Sheer Beauty

Last night I got a call from Brian. He decided to take a walk from his house to his local Chicago neighborhood park since it was such a pretty night. It was about 10 I suppose when he went out, but he said it had been lightly snowing all day and he felt like going out to see it. Well, that would never occur to me at that time of night, but then he sent me the picture! WOW! So many descriptive words come to mind.

He is such a great photographer. Don't you think he has a good eye for layout and what will capture the viewer's senses? I would never have thought to take this picture from this angle. I will have to ask him if he used his SLR or his iPhone. Either way, I am envious of his talent. You haven't seen pictures like this in my blog, that's for sure.

My New Car

After much investigation and research, we decided to trade in my BMW and buy a new car that would hopefully hold its value more and would be easier to have maintenance done on. As a friend said to me yesterday, 'we went over to the dark side' and bought a Mercedes. It is a C250 sedan and is a dark metal gray with a light gray interior. And pretty!

The pros include riding higher in the driver's seat, great visibility, better sound system, navigation system, easier to get in and out of, enlarged trunk size, more leg room in backseat, more comfortable seats, heated seats, back-up camera, lighter upholstery, and better gas mileage. My car payment is considerably smaller as well. Hopefully this will be my last car. Dan loves driving it too.

The cons, well, it doesn't take turns like the Beemer and it does not accelerate as quickly. Of course the new car is a 4 cylinder and the BMW was a 6. Two very different cars for two different kind of drivers. I am more of a conservative driver, so the new car is better suited.

Today it is going for its first car wash. Ah....

The Hat

I am not a "hat person". I don't look good in hats. But a year and a half ago I bought a straw sun hat that would help keep the sun from my eyes (migraines) and the off my face (pre-cancer spots). I tried on zillions of hats and finally found one that I would actually wear consistently, however it was found at Nordstroms. You know where this is leading...it was way to expensive.

This hat is a joke in my family. The boys-mostly Jay- tease me all the time with comments like, "Mom, don't forget your hat" as we are leaving a restaurant or something. He has even hidden it, and then asked, "Mom, where's your hat?" I HAVE misplaced it before, so the jokes are somewhat fair.

I wore the hat all the time and even took it with me on the Australian trip! Well, it began to rip as some stitching came loose along the brim. Oh, I was crushed! But what to do? When we returned, I hopped in the car and drove to the mall, of course!

Well, thankfully I had purchased it on my Nordstrom credit card, because they looked it up and said, "Oh, this hat should have lasted you a lifetime." Well, the long and short of it is, I have a brand spanking new hat! No wonder I love to save up and shop there.

Melbourne

Back on ship for a good night's sleep and a full day at sea. Dan and I both had a lot of Bible reading for our Bible Studies to catch-up on, so this was a good time to dig in a bit.  We also attended a lecture about the city of Melbourne that was very interesting.

Melbourne is at the southern tip of Australia by the Tasman Sea and the Indian Ocean. Melbourne was Australia's first capital in 1901 when it became a part of the commonwealth of England. At this time it was settled as a Penal Colony. There are about 4 million people living there today.

One of the things we liked to do while with different tour guides was to listen for unusual saying.  If you want a hamburger, you could go to "Macca's". That's McDonalds.  Perhaps after eating you need to use the toilet--well it's called the 'dunny'.

Our first stop at this port was the Healesville Sanctuary. Seen one, seen 'em all. We saw 'roos',  and 'boomer's' (large kangaroos). There were also many birds as captured by this shot. It was very similar to the Featherdale Wildlife Center.






After what we considered too long a stay there, we headed for wine country in the Yarra Valley.

This valley produces award winning wines. We sat at outdoor tables and had a wine lesson and tasted 4 different wines. I passed on the wine, but everyone said it was great. We went inside the winery where they entertain guests and had a great lunch (that I did not pass on!).

Here is a little fact you might not know. Rose plants grow at the end of each row of vines. If the roses are healthy, then the soil and conditions of the grape plants will also be good. Growers use the roses as an indicator of the health of their vineyard. We left here and headed for another winery that wasn't near as good, but hey, free wine!

With a slight buzz, we loaded back on the bus and had a lovely tour of downtown Melbourne.
Dinner was back on the ship and we had time to chat with those who did not go on this outing. The evening ended with this great sunset at 8:45. Some folks went to the evening show and others went to listen to music or...

We prepared for two days at sea as we head for New Zealand and the Fiordland National Park. Unfortunately we couldn't go ashore, but would spend the day cruising by the Fiords. If you have ever gone on an Alaskan cruise, it would be like cruising through Glacier Bay. So basically we had 3 days at sea. More reading, lectures, cards, ship shopping opportunities (don't worry, I refrained and bought nothing), the gym and walking track, pool and sauna...well, you get the picture.

