Maroon Bells Pictures

When we first went to the Maroon Bells on Friday they looked like this - grey sky and with a snowstorm across the mountains.  It was pleasant out and we took a walk to the far side of the lake, but definitely not very pretty.

Every now and then the snowstorm would clear and we could see the entire mountain.  But much of the time they were covered by a snowstorm.

When we went back on Sunday, we had a clear, blue sky and the mountains were much, much prettier!  Much nicer, altho it was also quite a bit colder.

Here's a closeup of the mountain.  You can clearly see the distinctive diagonal lines.  There was a sign stating how dangerous it was to climb these mountains.  It mentioned how the rock was "rotten"!  I never heard of rotten rock, but apparently it is quite unstable.  The sign went on to state that several experienced climbers had died on the Maroon Bells.  

Sure is pretty!  Enjoy!

Heading Home from Aspen

Yes I missed a day, but not much internet time yesterday...

SAturday was two John Denver events - the Cookhouse at lunchtime and a second Wheeler concert in the evening.

The Cookhouse event was at a ranch and featured the Friends With You band, the same group we heard Thursday night. Judy Therion saved us two seats at a close table which was a good thing since the hall was rather long and the speakers were not carrying well to the back. We had a rather international table. Next to me was a lady from Germany and next to her, one from Japan! After the very enjoyable concert we had a nice buffet lunch, then they introduced a new John Denver DVD. The guy who own this ranch was a producer for ABC Sports in the 70's and 80's and since John was featured at the 1984 Sarievo winter olympics, he had all the footage (on 3/4" tape!) of John doing human interest stories about the people. Some of this had been aired and some not. He showed a few scenes from the DVD.

That evening was the second Wheeler concert. It was mostly a repeat of the Friday event. I enjoyed the music, but the jokes by the comic were not nearly as funny when you already know the punch line. Mack Bailey sang at this concert which was very cool. He's Mary's favorite current singer.

Sunday we had 4 things planned. The day started off rough since we missed the first event. The lack of road signs caused us to miss the road we were supposed to take and things went downhill from there. But since it as a clear and beautiful day we did head back to the Maroon Bells and got some great pictures of this range with a bright blue sky background.

Next was a Windstar event. Windstar is an organization John founded dedicated to the proper stewardship of the planet. As with any cause, differenced exist and some JD fans have started a new organization, Blue Planet, which was the beneficiary of a few of our events. We saw the Peace Cloth there along with a great sculpture of a eagle landing on John's arm, then hiked up over 100 feet to a Medication platform. At this altitude that took a few breaks...

After that we headed back to town for a quick lunch and a great concert by Mack Bailey, Pete Huttlinger, and Chris Nole. WOW! What great musicians! They played a lot of their own material with a few JD songs mixed in. They had a great mix of jazz, blues, and folk songs surrounded by fabulous musical talent.

Next we had to hustle to the campfire. Since the forecast was for rather cold weather we put on a few layers and headed out. We got there in plenty of time for the moment of silence at 6:27, then enjoyed the bonfire. The entire Friends with You band showed up and the 3 guitar players played JD songs and lead the sing along. I helped roast marshmallows (in part as an excuse to get close to the fire) and tried to make some Jiffy Pop (utter failure). We stayed until about 9:00 then helped load the bales of hay back on a wagon and headed back to Aspen.

Today we're planning to stop at Red Rocks amphitheater on our way back to Denver and our flight back to Detroit.

It's been a great trip and I'd be glad to be Mary's driver at any future events. LOL

Aspen, Day 2

Sorry, no pictures.  At our motel, we have a very intermittent wireless signal so uploading picture is problematic.  

This morning we headed out to the Maroon Bells.  Unfortunately there was a snow storm in progress on the mountains when we got there.  After a while it cleared and we got some pictures and we took a walk around the lake, which at this altitude caused slight shortness of breath.  And we did experience our first snow of the winter as we walked around.

After hanging out there for a while, waiting for the sun to come out we headed our for lunch at the Woody Creek Tavern, a place where John Denver liked to hang out.  Since it was JD weekend, they were playing his music, much to the chagrin of the staff and regulars.  We had a nice lunch, then headed back to Aspen.  As we got close to Aspen I thought I spotted some sun on the Maroon Bells so we headed back out there again, but it didn't last.  We hope to try again on Monday as we head out for Denver.

The afternoon concert could best be described as "interesting".  Little/no JD music and lots of folk music.  One guys claim to fame was a song he wrote in 1965.  

Tonight's concert was fabulous!  It started at 7:30 and ended at 11:15 with only one short intermission.  Lots of different artists and many, many songs --  a very enjoyable event even for a casual JD fan like me.

So we're at the Mountain Chalet sing-along now.  This even happens every night -- people gather, musicians play, and people sing along.  Last night we stayed until 11:30 and we heard it didn't break up until 1:30 am!  So who knows how long it will last tonight.  I brought a cup with Diet Dr Pepper to held tide me over....

So that's Day 2 - two more concerts tomorrow.

Arriving at Aspen

We made it and are in Aspen.  Our flight was uneventful, taking off on time and arriving on time.  Our goal was to arrive at Aspen by 4:00 which we almost made, arriving at the park for the opening service at 4:02, due to many delays.  

We sure noticed was in increase in carry on luggage now that Northwest charges for all bags. As expected, we had a full plane - no empty seats.  

Once we got to the airport, it took forever to get our bags.   Mary eventually got her suitcase, but then the conveyor belt got jammed so they had to wait for a maintenance guy to un-jam it.  Having landed at 10:15, we finally headed to the car rental bus at 11:15 just to see one pull away.  We got on the next bus which was packed and we ended up at the end of the line.  After waiting a while I notice a Blue Key members line and went over there.  Sure enough since I joined their club, our car was ready and waiting for us!  That only cost of 15 minutes...

We were expecting the drive to Aspen to take about 3 1/2 hours since it was 11:45, I figured we had a little time to spare.  So instead of fast food, we had a nice burger at a local place - probably cost us another 10 minutes.  As I get on the road I see the mileage to Glenwood Springs are start computing - Looks like a 3:35 ETA at Aspen.  Then we hit lane closures.  I lost count, but the big one was about 30 miles long and we ended up doing 30 - 35 mph behind a long line of cars lead by a large heavy truck.  So now I'm getting worried and counting up all the  minutes I'd wasted.

We made it to Glenwood Spring at 3:25 and had 40 miles to go to Aspen.  The road to Aspen has lot so traffic signals and speed limits in the 45 - 55 mph range - not looking good.  But I found a couple of other cars zipping along and followed them and we made it to the park at 3:59!  But by the time we parked and walked over, they had just started the service.

So all's well, that ends well.  Mary saw several of her JD friends and we got some good pictures (which we have not uploaded yet) including one of her with Jim Connors who wrote "Grandmother's Feather Bed" (She was thrilled!)

