There ARE angels!

As we wrote the last blog, we thought that our odyssey was almost over - but we'd forgotten to allow for the presence of angels ... what's an angel? ... it's a person who brings 'luck' and joy into our lives.

On Sunday, as we began the transformation from being travellers to living a normal life, we used our kitchenette to cook for the first time in three months - duck soup from our delightful meal of the previous night, and egg fried rice, also from leftovers. When we finally wandered through Vancouver's chilly Sunday-afternoon streets, everything fell into place. We had intended to go to the German-style Christmas Market, a block away, but the queues were so long that we changed our minds - thanks, angels ... next morning there were no queues, admission was $2 instead of $5, and we had a great experience before leaving town.

We wandered and shopped a little, sought out a music store to buy a CD containing Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's Railway Trilogy (or is that Railroad?), which a fellow-passenger had introduced us to, then realised we were only a block from the cinemas - we walked in to find that the session for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had started, literally, one minute before, with ads and previews ... as we sat down, the film started - someone was looking after us! Fully sated, and delighted with the movie, we set off through the dark streets (dark before 5pm - now it was nearly 7) to our hotel ...

Three blocks from 'home' we stopped outside the Orpheum Theatre to check our map, noting that there was a performance on that night, and commenting "Wouldn't it have been wonderful? to each other. We located our position, and as we turned to continue our walk, up popped a sprightly Chinese angel, dressed in black, saying "I have two complimentary tickets for tonight's performance of the Vancouver Academy's Youth Orchestra, and I can't use them - would you like them?" Yes, thank you, we would ... and we spent a wonderful evening listening to Mendelssohn, Chopin and Beethoven!

Our luck continued ... as we returned our hotel room keys, planning to wait an hour for a shuttle, the previous shuttle, running 5 minutes late, arrived, and as we were the only passengers, our Indian driver gave us a guided tour of Vancouver on the way to the airport. We NEARLY had a problem in Los Angeles, having been directed from the United airlines Vancouver-LAX flight (code-shared with Qantas) to the United flight to Sydney, instead of the Qantas flight which left from another terminal, but we flagged down a people-mover, driven by a large, very determined, black lady - having noted Frances' walking stick, she drove us to an elevator, left her wagon, took us down to the road to wait for a special bus (which she had called on her cell phone), handed us over to a driver, who drove us all around the many terminals of LAX airport and then passed us over to a little Chinese man with a wheelchair which just magically transported us through all the red tape - a VERY different scenario to the rudeness we'd experienced at LAX on our inward journey.

The main angels, though, were the ones we didn't see - our house-sitters, John and Vickie, had left our house sparkling (and everything in its right place!); our cat, Theodora, fat and happy; our car, collected from the Akers' house, back in the garage; our garden looking wonderful, and a cooked roast lamb dinner waiting in the refrigerator as an Aussie 'welcome home' ... and had disappeared to their new home on the Gold Coast. The house was full of flowers, some from John and Vickie, and Stephanie's wonderful arrangement of Australian flowers, designed to make us feel at home. Our mail contained wonderful things ... and we found all our emails!! And to top off a wonderful, wonderful trip, as we were reading our messages, an excited email arrived from our niece, Jess (whose frequent messages have lighted our way as we travelled, commenting on our blog and linking us with home) saying "I passed! I passed! I passed!" .... congratulations, Jess, and may your 4th year of Veterinary Science be as wonderful - even though you'll enjoy the surgical aspect much more than we would!

There ARE angels ... and we appreciate you all ... the friends who travelled with us in spirit, the ones who helped us along the way, the ones who fed and housed us, and made us feel so welcome in their countries and in their homes ... and all the ones we haven't mentioned. Thank you all for enriching our lives.

Winter wonderland

Thank you ... to whoever stage-managed the decoration of Canada for us ... we hugely appreciate your efforts in making the entire country like a giant Christmas card!

Here we are in Vancouver, after travelling on the train on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday ... and we loved it! We were preceded by (and in some cases accompanied by) snow wherever we went, and it was beautiful, incredibly beautiful. The pines, spruces, hemlocks looked as if they had icing (frosting) in thick layers on the end of every branch, all impurities were blanched out and covered over, and leafless plants stood black against a sparkling white background ... it was amazing. Add to this the fact that lakes and rivers were frequently totally frozen, occasionally partly frozen and reflecting the blue sky in parts - we could go on - and on - and on ....

We had been a little concerned as to whether we would sleep on five nights sitting up (we Windolfs don't use sleepers, which can be small, uncomfortable, claustrophobic and which limit the view to one side of the train only) and we were thrilled with how comfortable the journey was. For much of it we were allocated a double seating area, with two sets of seats facing each other. Each seat had a folding section which matched the one opposite, making a continuous bed from one to the other ... can you picture us travelling through the night in an upholstered double bed, blankets and pillows provided, John snoring gently, sleeping for 8-9 hours a night, waking briefly once or twice? That's what we did! John's laughing at me, though, because in our comfortable suite at the Vancouver 'Rosedale on Robson' last night I half-woke, heard the hum of the air-conditioner, saw the half-light through the windows, and thought "Oh, we're having a long stop at THIS station"!!!

We're taking Vancouver very lightly - not madly visiting the tourist spots, but treating the city as the locals do - enjoying the wonderful Japanese cafes, shopping a little, maybe going to a movie this afternoon, watching a protest march and listening to the chants of "Free the Refugees ... Stop the De-por-tay-she-ons!", enjoying a group of young Chinese Salvation Army members playing carols with "jingle-bells" ... we feel really at home here!

Our journey home begins tomorrow - Monday here - and hopefully we'll arrive in Coolum in the middle of Wednesday afternoon. We fly from here to Los Angeles, then with Qantas from Los Angeles to Sydney, and then a domestic flight home, travelling to Coolum on our local shuttle bus. We've had a wonderful journey, but we're looking forward to getting home ... please can we bring some of this cool weather with us? Hopefully, we'll put a list of highlights on the blog in a few days time, just to sum up, and to thank you all for travelling along with us.

Dashing through the snow ...

Dashing through the snow
Sunny, cold Sunday
Watching the greatest tides
In the Fundy Bay ...

OK, so this isn't the greatest poetry - it wasn't even tuneful, as we sang our way through Nova Scotia - but it sums up today, our last in this wonderful Eastern province of Canada.

We drove from Prince Edward Island on Thursday, in the rain, travelling around the Sunrise trail, past pretty farms and interesting little fishing villages, to Dartmouth, twin city with the capital, Halifax, on the eastern side of the island. Our ATC hosts, Wendy & Frank, greeted us with salad, carrot & ginger soup, roast chicken and dessert, making us feel very welcome, as have all our wonderful ATC hosts.

