It figures that on our last morning in Sydney before starting our road trip, the rain decided to stop! I was a little annoyed about that, but it gave us a chance to finally properly explore the Royal Botanic Garden. I also can’t be annoyed because of the lovely view we had on our walk back to the hotel: Katoomba After our morning stroll, we gathered our luggage and headed to pick up our rental car. They threw in a GPS for free, which was nice since unlike many of the other places we’ve visited, free wifi is pretty scarce in Australia. After picking up our car, we were on…

Our plans for Sydney started out grand. We planned on lots of walking around the city, taking in the sights, and enjoying mild weather away from the northern hemisphere heat. Stepping out of our hotel the morning of our second day, we were almost washed away by a torrential downpour. Our original plan had been to go walk around in the Royal Botanic Gardens in the morning, but the rain began to come down in buckets with huge gusts of wind. After breakfast, it became clear that the weather was not going to clear up, so we looked for something to do that was mostly indoors. It was so bad…

We had an amazing first day in paradise when we visited Honolulu, Hawaii this past December. There was no room for sleeping in the next morning, however, as we had a very early start to another day full of adventure. Island Circle Tour One of the things I loved to do when I was a kid was visit the Polynesian Cultural Center in the northwest part of Oahu. Since this was something I definitely wanted to experience again, this time with Dan, I booked our tickets and added on the optional half-day island tour. We started the morning with macadamia nut lattes from Kai Coffee, which serves delicious Kona coffee.…