Okay, FINALLY, what I did on my summer vacation.
Or, the Inadvertent Tour of Places where Alex O'Loughlin's television shows have been set. (Earlier this summer I did a quick trip to Pittsburgh with my family for a Sox game. I don't have any pictures, but I would like to give a shout-out to whoever at the Awesome Diner we went to put pumpkin pancakes on the menu in June.)
My flight to Hawaii was supposed to go through San Francisco but I ended up having to change it due to flight crew delays and go through LA instead, which I suppose is what I get for thinking "wow, if I only had that connection in LA I would hit all the cities of Alex O'Loughlin's shows")
ANYHOW. Mostly I went to Hawaii because it was my friend Fabulous K's birthday and because she had twins last spring and I didn't want to miss seeing them as still mostly babies. (They are HILARIOUS. One spent an afternoon gesturing with a raised index finger and marching around the living room, leading us to call him Tiny William Jennings Bryan. The other one seemed to enjoy putting tofu in his hair.) So there aren't massive amounts of photos as I mostly had a kid in my hands.
I just arrived and Fabulous K picked me up and took me to her house for a while before I could check in to my hotel. The Visiting Committee was on the ball: double rainbow, man!. The very next morning from my hotel room: but I didn't find the gold
I spent mornings at the beach: my beach spot and most afternoons and evenings hanging with Fabulous K and her little men, which was pretty much my Vacation Goal. We hit the zoo and the aquarium and a local farmers market; took the kids swimming in the ocean for the first time, where they completely charmed some Japanese tourists in their little matching surf-dude swimsuits; visited the Bishop Museum Planetarium, where I learned to identify the constellation Scorpio (also known in Hawaii as Maui's Fishhook) (also they had an AWESOME animatronic dinosaur exhibit which I did not realize at first was motion-sensitive and jumped probably five feet when the velociraptor looked at me and went grrrrrr). (K, what am I forgetting?) (DUH! I am forgetting that K's birthday party was hosted by a colleague of hers who is married to a guy who is ACTUALLY CALLED DANNO.) (SRSLY. He has a badge and everything.)
Oh, you want to know if we found Hawaii Five-O filming? We found where they were, but I didn't manage to see any actors, which was too bad since I brought TWO ADORABLE BABIES with me, as ADORABLE BABIES are well known to be TOTAL O'LOUGHLIN KRYPTONITE, but I managed to get a few pictures in our quick drive-by tour. We did make a brief stop (brief = babies in the car) when I believe I shrieked when I saw this non-spoilery thing parked on what turned out to be an active set. The production assistant was very nice and let me get this close but no further.
But the big story has to be this: the assistant at Fabulous K's husband's office lives in the neighborhood where the house that plays Steve's house is (she gets hilarious flyers whenever they will be filming there assuring them that any gunshots they might hear are fictional) and told us how to get here. I didn't get a decent photo of myself sitting in the chairs, since OMG BABIES ASLEEP IN THE CAR DON'T WAKE THEM UP (We were planning to get a picture of the babies in the chairs, but oh well.) Here is what it looks like when you are OMFG SITTING IN ONE OF THE CHAIRS (Seekrit reality tip: the sand must be put there by production, since the beach was just volcano rocks and coral and was actually sort of pointy and sharp. Please do not report me to the Hawaii Environmental Council, but I totally brought a rock and a piece of coral home.) Grace is clearly in charge of decorating, because the Christmas lights were still up in July
I also had (massively overpriced) breakfast at the restaurant at the Hilton from "Loa Aloha" but I didn't take any pictures of that. And I got a bunch of coco puffs from the Liliha Bakery (I confess: it was the first place we went after K picked me up at the airport and I had them for breakfast AND midnight snack for like four days.) (Didn't manage to get any malasadas, alas.)
Anyhow, if you want more pictures, photos 1-14 are from my first trip and the rest are from this trip.
My flight to Hawaii was supposed to go through San Francisco but I ended up having to change it due to flight crew delays and go through LA instead, which I suppose is what I get for thinking "wow, if I only had that connection in LA I would hit all the cities of Alex O'Loughlin's shows")
ANYHOW. Mostly I went to Hawaii because it was my friend Fabulous K's birthday and because she had twins last spring and I didn't want to miss seeing them as still mostly babies. (They are HILARIOUS. One spent an afternoon gesturing with a raised index finger and marching around the living room, leading us to call him Tiny William Jennings Bryan. The other one seemed to enjoy putting tofu in his hair.) So there aren't massive amounts of photos as I mostly had a kid in my hands.
I just arrived and Fabulous K picked me up and took me to her house for a while before I could check in to my hotel. The Visiting Committee was on the ball: double rainbow, man!. The very next morning from my hotel room: but I didn't find the gold
I spent mornings at the beach: my beach spot and most afternoons and evenings hanging with Fabulous K and her little men, which was pretty much my Vacation Goal. We hit the zoo and the aquarium and a local farmers market; took the kids swimming in the ocean for the first time, where they completely charmed some Japanese tourists in their little matching surf-dude swimsuits; visited the Bishop Museum Planetarium, where I learned to identify the constellation Scorpio (also known in Hawaii as Maui's Fishhook) (also they had an AWESOME animatronic dinosaur exhibit which I did not realize at first was motion-sensitive and jumped probably five feet when the velociraptor looked at me and went grrrrrr). (K, what am I forgetting?) (DUH! I am forgetting that K's birthday party was hosted by a colleague of hers who is married to a guy who is ACTUALLY CALLED DANNO.) (SRSLY. He has a badge and everything.)
Oh, you want to know if we found Hawaii Five-O filming? We found where they were, but I didn't manage to see any actors, which was too bad since I brought TWO ADORABLE BABIES with me, as ADORABLE BABIES are well known to be TOTAL O'LOUGHLIN KRYPTONITE, but I managed to get a few pictures in our quick drive-by tour. We did make a brief stop (brief = babies in the car) when I believe I shrieked when I saw this non-spoilery thing parked on what turned out to be an active set. The production assistant was very nice and let me get this close but no further.
But the big story has to be this: the assistant at Fabulous K's husband's office lives in the neighborhood where the house that plays Steve's house is (she gets hilarious flyers whenever they will be filming there assuring them that any gunshots they might hear are fictional) and told us how to get here. I didn't get a decent photo of myself sitting in the chairs, since OMG BABIES ASLEEP IN THE CAR DON'T WAKE THEM UP (We were planning to get a picture of the babies in the chairs, but oh well.) Here is what it looks like when you are OMFG SITTING IN ONE OF THE CHAIRS (Seekrit reality tip: the sand must be put there by production, since the beach was just volcano rocks and coral and was actually sort of pointy and sharp. Please do not report me to the Hawaii Environmental Council, but I totally brought a rock and a piece of coral home.) Grace is clearly in charge of decorating, because the Christmas lights were still up in July
I also had (massively overpriced) breakfast at the restaurant at the Hilton from "Loa Aloha" but I didn't take any pictures of that. And I got a bunch of coco puffs from the Liliha Bakery (I confess: it was the first place we went after K picked me up at the airport and I had them for breakfast AND midnight snack for like four days.) (Didn't manage to get any malasadas, alas.)
Anyhow, if you want more pictures, photos 1-14 are from my first trip and the rest are from this trip.