Good-bye to Australia

Wearing the bugnet hat at Kata Tjuta/Uluru!

Packed up all the souvenirs and my suitcase still closes! Big question is the weight. Airlines are so picky these days.... We'll see what happens at the counter. I'm hoping for the best!
It's been a great trip! Have spent the last 3 days in the city of Brisbane (or "Brisvegas" as it's commonly referred to here). It's a relatively small central business district ("CBD") on a peninsula of the winding Brisbane River, surrounded by many small suburbs in the hills and valleys. The coast is about 5 miles away, and north and south of Brisbane are numerous beach communities: South is known as the Gold Coast (lots of high rise condos) and North is known as the Sunshine Coast- more rural and laid back.
We toured sites in the CBD, notably the Commisariat Stores Building, the only remaining convict-built building in Brisbane (built on the shore of the river in 1829), the Treasury Building (now housing the Treasury Casino, where I won $44), the Southbank cultural precinct. We rode the Brisbane Wheel, similar to the London Eye, but not as tall. We took the city ferry to sites along the river bank.
We spent a day at the Australia Zoo, made famous by the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. I got to feed an elephant (but didn't buy the photo), and we saw cassowaries, koalas, and the infamous saltwater crocs.
Will post more photos from home and add a few final thoughts!
Thanks so much to all our Australian hosts and new friends!

Looking forward to the flight home!

Into the Outback!

DD and I have had a wonderful trip to the Outback. We spent 2 days in Alice Springs (remember "A Town Like Alice"? book by Nevil Shute and then the miniseries? It doesn't look like that anymore!) The Alice is a bustling town of about 27,000 people spread in the valley between the MacDonnell Ranges. The Todd River runs through the town, but the river is usually dry. This is desert country, but was really greener and had lots more vegetation than I thought. We walked the Todd Mall (pedestrian shopping area) and climbed Anzac Hill-got a good lookout over the city and the red rocks. I bought some art by an Aboriginal artist. This is the place to learn about Aboriginal culture, as the further north you go, the more Aboriginal settlements there seem to be. Alice Springs is in the Northern Territory, which isn't a state of Australia, but a territory. It was a 3 hour plane ride from Melbourne and really in the middle of nowhere. A lot of tourists use this town as the waypoint on Outback adventures. Also, the famous train, the Ghan, stops here.

We were picked up by luxury motor coach on the third day for the 5 hour drive to Ayers Rock Resort and the famous Ayers Rock (now called Uluru). Talk about the middle of nowhere!~ We road for many miles without seeing a single sign of human habitation. Uluru the rock is visible from 40 miles away. It is a sandstone monolith, the largest in the world. We had a sunset tour of the rock, where we saw several geologic and sacred Aboriginal sites and then watched the sunlight change the colors of the rock as the sun set. We had an Aussie BBQ dinner where we sat out under the Southern Cross and ate kanagaroo, among other delicacies.

At 5 am the next day we were back on our coach with Tina, our local driver-guide for the sunrise tour and short walks. The climbing route on Uluru was closed, as the temps have been 100 degrees or higher every day. We saw more Aboriginal sites-ceremonial and dwelling- and got close to the huge walls of Uluru. Truly an amazing site.

Pictures will follow, but internet connection is pay-per-minute here. I also promise to expand on our experiences-Oz is a fascinating place!

One thing we haven't seen much of is wildlife-I expected to see some kangaroos while we were driving, but didn't. We did see a fascinating lizard called a thorny devil-spikier than a horned toad. And the bugs and FLIES are too numerous to mention. Most of the tourists wear fly nets as soon as the sun gets warm until dark. I'm so happy I bought my L.L.Bean Allagash hat with fly net attached.

On to Melbourne for a one-night layover as my trip was supposed to be ending here. I added on Brisbane at the last minute and couldn't change flights without huge penalties, so we will be in Brisbane next.

Have one min. left on my pay-per-play, so signing off!

Down Under-Week 2

We are now in Melbourne (Feb.17) and enjoying this cosmopolitan city. Today we went to Federation Square and the Australian Museum of the Moving Image, the Eureka Skydeck (observation tower 89 floors above the city), Old Melbourne Gaol and the Watch Tower Experience, and the Melbourne Museum. Whew! The weather is warm, but not horribly hot. We could see hazy smoke from the brushfires you've heard about when we were up on the observation deck.
Doug learns to play the digeridoo.

We spent 5 days in Cairns and Far North Queensland. Cairns is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, and we had a wonderful day on a snorkel trip to some amazing coral reefs. We drove north to Cape Tribulation, as far as you can go on paved road before the tropical rainforest takes over. The area is beautifully lush and green, with great mountains and lots of sugar cane farms. We are here in the heat of summer, which is the low season for the far north. Very hot and humid, and not a lot of air conditioning. We stayed at a wonderful B&B in Holloway's Beach, a truly beach-y community just north of Cairns proper. Away from the hustle and bustle of touristy Cairns, it was a nice retreat.They have IGA's here!
At this time of the year swimming isn't advised because of the deadly jellyfish (large and small) and the salt-water crocs. Towns have special netted areas for swimming, but even that can't keep all the bad creatures out.A Rainforest walk.

