7 Quick Takes

1.  For the last two weeks I have had this vague feeling of wanting to be doing something else, be somewhere else.  Why?  Because this time last year I was in Australia.  One year ago today I was on the Harbor Bridge in Sydney.  More than once, as I walked across it and then rode across it on the train that same day. 

View from the bridge

2.  This past Monday would have been my grandfather's 100th birthday.  He died 21 years ago and I still miss him.  Both of my children remember him and I can still see him, his great-grandchildren on his lap.  Whenever I complained he was spoiling  them he would agree with a shrug and tell me that he could because  he was the great-grandfather, not the parent.

3.  My husband is a bit of a perfectionist in some areas.  Sometimes when he reads my blog he cringes at my mistakes.  I make typos, leave out little words, punctuation; it's not the most polished, especially for a former English teacher.  So I have decided to be more careful and pay better attention to all of that in my posts, so you have an easier time reading.
4.  I need to defend myself in regard to #3.  I never learned how to touch type or type properly.  Because of my mother.  Honest.  In high school we could choose electives as juniors and seniors.  I wanted to take a semester of typing.  My mother said that was ridiculousness since I was not going to become a secretary.  (totally not PC, but there you have it) Why would I need to type?  Well, for one thing, I did have papers to type, yes type, as in on a typewriter - my mother's manual from when she went to college, which she was able to use with ease because she took typing in high school!  It's so ironic when I  think about how much time I spend on a keyboard  still looking at the keys as I type. At one point I tried to learn to type properly, but my bad skills were totally ingrained and I could not unlearn them.
5.  I am going on retreat this weekend, starting today.  But I'm not leaving my house.  I will be using this great book, Consoling the Heart of Jesus by Michael E. Gaitley, MIC.  Here is a review if you are interested in hearing more about the book.  I have been looking forward to this and planning it since I read the book.  My husband will be at seminary so it's the perfect time. Which was the plan, of course.
6.  I set a goal to read 100 books this year over on Goodreads.  Not sure what possessed me to do that, but we'll see what happens.  I also agreed, in a head cold induced fog on New Year's Eve to run a 5K with a friend of mine.  And I haven't even thought about my own goals for this year, except the two above, which upon reflection seem a bit insane.  Of course, all will be made clear to me as I go through my retreat.
7.  I can't write another take, I have to go back and review the six above for editing.  Here' a  picture from Australia of me and my fav flowers.

Royal Gardens in Sydney

More Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary, where Jennifer is continuing on her road to recovery quite well!

Culture Adjustment

Our daughter has returned from a year in Australia.  She has picked up some new vocabulary and speech patterns.  A brief dictionary: (American - Australian)
bathroom-toilet
university-uni
lots-heaps
bench-counter
excuse me-pardon
sweatshirt-jumper
Her accent is still the same, but sometimes she sounds different, putting inflections where we don't.

The other odd thing is she doesn't say "God bless you" when a person sneezes anymore.  We have to remind her.  Apparently they say nothing in Australia when you sneeze.
She'd rather have prawns than shrimp, but still not a fan of fish.  Her vegetable consumption now includes pumpkin, occasionally.  I suppose we can try it when it's in season.
Driving is still a bit awkward, since in Australia they drive on the left.

Not to mention the adjustment to living with us again after five years of not living with us.

Change, the only constant in life.

Two Final Days in Sydney

Jan 17
I didn’t sleep very well, maybe anticipating leaving?  I took it easy this morning, a perfect day, sunny and clear. Elisa isn’t coming in until 5 for dinner, so I decided to walk to St. Mary's Cathedral, slowly, for 1:10 pm mass. I walk through the retail district and Hyde Park, stopping in Myers department store for quite a bit. Pretty high end as far as clothes go. I will say the clothes were nicer than what I see at home. Then I had fried rice for lunch and kept walking on. I walked around the church, wishing I could take pictures inside. I spent about 45 minutes looking at all the windows, stations, and statues.  Then I prayed a rosary, the glorious mysteries, what else could I have prayed in that place? Then Mass, which was very full.  Then I made my way to the Darling Bridge and walked over to the other side of the harbor. Sunny, sunny day, love it.
Elisa came in and we went to Harbour View Hotel for dinner, an authentic Aussie pub, right under the Harbour Bridge, so cool.  No pictures, I forgot my camera.  I ate fish and chips and had a Tooheys beer.
Jan 18

