Never realised how far Hawaii was from mainland USA

You drove round Hawaii in half a day? There’s about 1500 miles between its over a hundred islands, even if you only did the main eight that’s some going. Must have been a car and boat in one. And bloody quick.

What were you driving, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

;-D

 

Although San Francisco is the closest major city to Honolulu, some of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska are actually closer.

 

Another great quiz question. Given the length of the Great Wall, how many different timezones does China have?

 

Another interesting fact about Alaska for those not aware. Russia sold it to the US.

Russia offered to sell Alaska to the United States in 1859, believing the United States would off-set the designs of Russia’s greatest rival in the Pacific, Great Britain. The looming U.S. Civil War delayed the sale, but after the war, Secretary of State William Seward quickly took up a renewed Russian offer and on March 30, 1867, agreed to a proposal from Russian Minister in Washington, Edouard de Stoeckl, to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million. The Senate approved the treaty of purchase on April 9; President Andrew Johnson signed the treaty on May 28, and Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867. This purchase ended Russia’s presence in North America and ensured U.S. access to the Pacific northern rim.

 

I used to know a girl called Pacific. Never got access to her northern rim though.

 

You've spent your life looking at maps in books like me, there's only one way round the world, you know.

 

Some range on those Japanese aircraft carriers , if you believe the flat earth brigade

 

I think he means that the indigenous Hawaiian Islanders are of Polynesian decent like the Maoris of New Zealand and Samoans

 

Like that in South Africa also.. it's like the sun drops of the edge of the world

 

Could you be more Spacific please. Al get mi coit.

 

We also tend to think NZ is not far from Australia but it’s almost a 4 hour flight from Wellington to Sidney

 

We spent a day at the Polynesian Cultural Centre in Honolulu. Absolutely fascinating place!

 

Australia,
Perth to Cairns is an even longer flight. Over 4hrs.
It has 5 different time zones in the summer.
I find this sort of S41T fascinating. I need to get out more lol.

 

It’s hard to grasp how at certain times of the year, the time difference between New Zealand and UK is 13 hours
So if you carry on going east from NZ, do you eventually reach South America and become 20/21/22 hrs in front ?

Whereas if you went from Eng to S. America heading west would you not be about 4 hrs behind ?
OR…have I had too much wine ?
Hic

 

I knew someone who flew the NZ-USA route and celebrated their birthday twice. It was explained to me at the time, but it was a long time ago.

 

Yes, once you pass the international date line. Literally you can take one step into different years

 

Is he/she twice as old as you?

 

My ex also didn’t know where Hawaii was.

About 6 months before we got married I had major spinal cord surgery. Had to be taught how to walk, write, etc again. Honestly, you’ve no idea how difficult it is to learn to write again, when you can’t feel your hands any more. You’ve been picking up a pen and writing for 30 years, but now you have to a) work out how you actually hold a pen, and b) get your hand to do it. Way more difficult than it sounds, but I digress…

My goal in rehab was to ensure I could walk down the aisle without help (although knowing what I know now…). It was hard, but I managed it. And we had decided to honeymoon in America. Originally, we were going to travel around New England, up in the north-east part of the states, but the ex decided that might be a bit much for me. So she suggested a few days in New York, a week in Honolulu and then a few days in LA. I thought her reasoning was a bit odd, but I love New York, Hawaii sounded fab and I had never been to LA, so it seemed a good idea to me.

it was a bit tiring though, with several lengthy flights, but it was only when we were flying back from LA that she owned up that she thought that Hawaii was just off the coast of California, “you know, like the Isle of Wight”!

 

I've been a couple of times. The first was a family holiday, the second was a football tour to Hawaii and San Francisco from Hong Kong. The weirdest thing was landing in Honolulu before we set off from HK on the same day. Going back to HK from SF took 19 hours, with the stop over, and we lost a day. It not only messes up your body clock it messes up your head especially when you've taken advantage of all the free beer on the flight.

 

This seems like a good excuse to tell my Waikiki beach story…

So, before we set off on holiday she did the usual, and went and replaced pretty much her entire wardrobe, whilst I piled stuff into the suitcase that had been with me on just about every holiday I’d been on over the previous 15 years, of which one item was a pair of sandals. The first day in Hawaii we decided to go and book a couple of trips, Pearl Harbour and what have you. When we got into the travel office I could clearly smell my pongy sandals, so as the tourist guide was talking us through the different excursions, I tried to tuck my feet away under her desk, as if the surface of the desk would protect us from the stink. Of course, I was also worried that I was playing footsie with the agent, not being able to feel my feet any more.

When the agent went to get a couple of brochures, and probably to stuff tissue paper up her news, the missus turned straight round to me, with a fierce look on her face that I grew to know so well. “Is that your sandals I can smell?” I couldn’t lie, not in the face of such overwhelming evidence, so as soon as we left the office I was dragged to the nearest boutique. Hawaii isn’t cheap, so after giving her the Yorkshire Battle Cry (“how much???”) I said I would give them a good wash when we got back to our hotel. This I duly did, unloading half a bottle of shower gel on to them and scrubbing them in the shower, until she had to admit that I had done a great job and the sandals now smelt lovely.

Her temper died down, we had a drink on our balcony and as the sun was getting lower we decided to walk along Waikiki beach in the sunset and go for dinner. How romantic, eh? We were only 60-70 yards from the beach, but fortunately there was nobody about, because before we reached it, she looked down at my feet and let out a shriek. It appeared that every step I had taken, in my lovely smelling, damp sandals, had caused the shower gel still contained within the sandal to froth up. After 60 yards worth of steps you could no longer see my feet, as from the ankle down I just had to big balls of soap suds where my feet would usually be located.

She insisted I go back and put my trainers on, but I assured her that once we reached the beach the sand would naturally damp down all the froth and we’d be able to see my feet again. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out like that. Instead of bursting all the bubble, the sand stuck to them, so I now had two great big brown balls of soap suds where my feet used to be, like I was human from the ankles up and grizzly bear from the ankles down, I looked ******* ridiculous, and this on a beach populated almost solely by muscular, handsome men clutching surfboards.

We eventually found a tap, so I washed the suds off, carried the sandals and walked barefoot to the restaurant, only popping the sandals back on at the door. The sandals never made it back up to the hotel room, and I had to bite my tongue and buy a (way, way more expensive than I would ever have usually paid) new pair the next morning.