Fortunately, by Friday the rain had disappeared, and so we set off to discover Halifax in chilly sunshine. First stop was the carillon which commemorates a HUGE explosion in Halifax in 1917, when two ships collided, setting off a load of nitro-glycerine ... still the largest explosion in the world other than those caused by atomic bombs. It totally destroyed the town, killed hundreds, was heard miles and miles away - incredible!

From there we went to the Titanic cemetery, where many of the bodies of people who died in the Titanic disaster in 1912 now lay ... they're still managing to put names with some of those who were killed, but have been unnamed until now.

The Citadel stands in the middle of Halifax, at the top of a hill - rather like Edinburgh, where the Tattoo is held. It's still used for ceremonial purposes, but the cannons are still ranged around the top - the citadel is said to have repulsed the French, the Dutch and the English at various times.

On Saturday we travelled eastwards along the Atlantic coast, to the hamlet of Murphy Cove, in honour of Frances' in-laws (John's sister, Caryll, is a Murphy) and John's (Hi to all the Coves!) This was totally different country to any we'd seen before, but really beaughtiful - lots of pine trees and rocks. On the way home it started to snow - huge flakes, but tyhey didn't settle. For dinner we went to a Baptist church dinner - awful food! - followed by a "Bluegrass gospel" group - hill-billy style music that was huge fun, and had everybody's toes tapping ... certainly a new experience!

Today we set off in sunshine, which stayed with us all day, but we'd no sooner got out of town than the fields were covered in snow. As we travelled on, much of the roads had snow on them too - NOT easy driving! However, we persisted, and drove right around the Minas Basin, at the inland end of the Bay of Fundy, which is said to have the largest range of tides anywhere in the world - we were there to watch the high tide come rushing in, then around the other side we couldn't get over how low the tide was ... and it was only halfway out! We were thrilled to see this sight - have seen others in Wedtern Australia and Mont Michel, but this was the ultimate.

For those who've been looking every day or so for a new blog, this will be the last for a week ... tomorrow we return the Little Grey mouse to moncton, and catch the train for Vancouver ... we board on Monday afternoon, arrive (hopefully!) on Saturday morning. We're all set up with breakfasts and "things to spread" for evening meals, will buy lunches as we go - and if you're concerned, we'll wash daily and change clothes every day as we go, too. No beds for us, though - we sleep really well in our lay-back seats, and love having others around us. The train has the glass-top viewing cars we remember from advertisements in our childhood - we're rally looking forward to it! We'll be in contact before we fly out of Vancouver on 29 November.

We're with Anne, and Marilla, and Matthew too

Here we are on Prince Edward Island, a deligtful slice of Canada ... can an island be a "slice of"? We travelled eastwards from Montreal on a train called "The Ocean" (we almost looked for a ship!), and decided, as it gently rocked us to sleep in new, comfortable, warm carriages, that it was like we were setting off on another voyage. About 18 hours after embarking (nautical term again!) we arrived in Moncton, a large university town near the St Lawrence Gulf, and hired a cute-but-hopeless little grey Hyundai, and set off in the rain to the island.

To get to PEI you have to go over a bridge - a bridge that's nearly 8 miles (14 km) long! It's a toll bridge, but you don't pay a toll to get to the island ... only to come back! Are you old enough to recollect the song about the Boston MTA, where the fellow didn't have the extra nickel, and stayed on the subway for ever? ... This could be true of PEI, especially as the toll to return is $42.50 That's Canadian, but could be Australian or US, because they're all so similar at the moment!

Today we set off in the Little Grey Mouse around the central part of the island, and at midday found ourselves at Green Gables, the actual house where LM Montgomery set "Anne of Green Gables" (It actually belonged to her cousins, but she lived nearby). It was just as we thought it would be, and has been very tastefully furnished by the Canadian National Parks Service - Matthew's braces were on the bed, Marilla had been sewing a dress for Anne - and the Haunted Wood could be seen from Anne's window ... it was a wonderful visit.

Things could have been a let-down afterwards, but we continued along the North Shore to the Cove Head lighthouse, and Cove Head Bay ... just to honour our family as well as Anne's. PEI is a beautiful place - low rolling green hills, ploughed ready for winter, and next summer's potatoes, so that the green is interspersed with strips of wonderful red soil. It's warmer than we thought it would be, and most of the day was fine - just wish it had stayed that way until we left!

Bonjour!

Bonjour nos amis! ... even John has got into the spirit of Montreal! We arrived here last night, sad to leave the USA, where we've had a wonderful time, but keen to experience Canada ... and looking forward to heading home in two weeks, too!

The train journey from Albany NY, where we left the car (we'd driven 1600 miles - 2500 km on our New England odyssey) was unexpectedly wonderful. We travelled along the New York-Vermont border most of the way, firstly along the Champlain Canal, and then beside Lake Champlain, and Lake Placid ... and we mean BESIDE! The train lines were within a few metres of cliff edges and/or the lake edge for much of the way, the sun shone, there were still golden leaves, the fields were green - it was a glorious trip! The only thing which spoilt our joy was the Canadian Customs people - they were fine to us (we have fair skin, white hair, blue eyes) but they were truly abominable to those who were coloured, especially Dan, a Canadian citizen, formerly from the Ivory Coast, who sat opposite us. He was carrying a huge new book on computer science that he had written with two Harvard professors, but the "thugs" complained that he hadn't listed it on the gifts & purchases he was taking into Canada, and gave him a hell of a time, on and off the train, while we waited for 35 minute. We'd seen racist treatment like this last time we caught a train to Canada - apparently things are no better, and possibly worse!

Fortunately, we had decided to stay above the station, at the wonderful Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, so we had immediate comfort when we disembarked - we'd paid basement rates from Australia for "Montreal's best hotel" . Today we travelled all round town on the local bus, and we plan to spend the afternoon underground ... most of the shops are underground, linked by tunnels, so that business doesn't stop in the long snowy months. First, though, we plan to EAT - everything is so wonderfully French that we just can't help ourselves. Our bodies are in Montreal, at the moment our hearts, like those of a lot of Canadians, are in Paris. Au revoir!

11/11 ... 49 .... 50

We've done it! Yesterday we braved Veterans Day holiday traffic to drive through Rhode Island into Connecticut, our 5oth US state!

