Travel: HONOLULU, HAWAII (Part 1) - Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Koko Head, & Waimanalo Beach

*Check out my preceding USA adventures here first!*

Hawaii started off by frustrating me. I arrived at the airport, heavy bag in tow and trudged to the bus stop. There was a half an hour wait until the bus I needed, but the air was balmy and warm so I didn't mind much.

Eventually the bus pulled up and I attempted to board. 'I can't let you on with that', the bus driver said, pointing at my luggage. I looked at him quizzically. 'No luggage allowed'. Mouth agape, I stood there wondering why a bus would bother coming to the airport if it couldn't even pick up passengers.

Disgruntled, I considered my other options - an overpriced Uber or an overpriced shuttle. I opted for the overpriced shuttle, and then had to wait an additional 40 minutes for the next one to leave. Great start.

Subsequently I arrived at my accommodation for the week, The Beach Boutique Hostel Waikiki, a two minute walk from the beachfront. Not a bad location indeed.

Dropping off my bag in my four bed dorm, I decided to carpe what was left of the diem and make my way to Diamond Head, one of Honolulu's famous hikes.

What ensued was a sweaty 40 minute walk to the entrance, where I paid $1 to get in and then started my hike up the peak. The trail was rocky but not too challenging, aside from the final part which included walking through a long but very slim tunnel and up more stairs than I could care to count. Phew. Maybe I'm not cut out for this hiking lifestyle.

However, the view from the top was certainly worth it, offering 360' views of Waikiki and the surrounding suburbs. Visitors flagrantly ignored the 'do not pass beyond this point' signs, but I just took a few photos before heading back before the park closed.

I walked back towards town, my pace quickening when I realised how close to sunset it was. I'd reached a gentle trot by the time I reached the beach to view without a doubt the most beautiful sunset of my entire existence, and that's saying something. I wish I could convey in words just how magnificent it was, rich colours spreading across the entire sky as far as the eyes could see. Straight out of a painting, but better.

I'd hoped to spend the next day on an organised tour of the North Shore put on by the hostel, but it was sold out by the time I arrived. The receptionist said I could be added to the waiting list in case anyone dropped out, so I hung around until 9am before being told 'Sorry, still full'.

Slightly dismayed that this had meant that I'd wasted a few precious hours, I hastily grabbed my stuff and ran for the bus to do what I wouldn't be able to do with the hostel. Buying a full day ticket, I travelled to Hanuma Bay, famed for its pleasant snorkelling.

$7.50 later and I was through the gate, where I had to wait before a large group of us were shuffled into a cinema to watch a safety briefing. This basically outlined 'Don't touch the coral' and yet as I discovered later, many visitors didn't seem to understand such a simple instruction.

We were then permitted to head on down to the bay, a few minutes walk down a hill with very pretty views over the bay. After renting a snorkel and mask, I stripped down and hopped in. I spent a solid hour floating above the corals and admiring the pretty fish that swam around below me, blissfully unaware that the sun was completely destroying every sliver of exposed skin that would make it very painful to lie down or indeed move for the next two weeks. Ouch.

Around midday I’d had my fill of sparkly fish and decided to head across the road for the next of my hikes, Koko Head. Koko Head is essentially a mountain with a path formed from an abandoned tramline, so you find yourself hopping from wooden block to wooden block as you head up the steep face. Believe you me, this is not easy. I was panting after the first few steps, and by the time the incline had gone from ‘this is difficult’ to ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’, I knew I wasn’t going to make it to the top, or if I did, there was no way I was going to make it down again, with my legs already beginning to feel particularly jelly-like.

Deciding that getting a picture for the ‘gram probably wasn’t reason enough to kill myself, I admired the view from where I stood, and then made my way back down and back across to Hanuma where I sucked water from the water fountain like there was no tomorrow. Hanauma and Koko Head had been relatively close to each other, but the next part of my journey would require a bus, so I sat down where I’d been dropped off and waited. And waited and waited. And waited some more.