My last day in Australia. I woke up, dressed and walked to the Harbour Bridge. It was hot, sunny and mostly clear, some clouds but no rain. I walked up the steps to the bridge entrance, I was so excited. I realize that I have never walked across a bridge like this. It takes me about 20 min to walk across, with stopping to take pictures. It takes longer to walk back because I see people climbing the bridge and stop to watch and take pictures. It is less dramatic than I thought; no harnesses or climbing as if up a mountain or rocks. Rather, there are steps, steep ones, which they use to go up to a platform sort of stop and then they start to go over the bridge on what seems to be a narrow walkway with sides. It is narrow and very high. Everyone is wearing a blue and grey jumpsuit, a black pack around their waist, blue baseball cap and a headset.  They are attached to the bridge with a strap on the railing and at the waist. The view must be breathtaking, but the walk was enough for me!
I wandered around The Rocks for a bit, found a sandwich shop and had a mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwich with a coffee that I ordered with only slightly more thought than at home, a tall black with  milk. I had my lunch in the park, walked a bit more and went back to the hotel to clean up before Mass and going to visit Elisa in Waroonga .

I took the train out to the suburbs; Waroonga is a sleepy little town with wide tree lineds streets.  The family she is working for is very nice.  We had Thai take-away for dinner and then I read to Sarah before she went to bed.  Apparently three books are more than usual, but I couldn’t say no to a five year old!

When it was time to go back, Lisa (the mom), Ben (12 year old) and Elisa gave me a ride.  I was almost glad the train was just pulling in so our goodbye was quick, but I still felt sad as I got on the train.  Sad and happy, that bitter sweetness when you leave your child, perfectly safe, happy and living out her dream, but missing her all the same because she is literally on the other side of world!

Trains, Mountains, and City Sights

Monday, Jan 16

I am on the 7:24 a.m. to Katoomba, out of Central Station. I flipped the seat to face forward and see the sights as we go up the mountain. It was raining this morning when I woke up, but is clearing up a bit. I have water, sandwich, and chips for lunch. The NOOK is charged for reading and writing purposes; after all, it’s two hours on this train each way! There is lots of graffiti on buildings and overpasses. The suburbs remind me of Queens, lots of attached houses, apartments, and big buildings. Australia is all about being ‘green’ as evidenced by all the laundry I see hanging from balconies and in backyards.

There are train conductors blowing their whistle when it is all clear to go. And so we roll on past

Redfern, Parramatta, Seven Hills, Blacktown, Doonside, Rooly Hill, St. Marys, Wellington, Penrith,l Instead of buildings I see cows, sheep, pastures and Melaleuca trees interspersed with small rural towns.

We keep climbing up to higher ground, a few towns on either side of a river. When I can see them, the houses are pretty big, with nice yards and patios. Many of the houses have solar panels on them.

Wow, if I could reach out the window I could touch rock wall and trees. I hope the train is well anchored to the track.

We keep rolling on toward Katoomba. We pass Glenbrook, Blaxland, Warimoo, Valley Heights, Springwood, Faulconbridge, Woodford, Leura, one more stop!

I think it universal that understanding the train conductor say the upcoming stops is not usual. Why? Don’t they want us to know where we are going and when to get off? Thankfully there are signs at each station so I know where I am. KATOOMBA!

The Three Sisters

I decide to walk to Echo Point on my own with a map. It took about 35 minutes. The fog was unbelievable when I reached the viewing area. I could hardly see anything for the fog. I am not alone, there are hundreds of people, tour groups, youth groups, couple, families all looking into this valley of fog. Suddenly it began to lift, and we saw stunning views, The Three Sisters to the left, standing guard over the mountain and valley.

I had lunch, caught the city bus back to the train station and walked around a bit then when into the train station to wait as it started to rain. Got on the 1:20 to Sydney, hoping the rain will clear up so I can do some more sightseeing in the city. No rain in Sydney so I decided to get off at Central Station and walk to St. Mary Cathedral. I misread the map, but asked for directions and got back on course. I walked up Wentworth for what seemed like miles, thinking I would never find it when, finally, I spy the steeple in the distance, I keep going and am greatly rewarded. A magnificent cathedral, of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney. It is dedicated to Mary, Help of Christians. There was a statue of St. Mary Magdalene in the sanctuary across from Jesus, after he has risen and she sees him in the garden. Sadly, no photographs were allowed.