To make the day even more special, we travelled from Hingham, just south of Boston, along the Atlantic coast (huge waves, some splashing almost to the top of a tall lighthouse!) to Plymouth, remembering veterans of all wars (not just the US) as we drove. We viewed the Plymouth Rock and the reproduction of the Mayflower ... and the most kitsch souvenir shop we have EVER seen, anywhere in the world! (Just wait until you see the photograph of John in a plush Thanksgiving Turkey shaped hat!!!)


Leaving the coast we drove past cranberry bogs to northern Rhode Island, which was notable for two features ... (A) we travelled 33 miles (55 km) in total from one side to the other of Rhode Island ... (B) we decided to have a "weiner" for lunch - picture a skinless frankfurter in a roll, covered with mustard, raw onion pieces, and chewy 'sloppy joe' style minced steak - NOT a culinary delight to be repeated!

Connecticut was a pleasure to arrive in - better roads, much more scenic, less crowded - and the sun shone for the first day in a week. We arrived at our ATC hosts', Pete and Ann's, house at East Hampton just as the sun was beginning to set over Lake Potosauc, directly across the narrow country road in front of the house, and it was a beautiful sight - awakening to the sight through our bedroom window of the sun shining on the lake this morning was equally beautiful. John spent the day talking with Peter, reading the papers, raking leaves while Frances went to a Ladies' lunch at which Ann & Peter's daughter, Sue, was the guest speaker - and she was brilliant. Tomorrow we move on, but we feel 'complete', having achieved our goal in such a pleasant fashion, and (almost) ready to move on to Canada by train on Sunday.

Busy in Boston

This morning we're on the verge of completing our aim of visiting 50 states - later today we plan to drive through #49, Rhode Island, on our way to #50, Connecticut.

In the meantime, however, we are enjoying wonderful Massachusets! We're staying with Affordable Travel Club members Bob and Carol at Hingham, a delightful town on a bay near Boston, and yesterday it was Boston that we went to see ... and did we ever see it! The weather was extremely cold - 40F (about 5C) - and windy, but the misty rain of the last few days had stopped, so we hung onto our hats and headed for the ferry, for the 30 minute journey to Boston - a great way to miss the traffic.

Once there we bought tickets for the Old Town Trolley and set off around the town for nearly two hours, looking at the sights from the trolley. Once we had an overview, however, we then began to use the trolley's on-off facility ... we started with King's Chapel, the oldest Episcopalian (Anglican) church in the New World, because we'd seen a sign announcing a half-hour midday service - beautiful music and an interesting talk by a blind black minister, accompanied by his dog. Over the next hour and a half we visited the King's graveyard (resting place of the first woman to set foot on the country with the pilgrims) and the Granary graveyard, where we saw the markers for Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin's parents ... and Mother Goose! ... and had "Mac'n cheese" for lunch ... and John used the Ladies rest rooms at the prestigious Parker House hotel! (The mens facilities were locked, so we sneaked him in). We wandered through the old town, visited the old State House museum, where we saw some tea rescued from the boots of one of the Boston Tea Party perpetrators on the day of the incident, and the balcony where Queen Elizabeth finally accepted the Declaration of Independence ... in 1976, not 1776.

Another stop was in the Boston Gardens, near the Boston Common, but more formal, with a central pool and beautiful trees, where first we saw the wonderful bronze sculptures of Robert Mcloskey's ducklings (from the book 'Make Way for Ducklings"), then met Mr Devlin, an old man who was feeding squirrels nuts, with whom we had a great conversation.

We loved Boston! This is a city that we would enjoy returning to. State #48 has been a delight.

From the sublime to the ridiculous!

If things were always wonderful, would life become boring? Well, we don't know, because there's enough variation in our trip to keep us well and truly on our toes. We left Maine, having followed our wonderful times at the Manor Inn at Castine and the Bar Harbor Inn with a delightful night with ATC hosts Fred and Cheryl and their huge labradoodle, Beamer, and headed back into New Hampshire, anticipating another delightful night at the Crotched Mountain Resort at Francestown NH (wonder why we chose to go there?) Almost every school in SE Maine was closed, due to huge winds and rain, but we paddled along country roads inland with no problems at all, and spent some delightful hours at the Shaker village outside of Concord NH, arriving at the resort just on dark ... which is now 4.30 pm because daylight saving ended at the weekend!

As we waited for the inefficient girl on the desk to finish several phone calls before booking us in, we saw a notice on the counter about an e-coli problem at the resort, only to be told that it was nothing to worry about. You can imagine our horror when we got to our condo to find a 5-page document from the EPA, telling us, among other things, to boil all water for 2 minutes before drinking, NOT to shower, NOT to clean our teeth, NOT to wash our hands after going to the toilet, NOT to use plates, cups, cutlery etc until it had been soaked in a bleach solution for 30 minutes!!! These fussy Aussies immediately rang the desk to be told "Oh, just don't worry about it"!! However, we persisted, insisted on speaking with the manager, and there were great back-downs all round ... with the result that we left the resort (thankfully!) and proceeded some 20 miles (30 km) through the darkness, wind and rain, to the Jack Daniels Inn at Peterborough NH, where our accommodation was pre-paid by the resort (we'd booked, and paid previously, from Australia). What a welcome they gave us!

We now have had our faith restored, feel that we have at least a fair-to-middling chance of continuing to travel healthily, and are heading for Boston. Wish us luck!

PS On the television news this morning (worth watching now that the mid-term election is over, and the ghastly political ads gone) there was news that the Carnival Splendor, the wonderful new ship we spent 7 weeks on in 2009, around South America, has had a fire in the engine-room, and is floating helplessly off Mexico with 4,500 passengers and crew on board. They are VERY much in our thoughts!

It's becoming a habit!

It was with some regret that we left the Manor Inn at Carstine, ME, and headed for Bar Harbor ... this should have only been a journey of 55 miles, but we did more than 100 miles (160 km) as we meandered back through Penobscot and down the peninsula to Deer Island and Stonington, following places where Robert McCloskey had lived, and written his books. We bought fresh goats cheese flavoured with orange zest and cranberries outside a local hall, and grabbed a late bowl of chili at a food co-op as we travelled - we needed something to warm ourselves up as it was a grey, damp, foggy day ... we could see quite some distance, but as soon as we drove up a hill we were back in the fog again - it was quite eerie, with patches of colour gleaming faintly through the mist from the remaining Fall trees, and mossy rocks beside the road glowing emerald beneath the pines.

