#2xtroubleinUSA

Hello from us!

Warning: Picture-heavy with a final text wall

It's been almost a month since I've been back and a year since I've posted (because of work). Before the holidays, I'd been feeling very depressed because I had felt like I hadn't accomplished much across the year at work. I confided in a few colleagues and friends and I was very touched to receive so much love and warmth. Going on such a long break gave me wanderlust. It made me feel like there's so much more to the world.

I've posted most of the following photos on Instagram, the hashtag is also #2xtroubleinUSA if you want to find those that are not here and vice versa. I have edited very few of what I took in total, I'll work on short write-ups for each area that I've been to.

Here we go!

Day 1, just landed at SFO, headed to... The Palace hotel, in the middle of the San Francisco Financial District. I was very mesmerised by its vintage beauty and I regret not exploring it fully. It was perhaps the only time I went to the gym during the trip. Hahaha. I enjoyed the Ghirardeli Chocolatier right downstairs too. :)

Day 2, the next morning, on our way to Alcatraz.

Walking tour with an audio guide. Just at one of the photo-areas. This was where inmates spoke with their visitors. Through a thick glass.

Souvenirs that I didn't buy. Hahaha. Little figurines of what the Alcatraz prison looks like. I really enjoyed this attraction. We took the ferry back to the Pier and walked to...

Pier 39, or Fisherman's Wharf. We had lunch nearby at a food truck and then had a sourdough bread bowl with clam chowder and spent sometime shopping here. Before we headed to Lombard Street (road with many hairpin turns) and Chinatown and had dinner near the hotel, made a mad dash to Macy's for The Cheesecake Factory then Disney Store and back to the Palace. Yep, day 2 was crazy packed.

Day 3, Route 66. Before this was our flight in to Las Vegas, Nevada and a car collection. We were on our way to the Grand Canyon!

Day 4 Sunrise at the Yavapai Point, South rim of the Grand Canyon. We stayed at Kachina Lodge, it had been a hard day of travelling especially for the driver. We had a hot dinner at El Tovar Lodge after our check-in, it's said to be the best, we thought it average, but then there aren't other options around. :')

I took too many pictures of the rocks that day.

Also on our way to Grand Canyon.

Kayla and I. The sun might be in our faces but it was so damn cold.

Watch Tower as we were travelling towards the West Rim. The view upstairs was crap.

Picture of my manicure! Got sick of rock formations after a while and along the West Rim (Day 5), I didn't take as many photos. I almost forgot my camera until we got to Hoover Dam!

Day 6 was spent travelling back to Las Vegas. We didn't intend to head here initially. After we got so sick of the Grand Canyon area. Travelling from the South Rim to the West Rim took so much out of us, we decided to head into Vegas earlier.

Didn't pay for the Hoover Dam museum tour, we were a little tired from seeing scenery so far. Snapped some photos, we were in and out before we knew it. Finally we reached Vegas at about 4pm!

We had dinner at 6.30pm and this was an hour before dinner! It got dark so quickly everyday that I always felt I'd been awake for too long. Kayla and I had just spent some money at Sephora :D As you can tell, I was overjoyed.

Dinner at Joe's Seafood. Very expensive meal, very enjoyable. Pictured are the Stone Crab Claws.

Day 7 we spent at various attractions after breakfast at Hashhouse Agogo. Count's Kustoms, Gold & Silver Pawnshop, The Mob Museum. And then we went back to the Hotel to rest. We had dinner at Noodle (a chinese restaurant at Bellagio where we stayed). Made a mad dash to Caesar's Palace for their show. We missed one though, so we continued shopping. The next morning we had... Eggslut! :)

Day 8 we spent it... Shopping! At the Las Vegas North Premium Outlets. We had dinner at a Food Court at Luxor in preparation for the Criss Angel Mindfreak Show. We made a mad dash to return the minivan and headed to the Airport for our flight to Honolulu in the dead of the night.

Day 9 we spent dog-tired. As soon as we stepped off the plane we went on a trip to Pearl Harbour before we were able to check-in at our Hotel. We went on a tour at the USS Missouri, paid a quick visit to the Pacific Aviation museum and skipped our free movie.

We finally checked-in and after what felt like hours of deliberation... we decided to rest up for the night and make the mad rush tomorrow. We had crappy Japanese that night and visited the Walmart Supercenter. The next day we woke up at the crack of dawn to dash up Diamond Head National Park, drive across the country to Snorkel at the Hanauma Bay and rush back to the hotel to check out for our flight to...

Big Island. Day 10 was eve of Christmas eve. By the time we got here though. it was afternoon and it got dark real quick. We checked in and had a nap. We woke up in time to take a 1.5 hour drive up to Mauna Kea observatory to see the stars we can't see in Singapore. We came down to IHOP. (I took this picture on Christmas Eve though, it's a cave at the South Point that leads to the ocean. People dive in and come out along the coast.)

Day 11, Christmas Eve we spent with Kyle, our guide for Kailua-Kona. We went to the coffee plantation, black sand beach, lava tubes, south point, short trek along the Kilauea observatory, the lava glow and Mount Kilauea.

First time we saw Sea Turtles. We had dinner at Ken's House of Pancakes. It was a crazily-packed day once again and we fell asleep really quickly. On Christmas (Day 12), we were taken on a tour by Kyle's dad, Ken, now of the Hilo side of Big Island. We went to Rainbow falls, another black sand beach, the Macadamia nut farm, saw even more sea turtles... Before long, it was time to say goodbye, once again to Hawaii. We flew to Los Angeles from the Hilo airport.

We landed in Los Angeles in the early hours of boxing day (Day 13) and the first thing we did was SHOPPING (after a fantastic breakfast at Jacks N Joe's. We went to the Premium Outlets at Desert Hills and made our money work for us. By the time we finally got to our Airbnb, almost everything near us had closed. Ended the day with... Panda Express... LOL. Day 14 we spent at the Camarillo Premium Outlets after Eggslut for breakfast! We had a 3 course dinner at...

Providence. Pictured here is the Nancy's Day Boat Sea Scallop. We took a walk along the Hollywood Walk of Fame after that.

Day 15 we spent at Universal Studios Hollywood!!!!! Slight disappointment. With all things in USA, I expected it to be bigger than USS but to my utter dismay and disappointment, it is BARELY bigger.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

Can't leave without Butterbeer!

To top things off for the night we had Shake Shack!!!! Bacon Cheddar fries!

My meal @ Shake Shack

Day 16 we wanted to do the Warner Brother's studio tour, but as luck would have it, they ran out of tickets and we had to do it the next day before our flight. We went to the Griffith Observatory instead, to see the Hollywood sign (can you spot it in the picture?). The Griffith Observatory is someplace I would like to revisit. Before we headed back to the Airbnb, we went to shop for groceries!!!! Including breakfast for the next day and food we wanted to bring back home and boxes to store our stuff.

Day 17 was the Warner Bro's studio tour where I rekindled my love for Pretty Little Liars. We went for a drive around Venice Beach and had lunch at Kodomo before heading to the Airport.

This entire adventure is definitely one that I will hold very close to my heart. Even so, it is so hard to remember every detail, I feel like I have already begun to forget stuff. :( I resolve to take more pictures on my future trips to help me remember more. I can't wait to see more and do more travelling.

There's a certain kind of wonder in wandering.

♡, wj