After spending time in the cathedral, I walked back to my hotel, stopping at a bookstore, Dymocks . Decided on a take a way for dinner, pasta from the food court in an office building, $5, what a bargain.So, even without Elisa I found my way everywhere I wanted to go. Yea me! I am exhausted today; I think I spent at least five hours out of the ten I was out walking.

The Rocks, Sydney Harbor and the Opera House

It was raining this morning, so we didn't leave hotel until 11 am. We went to The Rocks neighborhood, which is very close to the Sydney Bridge. They had some cute things; it was a Farmer's Market type with lots of food and craft items as well as plants. After we browsed there for a bit and sampled some fudge we walked Sydney Harbor and the Opera House. We watched and listened to some Aborigines playing the didgeridoo and saw a very odd street entertainer. He talked more than he entertained! The Opera House is massive. It actually has many theaters inside with different things going on at the same time.

We took the bus back toward our hotel and walked down to this very cute pub, The Hart, for a late lunch. Elisa had a crocodile wrap, yes, really, crocodile. I tasted the meat; it was okay, pretty mild. I had a BLT, totally not my usual but it was delicious. The bacon was tasted more like ham than bacon. I also really like the aioli they use over here instead of mayo. After lunch it was time for Elisa to pack her bags and go to work in Waronga.

 I walked to the train with her and checked on my train for tomorrow’s trip to Blue Mountain. I was going to back to the hotel, since I'd left my map in my room, but then decided to walk down York and then turn back, not deviating from the street so I'd find my way back easily. The shops were amazing and then I was in front of Victoria Market. Yea for me! I had no idea what to expect, so I walked in and was completely bowled over. 4 floors of stores and a basement!   I think I saw every store but Tiffany and Bath and Body Works, really unbelievable. Worth Ave, Fifth Ave, Rodeo Drive and the Miracle Mile all rolled into one.

After looking in a few shops and recovering from the sticker shock, I went back to the hotel to plan my trip. I found out it takes almost 3 hours to get to Katoomba and the Blue Mountains, so I decided to have an early evening, so I can leave here by 8 am or so to start my adventure. Dinner is wine, crackers and hummus in my room.

 

To Market, Chinatown, and Harry Potter

Saturday, Jan 14
The weather was dreary a bit today. After we got ready we took the free shuttle bus to Chinatown, very big place and Paddy's Market.  Chinatown was just waking up so we went to the Market.  It was similar to Victoria's Market, but more touristy and filled with the same stuff to buy row after row.  I like Victoria's Market in Melbourne better.
We meandered over to the Powerhouse Museum for the Harry Potter exhibit.  The exhibit was brilliant.  The mueseum itself was a bit odd, more for young children  with lots of hands on things to try and a Wiggles exhibit.  There was a nice display of musical instruments and lace though.  We were not permitted to take pictures in the Harry Potter exhibit, so we have only what we can remember in our mind.  I'm sure that Elisa will recall much more than I will!

 

We found the bus again and went to the state library, not too exciting. However, we found a bottle shop and bought some wine.  Not the one I had the other night, but fine.  We made our daily trip to Coles for fruit, water, and snacks. We decided to go to Mass today so we had a snack, rested and then walked the two blocks to  St. Patrick . It was a very pretty church, one of the busiest in Sydney.  It was cool and rainy when we were done so we had dinner at the hotel and stayed inside the rest of the night.  

Sydney: Bondi Beach, Royal Gardens, Wharf

Jan 12


Sydney is wonderful! We got into the city and were lost, lots of one way streets so we drove over the Harbor Bridge twice in our quest to find the hotel. Found it, checked in and left again to drop off the car. We took the train back from the airport. When we got out of the station we found two surprises. One made me happy , the other Elisa. A Starbucks and Max Brenner, right near the hotel. We walked down to King Street Wharf in the Darling Harbor and had Thai for dinner. Then we walked the Harbor and went to Starbucks and Max Brenner for coffee and dessert. After that we were back to hotel and watched You’ve Got Mail. Dial-up memories! Elisa did not like the fact that at the end, she wasn’t even a little mad he lied to her.