Tasmania

We arrived at the island of Tasmania after spending a day at sea and this would be our first official stop on the cruise. The high was 61 degrees so it was a bit chilly and those sunrise pictures in the last post would have been taken about 6:00 a.m.

We had a quick breakfast and headed to the gangway to go on a tour of the Bonorong Wildlife Conservation Center. This was a similar type of park to the one we saw at Featherdale. We had a private tour for 10 with a great guide.

The kangaroos and wallabies roamed free and hopped wherever they chose to. We saw several Tasmanian Devils. These animals have razor sharp teeth and tend to hide in dark shelters like hollowed trees. They just looked like huge rats! Glad they were in an enclosure with posted signs DO NOT FEED. Doesn't he looked annoyed?

On this tour we also went to the Field National Park (UNESCO site) and walked through a temperate rain forest. It is home to the world's second tallest hardwood trees. Only the giant sequoia's in California are bigger. The forest was primarily made up of ferns, moss, and eucalyptus trees. We also saw Russell Falls and the had lunch by a small river formed from the falls.
Good thing we had layers of clothing to put on. We did not expect the number of cool days during their "summer."

From this point on we had to let all the tour guides know that the ladies had to have retail therapy booked into each stop. Heck, we even stopped at a small grocery/farmers market on this tour to get cheese and crackers to take back to the ship for before dinner snacks. We also discovered a great little cookie called a Tim Tam. NOT a diet item! No one on this trip passed up a single opportunity to eat!

A Cool Sunrise

This sunrise was taken out on our veranda (aka the 7 x 7 square pad). There was a vapor trail that I was able to capture. Below I was playing around with different settings on my camera to see what effects I could get as the sun was coming up.

You can see tiny hot air balloons in the center picture. I wish my camera had a better zoom because they were so pretty and colorful. The balloons were drifting into where the sun was. Great way to start a day huh?


This is where we were coming into port in Hobart, Tasmania. Tasmania is a small island located in the Tasmanian Sea which is a fairly rough patch of water. Things were made worse because of the fires that had been burning out of control for over a week.

The Blue Mountains

It is day 4 of the trip and we have a planned tour to be on. It will be the last day before we get on the ship to begin the cruise. First off we boarded a small bus (holds 10 plus the driver) and headed for Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary located in the Blue Mountains of Australia. The sanctuary was set up to help with injured or abandoned birds, reptiles, and mammals. The kangaroos and wallabies wander free throughout the park. We had a blast feeding them. They beg just like dogs! Did you know a group of kangaroos is called a "mob?" Here's another fact...Did you know that all native AU animals are marsupials? I am just a plethora of tiny facts!

We saw the famous Tasmanian Devil (mean little suckers), dingoes, emu, penguins, falcons, crocodiles, snakes, sheep, goats, and walliroo. In the USA we would never have a place like this as we have way to many controls and restrictions. An OSHA nightmare. But it was a wonderful experience!

I got a picture of us feeding and petting this little guy in his tree. No fences, just walk up and say hi. They were not hiding as they do in the zoo. It was so cool.

From here we boarded back on the bus and headed for the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately because of the high fire threat (Tasmania had horrid fires), we could not go down into the mountain valley as indicated on the tour.

Eucalyptus trees grow everywhere! They're are called "gum trees" there and they are not native. They were imported there years ago and grow like weeds. There are about 800 species of gum trees growing there. They are used for railway ties and for medicinal purposes. Boy could you smell them too.

We got to see a didgeridoo (spelled several ways) that is traditionally played by the Aboriginal people. One of our group tried to play it with minimal success. We also learned about the 3 traditional stone/chalk colors that are used in artwork. They are yellow, white, and orange. They use a lot of concentric circles and dots to tell about various cycles in life. We saw many boomerang decorated that way but failed to find one we wanted to bring home. We did find a nice framed piece of art that has India ink painted on bone depicting Australian life in the bush. Very unusual, but affordable.

Here's another tidbit... 97% of all opals come from Australia. Black opals are the best quality an most expensive. Doublets and Triplets are also available, but of much less value. Don't consider buying an opal from anywhere that isn't extremely reputable and specializes in opals. It is easy to be sold an inferior stone at a huge cost because we can't judge what we are buying.

Sydney- Day 3

Today was considered a "free day" to do whatever we wanted. Dan and I chose to go it alone and take a ferry over to Manley Beach. It was a 30 minute ride via the Sydney harbor. What a difference from Bondi beach! Very family oriented and buzzing with activity. Since it was summer there, the children were on break and many were acting as street performers along the central square attached to the boardwalk. There was a juggler, a violinist, and the most amazing 13ish boy who wrote songs, sang them, while playing the guitar!

Earlier in the day a shark had been spotted so a sign was posted warning people to venture out at their own risk. I'm telling you, the water was full of people and there was even two life guarding classes going on. See, this is why I don't go in the ocean and at 58 I'm not going to start. Big bad things are in the water!