A bus finally arrived, but it was headed back to Waikiki and I was told I needed to go in the other direction. If only I’d asked what time the next bus was arriving… Over an hour away. I sat there, frustrated, desperately trying to get Uber working on my phone just so I could get away from the spot I’d been waiting for a bus for almost two hours now. You can understand I was annoyed.

Eventually, the bus I was waiting for decided to show up (late, of course) and we headed off. I was to change buses at Sea Life and was told one would be along shortly. Apparently shortly means 40 minutes in Hawaii, and by the time I’d caught this bus, all I wanted to do was go home. But I hadn’t gone to all this trouble just to give up yet, and asked the bus driver to let me know when we were at Waimanalo Beach. As I watched us drive by what I assumed was the beach, I got up and asked him, to which he responded I should’ve gotten off three stops earlier. So much for being told.

Waimanalo Beach was beautiful. Practically empty, the opposite of Waikiki Beach, and with sand and sea stretching as far as the eye could see. I would have happily spent hours there and gone for a quick dip in the surf, but I was so stressed about making sure that I got the bus home that I only gave myself ten minutes to walk down the beach before I turned back towards the road.

I was really rather starving by this point, and a place called Ono’s Steak & Seafood caught my eye as I walked past. I knew that I’d seen this as one of the top rated restaurants on TripAdvisor, and I just can’t say no to top rated TripAdvisor restaurants. As the name might suggest, Ono’s would not perhaps be the first choice for a vegetarian like me, but provided a restaurant has some form of vegetarian option on the menu, you can find me there. I ordered a small platter of yummy garlic fries to go, and then headed back to wait for the bus.

Once again, I had to wait and change buses halfway, but I made it back to Waikiki just in time to head down to the beach for another glorious sunset. The never-ending benefits of living so close to the beach…

I hope you enjoyed today's blog! There's more Hawaii blogs to come, so make sure to stay tuned to my Twitter @CiarasCountry and feel free to drop me a message in the comments for any recommendations of where I should visit next!

Travel: PORTLAND, OREGON - food, food and more food

*Check out my Washington adventures that led to this blog here first!*

After passing across the border from Washington to Oregon, we made our way to our next Airbnb, a bungalow situated in the suburb of Beaverton just outside of Portland. Not in the mood to navigate our way into town for dinner, I suggested we pick up dinner at the Worlds Best Grocery Store™️ Trader Joe's.

There was a lot more window shopping than buying done, but I picked up a spinach and artichoke dip to start, which actually wasn't as impressive as I'd hoped; TJ's Diner Mac & Cheese, and a rich chocolate ganache cake for dessert. Sorted.

Breakfast was also my own supermarket creation of avocado and hummus on toast, and we then set off to the train station to catch the train/tram hybrid to Washington Park.

Washington Park is home to Portland's Rose Garden which, whilst not in full bloom at the time of year we visited, would no doubt be spectacular when visited at the right time. One road over is the Japanese Garden. It's not cheap to get in, but provides a pleasant hour or so walking around in the zen like environment and lush greenery.

Also on the top things to do in Portland is Pittock Mansion, a stately home with views overlooking the city. The rooms are done up to reflect the time, and each room holds information about the family who lived there, so worth a visit if history is your thing.

Food is certainly my thing, and so that's what we heading for next, taking an Uber to Pearl Street. This street has heaps of cafes and restaurants, but we were drawn to Papa Haydns and its mouthwatering display of cakes.

For $10 a slice, you buy yourself a little piece of heaven, and so I chose the seasonal maple and walnut cheesecake along with a spiced apple cider. Pretty good, but we were in the food district and that certainly meant there was plenty more food to be had.