We have another day here in Melbourne and then some of us head home and some of us head for the outback!

Having a wonderful time!
More soon!

Hello from Tasmania!

We've spent a lovely 6 days in Tasmania, the southernmost state of Australia that's also an island! It's about the size of W. Virginia, with about 500, 000 people. Tasmania was one of early British convict prison centers, and we've seen a few of those ruins and historical sites.

We've been based in the capital city of Hobart, on a lovely harbor on the southeast coast. We saw the Australian Wooden Boat Festival and went to the weekly market. We drove to the top of Mt. Wellington for the most amazing views!
We've enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the Beecheys! And had fabulous food, including homemade Sticky Date Pudding that was the BEST!

We also went to the wilderness of northwest Tas. to see Cradle Mountain National Park. The countryside is truly amazing, changing from farms and fields, sheep and cows, to mountains and temperate rainforests. Huge trees, ferns, moss and beautiful rivers and waterfalls. We've seen lots of Aussie wildlife including wombats, echidnas, wallabies, pademelons, even a Tasmanian Devil. I did a Tasmanian wine and cheese tasting and went to the Tasman Wool Centre.

We have one more day here and plan to see some more wildlife at the Bonorong Wildlife Park and perhaps a winery. (of course we've been enjoying Tasmanian and Aussie wines!).

Have posted a few photos on my Flickr page, which you can click through to on this blog. Will try to post more photos in a day or so. There are a lot!
Enjoying all the comments and emails, even if it's a few days before I can respond!

Hello from Down Under!

After 29 hours of travel, we made it to the other side of the world! The 14 hour flight from LA to Sydney wasn't too bad, despite cozy seats and airline food. I watched 4 movies-well, started watching each movie, but fell asleep before the end of each one. Advice we received was to stay awake for the first half of the trip, and then take a sleeping aid and sleep as much as possible on the second half of the trip. It worked pretty well!
Sydney has been great-very warm and slightly humid, but ocean breezes are welcome! We took a tour of the Sydney Opera House today. It's one of the most recognizable buildings in the world, but I didn't know it was really 2 large buildings, holding 5 separate venues: 3 smaller theaters for drama, a large concert hall and the opera hall. The facility holds 2500 events every year, so it's a busy place. We were able to see the symphony orchestra rehearsing for a performance in the concert hall and then watch the stage hands prepare the opera stage for the evening performance of Madama Butterfly. We also took a ferry to Manly Beach, got a look at the Pacific Ocean and watched surfers, went to a small aquarium and watched divers feeding sharks. We got to pet a baby saltwater croc! We've explored several neighborhoods and harbor areas, seen all kinds of boats.

Have to say thanks to DB#3 and family for helping us spend our long layover in LA. They took us to Redondo Beach to a great surfside restaurant, then on a tour of some of the beach towns and piers. Interesting real estate and and a view into the California lifestyle. We were really grateful for the break, especially when we had to spend time in the LAX International terminal at peak travel time (nighttime) with few services past security.

Of course, we've loved seeing our DD and her DH! Looking forward to seeing more family and more of Oz!
Will post photos in the next few days! On a pay-for-internet service here, so have to keep this brief!
Jet lag is taking over, so will close for now!

Pre-Flights Check-In

So, it was a long day getting everything ready to leave for Australia (or Oz, as some people call it!). I was pretty much packed by 7:00 pm. DH didn't start packing until 10pm.
No comment there...

Many odds and ends to tie up: bills to pay, fridge to empty, papers to organize, and pack, pack, pack! I'm worried our suitcases are overweight; we shifted some things around. I took out a big bag of Jolly Ranchers for DD-don't worry, I left one bag in...and a couple of shirts.
Am bringing some small gifts to our Aussie in-laws in Tasmania, couldn't leave those out!

Packing clothing for cool weather and hot weather, mostly casual. Thanks to my fashion advisors (you know who you are) for help with the shoe dilemma. Keeping it down to 3 packed, one wearing, although I will miss my Merrells for the duration.

I'm using packing cubes, which helps keep stuff organized. DH won't use them, he thinks they just take up more room. I would much rather have TSA handling the packing cubes than lots of individual garments, if you get my drift.... My new Eagle Creek Tarmac has compartments on the lid which will hold packing cubes or odds and ends. I think those will be very helpful.

In the photo you can see the compartments on the left with the zip covers rolled back. The right is the deep part of the suitcase with my cubes and toilet kit.

I'm also taking a shoulder bag and tote bag (both from ebags.com). Sorry, no pics on them as yet.
For reading material I'm going electronic: I downloaded 2 audiobooks to DH's Nano (Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri and Inkheart by Cornelia Funke) and am taking the Amazon Kindle onto which I've downloaded an audiobook (The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly) and an electronic book (The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult). These last 2 are for the Last Tuesday Book Club. We'll see how they work.....

I did make the rubber band clothesline suggested by my buddy TFOP! http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Rubber-Band-Travel-Clothesline-for-Less-T/
I will post a photo when/if it gets used! My rubber bands are pretty small. It may not hold much!

Hope to post more photos and updates early next week. This time tomorrow, we'll be over the Pacific!