It was nearly 4pm when we got to Bar Harbor, and already getting dark. We hadn't booked anywhere, as this is a very important seaside resort, and there are dozens and dozens of motels and hotels ... the only problem was that they were nearly all "Closed for the Season"!! We drove around and around, and were starting to despair, when we came to the Bar Harbor Inn, sited right on the water, at the end of the main street. This is one of THE places - last year Fodor (the rich American's answer to Lonely Planet) named it as one of its "Top Establishments in the World" (there's a small plaque inside, saying this!). Oh well, we thought, we're getting really short on choices, and it IS off-season, so maybe we'd give it a try ... and here we are! We have a large room (no, nowhere near as large as the Manor Inn, but very large for our standards) with two chintz-covered Queen beds, a mahogany table and two armchairs, with a ground-level balcony overlooking the lawns and garden beds which are between us and the sea - all of 20 metres away - and all for the same price as the Manor Inn! No, we're NOT eating in the dining room, thank you (there's hardly a dish under US$40), but the breakfast is free, and we ate so much this morning before we set off for Acadia National Park that we went without lunch.

As you can imagine, we were ready for dinner tonight, which we ate at a local bar called the "Whistling Whale". John, with his seafood allergy, dined on mushroom soup and fish and chips, which he pronounce 'excellent'. I ate the BEST clam chowder I've ever tasted, and a roll filled with juicy Maine lobster - a meal doesn't have to be fancy to be truly memorable. I've been avoiding chowder following an unfortunate lunch when we were on the ferry to Vancouver Island - and an even more unfortunate 'parting of the ways' with that same bowl of chowder in our host's car an hour later (Thank Heavens I had a secure plastic bag, but it was SO embarrassing!)

Now I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make a chowder as good as the one in Bar Harbor - it was brilliant! We'll be sorry to leave this part of Maine.

A Time of Wonder!

Having driven more than 300 kilometres (200 miles) from New Hampshire into Maine, on damp roads, needing the windscreen wipers, but with very little rain, we were relieved to reach the Atlantic Coast at Penobscot Bay. Why did we head there? ... Well, when Frances first started training as a teacher-librarian in 1971, she fell in love with a picture book titled 'A time of wonder' by Robert McLoskey, which was set on Penobscot Bay. So, with little knowledge of the area, we drove to Penobscot, only to find that it had about 20 houses, and no accommodation - and the non-existent sun was preparing to set, and we had no clue as to where to go next.

One road looked good, so we followed it along the edge of the bay, and through the country, and came to a remarkable little town called Carstine. Established by the French about 1613, it was taken over by the English, and at one brief stage by the Dutch, and then the Americans. It now boasts a large Marine Academy which trains merchant seamen, and the academy sits in the middle of dozens of wooden "cottages" - large holiday homes built by the rich in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We asked at the local bookshop as to whether there might be any accommodation available - this is now "off season", and most places are closed for the winter - and were directed to the Manor Inn, a long double-storied building surrounded by several acres of grounds, overlooking the bay and the township. It was pouring rain when we arrived, and nearly dark, but in we went, and were welcomed heartily - the only guests for the night, but assured that there would be other locals present in the bar and dining room by dinner time.

We paid our US$135 and were directed to our room ... and talk about a time of wonder! It wasn't a room, it was a suite - and it was huge! The main room was 9 metres (28 feet) long and 6 metres wide (20 feet) and held a huge four poster bed, while at the other end was a large fireplace, furnished with a good supply of logs. There was a large couch, two large armchairs and two small, a writing desk and several antique cabinets - and there was still enough room to have held a party! To one side was the bathroom with a beautiful claw-foot bath, a large walk-in shower and modern toilet (commode for the Americans) and a black-marble topped vanity basin set into an antique bow-fronted cabinet. But there was yet more! At the far end of our bedroom, beside the fireplace, was a door, which led to a sunroom furnished with a full-size daybed, two chairs, and pots of plants, which had windows on 3 sides, overlooking the bay and the forest behind. Wow! This suite, it seems, had been the haven of a lady who had survived the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco and the fire which burnt the Fairmont Hotel where she was staying ... and who had, with her sister, also survived the sinking of the Titanic. How lucky can you be?

Suitably polished-up, we went down to the bar for a gin and tonic, and thus began the most fantastic evening with the locals. Sally and Fred, who have a farm in New Jersey and a holiday home at Carstine, adopted us, and we spent the evening with them, their young estate-agent friend Hank and Susie and Jess, who were both connected with libraries. We dined on a wonderful fish-and-tomato based chowder (no seafood for John!), crab cakes for Frances, chicken for John, and scrumptious desserts, while we all talked and laughed, and had a wonderful time, spinning yarns and enjoying one another's company. Everyone had something different to tell - Sally was an actress, Fred grew corn, Hank's father had been in the foreign service, Jess's parents were Jews from Poland and Romania, and Suzie told of how her she and her sister, tired of listening to a choir on the lawn of Kennedy's White House, went inside to look for 'Uncle Jack', her sister's god-father, and set off a security panic!

All this - and we had still to go up the stairs to our wonderful bed, to lie under the canopy and look at the flames in the fireplace, to sleep on feather pillows under a feather doona, and to wake with a view of the many islands and headlands in the bay. We love Maine, we loved Carstine, we loved the Manor Inn ... this was a travel experience par excellence, and a million miles from the image most people have of America ... definitely a 'Time of Wonder'!

State #46

Our trip is going by so fast, that if we don't write about New Hampshire in retrospect, we'll leave it out - and it was too good for that, so this is just a short blog to include it in our tally.

Like Vermont, NH is a longish, narrow state, and as we're travelling across, rather than up and down, we travel quickly, and thus were in New Hampshire for less than 24 hours. We're returning there, further south, after we've been to Maine, though, so then we'll be much more informed.

Soon after we crossed the border from Vermont, we came to the little town of Bath, which has the most wonderful covered bridge. We'd seen 3 or 4 other, shorter covered bridges as we drove, but somehow they were always in places where it was impossible to stop, but this time we were able to stop and really enjoy the sight.

Then we discovered that we had stopped outside of "America's oldest general store", so of course we had to have a look through that too - not that we were particularly impressed mind you, as the owner greeted us with "What are you doing here? The tourist season is over"! We, of course, consider ourselves as travellers, not tourists, so we just laughed ... and promptly left, without buying anything.

Our Affordable Travel Club hosts for the evening, Nancy and George, were much more welcoming, when we arrived at their beautiful home overlooking the snow-covered White Mountains through huge windows, as we sat in front of the fire, enjoying local cider (Frances) and black tea (John) the setting sun turned white to the most amazing apricot-pink - it was remarkable!

On Thursday we drove a kilometre (or half a mile, if you're American) to see the Franconia home of poet Robert Frost before we left the area. We then had the choice of two routes to Maine - the scenic route to the south of Mt Washington, or the more direct northern route. Directness won, because the weather had turned grey and drizzly - and were we pleased ... see our next blog to find out why ... !

