Baby Expo...

Last Sunday, we went to the Pregnancy, Babies and Children's Expo at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (Jeff's Shed) in the city. We parked at Crown for $6, which was cheaper and easier than taking the train in to Spencer Street. We also got free tickets online, basically by signing up to be spam-emailed by them and their affiliates for the rest of our lives.

Anyway, we went with one thing in mind - prams. I had in mind what pram I wanted but I wanted to see if anything else jumped out at me.

We wound up putting a deposit down on the Joolz Day Earth pram in lobster red.

Joolz Day Earth pram, lobster red, $1499 AUD

OK, this pram is insanely expensive, but most of them are. The reasons why I liked this pram over others was because it has leather handlebars (more comfortable and also more durable than the black foam-type ones most prams have which, a lady in the shop when we looked about a month ago pointed out, have a tendency to wear out and split apart), and also because of the height - when the pram is in chair mode, it sits at table height (perfect when at a cafe/restaurant), and when in cot mode, it is nice and high, so not much bending or hunching over requited which saves the poor back, especially as the baby gets heavier. Also, it is nice to be closer to eye level with your baby when you're walking around! I also like grey (but the grey in the Day Studio which was $100 more for quilted handlebars which wasn't worth it, the grey in the Day Earth wasn't as nice a grey), so red it was (I have been keen on a red pram for as long as I've been thinking about prams) - as I told several people, red goes faster!

Me with the Joolz Day Earth in lobster red at the expo!

This pram moves really smoothly and looks really good. The only downside is the small basket underneath the pram, but the plus to that is that it is a fully-enclosed basket as opposed to most prams which have a giant, wide open basket which any distracted parent could have stuff swiped out of, or stuff could bounce out of.

We decided to put a deposit on the pram (picking up in January) because they were having $450 of extras included as an expo special - the nursery bag, the sleeping bag/foot muff (the cover that zips over the front of the pram to keep the baby warm in colder months, and the XL shopping bag. I added a cup holder ($25 from $30) to my order, but I will be requesting a couple of extras as potential birth/baby shower gifts for people who ask for suggestions - I want the Summer seat, the UV cover, and possibly the comfort cover down the track.

We also had a great time at the ErgoBaby stall, as my husband is super keen for what we have (somewhat wrongly) calling the 'baby strap on'. The girls at the stall looked great in lovely orange dresses and were super friendly without being pushy in demonstrating how the ErgoBaby carrier works.

Modelling the baby carrier!

The stall had dummy babies filled with sand to the weight of a newborn (it felt more like a 2-3 month old weight though). Derek was all too happy to try the carrier on and was very impressed with how much the weight of the baby was eliminated as the carrier sits around your hips. Although he is trying on the new 360 model (four positions, front of parent/forward facing baby, front of parent/parent facing baby, back of parent piggy back style, and hip of parent), we wound up purchasing the Original Earth Baby Carrier (which has three positions, all except the front of parent/forward facing baby) as we didn't see it as being worth an extra $80 for one position - the carrier was also on special at the expo. We also got a newborn insert which allows the carrier to be used from birth. I can see this carrier come in really handy when we travel.

ErgoBaby Original Earth baby carrier, black, RRP $143 AUD (plus newborn insert, RRP $35.00 AUD, not pictured)

We got the carrier for just over $100 plus the newborn insert at the expo, so was a good deal. I am keen to give it a go in the real world down the track.

There was sooooooo much on display at the expo - stuff you wouldn't know what the purpose of is, stuff you know you won't need, and stuff I didn't want to look at yet (like car seats - I need to go to a shop and make sure it fits in my small car), as well as stuff I couldn't buy yet because I don't know the gender of the baby (3 weeks to go!).

After, we had lunch at the food court in Crown, before heading home for a giant nap.

This weekend is the long weekend with Melbourne Cup Day on Tuesday - one of the reasons I love living in Melbourne! Spring Racing is always a fun time of year. I have an afternoon tea at my aunty's house this afternoon, movies Monday afternoon, and Cup Day races watching on TV at my Mum's house on Tuesday. I'd like to go for a swim a couple of times at the local pool if I can manage. I also have mountains of work to do which I really can't continue putting off. I will be working every spare minute this long weekend - lucky Monday is 'work from home' day for us this year, as I really need the time as I've got a bit behind with my work recovering from morning sickness (all day) and being super exhausted (I'm slowly coming out of the fog of exhaustion and have got back on the coffee after a couple of months - let's say Thursday morning at work I came to work completely wired, telling everyone I'd had coffee that morning, and didn't blink for a good two hours, lol).