Our next stop was Blue Star Donuts which claims, along with a shop we would visit the following day, to be Portland's best donut shop. By the time we got there after lunch, their selection was very limited, with only five choices to be had, including the rather interesting maple bacon donut. I chose a buttermilk donut topped with a spicy passionfruit glaze which I couldn't bring myself to eat right then (as there was yet more food to come!) but enjoyed very much later that evening.

Of course cake followed by donuts is nothing without a bit of ice cream too, and so our last stop was Salt & Straw. Salt & Straw is famed for its unusual flavours, which were even more unusual than normal given that it was Spooky Season when we were there. This meant you could, if your heart so desired, treat yourself to an ice cream made with pigs blood, or why not one with crickets instead? Funnily enough, neither of these took my fancy, although I did still go for the strange flavours of Pear & Blue Cheese, and Olive Oil. Yum.

Finally having had enough food for the time being, it was time to get cultural, which meant walking to Powell's Books. Fun fact about me: I used to review books for a national newspaper! It would be an understatement to say that I love books, so finding myself in what looked to be the biggest bookstore in the world made me feel like a kid in a candy store. In fact, it was absolutely overwhelming. How on Earth could one choose a book from the millions they stocked there? Thank goodness I had a baggage allowance for my flight and no room for anything new, or else I would have left with armfulls of books.

It was at this point that I asked if we could see Portland. Having spent much of the day walking around, I still didn't feel like I had any idea of what Portland was actually about. We decided to take a walk down to the Waterfront towards Pioneer Square which, whilst pleasant, still didn't help me decipher exactly what was in Portland. I'd had it in my head that I was going to love Portland, but after my day in the city, wasn't sure if I would recommend it to fellow travellers. Perhaps we hadn't given it enough time, or just didn't see the best of what it had to offer, so I'd be very interested to hear thoughts from anyone else whose been there.

After my sweet day, I was craving something savoury for dinner, and so we headed to the Beaverton Food Trucks, most of which were unfortunately shut by the time we got there, but we found a saviour in the form of a BBQ shack, most of the contents of which we took back home to enjoy.

And so the weekend in Portland began, and of course that meant starting the day with food, and more specifically donuts. We drove into town towards Voodoo Donuts, very much a Portland staple for their voodoo doll shaped donuts oozing with jam. But we weren't there to buy voodoo donuts, nor any other item on their menu. We were there to eat ourselves.

Now, what many people don't know about Voodoo Donuts is that if you ask very nicely, rather than piping a voodoo doll onto the donut, they'll pipe you. Incredible. And so we walked away with a family of little donuts which looked a good deal like us. Incredibly delicious they were too, although I found I couldn't look at my donut as I was eating it at the thought of seeing blood red jam oozing out of my torso. Still, how freaking cool!

Much of the reason we'd come to Portland was to visit my brother who was living there at the time - he's not a city person so we fled the city as soon as we could and drove out to the Washington Coast.

We made our way towards Cape Disappointment, and as it was my family members manning the car, I can officially say that my family have driven me to disappointment. I've been waiting a long time to say that.

We hiked up the Cape to the lighthouse where we took a few photos before it started to rain, and then ran for the cover of the trees and made our way back down. I had no idea what our plan really was, or if there even was one, but we ended up heading across a long bridge and into Astoria.

Fort George was our destination for dinner, although we did have to wait almost an hour to be seated. Worth it? I'm not sure, but I did enjoy my kombucha on tap and veggie burger. And then, time to head off to somewhere altoghether different...

I hope you enjoyed today's blog! I'll be uploading even more American adventures shortly, so make sure to stay tuned to my Twitter @CiarasCountry and feel free to drop me a message in the comments for any recommendations of where I should visit next!

Travel: WASHINGTON STATE - Mount Rainier & Mount St Helens

*Read Part 2 of my Washington adventures here first!*

Moving on from the delights of Aberdeen, I'd asked a friend from Washington for coffee shop recommendations in her hometown of Olympia as we would be passing through, and was pointed towards Ember Goods. This cool coffee shop cum clothes and gifts store served very nice coffee, although I chose a Montana Gold Fog, essentially a tea steamer that both smelt and tasted delicious. Great local suggestion!