State 45

Well, we left Pennsylvania with regrets, having had a great time, and seen 456,987,123 autumn trees - and for those who asked, john DIDN'T stay with the Amish, or dye his beard - but wait till you seet the photo of him in an Amish hat!!

New York was merely a train-swap for us, although we raced out into the street, outside Maddison Square Garden, took a photo of the Empire State building, then caught the next train, this time to Albany, the capital city of New York State. It was a glorious journey - right beside the Hudson River all the way.

In Albany we hired a car and drove into Vermont - state #45 - unfortunately, we missed most of the Fall leaves here, but it's still beautiful. We stopped in Bennington and visited the Grandma Moses exhibition at the museum (come on, own up, how many of you are old enough to remember Grandma Moses' naive paintings that everyone admired in the 1950s!) and the Bennington monument, from the American Revolution.

We stayed the night with Nancy and Bob, Affordablr Travel Club members from Rutland, Vermont. For US$20 we had a lovely bedroom, our own bathroom, a good breakfast, and lots of Parliamentary comment, as yesterday was half-term election day, when people voted for State Governors, senators, and lots of other people ... including judges, police chiefs, head of the school board etc ... we didn't see any banners telling us which dogcatcher to vote for! This morning we visited the Norman Rockwell museum at Rutland (Clue - 1950s - Saturday Evening Post - Frances' Uncle Allan always gave them to her to read)

It was so cold this morning that the frost was still everywhere (even the tops of trees) at midday, and we saw lots of 30cm (12 inch) icicles hanging from rocks beside the road as we drove. We even saw patches of ice on a pond! It's been so warm and sunny further south that we got a real surprise! Fortunately we have lots of warm clothes, and our smart new black Mitsubishi Galant is toasty warm, too.

By the way ... What horse won the Melbourne Cup? ... there's no way we can find out here except for the internet, and our half hour is up ... Bye!

Between Intercourse and Paradise!

If you've been reading our blog, you'll KNOW that we've been having a superb time - but we bet that you didn't expect a blog with THIS title! No, this is not a case of 'too much information' - this is where we were yesterday! Intercourse and Paradise are two towns in Lancaster County, south-eastern Pennsylvania, the heart of the Amish country. For those of you who would rather focus on another interpretation, let us remind you that before you can go from Intercourse to Paradise, you first have to go to Bird in Hand ... it may be old-fashioned to call girls 'birds', but the sequence seems appropriate!

In the summer, we are told, it is almost impossible to move on the roads of Lancaster county for gawking tourists. On a warm, damp October day we were able to feel that we were visitors, and we carefully refrained from gawking. We both believe in complying with the wish of the Amish people that they should not be photographed, but managed to take some great shots of their buggies and horses - it's amazing to see a black buggy travelling amongst all the cars and semi-trailers, the horse proceeding at a smart clip that many old cars would envy and not at all intimidated by the traffic.

We lunched at a large, touristy restaurant, which specialised in Amish foods, and visited a general store and quilt shop in Intercourse, before heading back to the Bird in Hand farmers market. As well as the superb quilts, Frances was fascinated by the Amish dolls, which show no facial features, and John loved the old-fashioned wooden toys. Oh to have room in our cases for all the things we'd love to buy! Instead, we purchased a range of German-style cheeses and sausages (wursts), a sticky pecan loaf and farm-fresh eggs.

Today we've spent the day in Mechanicsburg PA (There's a lot of funnily-named burgs around here!) and can't believe the welcome that the locals give us as we wandered the attractive streets. The local barber, in a shop that hasn't been altered, except for the provision of electricity, since 1890, even insisted on giving us two mugs from the large collection on his walls! We visited a bar called 'The Gingerbread Man', talked to a fellow who spends his mornings in the family hardware store and his afternoons selling clothes 'from 1880 to 1980', and lunched at a cafe which had a working radio studio attached. Most houses are decorated for Halloween (does nobody ever steal the pumpkins sitting on the sidewalk beside the front steps?) and a large number display the American flag. The churches have tall white spires, there are yellow chrysanthemums in boxes beside the cute yellow fire hydrants, under falling showers of yellow leaves ... we can't help swivelling our heads to see if we're on a film set!

On a more prosaic note, we're still getting no emails (not even junk mail) on our usual address, so we're now using Frances' (fwindolf) mailbox at ********@une.edu.au Don't use the stars, of course - just fill in the name! This address is not for jokes, games, pictures, but if you want to send us a message, this appears to be the best way. For those who have sent messages to the blog about Queensland's rain, we hate to inform you that we've had no proper rain, and only 2 days with slight drizzle in our trip so far - we've had sun day after day, with occasional rain at night when we're safely inside. Someone, somewhere is looking after us!

History takes many forms!

Our joy in visiting present-day Pennsylvania (good friends, beautiful scenery, amazing autumn leaves) has been increased by looking back into the past. Over the last three days we've visited three VERY different museums.

The first was a tavern in Dillsburg, where we're staying with Colette and Bill. started in 1794 by James Dill (an Irishmen of unrecorded intelligence!), this stone building gave us a fascinating look back over life in the nineteenth century. It's a local museum, and is obviously very much loved. We enjoyed comparing it to early Australian buildings, but also enjoyed it for itself, and spent a wonderful afternoon there.

Today we visited two museums that couldn't have been more different. The 'National Apple Museum' in Biglerville Pennsylvania is in an old barn, and contains a large range of apple memorabilia, from apple peelers to songs about apples "Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me" ... etc), to farm machinery and patchwork quilts. The gentleman (or was he an apple-tree gnome?) who showed us around was so passionate about apples that we thought we'd never get away, but his enthusiasm rubbed off on us so that we all enjoyed our unusual morning.

In the afternoon we visited the multi-million dollar Gettysburg National Military Park Museum, where we first watched a film narrated by Morgan Freeman, then ascended to view the most amazing cyclorama, over 40 ft (12 metres) tall and over 350 ft around, painted just after the battle. It was amazing! The museum itself, with memorabilia from the 3-day 1863 battle, was one of the best we've seen.

Then we followed our visit with a drive around the battlefield - green fields and thousands of Fall trees, interspersed by hundreds and hundreds of memorials. We've come away VERY impressed and very thoughtful. What a wonderful place!

Sports Report from John

BEE EEE AAA RRR SSS ... BEARS! ... BE EE AA RR SS ... BEARS! ... B E A R S ... BEARS!
I can recall every note of the Hershey Bears Ice Hockey team rallying call, even though it's nearly 21 hours since I was in the stadium - it's still ringing loudly in my ears. As you no doubt know, I've never been a great sports fan, and I've certainly never seen an ice hockey match, but I really enjoyed the extravaganza that I attended with Ken and Bill.