What are you getting up to this weekend? Are you lucky enough to have Cup Day off?

An Afternoon In The Dandenongs...

Yesterday afternoon we decided we needed to conquer the 1000 Steps which begins at the foot of the Dandenongs in Upper Ferntree Gully/Tremont and finishes at the end of One Tree Hill Road. Our reward at the end was to be scones.

I have not done the 1000 Steps before, but we wanted to see if it was easier or harder than the Diamond Head hike in Oahu. Diamond Head was a tricky, but not impossible walk, it was tough at times but generally you moved pretty quickly and the view at the end was amazing. The 1000 Steps is a memorial track for the Kokoda Trail, and has different signposts along the way.

Going up the steps - looks simple, right? WRONG.

 The actual steps start about a 10-15 minute walk from the car park, and they are brutal. You think they're not so bad at first but they just keep coming and coming. You often have to dodge giant puddles of mud. You have to let quicker people past you. You stop any flat stretch you get because flat stretches feel good on the legs. The steps get steeper and steeper and eventually you are basically dragging your body up by hoisting yourself along the handrails, finding an upper body strength you did not know existed. And when you finally get to the top? This:

This is the result at the top of the steps. Not even worth it! 

Let me remind you of the view at the top of Diamond Head, for comparison:

View from the top of Diamond Head (one of the many great views from the top/along the way up).

You can read more about our Diamond Head hike here.

Anyway, I took about 40 minutes to do the steps, with many stops, from the base of the walk leading up to the steps (so the end of the car park) to the top of the steps. I was about 5 minutes slower than my mum and husband. I really struggled. About a third of the way up I thought I couldn't keep going but I didn't let it defeat me. Be warned - there is no drink bubbler at the top either!

After a rest and the urge to throw up subsided, we made our way down via the more spacious Lyrebird Track. This was at least a 20-30 minute walk down as well.

Happy to be on the way down.

In hindsight, I probably should not have gone to BodyPump in the morning of doing the 1000 Steps, but at the time I thought I'd be right!

Afterwards, we headed back to the car and into Sassafrass for some well deserved scones. We put our name down at Miss Marples and, with a 45 minute wait ahead, went into the Tea Leaves shop next door. We purchased seven bags of tea in the end! Some basic ones and some flavoured ones too. Looking forward to trying them all.

Some of the amazing teapots on display.

These cups were really pretty but they were about $250 each!!

We went back to Miss Marples early and our table was ready so we sat down for our scones. If you have not been to Miss Marples before, let me say that it is a real tourist trap. The scones, as you can see, are obviously baked in giant square tins and cut up like pieces of cake, which is a shame as you lose the crunchiness of the outside of the scones, and who has ever heard of a square scone anyway? The scones are quite nice, but if you're bringing Americans over for scones, this is not the place to go for authentic scones. I say scones, rather than Devonshire Tea, because Miss Marples does not do Devonshire Tea, instead calling them 'Devonshire Scones' which is just wrong, because without the tea (you have to buy your tea or other drink separate), there is nothing 'Devonshire' about them - they are just scones. My husband and I had a milkshake each (quite reasonably priced at $5 each) and my mum had a pot of tea (served in standard nursing home style white cups). Our scones came with only two serves of jam and cream, even though we had three serves of scones, so we could have done with more jam (I don't eat cream), but it was enough. Also, Miss Marples was decked out in Christmas decorations for Christmas in July and was playing really dreary Christmas carols (think 'Good King Wencalas' and 'We Three Kings') so that was a bit annoying.

Our afternoon tea.

We had an enjoyable afternoon regardless of the fact our afternoon tea cost $42.50 which is a lot for some scones and drinks, really.

Have you done the 100 Steps? Have you got another challenging walk in the Melbourne/Victoria area for us to try? Do you like scones?

The Rest Of Hawaii...

OK, its been three months since my last post and I need to finish up the 'Hawaii' series. Our last day in Hawaii we did more of the same, hanging out at the beach, wandering the shops on the main street, and in the evening we did probably my favourite thing in Oahu, the Maitai Catamaran...