That's it for now!

Weekend Conference

This weekend finds Mary and me in Lansing, Michigan at the annual Michigan Church Extension conference.  We're at a very nice Sheraton hotel - same one as last year - and the conference is going well.  Today we had an excellent keynote speaker talking about Discipleship followed by some breakout sessions.

Tonight is a banquet, followed by awards.  The morning brings some additional reports and a worship service capped by a very nice brunch.

Then it's back to Dearborn for a short week since we head for Aspen on Thursday!

A Good Reason to Cruise Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has Mac minis installed on its Freedom Class (3,600 passenger) ships, and is working with Apple on IT infrastructure for its upcoming Oasis Class (5,400 passenger) liners. The deployments planned will have up to 16,150 Ethernet drops per ship, racks full of Xserves, and thousands of client Macs. 

Gotta Love it!

The Bridge walk

We had a very good time on the Mackinaw Bridge walk today.  Everything went about as planned except it took me much longer than expected to return from St Ignace with the car.  The walk itself was not hard at all.  By the end my legs were getting a bit tired since I'm not used to 10K walks, but you barely felt the climb and the downhill.  We were both amazed at the number of people who did this walk.  When I headed back to get the car, there were people on the bus who were just starting the walk at 11:20!

Once we got headed south we had lunch in Spike's Keg O' Nails  since that was where Mary's dad like to eat when in Grayling fishing the Au Sable river.  Then came the looong ride home, with lots of traffic and several slowdowns for no apparent reason. We finally got home at 6:00 p.m. after getting up at 5:10 am.  After unpacking, we got a pizza for supper started getting ready for tomorrow.

So that's how our day went.  Very enjoyable, but also very long and tiring.

Sunday in Northern Michigan

We had a very nice today today.  After a quick breakfast at Burger King we headed to Hartwick Pines for a walk in the woods.  There was a nice paced trail through the forest, but I had a big disappointment.  One thing I recalled from my earlier visit (waaaay too many years ago to admit) was a very big pine tree with a fence around it.  Well, it turns out that tree lost it's top 35' due to a 1992 lightening strike and died in 1996.  So The Monarch is no more.  8-(

After leaving Hartwick Pines we then headed to Cross Village for lunch at a Polish restaurant called Legs Inn.  There was no traffic at all as we approached Cross Village, but when we got there, the place was packed with motorcycles and bicycles!  I'm not sure why the motorcycles were there, but the bicycles we due to the annual DALMAC bike rally. The place was packed but since we arrived at 1:30 most of the crowd was leaving so we only had a 25 minute wait for a table.  We enjoyed a polish beer while sitting on a swing and overlooking Lake Michigan from a high cliff.  Lunch was great!  Mary had perogies while I had kielbasa and sauerkraut.

So we were finally on our way to Sault Ste Marie, arriving at 4:30.  After some relaxing time, we headed downtown for a whitefish dinner.  As we arrived we saw a large ship entering the Poe lock so we went out to watch it. After that we checked the schedule and saw another ship was arriving soon so we waited and got this great picture which I've titled "Walking the Boat".  Like someone with that tiny line is going to have any affect on a ship of that size!  After watching the ships pass through the lock we had a great dinner, got an ice cream chaser next door and walked around the downtown area.  

So we had a great, relaxing day, are all settled in for the night, and are looking forward to tomorrow's Bridge Walk.

Peter's Birthday

We're on our way north for the Bridge walk.

Yesterday we drove to Seibewing for our great nephew's 1st birthday party.  Peter did a good job of opening his gifts  - there were lots of them - and then enjoying his 1st birthday cake.  The cake was a miniature Pooh - as you can envision from the remains in the picture.  

They had lots of snacks and held an outdoor barbeque with nice salads for supper.  

We exited about 7:00 and headed for West Branch where we were surprised to find a very nice motel!  It has an interior pool/play area and we had an interior balcony room overlooking it.   

Our plans for today are to visit Hartwick Pines as we wander north to Sault Ste Marie. Should be a nice day!

Aspen in October

Like she did last year in October, Mary is again headed to the annual Aspen in October John Denver event.  And this time I get to go along!  w00t!  So after looking like a no travels at all this fall, we're now doing the Mackinaw Bridge walk in September and Aspen in October!  I guess it's hard to keep certain travelers at home.  

So we fly to Denver, rent a car, then drive to Aspen for the festivities.  Lots of concerts, socializing, and other events all packed into 4 fun filled days.  Mary is a bit worried I'll be bored, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it, but probably not quite as much as she will.

Anyhow, that's a quick look at our second trip this fall.  Stay tuned for pictures and posts from these mini-vacations.

Heading North

At the end of August, Mary and I are going to do something we've always wanted to do - The Mackinac Bridge Walk!  The walk is a bit over 5 miles and is by no means flat since the bridge rises to about 200' over the water.  Whenever we've crossed the bridge in the past, the topic of following the Governor across the bridge comes up and this year, we've decided to make it happen.  The logistics get a bit tricky since motels in Mackinaw City want upwards of $250/night that weekend so we're staying in West Branch on Saturday night, then crossing the bridge and staying in Sault Ste Marie Sunday night (after doing some sightseeing on the way at Hartwick Pines and a couple of other places,  before heading back south Monday morning for the bridge walk.  It'll be a long day on Monday with a 1 hour drove St Ignace, the 5 mile bridge walk, then a 5 hour drive back to Dearborn, but Mary start school the next day and I'm back at work so that's how it needs to be.  Good thing we're in pretty good shape!

As a "plus", Stephanie and Michael are holding a 1st Birthday party for Peter on that Saturday so we can go to his party on our way north.  

As Katie has said " I knew you couldn't go 6 months without a trip"!

Next Trip

Now that we're back I get a lot of question about "What's next"?  I typically have some idea of our next trip by the time we go on one, but this trip took so much I did not focus on anything else.

But now that we're home, we've talked about it we're thinking Key West would be a nice place to visit this winter.  As to timing, we might go after Christmas or we might go in February during Mary's spring break from school.  Only time will tell....

Until then, probably not much activity on this page unless we take a weekend trip somewhere this fall.  You never know when the travel urge might strike...

Reviewing our Australian Adventure

If you are new to this site and wish to review my Australia posts, it's best to do that oldest-to-newest. To accomplish this,  either click the link or scroll down the page and look for "Waiting for the Plane" under June posts, then click the "Newer Post" link at the bottom of each page until you are current. There's about 1 post/day (sometimes 2) so you'll have just over 30 posts to read to review our wonderful trip.

Happy reading!

Getting back to normal

Yesterday was my first day back to work and it went pretty well.  I had a bit of a crisis to get ready for an 8:30 meeting, but besides that all went OK.  I got through about half of my pending emails so I still have some catching up to do.