The match was divided into three sessions, each twenty minutes long, with twenty minutes between each session - they needed all that time to stock up on beers, sodas, hotdogs, fries, potato chips ... just enough food to keep them alive until the next break. The game was exciting for Hershey Bears fans (the Hershey chocolate headquarters was right next door) but not so good for the Adirondack Phantoms because the Bears won 5-0. Actually, it seemed to me that the main point of the game, for players and spectators alike, was who won the fights - those on the ice seemed to be fighting constantly - it was like a mix of hockey, ice-skating and World Championship wrestling, with every move, fight and all, described at 200 decibels over the loud speaker.

It was a great night - one to remember - think I prefer cricket, though - it's certainly more dignified!

Just briefly

For those wanting a travelogue, this blog will be unsatisfactory. Instead, we're experiencing life as small-town American citizens. We wake in the morning and eat pop-tarts for breakfast; we go to the store; we walk around town viewing the pumpkins, the decorations of scarecrows, cornstalks and autumn leaves; we go to the store; we watch the incessant mid-term election advertisements on TV (each one blatantly calling the opposition candidate a liar); we go out with our friends and a group of their friends for pizza; we come home and drink beer, whisky or wine and eat pretzels and potato chips -we even have a taste of real genuine moonshine! We've had a wonderful time in Portage, and tomorrow we move on to the other side of the Alleghennies - Ken and Janet will take us to stay with Janet's sister, Colette and her husband Bill.

We've enjoyed this week - it's been a holiday from holidaying - and we feel really relaxed. Our only concern is that none of our emails have come through for more than a week - but tonight we have two. If you've tried to contact us, will you please try again?

Tomorrow night John goes to an ice-hockey match with the boys, while we girls party ... watch this space for John's sports report - there'll be NO report from the girls!

Amtrak and Amish across America

We're writing this safely from the beautiful Alleghenny Mountains of Pennsylvania - the foothills look a little like Gippsland with extra autumn leaves - it's beautiful! Janet and Ken have made us so welcome, and none of us have stopped talking in 24 hours, except when we fell asleep after midnight.

After travelling so long, we were looking forward to catching up with our mail, but somehow Webmail is showing (yet again) that we have no mail - if you have mailed us in the last week, could you please resend it?? Thanks!

Travelling for so long? Yes, we just spent six days on the train - fortunately with two all-too-short overnight stops to sleep in hotels. We caught the Coast Starlight from San Luis Obispo to Emeryville near San Francisco last Wednesday, being thrilled to see Californian deer, mule deer and wild turkeys on our way. The next morning we left Emeryville for Chicago on the California Zephyr, and travelled from 10am Thursday until 5pm Saturday, through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska (our 43rd state), Iowa and Illinois. Travelling through the Rockies was a never-to-be-forgotten experience, but the rest of the trip was wonderful too, and we really appreciated the loudspeaker commentary that told us the history and interesting aspects on the way. The glass-roofed viewing car was a wonderful place to view the scenery, and when we retired to our much-bigger-than-airline-style seats, with reclining backs, extendable leg rests, and pillows provided, we found that we slept soundly, too.

On Saturday morning, in Nebraska and Iowa, we picked up a number of Amish travellers - a family travelling to a funeral in Missouri, and a grandmother, her daughter, and children who had travelled west for medical reasons, and were now returning home. The eldest relatives in the funeral group were a couple who had never been on a train before - they lived 80 miles (120 km) from the Amtrak line - and who ket standing around looking totally dumb-founded! I had great fun teaching Martha the tricks of train toilets! The other family, Ellen - a 57 yo mother of ten children, and her daughter Rose, wore plain coloured dresses, not black, and white caps. They became friendly with us in the viewing car, and asked if they could sit with us when we transferred to the Cardinal in Chicago, for the 28 hour trip to Philadelphia. Ellen left in Kentucky, where relatives were waiting to bring Rose's eldest daughter to the train when Ellen left. That left Rose with three small children - Kayla aged 4, Amy aged 3, and Davon (a boy) who is nearly 2 - a big job for anyone to look after.

Sunday was a glorious day - we travelled right across West Virginia, beside the Kanawha River and its tributaries for much of the day - river boats, rapids, autumn leaves, steep mountain gorges etc - it was like a picturebook. Frances spent almost all day with two, or even three, delightful little Amish children (the girls in plain blue or green dresses, black boots and black bonnets, Davon in grey trousers with broad crossed straps, and a dark red shirt like his mother's dress) on her knee ... it was a delight. Davon called John 'grandfather', because of his beard, and his eyes twinkled as he lay back on John's lap and looked up at it. We were SO exhausted by the time we helped them disembark at Wilmington Delaware, and we slept like logs in Philadelphia.

Yesterday we went to see the Liberty Bell before catching the Philadelphian to Johnstown. We travelled through Lancaster, the area which most people link with the Amish, watching farmers plowing with a hand plough behind a horse, an Amish Wagon delivering visitors to a farm, long lines of Monday-morning washing reaching from the second-story to the ground (unusual in a country where everyone else uses electric driers). It was wonderful to see Janet again, and to meet Ken.

Today we went to see the place where Admiral Peary first to reach the North Pole (there's some controversy about that, but it seems right) was born. a few miles from Janet and Ken's home in Portage PA, and visited a mansion now owned by the Franciscans, to enjoy the beautiful gardens, before feasting on pumpkin pie icecream at a dairy farm that has a Halloween fair every year - the pumpkins were worth seeing. All of Portage, even the funeral directors' office, is decorated for Halloween - it's great fun!

From fast to SLO

Sunday was a melange of new experiences for us. We attended a Unitarian service with Tom and Neal - well, mainly with Tom, as Neal was outside helping people dye dozens of Peace T-shirts she'd screen printed. It was midday before we headed for the freeway, northwards from San Diego and past San Bernadino, at the back of Los Angeles. WOW! There were ten lanes of traffic - 5 each way - and sometimes more - all doing 80 miles an hour ... that's 130 kilometres an hour ... and every lane full of traffic all the time ... thousands and thousands of cars and trucks. We were almost glad that we had a largish SUV (4WD) as we drove like bats out of hell for two hours straight before we escaped near the San Gabriel mountains - a ski area just east of Los Angeles. There we stopped at the Mountain View Inn, beside one of the largest sand hills we've ever seen, and shared a plate of ... liver and onions! It seemed so un-American! Heading westwards, we drove beside the Edwards air force base, to Palmdale, where we supermarket shopped and booked in at a local Days Inn, totally wrung-out from our experiences in the fast lane.