The catamaran departs from the Northern end of Waikiki beach and sails out along the water. It basically goes back and forth parallel to the sand for 90 minutes, but is manned by an amazing two person crew who are loving life and really friendly and relaxed and the super tasty mai tais flow non-stop.

 Diamond Head.

 People on the catamaran.

 Another few catamarans were out, as well as lots of sail boats.

 Another catamaran doing a similar cruise to ours.

 We did the sunset sail so we got some amazing evening views.

 Yep.

 The sun begins to set over Waikiki.

Heading back in to shore after a relaxing, enjoyable, fun, and slightly tipsy 90 minutes out at sea. What a great way to spend our last night in Hawaii!

I would highly recommend the Maitai Catamaran for a trip in Waikiki. It was under $40 per person (plus tips), which when you consider beers/mai tais/soft drinks were unlimited along with the relaxing and amazing sightseeing sail, it was definitely well worth the money. Make sure you book in advance, they tended to book out several days ahead and we went in the Hawaiian 'Winter'.

Do you like to go on sailing/boat trips when you go away?

Next up, my California photo series...back into blogging, I promise!

Drive Around Oahu...

One of the last main things we did was hired a care and did a day trip drive around Oahu. I hired a car through Budget which had the cheapest rates by far and pickup was at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Waikiki. We started off fairly early so we could get to Hanauma Bay early on. I basically followed this guide to plan my trip, and plugged each address in a GPS.

Hanauma Bay

We arrived at Hanauma Bay pretty early - before 8 A.M. - and found parking OK, but quickly filling. Parking cost $1, and entry was $7.50 per person. Snorkel hire was $12. Upon arrival, you watch a video about park and wildlife conservation, and then trek down a long and steep driveway down to the bay. We found a spot under the shade and I snorkeled for about 30 minutes. I didn't have an underwater camera but it was a nice place to snorkel, and having taken photos underwater in the Great Barrier Reef and Fiji I wouldn't have been taking anything new, but if you haven't taken underwater photos before I definitely recommend buying an underwater disposable camera from the ABC store before you go. Hanauma Bay is closed on Tuesdays.

Lanai Lookout

Lanai Lookout is literally a couple of hundred metres down the road from Hanauma Bay. Some lovely views and we got a nice talking to from a Seattle native who apparently spends two weeks out of every month in Hawaii and comes to the lookout daily because it's so nice, blah blah blah. We made a quick escape back to our car.

Halona Blowhole

 Cool views, and the blowhole goes off pretty regularly, although I was expecting more height.

Makapu'u Overlook

Again, lovely views on the way to Kailua. We stopped in Kailua for lunch, and had burgers at a pretty good local burger chain, Teddy's Bigger Burgers. Friendly, old style diner type service, with tasty and filling burgers and fries cooked fresh to order.

Heeia State Park

This place was really quiet, with only maybe two other cars of people around, so was a nice break with some beautiful and tranquil parkland views.

Kualoa Regional Park - Chinaman's Hat

The cliffs behind the car park here are amazing - the photos don't do them justice. The Chinaman's Hat sticks abruptly out of the water and is quite funny to look at. Apparently you can walk over there in low tide.

Laie Point

This place is literally down the end of a residential street so parking is pretty crazy. Some people were serenading the rest of us with their stereo blaring hip hop tunes. Great photo place, with something that reminds me of the London Bridge on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, and waves crashing all around.

Sunset Beach Park

Again, the photos don't really do this place justice. You park along the side of the road and the beach is roped off as it's too violent. Waves were HUGE and crashed on shore. Too choppy for surfing. We sat and watched the crazy waves for a few minutes before driving on.

We also stopped by Lanaikea Beach Park to try see some turtles (none around), parking again on the side of the road, and Haleiwa town before driving through the centre of the island past the Dole Plantation on the way back to Waikiki. With all the stops, we arrived back in Waikiki around 5, as there was a fair bit of traffic back into Waikiki. Definitely a good drive to do.

What is your favourite scenic drive in the world?

Pearl Harbor and USS Missouri Tours...

One thing in Hawaii my mum was keen to do (myself not so much, I was more neither here nor there in terms of how I felt about going) was go to Pearl Harbor. Booking tickets on the government site was confusing with many different options. Our hotel had a tour desk and we booked tickets to go to the Arizona Memorial and a tour on the USS Missouri ship, both in Pearl Harbor, as well as return coach transfers. It was over $70 per person but was an informative day. Too bad they sent us this coach:

Yep, the bus is on fire.