Yes, I did wear my new Aussie hat and an Australia polo shirt.

Several people wanted to hear more about my vacation and, much to my surprise, one had even taken the exact same Great Barrier Reef excursion when she visited Australia some 15 years ago!  Same tour company and the same island.  Amazing!  

So Monday I should be able to get back into a regular work routine.

I think I'm pretty well over the time zone change issues.  Slept very well last night and am getting tired now, which is when we normally hit the sack.  So it seems to take 3 days to make the change, altho I've been functional for the past 2 days.  

That's it for today.  Hope you had a happy 4th of July!

More Australia Pictures

In case you had not noticed, I changed the slideshow to display the underwater pictures I took on my Great Barrier Reef snorkel adventure.  They are also available as a full screen slideshow by following the link on the right and making a few extra clicks.  The original slideshow pictures remain available as well.

Today I have published a composite video of various Australian animals I took while on vacation.  You can access it by clicking here.  It's not very professional, but I love to see the kangaroos hopping and koalas feeding so I thought I'd share those (and others) with you.

I hope you enjoy watching it!

Back Home

Well, we're back in Dearborn.  The NWA flight was pretty good today.  Ran right on time and no issues.  Andy picked us up at the airport and we got home by 9:30 p.m.  I got unpacked while Mary called her mother and have my stuff pretty much put away.  

I do have quite a few things to do tomorrow and I really should make a list of them before I go to sleep tonight. It's not as long as Mary's list, but some of the tasks will take some time to do - like get caught up as Emmanuel treasurer.  Near the top is to get the pictures from the underwater camera developed so I can post more Great Barrier Reef pictures.  

Other than that there's not much new to report.  Just a safe trip home and a strong recommendation for anyone who needs to stay near the San Francisco airport to consider the Comfort Inn - Milbrae.  It's a very nice place on El Camino Way and has a bus stop right in front that can take you to a BART station for easy access to downtown.  It has very nice facilities, includes free airport shuttle, internet, breakfast, pool whirlpool and very spacious rooms at a good rate.  If Mary and I visit San Francisco again we will most likely stay there and use BART to go downtown.  

Time to hit the sack as we attempt to get back on Michgan time...

The Loooooong Flight Home

Well, after a 1 day delay, we did make it back to San Francisco today.  But the flight left lots to be desired. We were on a totally packed 747 - not a spare seat to be had - and when they made seat assignments for this replacement flight they did not keep couples together so initially Mary and I were in different rows.  After some elevator capacity issues at the hotel which caused delays at getting checked out and out to the bus, very long lines at Qantas check-in (normal flights plus our make-up 747 plus another make-up 747 headed to London), the seat assignment issue about put us over the edge.  They sent a note to the gate staff to move us around which eventually happened, but not without considerable stress in the interim. 

We were in seats B and C (middle and aisle) so no wall to lean against to sleep and no open seat like we had on our outbound flight.  The seats seemed closer together on this plane as well - I don't recall having an issue with my knees hitting the seat in front of me when flying to Australia.  Then once they served dinner and hot chocolate and people were supposed to quiet down, the plane remained very noisy.  People talking out loud, babies and small children crying every few minutes, and lots of general commotion removed any possibility of sleeping until about 8 hours into the 14 hour flight. So it was not nearly as pleasant as our outbound flight.  I think things might have been better had we not had the 1 day delay since we suspect Qantas added more passengers to our flight since they delayed the normal flight 73 by a hour to make room at the gate for our flight.  Mary's reaction:  "next time Business class".

I think I slept a bit on the flight but it was not high quality sleep; I don't think Mary slept at all.  So we're a bit groggy today.  I took a 1 hour nap once we got checked in here in San Francisco and we're planning to stay up for a few hours then to get to sleep by 8:00 this evening to help with the time zone transition. 

Tomorrow is "back to Detroit" day (NWA flight 342) with Wednesday being a get caught up at home day before heading back to work on July 3rd.  So our long Australia vacation is drawing to a close.  I watched the Australia coast disappear from view this morning with many regrets about leaving, yet I knew it was time to go.

Still in Sydney!

Well, we thought we were at our last day in Sydney, but then things happened.

As we went to the airport I joked to Mary that we should volunteer to be bumped since we have an extra day in San Francisco.  As we neared our boarding time an announcement of a 15 minute delay due to equipment issues was made.  15 minutes later, it became an indeterminate delay. The next announcement was the kicker:  "We're sorry to announce that we have to open up the plane to effect repairs and no alternate aircraft is available.  Your flight has been delayed to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow.  We will bus you to a hotel, provide supper and breakfast before busing you back to the airport.  We apologize for any inconvenience".

I cannot begin to imagine what Qantas had to do to find a hotel with 200+ available rooms and the logistics to move a fairly full 747 load of people to a hotel overnight.

So, we are now staying in Novotel Sydney, right on Darling Harbor!  Talk about a step up from the places I booked!  

So now I just need to call our place in San Francisco to cancel Sunday night since we obviously won't be needing that room.

Our last day in Sydney

Well, the Australia portion of our vacation is at an end. We had some last minute souvenir shopping to do today in Darling Harbor so we got that out of the way in the morning, then got dressed up for the Bjorn Again (ABBA Tribute band) concert at the Opera House.  The concert was good - very energetic - and we enjoyed it a lot, especially attending an event in the Opera House.

After that we took a ferry under the Sydney bridge to the north end of Darling Harbor, found a nice place for supper, then took a bus back to our hotel - and started packing. 

Earlier this week we feared we'd have to ship a package home, but it now looks like everything will fit into our 3 suitcases and we have a spare carry on bag we can use if need be.

So tomorrow is our loooooooong day (36 hours from when we get up until we see a sunset in San Francisco) so that will be a challenge.  Hopefully we can catch a few hours sleep on the plane like we did on the way to Australia.

The Blue Mountains

Today we took the bus to Central Station, then caught a train to Katoomba where we got passes on an excursion bus to see various places in the Blue Mountains.  The trails involve lots of up and down hiking and most of the once marked "easy" should be "moderate" in my book.  We didn't have any trouble with them but they involved lots of steps, rough terrain, and some very large steps.

We did walk a few trails and took a miners train ride down a 52 degree slope (felt more line 70 degrees!) and a tram back up from the bottom of the valley.  Even tho we were prepared for colder weather, we were both rather chilled as the high for the day was just 50 F.  Guess we're getting a bit spoiled.  LOL

Anyhow, we enjoyed seeing them a lot and had a nice day.

Australian Currency

This the first vacation where we've had to deal with foreign currency.  Previously on cruises, everyone took US $ so we did not have to exchange money.  Australia has very colorful currency and some unusual coinage which took some getting used to.

The coins are arranged highest to least value as you go down the picture.