Monday was totally different, as we drove along narrow country roads along the edge of the Sierra Madre, heading towards the coast. Our first impression was of the smog that continued to blanket the hills, even 150 kilometres (nearly 100 miles) from central Los Angeles. Our second impression was that we'd seen it all before, even though this was our first visit - we kept seeing scenes from every cowboy movie we ever saw. I'm quite sure I saw Victore Mature peering over a ridge, and Audie Murphy down in a gulch below (don't worry dears, if you're under 100 years old and can't remember these stars of the Wild West!).

It was delightful to arrive in the San Luis Obispo (SLO) area and meet up with our friends Anni and Bill. We'd visited them last year, but one visit is never enough - it's wonderful to feel that you're almost continuing the conversation left off at the end of the last visit. Like Neal and Tom, Bill and Anni are wonderful hosts, though we're all lacking sleep because we talk so far into the night - as well as being keen international tourists, they travelled the US for seven years, visiting every mainland state, including Alaska, and Canada, before settling down at Avila Beach. Yesterday we lunched at inland Templeton, at a wonderful restaurant in an old saloon - again it was just like a movie set - before visiting the SLO botanical garden.

Our bags are packed, we're ready to go ... this showbiz air is having an effect on us ... and today we set off on the first of six train-days. Today we return our SUV and travel by train to Emeryville, just inland from San Francisco, where we'll stay in a hotel overnight. Tomorrow we head for Chicago, via Salt Lake City, Colorado and Nebraska, our 43rd state. We're due to arrive on Saturday afternoon, and will then change trains and travel through Ohio, West Virginia (state #44) and Washington DC to Philadelphia, the next time we'll sleep in a bed, on Sunday night. On Monday we'll catch another train, this time heading west through Pennsylvania, to Johnstown, where Janet and Ken promise to be waiting for us among the autumn (fall!) leaves of the Alleghenny Mountains. Don't expect another blog for a week - but in the meantime, we hope that you're enjoying life as much as we are.

California - here we came

We have our feet on the ground! We're staying with friends Tom and Neal in a real house ... and we feel like real people, not like tourists! We loved being on the ship, and had a superb time, but real life is wonderful too.

Yesterday we sat out under the trees (LOTS of gum trees, some banksias and wattles, and lots of peppercorn trees (if you're a Victorian) or pepperinas (Queensland version) or Californian pepper trees - take your pick - and ate breakfast in the sun, dogs at our feet - life is good. Later Neal took us around a wonderful craft museum where she's a guide (they call it a docent) - Maddy, and Stephanie, would have adored the Zandra Rhodes clothing exhibition - it was brilliant. Lots of Mexican folk sculpture (celebrating Mexico's bi-centennary) and Romanian embroidery, too. We lunched at the wonderful museum complex, watched brides posing around the interesting buildings, all built for a World Expo in the 1930s - just a great day out with friends.

Now we're off to dye Peace T-shirts, and join the Biggart family at the Unitarian church, then wander our way northwards in the SUV we've hired - it was meant to be a compact car, but that's life! Interesting sidelight - collection of the car was held up because no-one could get the electronic locks to work - it turned out that the nuclear US Navy carrier in the port had blocked all electronic signals in that wavelength!

Back to land means back to facebook, too - it;s great to hear everybody's news - Congratulations to Michael and Tammy on their engagement, commiserations to Jess, whose pet Crush is no more, good luck to Bronwyn - and thanks to all the others for snippets of news.

Back to the real world ... almost!

This will be our last blog from the ship, and we're actually writing from within sight of San Diego, although we can't go ashore ... we, and everyone else on the Carnival Spirit, will travel to Mexico overnight, then "debark" (isn't that a ghastly Americanism? We still say "disembark", to ourselves!) in a town called Ensenada. From there all 2200 passengers (no, that must be 2199 - see below) then get onto buses and travel to ... wait for it ... San Diego! You see, we're all bound by a US law called the Jones Act, which says that every Jones, Smith, Brown, Obama ??, and Windolf must visit at least one overseas port on every cruise - and as we've sailed from Hawaii, the 49th state, we have to go to Mexico. The reason that we diverted via San Diego today is because one passenger had a heart attack, so we sailed to San Diego, watched her carted off to hospital, then continued on to Mexico.

We have loved our time on this ship - very different from our cruise on the Carnival Splendor last year, partly because the ship is smaller, but also because the passengers have changed three times. The special thing, for the two of us, is the way that we have been "adopted" by the staff and crew - they count us as part of the team, and we've been constantly bombarded with wine, chocolates, fruit - last night all our favourite dining room staff gave us a beautiful hand made card, full of messages, and a photo frame they had bought for us - please can we take them back to Oz with us?

After we leave the ship tomorrow (we refuse to type THAT word again!) we collect a hire car and drive around Southern California for 5 days, visiting 3 lots of friends, near San Diego and near San Luis Obispo. Then we'll catch a train next Wednesday (Thursday Aussie time) to travel to Pennsylvania, via Chicago.

We'll be in touch after our 'land legs' get back in training.

It's a hard life - or is it?

Here we are, back at sea - having a hard time fitting in all the things we want to do. We start in the early morning, watching the Aussie dollar rise against the US dollar (we LIKE that!), then go down for breakfast - we could go up, to the Lido, but find that it's much more civilised in the dining room, and we eat less than at the buffet - it's much easier to say "No" to a menu! From there we return to our room - cleaned for the first time for the day - it will be totally done again while we're at dinner - then parade around the deck for exercise, stopping to chat as we go. We appear to be two of only four Aussies on this particular cruise - would you believe that the others have a grandaughter/niece who teaches at Coolum High School - it's a small world!

A spell by the pool leads to conversation - and then it's lunch time. Back to the dining room - seafood for Frances, a chinese pepper steak salad for John, and a visit from the captain, wandering around for a chat ... much more welcome than the wandering magician, who's a bit of a dill! An afternoon nap for John, while Frances tries to catch up with some uni work, then it's back to the deck. Today Frances and John (known as Jack) invited us to their suite at the rear of the ship, where we enjoyed their huge private balcony, sheltered from the wind - the side balconies are attractive, but tend to be windy. We followed this with attendance at a Past Guest's party - more food, free cocktails - we try to be very moderate, but it's hard - before changing for dinner. Crab legs and chicken in a truffle sauce for Frances, hazelnut crusted camembert for John, followed by rare roast beef, then a souffle for Frances and fruit & cheese for John ... please note that we only have one starter each - some of the people around us have three starters before their main course!