Today is Friday and we are going to Bondi Beach. Sydney is somewhat like NYC, crowded and lots of cars and cabs on the road. I had no desire to drive in all of that, public transportation is much better! We took a train and a bus and it was much less stressful than driving. It is not a very big beach, but there were lots of people and surfers. I had fun watching the surfers. The water was too cold for me, but Elisa went in. I watched her make her way down to the shore, over to the left of our spot, since in front of us was for surfers. Also, the undertow was greater on in the surfing area. Eventually I stopped watching her, thinking I really didn’t need to do that plus I lost sight of her. A bit later, she comes back and says, “Did you see what happened? I almost drowned.” Me: “Really, Elisa, almost drowned. “ E: “Well the I was caught in the undertow and couldn’t remember what to do and I couldn’t touch the bottom when I tried to stand. But a cute boy was there and he asked if he should call the lifeguard and I said no and he pulled me up where I could stand.” Me: “Oh, I guess I should have been watching you better. Want a tissue? Need some water? You okay?” She was fine and so then we watched the surfers but decided not to swim again. (The conversation is to the best of my recollection)

Looked around for a bottle shop to buy some wine, but can’t find one. Elisa and I got cleaned up from the beach and then dressed for a night out. First stop, the Royal Gardens where we walked all the way to Mrs. Macguarie’s Chair. The view of the bridge and opera house was fabulous. The only thing I didn’t like were the bats in the trees and flying around.


Those are bats hanging from the tree branches.



Elisa by the Wishing Tree

  Very creepy. There was a wishing tree which we walked around and made wishes. I hope mine comes true. Not telling what it is or it won’t, those are the rules you know. Then we had a delicious dinner on the wharf again. I had lamb and some great wine from the Bleasdale label, a Malbac, which seems odd but I checked my receipt and that is what it says. Elisa had Blue Tongue beer or ale, also yummy. Elisa bought a cute hat and then we went back to the hotel.

To Sydney

We are ready for our road trip to Sydney. We have water, fruit, muesli bars, gas and directions. We are going to take the M1 to Princes highway. The scenery is beautiful and unlike highways in the U. S. these highways are just two lanes, right next to nature. We passed through many small towns, most with a general store/gas station and often not much else. It is amazing that we are on a main road to Sydney and it reminds me of a small state road in north Florida, like I10.

We stopped for lunch in Bairnsdale at a bakery shop. I had a spinach and feta cheese pie, Elisa had a meat pie. These pies are more like flaky turnovers, not like a dessert pie. We continued on to Lakes Entrance and got out there to look at the views of the lakes and Tasman Sea. In Orbost we filled up the gas tank again and had some ice cream.

We were starting to think about where to stop for the night, but were not quite ready. We decided to stop at Cann River, the intersection of Monaro and Princes Highways, figuring it would be a good size town. A few of the towns we passed through were so cute, with motels right on the water, mini-golf and places to eat. We hoped Cann River would fit the description. Alas, not so much. We were wrong. There was a vacancy at the motel, so we took a room and walked about the town. All three blocks of it. There were a few bakery/coffee shops but they were closed so we went to the only place open, ordered pizza for take away and watched loads of TV: Family Ties, Brady Bunch, How I met your Mother, Friends, Big Bang Theory, The Middle, and The Closer.

Eden

We left early the next morning, continuing on Princes Highway. I cannot say enough about the scenery and views. It was better when Elisa drove so I could really look at everything. We stopped in Eden, which is probably the first good sized town in New South Wales. Went on to Merimbula, which was very nice but we didn’t stop. Strolled through Moruya, then stopped for the night in Batemans Bay, we went for a walk into town and then drove to see some other beaches. I was hoping for a swim but it was too cool and windy. We had dinner at a pub; delicious chicken with mushroom sauce, potatoes, green beans, carrots, potatoes and a Victoria Bitter beer, for me while Elisa had chicken parm and a Tooheys Old beer.

Tomorrow we will be in Sydney, a day earlier than I thought but the hotel can accommodate us and I will return the car early.

Melbourne - Jan 7

First stop the gas station where we filled up the car before heading off into parts unknown. Let me say that it is hard work driving on the left and trying to figure out where you are going. We were on Hume Highway and it looked like it was simply a straight shot from Canberra to Melbourne. Somehow though, we got lost. Lost in a place that is nowhere near a town or people or road signs. We were lost in sheep and cow pastures. So instead of looking out the window at the beautiful scenery, we are praying for St. Anthony to find us! Thankfully we had gas and it was daytime and there was no rain or traffic. Actually,trafic would have been nice;  we didn’t see any cars for kilometers and kilometers. At some point I stopped the car, prayed, and then went back the way we had come. Then we saw the sign to turn off in the right direction. It was only on one side of the sign, not both so we didn’t see it the first time. We get into WaggaWagga, get more gas, see some people and cars and feel much better. We kept on going through many small towns, most without even a stop light and seeing lots of sheep and cows. We also saw many signs to visit various wineries. While a winery was on my list, going off the main road was no longer an option so we pressed on toward Melbourne, sans wine!