• no pennies
• smallest bill is a $5
• the bills are different sizes
• no quarters: 5, 10, 20, 50 cent pieces in ascending size
• the $2 coin is smaller that the $1 coin

It just seems so weird to get any change under $5 as coins.  Mary and I keep building up lots of value in coins since the $2 coins are so small and you get lots of them.

Anyhow I thought you might enjoy seeing what the currency looks like.

I do want commend my Charles Schwab representative - he was very helpful in suggesting I open a Schwab Bank account since they have very favorable exchange fees.  I just used the debit card as a credit card for all our expenses and I could do ATM withdrawals to obtain Australian currency.  At one airport purchase they wanted to do the exchange for us, but by having them charge me in Australian$ we saved $5 on a $110 purchase. 

Thinking about home

As I woke up this morning I realized that we only have two more full days in Australia.  As they say, "all good things must come to an end"...  It's be a fabulous vacation so far and we have the Blue Mountains today and a "misc stuff "day tomorrow with the ABBA concert in the afternoon as a highlight.

So we'll be home in a few days, after spending 2 days in San Francisco to help with the time change adjustment (and because that's when I could get the free flight on NWA...) then back to the daily grind.  In some ways that will be nice, but in others....

Visiting the Opera House

This morning Mary and I toured the Sydney Opera House.  It was a very enjoyable and informative tour.  They included several videos about how the design was selected, construction issues, and current issues.  The story was quite amazing as were many of the construction details.

We did see the theater where John Denver performed (which made someone very happy), but were unable to take pictures of it since a band was rehearsing. 

On our way out Mary spotted a poster about an ABBA Concert called Bjorn Again.  She was disappointed that we could not see them in Detroit since they were appearing in June while we were in Australia.  I looked and saw they were performing on June 28th, this coming Saturday.  Since that was a somewhat open day, we bought tickets for the afternoon matinee so now we will actually attend a performance in the Opera House!  Very cool!

Bridge Climb!

Today was my bridge climb.  It was very cool and I'm glad I took the Discovery Tour instead of the traditional one.  The traditional tour walks up the top steel on one side of the bridge and back on the other side.  That's like walking up an 8' wide sidewalk.  The Discover Tour, on the other hand, has you walking on the lower catwalks below the span and you walk next to the steel and granite, close enough to touch it.  Near the top you climb ladders from the lower steel to the top as you can see in this picture. 

The climb was quite exhilarating.  While they took individual pictures, there was lots of time to just lean back against the rail and take in the view.  I'm glad the winds dies down a bit.  In morning when Mary and I were headed to the Opera House, they were around 80 km/hr (50 mph) but by the afternoon they were half that speed. 

The guide took lots of nice pictures, but their pricing was exorbitant so I just bought one of me and got a free group picture. 

So it was a wonderful thing to do once, but not something I'm likely to do again. 

A Day at the Zoo

We spent today at the Toranga Zoo, with Robert and Pat Evans, their grandson, Nathan, and Nathan's parents.  That's Pat with Mary in today's photo with the Opera House and bridge in the background.

It was very interesting spending a day at a zoo with a 3 year old.  Definitely tugs on the "grandparent strings", although someone's were tugged a bit harder than mine.  8-)

Tomorrow we tour the Opera House in the morning and my bridge walk is in the afternoon.  I got this picture of some people at the top of the bridge today.  I sure am looking forward to it!

Note: Picture link has been fixed.

Seeing the Beaches

We got a bit of a late start today after deciding to head to Manly for our first outing in Sydney.  First item of business was to get our 7 day travel passes, then we hopped on a bus and headed to Circular Quay where we caught the ferry to Manly.  This ferry ride came highly recommended since it takes you across most of Sydney harbor and you get great views of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney bridge. 

Manly Beach was beautiful! That's it in the picture.  We enjoyed watching the surfers tackle the large waves. We had lunch there, then took the ferry back to Sydney - and promptly changed our plans to check out Bondi beach since is was such a nice day. Bondi had large waves - a lots of surfers.  After Bondi, we walked along the coast to Tamarama beach, then caught the bus back to Sydney where we visited the Sydney Tower for a top-down view of the city.  

Check out the 5 new pictures in my Australia Picture page (Picassa) album.

So after a long day we're back at our hotel and about ready to head out for some supper. It's been a great day in Sydney!

Back to Sydney

Well, Mary and I are all checked into the the Sullivan's Hotel.  It's not a classy place, but very functional and conveniently located in Sydney.  I do admit that our motels during this trip have been a class (or two) below where Mary and I typically stay, but since we're in motels in Australia for 13 days, I went for "reasonable economy", even so they've run well over $100/day.  You could easily spend $200/day for motels to get "3 star" places and I was not inclined to spend that much.  So we ended up in Cairns having a 2 mile walk into town.  But on the positive front, we sure are getting our exercise!  LOL

We are both very impressed with Qantas!  For example on today's flight which left Cairns at 1:10 and arrived at Sydney at 4:10, we got a lunch!  I had a nice lunch (which came with a bottle of water) but a small can of soda and a cup of tea as well!  We were then surprised when they came around with ice cream bars!  The service is top notch, as well, with luggage arriving very promptly and extremely courteous staff.  I can't recall the last time I had a meal on a US airline - even on a 7 hour flight to Anchorage in 2005;  yet here we get one that didn't even cross a mealtime.  I sure wish they flew in the US...

We've been blessed with excellent weather while in Australia.  Our first 5 days in Newcastle had great weather with the only rainy day being last Sunday, our travel day to Brisbane.  During the 7 days we were in Brisbane and Cairns, we had nothing but sunshine (and lots of wind!) but during those days, the Sydney/Newcastle area had several rainy days.  But now that we're back in Sydney, the 10 day forecast shows nothing but sunshine!  This could have not worked out better if we planned it.

We're going to spend tomorrow getting used to the Sydney transportation system.  We have two bus lines that pick up right in front of our hotel that will take us most places we want to go.  Tomorrow we're going to buy a 7 day bus/ferry/rail pass for the whopping price of $43/person so we don't have to worry about paying fares each day, then take the Manly ferry under the Sydney Bridge to Manly Beach to visit Oceanworld.  

Wednesday is the Taronga Zoo, Thursday, Sydney Tower and the Bridge Climb.  On Friday or Saturday we'll probably take a 1 day Blue Mountain tour. 

So those are our preliminary plans.  Stay tuned for details as we explore Sydney.

Heading out from Cairns

I'm uploading some more pictures today. They'll be in the Slideshow on my blog page as well as my picass album (link on blog page). Unfotunately, I forgot to put some of Mary's Great Barrier Reef pictures on my USB drive so those will have to wait to be uploaded
We had a quiet day today. Went to Trinity Lutheran this morning. It was nice to attend a solid liturgical Lutheran service. The liturgy was close to our Matins, except it had the Apostles Creed in it. The pastor had a solid sermon around the topic of Baptism.
This afternoon we sat by the pool, relaxed, did laundry, and not much else. It's nice to have a quiet day in the middle of a trip.
Tomorrow we fly to Sydney. We have a few plans, but I plan to layout a tentative schedule tomorrow once I assess the weather.

