Last 2 Days in Maui

Praise God, we were able to rent a Car for $60US so we decided to drive down to Front Street in Lahaina, which is a happening town 25 mins down south of where we were.
We walked along the waterfront Front Street and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. There was this very cute store that sells all sorts of scents of bath salt~ like lavender, rockmelon, green tea, pomegranate etc. It was pretty neat! I bought a pineapple scented one, coz I'm in Hawaii after all~~

We stopped by Pioneer Inn for a happy hour drink! Mai Tai is a must order cocktail because it was invented here on the islands! It was very refreshing and hit the spot!! 😉

For dinner, we went to Bubble Gump Shrimp. It's a chain, they have a few stores in US. They even have a restaurant at the Peak in Hong Kong. The food was awesome! I couldn't wait for San Francisco for the clam chowder so I had it here. Very tasty!! The seafood platter and the steamed clam and mussel was really good too!!!

On the last day of our stay in Maui, we went kayaking and snorkeling at Owalu. Turned out Scott and I were the only people

Hawaii-Maui

It is surprisingly cool here at Kapalua~ Apparently at this part of the Island it gets quite windy and so all the heat and humidity gets blown away~~
:)
After our little snack, we went around the resort for a walk. It turned out that we were walking on a golf course~ i live the symbol of this town- it's a butterfly with a pineapple in the middle. Cute huh? As we walk towards the cliff we reached to some volcanic ground with a blow hole at the edge.

Then Scott took a picture at the mini Stonehenge look alike area. While I rested on the hammock and took a picture with the pine tree that has been blown off the ground!! It gets quite windy here, I'm telling ya!

We had dinner at Pineapple Grill that night. It was pretty sweet! We tried mahi mahi- a native Hawaiian fish. It was a meaty fish but still delicate and meaty! Then the dessert was to die for!! It's called the Pineapple e Down Cake. It was devine!!!! It has a wonderfully moist cake on the bottom, with a thin slice of grilled pineapple on it. Topped with macadamia nut gelato with filo flakes on top, finished with a generous amount of warm caramel sauce around the whole cake! It is a masterpiece!!!

Honeymoon in the USA- East Coast

New York City

7 days 

This is my mock plan for our honeymoon visit to NYC!!!  I have combined months of research and information gathering from friends and families~~~ Hopefully we have covered most things that the Big Apple has to offer!!  We we come NYC!!!!

As soon as we check into our hotel, we should go pick our our New York Pass at:

Planet Hollywood (Times Square)   

Opening Times:
365 days a year from 7.30am till midnight
 

Day 1:

Go to the David Letterman's studio and see if we can go watch a show while we are here in NY~~ 

Explore Downtown and Lower East Side-

Wall St; Ground Zero Museum; have lunch at Katz Deli. OMG! I think Scott want to do the eating challenge here at Katz Deli...
Click to see a picture of their sandwiches~

Visit Tenement Museum. and later on if we still have time then we should go visit Chinatown.

Dinner booked! WD 50!!

Day 2:

Shopping Day at Woodbury Common!!!!
Click here for Woodbury Common Website 

Come back to our hotel and rest a bit.
See how we feel at the time, but we might to take a picture oat the Grand Central Terminal.
http://www.grandcentralterminal.com/ 

Then might meet my cousin and his wify for dinner.

Day 3:

Visit the Rockefeller Centre and the Top of the Rock Observatory Deck. 
http://www.topoftherocknyc.com/ 

Then meet my cousin Ethan and Liz.

Day 4:

Go to Hillsong Church, New York 10am Service at Gramercy Theatre, 127 E23rd St.

Hopefully our friend Ana can meet with us and go to Church together!!!

Then we might go to Hoboken by a ferry to visit Carlo's Bakery~ Where they films the reality TV show- Cake Boss!!

We might go have lunch at The Quays- my sister in law- Nat suggested this place, which is also in Hoboken~ :D

Come back to Manhattan and go muck around SOHO. 

Dinner at Momofuku Ko? If we can get a table reservation!!!

Day 5:

Ride a bike around Central Park and go visit the Metropolitan Museum. Take a break and have lunch at Upper East Side, at Serendipity.  In the afternoon, we can go shopping on 5th Avenue~~ Yeah~~~~

In the evening we can go see the night view of NYC on Empire State Building. 

Day 6:

Catch the Circle Line Cruise- full circle ride around Manhattan.  Take some photos of the Statue of Liberty!!
In the evening, we can go watch a Broadway Show~ ?Spiderman.

Day 7:


Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and do the "Walking Tour." 
Stop by Shake Shack for a snack!

http://shakeshack.com/

This is a map to remind me how to get to Shake Shack:

After the snack we will go say hi to our friends at Kengokan Karate Dojo. Then we will have to head back to our hotel and get ready for our journey back to Sydney~~

Honeymoon in the USA- West Coast

Scott and I will be going to the US for our honeymoon!!!!  We got married last October but because my hubby could not take any more leave in 2011, we had postponed our honeymoon until now.  Well~ it isn't so bad because our dollars are still strong and we had some good time planning our trip~

The plan is, we want to visit both west coast and east coast in 3 weeks.  Scott wants to visit Disney World for 5 days in Florida and we both want to stay in New York for 7 days. 