We found our hostel easily with a free car park attached to it. We checked into our little room with bath and refrigerator and left in search of food. For dinner we had burgers and as Elisa said, the meat tastes better than what we have here. Quite a few places were closed for holiday. We walked around for a while and then made our plans for tomorrow which was Sunday.

We went to 10 am Mass at St. Mary Star of the Sea. It was raining so we drove to Church. Simply beautiful church. The only odd thing was that confession was going on the same time as Mass. The priest even commented on what a blessing it was that they could offer this to the people.

By the time Mass was over the rain had stopped so we walked to Max Brenner’s for a most excellent decadent brunch of waffles with ice cream, strawberries, bananas and chocolate sauce. Then it was off to Queen Victoria Market to browse and shop for souvenirs. This market has everything from fruit to shoes; cafes serving all types of food and take-away. There are close to 1000 vendors and parts of the market date back to 1878. I bought some small Aboriginal paintings for myself and few things for friends as well.

We were ready to sit for bit so we took a free bus tour of Melbourne, complete with narration. It is a beautiful city and we are both looking forward to exploring more of it while we are here.

Our car was out of the car park already so we went to Little Italy for dinner. Little is the operative word. Two blocks long of restaurants on both sides and a small park. Dinner was calamari with rice and vegetables for me, pizza for Elisa. We were both happy. After dinner we walked to Carlton Gardens. All day we had walked everywhere getting where we wanted to go with little trouble, so we figured we would venture forth in the car to find Crown Casino Entertainment Center by the Yarrow River. We saw it on the tour, it was marked on our map and we forged ahead, full of confidence. Silly us! We could not find it. I think it’s the car.

The next was bright and sunny, a bit cool. We set out to visit the Old Melbourne Gaol. We learned about Ned Kelly and saw what the cells and where people were hung. Eerie place, but then again, it was a jail. On the way to Chinatown we stopped at the State Library of Victoria where they had some exhibits and Wi-Fi. Chinatown was huge. We had Thai food for lunch and then walked to the tram stop so we could go to the Crown Casino, but we walked in the wrong direction. That, however, turned out to be a good thing since we passed by a shop selling bubble tea, Elisa’s favorite! We found the City Circle Tram and went to the Crown Entertainment Complex where Elisa won 1.10 at the slot machine. She cashed in her winnings and off we went.

 

We were pretty tired so dinner came from the grocery store: Copper sparkling ale, hummus and crackers, and noodles for dinner, with nutella for dessert.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Sydney via the coast to the Great Ocean Road.

On My Way to Canberra

January 3, 2012

My bags are packed and I’m ready to go. My bag weighed twenty-nine pounds, not bad for a sixteen day trip! A few random travelling observations:

Wearing pajamas to travel in your car is fine; on airplanes it is just disgusting. Please bear in mind, not talking babies or little children, but grown men! YUCK.

Most peoples’ carry-on bags are too big. And then there are the women who cannot life the bag into the overhead compartment and ask for help. Really dislike this.

If you carry a dog or cat onto the plane in the main cabin, what happens if people are allergic to the dogs or cats?

I really like the charging stations in Atlanta and Los Angeles for your electronic devices. They came in handy for my NOOK.

I left West Palm Beach at 11:00 am for Atlanta, left Atlanta at 3 pm for Los Angeles, then I left LA at about 8:30 pm for Sydney. The flight to Sydney was the longest leg, but once we were settled and flying high, we had dinner. I watched some tv and slept most of the flight. We landed early in Sydney and going through customs was quick and easy. My big question is this, I left home on Tuesday, got to Australia on Thursday, where did a day go?

January 5

The plane got in early and after renting a car, I waited for Elisa for a bit. Once she got there we were off to Canberra, the capital of Australia. It took us about two and a half hours to get there. Our hotel was in Queanabeayn, Canberra, AU. We had a wait a bit for our room but then we got settled in, cleaned up and went into Canberra to see the Parliament Building and the War Memorial.