I would definitely recommend a side trip to this location is you are planning a trip to AU. The ferry ride is reasonable and a good way to see some of the harbor.

When we returned to the Sydney harbor we took a closer look at the Opera House and strolled the area. Lots of activity and very clean. Believe it or not we stopped at a "taco shack" for lunch! Let me tell you, Australian tacos can be passed on. It was good, but there was nothing about it Mexican. Even the corn tortilla was very strange.

We also found a wonderful ice cream shop that got a lot of  business from this traveling group! We even found a hardware store that had the biggest selection of fuses Dan had ever seen.

Here is a travel tip...never take your universal converter without throwing in a few extra fuses! Two trips now we have blown fuses. Last time we couldn't get a fuse, so we were lucky this go around. Another tip...when purchasing a converter check to see the fuse size. 12.5 is NOT standard and impossible to find. 10, 12, and 15 are more the standard. We actually had to buy a new converter after the Asia trip because after scouring SD we could not find a 12.5 fuse. The other alternative is to leave all electronic devices behind. The cruise ships we have been on have 110 outlets, but none of the hotels. That means no phone, no iPad, no computer, no camera battery charger, no flat iron or your own more powerful hairdryer...without a converter. After all, I am a princess and I cannot live without these things!

Sydney Day 2

Once you hit Sydney there are two structures that every tourist takes photos of...the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge. The bridge has a nickname that the local have given it, "The Coathanger." It is about a mile or so across from one end to the other as it spans the harbor. For a mere $125 bucks you can put on a bright colored shirt, be tethered to the rails, put special shoes on, be willing to fight strong breezes and off you go with a guide! Looks like a blue or orange caterpillar crawling up the arch of the bridge. Needless to say, those with a fear of heights, claustrophobia, or an inability to hike up and down steep grades, should choose a different way to see Sydney harbor. I did. You can walk across the bridge at car level in a protected enclosure. It was a spectacular view and free.

 As promised, here is a day view of the Opera House taken from the bridge. I use a Cannon G11 Super Shot which allows for some zoom, but not what an SLR camera can do. I'm just not that fancy and too old to learn all those setting again. Love the shoot and go.

Our beloved travel agent and traveling companion extraordinaire, Carol, booked several tours for us (after our input, of course) before, during, and after the cruise. It was great because we were never with more than 10 at a time, and the logistics with the buses and guides was so easy. We think our tours were far superior to anything Princess had to offer and most times considerably cheaper.

So, on day 2 we boarded a bus and headed for the famous Bondi Beach. It has beautiful sand and is full of people wanting to surf and lay in the sun. It wasn't very "family friendly" however. Lots of singles. After a short stay we headed back into town and stopped at St. Mary's Cathedral.  Its construction was heavily influenced by other European cathedrals. It was beautiful inside and would be the first of many churches we popped into.

Sydney, Australia-Day One

Our Australian vacation began in AU with a flight out of SD on Jan 5th. Because of time changes and the International Date Line, we didn't land in Sydney until Jan. 7, 2013. There were 12 of us/6couples on the trip. Two of the couples we went with on the Asian trip. So we had new people to meet which is always fun.

Our vacation gave us 3 days in Sydney before boarding the cruise ship for a 14 day trip around parts of Australia and New Zealand. When the cruise was over we stayed in Aukland, NZ for an additional 4 days before heading for home.

After a quick check through customs we headed for the Marriott (where we finally applied for a points card), threw our stuff in the room and headed out for the Hop On - Hop Off Bus. We had already purchased tickets through Viator before we left the states, so we were ready to go. The cruise wouldn't start until the 11th, so we had a few days to adjust and see some of Sydney at our own pace.

The bus is a great way to see a city you are unfamiliar with because there is informative narrative as well as opportunities to snap a few pictures and make notes of where you would like to return. Tickets are relatively inexpensive and last for a full 24 hours. In our case, it was a way to begin the vacation while suffering from plane dehydration, exhaustion (try sleeping with a crying baby on a 15 hour flight), and jet lag!

We saw sites such as Hyde Park, the Royal Botanical Gardens, Wooloomoolou Bay, the Parliament House, Sydney Opera House and Bridge, and the Sydney Fish Market. Several of these sites we were able to get back to for a closer look. For lunch we ate at a little outdoor cafe and I tried my first ginger beer. It is their idea of ginger ale. NOT the same! Very gingery, but good. Food wasn't any different than home, although it is prepared differently and much more expensive. By the way- it is summer in the southern hemisphere so we had to scrounge around to find some shorts to take!

Our day ended with an outdoor waterfront Italian dinner that was within walking distance of the hotel. With full stomachs we headed for the hotel along the boardwalk and I was able to get this picture of the Opera House. I took several daytime shots too, but those will be in another post. Because we often would spend the day in small touring groups, dinners were always together to catch up on the day's events and plan for the following day. Needless to say we were ready for a good night's sleep and excited about another day in Aussie-land.