We started off with a pretty early pickup, around 6:30 A.M. outside our hotel. The drive was just under an hour and the bus driver gave a running commentary on all kinds of things on the drive to Pearl Harbor. The bus driver was the most laid back guy ever, just yakking away casually and not too panicked by traffic, and had a bit of a sarcastic nature, but in a humourous manner. As it was early and I hadn't slept well the night before, I begun to doze on the bus, half listening, half in the land of nod. I was gradually bought back to attention by an odd, strong smell, accompanied by someone behind me saying "Is that smoke? It smells like smoke". The bus pulled to a stop on the side of the freeway exit ramp outside the Aloha Stadium (where gridiron is played), and I looked out my window to see not only the stadium beyond but billows of smoke rising up next to my window. We were seated about 5 rows from the back of the bus. The bus driver got off the bus and a minute or two later casually said over his headset "I'm gonna need to get you all off this bus." Cue panic. We all got out of our seats and tried to get down the aisle but the aisle wasn't moving as there were a couple of absolute gigantic whoppers, the morbidly obese people you really only see in America with tyros around their midsections, sitting up the front and were taking ages to haul their gigantic selves out of their seats, let alone get into the aisle, and down the front steps and out the door. A guy a row or two behind me really started to panic, yelling "MOVE!" and then other people joined in as the smoke and smell got worse and the queue wasn't moving, "HURRY UP!", "WE GOTTA GET OFF THE BUS!", "MOOOOOOVE IT!" and so on. It was starting to get worrying as the smoke was getting bad and, being at the back of the bus, we would be the first to blow up if the engine totally went up in flames. Just as I was thinking of suggesting to the guys to break an emergency exit window, the slow poke huge people finally got off and the rest of the busy quickly got off the bus, to stand on the nature strip by the freeway. This is what we saw:

Yes, the engine is on fire. Yes, it looked worse in real life.

 Traffic was banked up and soon enough we heard the sound of sirens.

The fire truck responded very quickly. Anyone know why fire trucks are yellow in Hawaii??!!

 Two firefighters calmly walked over together and extinguished the blaze. They then spent considerable time hosing the whole back and underside of the bus.

 Soon, the police were on the scene talking to our super chilled out driver.

 It took about 30 minutes for a replacement bus to come (from the time the original bus caught on fire), so that was pretty good. The same bus driver got on the new bus to carry us on to Pearl Harbor, only a 2-3 minute drive away! The funniest bit was that when the bus driver got on the new bus and begun speaking into his headset, there was no 'sorry about that folks', no 'the bus overheated but thanks for your patience', nope, no pleasantries or apologies. Our laid back bus driver just continued on his commentary (he was discussing the upcoming Pro Bowl at the Aloha Stadium) like nothing had happened at all. Haha. All the Aussies on the bus liked his attitude and had a bit of a laugh at that one!

So since I didn't die on a bus blowing upon the way to Pearl Harbor, we made it there with only a couple of minutes to spare before our movie begun. My Mum had to check her bag as they don't allow any baggage (so I left my DSLR in the hotel and just took my trusty little Canon IXUS). The movie was a documentary about the events leading up to and of Pearl Harbor's bombing by the Japanese, and was narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis. It was well done with footage from the event, and informative without being information overload. After, you walked out to a boat captained by a military officer which shuttled you to the USS Arizona Memorial.

The shuttle boat.

The USS Arizona Memorial sits perched on two beams above the USS Arizona shipwreck.

The roof of the memorial is open - no glass. 

You have about 15 minutes inside the memorial. Whilst in there you can look into the water and see the ship below, and sometimes just above the water. 

Looking across Pearl Harbor from the memorial. 

Markers like these dotted the Harbor, showing where different ships lie beneath the water or were sunk but later raised.

The names of all those who died on the ship. Amazing. 

The USS Missouri to the right was to be our next stop.

Upon leaving the memorial, the shuttle boat takes you back to land and you can look in some small museums/. 

 After, we got back on our bus and were driven over to the USS Missouri, where we had a guided tour.

We were driven back to Waikiki and arrived back at our hotel around 3:30 P.M.

Have you been to Pearl Harbor? What was your experience? How did it affect you? Have you been to any other war memorials across the world?