Past the halfway mark!

Yesterday Mary and I realized we had reached the halfway mark of our vacation. I came up with 3 ways to determine when we reached that milestone, but the easiest is to take half the time between when we flew out of Detroit and when we return. That would point to the evening of June 19th, which would be late morning on June 20th here in Australia after you add 14 hours.
We've never been on vacation for 14 days and we're nearly at that milestone and still have over 10 days to go! So this will easily be out longest vacation.
We both hope all is well back in Michigan. We haven't heard much news besides what's on Katie's blog. I have heard about the major power outages and hope our house was unaffected.
That's about it for now. Time to check on a few more things and then sign off and head back to the hotel.

Kuranda - Train and Skyrail

Today we had a low key excursion to Kuranda. We took the train to the village, had 4 hours there, then took the Skyrail back. The train ride was very nice - 15 tunnels, lots of scenery and a great ride. At one stop we could get out for 10 minutes at a scenic overlook and across the river was the Skyrail. The sight of how high it was got someone very nervous to the point of thinking she might not want to do that.
The village was nice, but an obvious tourist town. Mary found that the farther you walked into town the lower the prices. She bought quite a few souvenirs; I bought a new leather belt for myself. We took a scenic walk back to the main station and, near our appointed time, boarded the Skyrail. The views were great! After the first station I switched seats with Mary so my left knee would not be bruised too badly as she gripped it. But during later segments, she relaxed a bit and enjoyed the trip, altho with the high winds, I every time I moved I was told to sit still to keep the gondola from rocking.
So all in all a pleasant, quiet day with cool sightseeing.
Tomorrow we have no excursions planned. We're planning to attend Trinity Lutheran here in Cairns, about 2 km from our hotel. For being the in the "Bible belt" of Australia there sure are not many churches! Their only service is at 8:00 so it will be an early morning.

Great Barrier Reef

Well, still no new pictures, but at least you get text!
Today we took a boat out to Michaelmas Key and it was fabulous! Everything I imagined snorkeling on a coral reef would be - and more!
Our tour package included a ride in a semi-submersible as well as snorkeling, and other amenities. We did the semi-submersible ride first and the guide did a good job of pointing out the different corals as we saw them. We got some good pictures as well and saw a turtle from the boat. That was nice, but the best was yet to come.
After a great lunch we headed to the beat and I donned my snorkel gear. I bought an underwater camera but it's not digital so I need to get the pictures developed. But the pictures cannot come close to capturing the experience of drifting silently, but inches above a living coral reef. The coral was amazing - very colorful, with different types mixed together and lots of fish, both large and small. At one point I was a couple of feet from a parrot fish that was feeding on the coral. If I held my breath for a bit I could actually hear the crunch as it bit off a small amount of coral. Fascinating!
I also saw lots of giant clams, including several that were 3-4' in size! It was fascinating to watch them, with all the little fish hanging around them. Other clams were buried into coral. I asked the naturalist and he said that type doesn't grow a shell so it buried itself inside a coral shell as protection.
The varieties of coral were endless. Large, small, soft, hard, green, blue, purple, brown, and many other colors. I no longer will even consider a snorkeling excursion in the Carribean sicne it could never compare to this experience.
So much I could write about, but so hard to relate it. This is a fascinating experience and I encourage anyone who comes to this area to give it a try. I hired (e.g. rented) a wet suit and I encourage you to do that as well. It helps you float and stay in the water longer without getting cold since water absorbs heat from you body much faster than air.
But I've rambled on enough for now. Pictures once I get home since I have to get them developed an them scanned in.

No Postie Run 8-(

We're back at the internet cafe after a long day. We had a nice day in spite of the fact that nothing worked out as planned.
We took a cab to the Areo-Tropics place and arrived in plenty of time. It soon became clear that something was amiss. It turns out that Tours-to-go never forwarded out data to them! They was some kind of a computer crash a while back and misc other details. The manager was very apologetic, saying that he had two people there who he had to bump from the previous day plus some very important cargo and adding Mary and I would be too much. The one thing we had firmly scheduled was not going to happen. We asked about flying on Friday but there was no room. They did drive us back to our hotel.
As we drove I was thinking about options. One thing I wanted to do but did not fit into our schedule was a boat ride on the Daintree river through the rain forest. So we headed into town and found a tour booking agent. It was too late to catch the river cruise I wanted, but another that included another stop was available so we grabbed it.
We caught the bus to Port Douglas, then had about 90 minutes to look around the town before our tour started. It was a nice town and we enjoyed that, including lunch at Macko's Pies. The bus driver was pretty interesting and had some cute material ("snapping handbags" = crocodile) and was very knowledgeable about the area. The river tour was less than I expected - a 1 hour boat ride where we saw 4 crocodiles. On our crocodile tour in Costa Rica we save 2 dozen on more on the same or less amount of river. But it was very relaxing and somewhat interesting. We then headed to a canyon (who's name I forget) and walked some trails. That was very nice since it was walking in a rain forest alongside a rushing river.
But we still had a bus ride back to Port Douglas and another hour long ride back to Cairns. We got to our hotel about 6:30.
So it was an interesting day and we saw some cool stuff. But we did not get to do our Postie Run. I guess we'll have to catch than next time we come Down Under.

Fewer Posts until Monday

We flew to Cairns today and got to our hotel. Once I checked in I scanned for internet service and did not find any. I asked at the desk since the hotel web site said they offered it and they do - one terminal in the lobby at $2/20 minutes.
So we'll be having a great time here - I just won't be able to post about it very much. And uploading pictures will be a bit of a challenge. I'll get something worked out, but I'm just so used to using my own computer instead of a computer at an internet cafe like I'm at now.

• Tomorrow we do the Postie Run (airplane mail delivery to ranches in the outback)
• Friday we signed up for a nice Great Barrier Reef tour which has a semi-submersible and walk-in snorkling
• Saturday we take a train through the Daintree Rain Forest to Kuranda then take the Skyrail back to bus that takes up back to town.
  

So that's our plans. While some people may kid us about being too internet attached, we'll do just fine. My disappointment is in not being as able to share our adventure with you as it happens. But I'm thinking we'll work something out.

Australia Zoo

Today we visited the Australia Zoo and enjoyed our visit.  Personally I found it a bit commercial after visiting the Lone Pine Sanctuary yesterday.  Both facilities are nice and have their strengths. The people at Australia Zoo were very friendly and put on a great show, but they played Steve Irwin videos everywhere like he was still alive and I found that disturbing. 

We are both glad we visited it, but would probably not go back.  I know I'd like to visit Lone Pine again if I get the chance.