Warm and full, we drove on towards Mount Rainier, heading up and up with the roads becoming gradually snowier as we rose in altitude. By the time we reached the Visitors Centre, everything was covered in snow, and we felt thankful that the roads were well maintained enough to make it up there.

Taking one look at us, the Park Ranger at the information desk gave us a map of the two easiest walks, starting with the Nisqually View walk. This was really rather pleasant, traipsing through the snow and being offered spectacular views of Mount Rainier whenever we looked up.

The second of our two walks was the Falls walk, a bit more challenging given the slippy ice we had to clamber over to get down to the falls, but worth it for the view.

But the best was still to come, as we drove back down the Mountain and stopped at the Reflection Lake. The clear, still water of the lake reflected the trees around it, making it look just like a painting. Absolutely stunning, and probably the best thing we'd seen in Washington.

With a bit more energy in us yet, we did a couple more walks, first stopping at Box Canyon only to find the trail closed, and then to the Patriarchs trail, so called thanks to the ridiculously huge trees you can see as you walk along.

We decided to take a quick detour to some Hot Springs on the way out of the park, and this was probably a mistake as it took us a fair while to get there and then to walk to find them, which turned out to be a small swampy area with a few drifts of steam rising up. Hardly the deep bubbling springs we had imagined.

As a result of our various detours, we were late heading off in search of somewhere to stay for the night, although this did mean we drove along beside a glorious sunset. However, we soon grew into tired desperation and eventually just picked a random exit and said we would stay wherever we found. This turned out to be a pleasant, but overpriced, Travelodge beside a busy railway in Chehalis. But at least we had somewhere to stay.

I spotted a farm to table restaurant called Jeremy's across the road, and so this was where we headed for dinner. They had an interesting Make Your Own Pizza option which I went for, filling myself up very nicely before a much needed sleep.

The Holiday Inn provided breakfast for us, so we didn't have to venture out into Chehalis again, and instead packed our belongings and set the GPS for Mount St Helen's.

There were various viewpoints along the long drive to admire the snowy mountain with its impressive crevasse from the 1984 explosion. Also en route was Coldwater Lake, so we took a gentle stroll along its banks whilst being battered by the glacial winds.

Arriving at the Mount St Helen's Visitor Centre, we showed our Annual National Park pass for entry, and then wandered around the exhibits. I found the survival stories of those caught in the midst of the eruption particularly fascinating. Imagine being seemingly trapped in clouds of gas and ash and imminent doom, and somehow making it out alive to tell the tale. You know what, I'll pass on anything like that, thank you very much.

There was a boundary walk for us to take, offering spectacular views towards the mountain. To be quite honest, I'd thought that the Visitors Centre would actually be on Mount St Helen's, but I suppose then you wouldn't have got the view. Beyond the Boundary Walk was a dirt track Eruption Walk which took you slightly deeper into the valley, although became slightly treacherous as the track got icier.

The mornings events had made me more than a little hungry, so I was disappointed to find that the Visitors Centre didn't have any form of cafe or restaurant - what a missed business opportunity! We were told that the nearest eating establishment was 19 miles - did that mean 19 miles from where we were or at mile 19 along the road? It turned out to be the latter so we had a long and hungry drive until we reached the Fire Mountain Grill at Mile 19. Always one to attempt to try the local delicacies, I chose the Mountain Berry Cobbler (dessert for lunch, why not?) which was very good indeed.

And with that, it was time to say goodbye to Washington, at least for the time being. Back on the Interstate we got, and then pointed South to Portland.

I hope you enjoyed today's blog! I'll be uploading the rest of my West Coast USA adventures shortly, so make sure to stay tuned to my Twitter @CiarasCountry and feel free to drop me a message in the comments for any recommendations of where I should visit next!