I am not such a good planner and this seems like a massive trip to plan for.  So I went to the travel agent and got some brochures from them and started tearing out itineraries from those booklets.

With these itineraries all peeled off from the pages, I feel like I can plan my trip better! For each destination I will just take recommendation from these itineraries and combine it with what my friends recommend us and other bits and pieces we find along the way.  I am so excited~~

So I am going to blog about where we are planning to go in each city we visit. If you read my blog and you have some recommendations for me~ then please leave a message for me!! :D Thank you~~

Our USA Honeymoon Plan

West Coast

Destination: Hawaii- Maui

2.5 days 

Day 1: Relax. The main point of coming here is just to relax and have a cocktail by the pool side.  Maybe have a massage too!

Day 2: Either snorkel around Molokini Crater or explore the jungles and waterfalls on a Hana Adventure tour.

Day 3: Walk along Kaanapali Beach and shop around Lahaina~ city area?

Destination: Los Angeles  

1 day

In 1 day: Go to Hollywood's Walk of Fame, take a picture of the Hollywood Sign and go shopping on Rodeo Drive like a Pretty Woman.

Destination: Las Vegas

2.5 days

Day 1: Go visit all the gigantic resorts like

MGM, The Luxor and Caesars Palace.

Take the rollercoaster ride at New York New York!! 

Watch Cirque De Soleil- "O" at 7:30pm. 

Day 2:  Day tour to Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.

Day3: Renew our wedding vows at the Graceland Chapel.

Maybe go to Adventuredome Theme Park or go shopping at Las Vegas Premium Outlets.

Dinner at Bouchon- at the Venetian.

Destination: San Francisco

2 days

Day 1: Alcatraz Tour 

Pier 39- I must try clam chowder for dinner!!

Day 2: Visit Union Square and have a meal at Chinatown!

Where else should we go in Vegas and San Francisco?

Marcus' Rilakkuma Cake.

My final product- Marcus' 100th Day Celebration Cake.

My best friend Jackie just became a mum over 3 months ago.  To commemoratethe new addition to her family, Jackie and her hubby held a 100^thDay celebration for their gorgeous son- Marcus!

I knew that Jackie was going to have a big party for Marcus 2 months inadvance so I have been planning to make an absolute special cake to mark this occasion!  Jackie’s favourite character is this Japanesebear called Rilakkuma and since Marcus is far too young to have his own choiceof theme, we just have to go with what the mum wants! Haha!! 

 

This is Jackie's favourite Rilakkuma Bear- the brown one.  The white bear and the chicken are  Rilakkuma's friends.

I had plenty of time to plan and make Rilakkuma and his friends out ofsugar. I am a bit of a perfectionist so I took ages to make these, because Iwanted to make sure that they resemble the real characters! 

Rilakkuma- the main guy.

The Rilakumma party with Marcus in the middle.

One day when I went shopping with Jackie, she told me thatshe wraps Marcus up in a sleeping bag when he goes to sleep like a pea in apod.  This helps Marcus to sleep through the night.  This boy is anyparents' dream baby because he has 12 hour sleeps every night- from 10pm to 10am!!!

So I got my inspiration from this conversation and I havedecided to make a sugar Marcus in a pod~~

 

This is a picture of Marcus~~ Isn't he cute???  The pea baby on the right is my interpretation of Marcus with a smile. <3 <3 <3

Now I am just going to show you the making of the cake!!

The sugar figurines are ready to go on the cake once it is done!

3 tired cake with dark chocolate ganache fillings.

The cake covered in icing.

This is the largest fondant and thinnest fondant I ever rolled out!

The Cake was successfully covered with the fondant!! Yeah~~

Making the letters.

Assembling the cake with the decorations.

Yeah~~ Thank God! The cake is done!!

On the day of the Party~~

 31st of March, 2012; Sunny.

The cake was carefully transported to the Blaxland Riverside Park where the party was held.

Jackie is a supermum~ Multi- tasker and managed to prepare everything on the table!! The menu was very impressive!!

 

A beautiful sunny day for a wonderful occasion~~

Marcus holding a knife?!

Yeah~~~ Marcus is ready to cut the cake!!

This is Jackie- the supermum and my best friend!

Sorry, I am a show-off!! Here is the cake again!!

My wonderful husband, who has been the biggest spiritual supporter for my works!!

Digging into the cake!

Happy 100th Day Marcus~~  Aunty Julie wishes you all the happiness, good health and guiding angels protecting you all the days of your life~~ 

Marcus at ~100th Day.

To all my blog readers:

Thank you for your supports! 

Happy Easter and hope you all have a safe and happy holidays!!

God Bless, 

Julie