You can see the money in the quality of exhibits at Australia Zoo.  Very top notch.  There's a new Southeast Asia section with elephants and tigers that was very nice.  We enjoyed the Asian otter exhibit as well.  Then again, what was the name of this zoo?

Mary and I found walking around the large croc ponds where Agro, Acca and others live was very cool, having seen them on numerous TV programs. Most of the crocs were visible, but unfortunately Agro was hiding underwater in a pool of warmed water so we could not get a clear look at him.   

The show in the Crocaseum was very good, displaying snakes, birds and a crocodile.  But it seemed a bit formal to me.  The people were good, but....   I found it amusing that, at the end of the show the crocodile, Monty, did not want to leave! They had coaxed him out of the water and I think he was enjoying sunning himself so much he thought he'd just stay in the center of the Crocaseum.  But they finally splashed the water enough to get his attention and once in the water he ambled off to his pool. That's a picture of Monty jumping for some meat at the top of this post.  I added 5 pictures to my Picassa page (see link on right) and to the scrolling slideshow if you want to see more.  

I am impressed with Brisbane.  The downtown is modern and bustling, they have a great public transportation system with one pass allowing you to use buses, trains, and the CityCat boats that take passengers up and down the Brisbane River.  Very vibrant and clean - overall a nice city to visit.

That's it for today.  Tomorrow morning we fly to Cairns.  We're looking forward to the Postie run on Thursday.

Koala Pictures are Online

The Lone Pine Sanctuary puts the  "Cuddle a Koala" pictures online unless you ask them not to.  Ours are now online - they weren't earlier or I would have included them in my earlier post.

Click our names to see our official pictures:  Mary      Bill

Feel free to post a comment with which one is best.  Then again that might get me in trouble......

Holding a Koala

WOW! What an experience!  At the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, both Mary and I paid to hold a koala today.  I just got the basic picture while Mary got some sets.  After we posed their photographer offered to take our picture together.  The koala (name Eeyore) was soooo warm!  It snuggled into me as I rubbed its back.  The handler even said "You make a good tree". 8-)  It was an amazing experience and, as Mary said, "It was worth flying halfway around the world for this."

Later on we were watching their Retirement Center and one koala was feeding.  See below for a video of this.

They also sold kangaroo food and had a walk in an open reserve with kangaroos and emus wandering around.  While not as nice as holding the koala, this was pretty cool a well!  Later we watched a sheep herding demonstration.  All in all, it was a very "Australian" day which we both enjoyed immensely.

On to the  (Steve Irwin) Australian Zoo tomorrow!

Brisbane

We had a nice day yesterday before flying to Brisbane.  We packed up and then headed to the Customs House, a restaurant in downtown Newcastle for a John Denver lunch.  Two other JD fans (who Mary had met at Aspen last fall) met us there for a lengthy discussion.  Robert and I had  our own conversation about various topics while the girls did their thing.

After that we headed for the airport where Mary and Pat shed a few parting tears even tho we'll see them again at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney on June 25th.  Dealing with a small regional airport is nice - no lines at security, friendly personnel, and free internet.

We had to catch a taxi to our hotel and the cabbie did not inspire much confidence, but did get us here. It was after dark and the place is old, but clean.  But given the price, that's OK with me.

Today we head to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary so we'll get some nice pictures.

More later!

Things are Different Down Under

I knew about driving on the left, but I found out that many other things are backwards as well.

• Streets are filled with Keep Left signs
  
• The "up" escalator is on the left.
  
• When passing people on the sidewalk or in a mall, you need to move left, not right.
  
• Pedestrians have the right of way in marked crosswalks.  While you don't want to step right in front of a car, you can just step out and they will slow down and stop.
  

Kangaroos!

Yesterday we took a driving tour of Hunter Valley, a major wine area.  On the way we drove through a golf subdivision and spotted some wild kangaroos! 

Here are a couple of pictures.

Today we head to Brisbane.  But first we;re having a John Denver lunch.  Apparently word has spread that Mary is here visiting so some other fans are taking the train from Sydney and we are having lunch together at the Customs House.

It has been so nice visiting here with Pat and Robert.  It's been a great way to see a side of Australia that most tourists don't get to experience.  It's been a great transition.

Now we start our tourist phase.  

A Day in Sydney

Yesterday the Evan's drove us to the Darling Harbor area of Sydney.  Mary and Pat went to a craft show in the Sydney Exhibition Hall while Robert and I went to the Powerhouse Museum.  

The museum had some nice exhibits on transportation, space, engineering, and various other technologies.  The space exhibit included a Russian lunar rover from the 70's and a lot more on Russian space technology than you would see in any US museum.  Robert and I were intrigued by the 3rd steam engine built by James Watt that could drive a rotating wheel.  Before this invention, steam engines could only provide up and down motion and were mainly used for pumps.  Being able to drive a rotating wheel is what brought on the Industrial revolution.  It also had some cool other engineering exhibits, with an emphasis on Australian accomplishments that I found quite intriguing.

We met up with the girls for lunch, walked through the Chinese Garden, then headed out on a long trek to Macquarie Point to catch a view of the Opera House and Bridge.  We got some great sunset pictures and enjoyed the walk back through the Botanical Gardens.

We then headed to Chinatown where we had a very nice Chinese Dinner with Karen Evans and her boyfriend, Andrew.  While Mary and I recognized some of the menu items, there were a lot of new ones.  We ordered several main dishes so we got to sample each.  That made for a delicious and excellent meal.

Note:  More pictures have been added to the slideshow on the main page of my blog. Look for new ones each day. You can also go to my picassa page to see them as a slideshow.

First Animals

Yesterday we toured the area, seeing Lake Macquarie, then going to the Blackbutt Reserve.  This is a city maintained park with a large Koala exhibit and a large fenced area that contains Emus, Wallaby's, Grey Kangaroos and the larger Red Kangaroos. We really enjoyed our first sightings of these native animals.

We spent quite a bit of time watching the Koalas.  They did not move around, but would curl up in a ball and take a nap, occasionally waking up to look around. I got several good pictures of them as you can see in the rotating picture displayed on my main page.  

Last evening was an Evans' Family BBQ.  It was nice to meet all the people we've been hearing about.  Among other things, I had some good conversations comparing American and Australia sports.

Today we are up early and headed for Sydney.  Pat and Robert want to show us some of the sights around Darling Harbor then the girls have a couple of shopping districts to visit while Robert and I will visit some interesting museums.  Should make for a fun day!

Mary and Pat

When we first got to the airport after our long flight, Pat and Robert were there to meet us - and Pat even had a 'roo for Mary as a welcome gift!

Here's a mostly in focus picture:

Newcastle, Australia

Mary and I are apparently over and time change symptoms, except I got tired a bit early last night and went to sleep at 10:00 while Mary stayed up with Pat to look over Pat's John Denver artifacts. We slept in until 8:00 so I got an unheard of (for me) 10 hours of sleep.