Everything closed by 5 pm so we went back to the hotel after eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

The next day we had big plans. First stop, the Australian National Botanic Gardens. It was very beautiful, with well-marked paths including how long it took to get where you were going. If I were to give a prize for the best signage I saw, it was in this garden. There are eucalyptus tees everywhere of course, and it smells so clean and fresh. After the Gardens, we ventured forth to the National Zoo and Aquarium.

The koalas were definitely my favorite animal. I don’t recall ever seeing them before. We also went into the open part of the zoo where you can pet the animals. I did this for my daughter. I stood very still, trying not to blend in so that the kangaroos, emus and whatever else may have been there ignored me. I was doing well, until a kangaroo hopped by me and I jumped. Elisa laughed, so did some other people truth be told. She went and sat next to the emu and was near the kangaroo. No amount of coaxing was getting me near them!

There was a dingo cage with an electrified fence, but no dingoes. So we moved on to the tigers. Then, we saw a zookeeper walking the dingoes around the zoo on leashes.
After the zoo we went back to the capital and went to the National Library and National Museum. The library had Apple computers so we quickly emailed and went on Facebook to let folks know what we were up to. There were no books to fond in this library on shelves that we could see. People were reading books and you could do research, but it must have all been somewhere inaccessible to the public.

The museum had a mixture of many art forms and periods. There was Aboriginal art which I found very striking. Asian and Indian art was also in abundance. Elisa and I agreed that Modern art seems quite pointless to us. The least inspiring we saw: a large canvas, almost the size of a wall in your home, with a border of black and then inside of that border a smaller one of burgundy. It looked like an empty, double matted frame. Just don’t get it.

We tried to find a pub for dinner, but couldn’t so we went to Hog Breath’s for dinner. I decided to was time to taste some beer so I had a Carlton draft, very light, not much flavor so I will not have that again.

Tomorrow we are off to Melbourne!





War Memorial



Botanic Gardens



National Library



Australian Vocab

A small sampling of words I found interesting

Bottle shop-liquor store
Chips-fries
Muesli-granola
Overtaking-passing
Car park -parking lot
Anti clockwise - counter clockwise
Lift - elevator
Que - line, as in what you get in to buy a train ticket for example
Rotter-bad guy
Windscreen - windshield
Eske -cooler
Rubbish - trash
Sunnies - sunglasses
Mates - friends
Toilet - bathroom
Thongs - flip-flops
Take away - take out, as in food
Emu Pass is what the pass is called for automatic payment of tolls on the roads.

I will post separately on coffee. Ordering was not as easy as you'd think!

7 Quick Takes



For more, go see Jennifer's blog today.

This is the Australia trip quick re-cap edition.
1.  The flight was not nearly as awful as I'd thought it would be.  I had plenty to read and since the long part of the trip was at night, I slept quite a bit.  I arrive early and was ready to leave the airport before Elisa even got there, so I waited for her, of course and then off we went. First stop, Canberra, the capital of Australia.
2.  Did you know that you have to drive on the left over there?  Oh yeah, so after twenty some odd hours traveling I hopped in ready to start this adventure.  Only I went to wrong side of the car!  Okay, that got sorted out and so we left Sydney via Hume Highway and arrived in Canberra. 

3.  Picture of my favorite flower in AU.  Turns out it is a type of lily from South Africa, but I saw it everywhere.



4.  My favorite places in Canberra were the Parliament Building and the National Botanical Gardens. 

5.   Check out the view from the upper balcony down tot he reading room of the National Library.  Yes, my daughter and I are a bit geeky so we go to places like libraries.  We can't help ourselves.

6.  Here are some more  pictures and commentary:

Koala bear at the Canberra National Zoo, so adorable.  Yes, maybe cliche, but really, it was looking at us and then climbed the tree and just made my day!

Love this idea in restaurant, you get a bottle of water so the waiter does not need to keep coming back to the table to fill your glasses.  It wasn't in all places, but many and I think it is a great idea we should adopt.



7.  I have more pictures, close to 300 I think, but I will leave you with these two. 







Did you miss me?

I was away on vacation....in AUSTRALIA! Yes, it was awesome, a trip of a lifetime I shared with my wonderful daughter.  Two weeks to see the sights from Canberra to Melbourne to Sydney. I missed being able to write, but kept a journal which I will slowly put up for you to read. 
 

At the National Botanical Gardens in Canberra