cuon at the restaurant that was closed yesterday. So after a lot of begging Dad managed to let Mom allow him to eat there will we ate pho next door from the restaurant. Our pho was really good and we also got a complimentary Vietnamese dessert (Alex loved it) that was delicious. Dad said that his banh cuon was delicious (probably not) and he also said that someone already paid his check (????).We also dropped by a Vietnamese mall with no interesting stores for me. After that long, boring trip we went to a Vietnamese café called the Coffee Factory (they mass produce coffee) which Mom’s friend, Anne, owns. She wasn’t there when we came so we called and set up a date tonight to meet at her house.
So we had a lot of time left until then so we went to a very nice and large mall called Southern Coast Plaza in the OC. We roamed around for a while until we saw Gamestop which had Wiimotes in stock so we bought one but they were out of Nunchuks. Next store to that was the wonderful store Abercrombie (not and Fitch) and bought many wonderful polo shirts that I wear a lot today. At one point Dad was very tired so Dad and I returned to the car and napped for a while.
By the time the girls returned Alex had bought her prom dress and we were ready to go to Anne’s house. After taking so long to find the street we entered their small but cozy house. Anne had 2 daughters, Claudine (13) and Claire (5), and a husband (her third). Alex and I hanged around with the girls in their room and played video games for a while. I felt left out since I was the only boy.
After a while we left and set up dinner tomorrow. We were hungry at this time so we had to roam Bolsa for a long time. At one point Dad made an illegal turn and we got pulled over. The officer was nice (for a LAPD) and he even gave us restaurant locations. After that embarrassing episode we stopped by a take out restaurant called Lee sandwiches and bought a few banh mis. We returned to the hotel and easily finished the whole sandwich very quickly. We weren’t tired, so we bought a movie to watch tonight. It was Rush Hour 3 and it was better than we expected. After it finished it was late so we easily fell asleep.
January 3, 2008
Today we didn’t do too much. After Dad returned from his daily morning swim at the deserted pool, we set off once again to Bolsa. This time we went to eat banh cuon (AGAIN!). This restaurant was not bad, though the banh cuon was too thin and my soy milk is heated so much that I couldn’t drink it.
After that meal, we set off to the coast of LA to Seal Beach. We were expecting cute seals to wander the docks and beach, but no, we saw nothing except seagulls stealing fishermen’s bait. So after our boring walk along Seal Beach’s docks we headed to an outlet mall called the Citadel. It had a limited number of stores, and unfortunately for Mom, a small selection of shoes for me to purchase. After a little bit of wandering, Alex and I headed back to the car where Dad was taking a nap. Soon (meaning hours), Mom returned so we can finally leave the Citadel.At this time it was evening, so we drove to the Coffee Factory, to meet Anne and her family for dinner. We decided (as in the pa
rents) to go to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant. Alex, Claudine and I each had different types of food, except for one similarity, the rice. The rice was roasted to be very crunchy, but it was still tasty. I felt lonely the whole dinner, because all the girls talked to each other and not me. After my boring, lonely meal, we said farewell in the parking lot hoping have our paths crossed again (it probably will happen). We returned to our wonderful Sheraton where we were greeted with a nice, comfy, bed.January 4 and 5, 2008
Today is our last day in Los Angeles. We woke up late again, and once
we were able to get up, we checked out and hit the road. When I say road I mean Bolsa St. where we ate breakfast. Everyone had banh cuon (AGAIN) except me which I had delicious com tam. Next, we went to another Lee Sandwiches (with a restaurant) to buy some banh mis for the airplane and some delicious, traditional, Vietnamese desserts.Now we drove back to South Coast Plaza to do some last minute shopping and time-burning. We left sick Dad (Anne’s husband coughed in Dad’s food yesterday) in the car to sleep and eat. I only joined in the walk around the mall to try and buy a Rubix Cube (I was obsessed with it at Anne’s house). Once we find one I ditched the girls and joined Dad in the car. After trying and failing miserably at the cube for hours, the girls joined us again. Now we were only a few hours away from our flight back home. Before we went to the airport, we had to stop by Dad’s favourite banh cuon. Alex, Mom and I refused to eat there, so stubborn Dad ate alone.
When Dad returned it started to rain. So by the time we arrived at Sheraton to wait for Dad to return the car, it was pouring. We then took a shuttle back to LAX, where we were greeted with wonderful news. Our flight was delayed so much that we would miss the connecting flight in New York. So we switched airlines (from Continental to Delta). The security line was ridiculous. Also our family was specially picked out and lucky for us, we get to have a search of all our belongings and our body.
When we finally got to our gate, Alex and I bought snacks and we took off for New York, or did we? We had to wait on the plane for another 2 hours before we could take-off. So obviously, at the time we arrived in New York, our flight to home had already left. Though luckily, there was another flight just a few hours away (what fun). Finally after hours of waiting we flew home and figured out that we were 8 hours later then scheduled (Di Trang was worried about her buddy).
Conclusion
I know I love Hawaii as much as every Nguyen, and I will always love it, but this third trip to Hawaii really discourages me from returning in the new future (this is probably not true). Still, this journey to this faraway State has had me yearning for an even better vacation that does not include rain, wind, losing goggles, delays, and friends spitting in our food. Even though this wasn’t the best trip (actually it is the worst) I will still remember this trip forever (bad memories implanted in my mind) because I got to spend time with my beloved family. Until next time loyal readers.