We saw the sights of Newcastle yesterday.  This is a major coal town that used to have a huge steel mill.  It's got beautiful beaches (see pictures) and very scenic coastline.  

We had lunch at a famous diner called "Harry's" - there's one here and one in Sydney.  It was a meat pie in a pastry shell covered with mashed peas and potatoes, plus some gravy. - YUM!   They had pictures of many famous people enjoying their Pea Pie from Harry's.  

Tonight Pat and Robert are holding a family BBQ in our honor.  We've already met both daughters and it will be nice to meet the rest of their extended family.  

First Morning in Australia

Mary and I hung on until after supper, but by 7:30 we were pretty tired.  We headed to the "Granny Flat" - a room with a small kitchenette and full bathroom in a detached building. We both took about 5 seconds to fall asleep, woke up a couple of times, but did not get up until 6:30!  11 hours of sleep will do wonders for tired travelers.

It was very interesting just laying there are hearing the different bird calls.  Most are not like anything I am used to hearing.

Since Pat and Robert were not up yet we took a 1/2 hour walk around their subdivision.  It is very pretty and was a bit strenuous due to all the hills, especially the 75' climb back up their steep driveway to their house. 

So we are now showered and ready to head over to "breakie".

Mary Feeds a Kookaberra

We met Pat and Robert at the airport after clearing customs.  We ended up arriving at Sydney at 8:20 and cleared customs by 9:20.  

We took a small driving tour on our way to their house and saw the towen where they both were raised.

They have a beautiful house.  Pat feeds three Kookaberra's each day - and she was late today so we had to feed them once we got home.  One eats out of her hand - and Mary even gave it a try as you can see above.

We both are rather tired, but are hanging in there until this evening when we will get some shut-eye.

I did check out their internet connection and it is a 1 slot router so we'll need to unplug their computer and plug ours in.  Not the most convenient, but very workable.

That's it for now! Time to head over for supper.

Flight to Sydney

Overall we had an uneventful flight.  Mary and I slept for a few hours after dinner, then woke up and watched movies for a while, taking occasional naps.  They came around with hot towels to help us wake up and then server a nice hot breakfast.  Very nice service!  I could have used a little more leg room, but with the open seat, I was able to sit sideways and lean against the wall while Mary was able to curl up on the double seat.

However as we were just 45 minutes out of Sydney, the captain came on and said we were being diverted to Brisbane!  It turns out a rain storm did not happen so fog formed and Sydney airport was fogged in.  Since we did not have ample fuel reserves for a long time in a holding pattern we had to divert.  So we landed at Brisbane at 6:00 am for a fuel-ang-go stop.

Only we've now been on the ground for over an hour and our earliest departure time is 7:30, which means an 8:50 arrival in Sydney.  This doesn't affect our timetable much since we don't have connecting flights like many others do, but  we are both worried about Pat waiting for us.   It's a 2 hour drive from Newcastle, so they were probably en-route when we were diverted. We have a cell number, but no cell phone to reach them since mine gets no signal (as expected).  We trust they would notice the fights and lack of landings and call Qantas for flight status. 

So we wait.  It's raining here.  Sure hope it starts raining in Sydney so it can wash away the fog and we can head out. 

Waiting for the Plane

Due to our long wait in the San Francisco airport - and the lack of
internet at our hotel - I signed up for the T-Mobile Daypass so
someone could get caught up on her email. not that I won't use it as
well... We got it working before we checked in, but after that it
would never display a login page! I ended up calling t-mobile. it
took the 4th person to actually know anything about Hotspot and he
had to hand off to a level 2 person who finally gave me an IP address
to connect to. I finally got a login page and now all is well.

So now we're waiting to board our plane. Our meals are kinda messed
up, but we did that a bit deliberately to help with the time change.
Qantas has a nice plan, if you are able to follow it.
- You leave late at night
- After 1 hour they feed you (2+ hours)
- You watch a movie (2-3 hours)
- You sleep (6-8 hours?)
- The feed you breakfast (1 hour)
- An hour later you arrive
Total - 15 hours.
The tough part will be the sleeping.

The gate agent gave us seats 59 A and C (with non one in-between us)
so that will give us some room and also means we don't have to
disturb anyone to get up and walk around.
So more in a future post about how well "The Plan" worked - I must
admit I'm not optimistic, but I do expect to get some sleep on the
plane.

Once we arrive, scheduled for 0620 Sydney time, we'll have about 1
1/2 hours of baggage and customs, then we'll meet Pat and Robert for
the first time. It's a 2 hour drive back to Newcastle from Sydney so
we should arrive before lunch time. Pat has high speed internet and
I;m hoping to find a wireless router that just needs to be
activated. If so we'll be online from their house a bit. If now,
out online time will be somewhat limited, altho I'm sure the router
would have a place for a second ethernet hookup so we can have 2
computers online. As you can surmise, one of my early tasks will be
to assess their internet capabilities and hopefully to help them with
getting their second computer online. Nothing like making myself
useful! LOL

Well, enough for now. More to come about the flight once we arrive.

Day One - San Francisco

It was very nice leaving late in the day - made for a very relaxed day and we both found a couple of little things to thrown in that we may have missed otherwise. 

Our flight to San Francisco was routine - which is always a good thing. Surprisingly, we did not have to pay an extra suitcase fee!  Maybe it was because we have a "preferred" status since we're using frequent flyer miles, but whatever the reason, I'm not complaining.  On the NWA flight, they came around with beverage service once, but with water or coffee 3 additional times!  We also experienced a very long sunset.  Since we were heading west, the sunset lasted for over 1 hour, like it was in slow motion.  And it was beautiful as the blues and gold turned into a deep red. 

On the other hand. this Day's Inn has issues.  Shuttle service was hard to contact, Internet has been down, ants in the bathroom,  and less that friendly staff.  We're currently booked to stay here the 2 days we're in SFO on our way back, but I think that will change.  On our walk this morning we found a nice Comfort Inn down the street that has a pretty good rate and meets our 3 criteria (Airport Shuttle, Breakfast, and Internet).  I think I'll get a reservation there before we leave today.  

Later today we plan to head downtown to have lunch at Fisherman's Wharf and sight-see in that area. Then back here and head to the airport since we are supposed to be there by 7:15 p.m.  

All our Bags are Packed, we're ready to go

I figured that would be an appropriate title...  LOL

It's been a fairly quiet day - nothing last minute due to Mary's excellent preparations and checklists.  As you can see we were able to downsize to 3 suitcases.  I bought a new one yesterday because I was worried about having enough room.  We're using it along with our other two large suitcases.

At the weigh-in, one came in at 49 lbs so I moved some stuff to another and got it down to 45.

Andy will be here in a few minutes to take us to the airport so I need to sign off and shutdown this computer.  It's hard to believe this day has finally arrived!

Nearly ready

Well I accomplished my To Do list for today.  The main things were to get the iBook checked out, complete my Emmanuel Treasurer duties, and a variety of travel prep activities.

• The iBook thing was weird.  They did not find anything wrong, yet when I came home, it charged the battery back to 99%!  So I chalked that one up as "kinda fixed".
  
• The Treasurer stuff took about 4 hours.  I knew it'd be at least 3 since I had to do 2 payrolls plus quarter end plus write other checks. It worked out nice that the late June payroll is just salaried people so no time sheets to mess with for that one.
• We looked at our suitcase situation last night and decided we should get another large one for me.  So while waiting for the computer to be fixed I went to Kohl's and found a nice one on sale. 
• I got most things packed tonight.  Some final items to do tomorrow, but I'm 90% packed, except for electronic things - that is on tomorrow's agenda.
• Tonight NWA sent me a reminder to print my boarding passes so that is all set!

After buying the new suitcase, Mary was packing tonight and decided she only needs her large one and part of another - much less space that expected.  After I got nearly all my stuff into one large suitcase we decided we could get by with those two plus the new one!  So that will save us $50 on each NWA flight since I'll have 2 suitcases and Mary only 1. It all helps.  And yes, all are under the 50 lb limit.

So it looks like all is ready as it can be.  Tomorrow we head out!

Transition

Tomorrow my vacation starts.  It'll be a day of transition with lots of stuff to do in preparation, but also a time to bring closure to any work stuff.  I got most everything I wanted to do today.  One non-critical task was left hanging but the other guy on it should be able to wrap it up.

Unfortunately our iBook G4 laptop is acting up. The battery says it is charging, but the battery percentage never goes up.  It works great on power and if we were gone for a short time I wouldn't worry much about it.  but for this long trip, I'd like to get it fixed.  So there goes an extra 2 hours to drive to the repair shop wait for the repair and return home.  Maybe I can work on refining my packing list or something while I wait.  We were talking about going to the Red Wings parade tomorrow, but that is out of the question now.  Besides it's supposed to be over 90 and humid tomorrow so that would be pretty miserable.

As I was walking out of work today it was kinda hard to believe I won't return until July 3rd.  I've never taken a vacation this long before so that will be different -- I think our longest one before this was 2 weeks.  And I am very much looking forward to it.  As I talk to people about it they are very impressed with the concept of actually living with an Australian family for 6 days.  That will be very interesting.  I am having some trouble finding a solid Lutheran church to attend.  Pastor B. has given me a few leads, but I'm still in the midst of a train of referral emails.

Well, that's what's happening tonight!  It's starting to get very real!  

4 Days, but who's counting...

Wow - our big vacation is getting close!  Just 2 more work days and 4 calendar days until we leave.  It's hard to believe it's finally happening since we've been talking about this for 3 years - and planning it for 2 years!  (We were aiming to go last summer, but a variety of factors got in the way so we delayed to this summer.)

I still have a few details to take care of - but for the most part I'm ready.  I will take some time tomorrow to organize my reservations and contacts into one folder and sequence them, as they come up.  

My vacation starts on Friday and I've also got a growing list of Things-to-do.  The biggest of them tie into being treasurer at Emmanuel, but a number of other errands that need some attention.

having most bills on automatic payment, along with direct deposit, sure makes trips like this easier!

Well, time to get ready for a church meeting...

Thank You Katie!

Last Sunday Katie asked my about sending text messages to my cell phone while in Australia.  Earlier in May I talked to Verizon and was told my phone would work, but calls would cost $1.55/minute.  Since we need to call Pat when we arrive, that was an acceptable charge.

But when I asked Verizon about TXT messages, the reply I got this week was "your phone won't work in Australia"!  I checked further at Verizon International  and sure enough Australia is not on the International Roaming list.

Verizon does have an international phone rental program, but that's $3.99/day and $2.29/minute.  So at that cost we're passing on it.   But it's nice to know it's available.

I'm sure glad Katie asked otherwise we'd have been in for a big surprise when we arrived and tried to call Pat.  Now I checked and pay phones are available so we'll just use one of them.

Sydney Bridge Climb

Tonight I booked the Sydney Bridge Climb!  I'm so excited!  This will be soooo cool!  If you check it out, the engineer in me picked the Discovery climb which takes you all around various maintenance catwalks.  Be sure to check out the panorama on the web site.

So think of me on Thursday, 6/25, at 1345 'cause that's when my climb starts. (That's 3:45 am Friday to my Michigan readers!)

Correction 6/4:  In Australia we'll be 14 hours AHEAD, not behind, so I'll be starting the bridge walk at 11:45 PM Wednesday in Michigan)

I wanted someone to accompany me, but she's settling for the 200 step climb to the Pylon Lookout. Oh well....

Civil War Day at Greenfield Village

On Memorial Day we went to Greenfield Village and saw the Civil War camp.  The husband of one of Mary's friends commands "Briggs Battery" and is pictured here (wearing a cap with a red dot on top).  It was a very nice day, but it did get a bit warm since it hit 85 and we're not used to the hot weather yet. In the picture they had just hooked the cannon up to a team of horses and were about to take it down to the field to fire it.

Australia

One of the main reasons I'm starting this blog is to find a new place to post about our travels.  Mary and I started traveling in 2004 with a trip to North Carolina.  Our first major trip was to Alaska in June 2005 and  we haven't stopped since!

Now we are preparing to go to Australia and I wanted a blog where I could quickly and easily post about our daily activities.  I want to try out the email posting capability as that sounds very cool.  So you may see a few test posts here as I work out the kinks in that process.  I want to at least post a picture-of-the-day with commentary.

So, welcome to my Traveling DBA blog!

New Job

I recently changed jobs at DTE.  After bring a DBA (Data BAse Administrator) for 12 years, and being promised a Specialist position for 5 years, it finally happened!

The position was posted last November, interviews were started in January, but stretched

 into February due to scheduling issues, and I finally was told I had the new position in March.  But the agreement is that I will continue to support the new release of DTE's new Work Mgmt system, Maximo, which is scheduled to be implemented on May 31st.

In early May I decided it was time to move into my new office so my team leader, Kathie, organized a going away party. We went to Cheli's Detroit for lunch and then they surprised me with this cake.

I'm enjoying the new position very much and have reached several milestones - like Last Day On Call.  

First Post

Vox was nice, but I really liked my old manual blog better.  I'm hoping this one is more like that one.

I plan to post to a variety of topics, but most will be travel related.  

So hopefully the 3 or 4 people who read these posts will enjoy this and can keep up with what Mary and I are doing on our various trips since I hope to post daily when we are traveling.

Now I just need to figure out how to include pictures in my posts!  8-)