We're catching up on our emailing now (All our emails have suddenly disappeared!! If you've sent a message in the last few days, please could you resend it?) before we go to a show, equal to anything we'd pay $70 a ticket for at home ... oh, and we forgot to mention the chocolate coated strawberries, each one in a white chocolate 'shirt' and a dark chocolate 'coat' and 'bow tie' that were waiting in our cabin, a gift from the Hotel Manager.

What's hard about this life? Well, we are missing you all - and Theodora the cat - and we've only 2 days before we have to pack - AND we have to make plans about losing weight when we disembark! Sorry if we've made you jealous - we know that life on land is good too!

Aloha also means goodbye - unfortunately!

Well, our two weeks in Hawaii is over - although I've still got flowers in my hair, and John has shells around his neck, ready to say a final "Aloha". We've really enjoyed Hawaii, partly through the tours we've done - yesterday we travelled by bus 10,000 ft up the Haleakala volcano (Mt Kosciusko is only 7,000 ft!) - but also with the things that we've done as individuals. Last week we drove around Maui, and loved it, this week we visited the superb Bishop Museum in Honolulu, and the royal palace (all 6 rooms!) in Kailua, Kona, which displayed absolutely superb furniture and artifacts. Today we went to the Maui County Fair! We enjoyed looking at rabbits, donkeys, cattle, poultry etc, wandering past the food stalls (we DID resist the deep-fried chocolate bars!!), and watching the kids enjoying the huge number of games and rides on the Midway - there were NO sample bags! - but best of all we enjoyed the entertainment of Hawaiian songs and hula, which was superb. Now we have to say "Aloha" to Hawaii, and our thoughts are already extending to the next part of our trip, although we plan to continue enjoying every last minute of our cruise, while we can.

On a sad note, we want to say "Aloha" to Frances' cousin Peter, who died suddenly after Saturday's AFL grand final - our thoughts are with his family.

Maholo (Thank you) Hawaii - you have been so generous to us.

What a celebration!

WOW!
We've just had the most wonderful day of celebration - the most perfect 25th wedding anniversary we could have imagined!

We started the day as we cruised into Nawiliwili on the island of Kauai - breakfasting beside the huge windows at the rear of the ship. Then we travelled up the Wailea river in a large barge-boat, to a 'fern grotto' - we walked through acres of flowering gingers, hibiscus, guava trees etc etc to an area surrounded by high rock walls, draped in vines and ferns, above a mossy grotto dripping moisture - although we had a glorious sunny day, Kauai is officially the wettest place on earth. At the grotto, a Hawaiian group waited, ready to sing the 'Hawaiian Wedding Song' to us, and another couple who were celebrating their 36th anniversary, and a couple who'd been married 2 days before - as well as 100 or so others, who were just there for the enjoyment! The group accompanied us back on the barge, singing and demonstrating the hula - if only we'd had a video camera to film John doing the hula - he was a whizz!!

At dinner time we dressed up, although it wasn't actually an Elegant Night - John in blazer and tie (with long trousers AND shoes!) and I in my wedding dress! We were surrounded by love and good wishes, particularly from Katerina, who was a favourite of ours last year on the Carnival Splendor, and who comes for a hug each evening - she's now our head waiter - and from Karnita, the wonderful Balinese chap who's been our head waiter up until now - and Fernando the maitre d' and his assistant, Natalia, and so many others who've become special to us. They tell us that we are 'the best guests they've ever had' (Oh yeah?), but they were so generous that they ordered a surprise anniversary cake for us, and the Cruise Director sent wine - our room is full of baskets of fruit, chocolate-covered strawberries, more wine etc etc ... we've done a couple of small things around the ship, like reorganising the library (with permission), and we've been paid back ten-thousandfold!!

After dinner (and the obligatory 'Happy Versary to You' song sung for all anniversaries) we proceeded to have our photos taken - twice - by Marco, and by Luz, both of whom we knew last year as well. We haven't seen the results yet, but hope at least one set will come out well.

We finished the day with the show "All that Jazz" - a really splendind all-singing/all-dancing spectacular which we've seen before, and loved - couldn't help but wonder what we'd have been doing if we were home on our own!

Thank you all for your good wishes - it was great to think of home, too. Love to all of you.

At sea again

Well, we've just left Honolulu, after three terrific days, and we're enjoying having the ship moving again, after being vitual landlubbers. Yesterday we went to Waikiki - saw the beaches from the local bus as we travelled, but otherwise we were almost lost in a forest of tall accommodation towers! All anyone seems to do in Waikiki is to shop, so we joined the masses, spending several hours at the International market, and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Today we were much more serious, and went to the wonderful Bishop Museum. There we were welcomed by Neil, an American botanist who spent some time in Brisbane, and married a Brisbane girl - John knew him through his friend Philip, and they were pleased to see each other again. After a tour of the Herbarium we explored the main museum - the refurbished Hawaii Room is absolutely world class - perhaps even a world leader! - and we enjoyed the Polynesian section, too, with artifacts from across the Pacific. After lunch with Neil we returned for a session on the history of hula and chants - it was so non-touristy, and impressive - a memorable day.

Now we're into the third cruise of our back-t0-back-to-back experience ... and we're being treated like royalty! Our room is full of chocolate covered strawberries, bottles of wine, and a fantastic fruit basket - yesterday we put in an hour or so working on the ship's library, and we've been so royally rewarded! And you should see the faces of our fellow-guests (new to this cruise) as all our favourite staff members race up to hug us! This is really like a family, and we love being a part of it!

We hope that family at home think of us on our 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow - we have a special trip planned - we'll report on it in our next blog. Aloha!

Happy in Honolulu

Not many people have a better address than us tonight - we are right beside the Aloha Tower, in the centre of downtown Honolulu, for the first of three days here. We've seen so much today - first went up to the Pali Cliffs, in the middle of the island, to see the incredible views (although the wind nearly blew our eyelids off!) - then we headed for Pearl Harbour, where we visited the Arizona Memorial ... a very thought-provoking place, although we ended up walking out of the (almost) obligatory introductory movie as we felt that perhaps, just perhaps, SOME indication should have been made that other people beside the Yanks fought in WWII !!

After that we headed across to the eastern side of the island, through a tunnel under the really impressive mountains, and northwards towards the surf beaches. There was a little wave at the Pipeline and at Sunset Beach, but we've been astounded at the flat seas - we're told that the big waves come in winter. It must be hell to be here then though - even now the waves cross the 2 metres (maximum!) of sand and hit against people's front fences or the very edge of the highway - what must it be like with huge waves??

We saw a huge Green Turtle on a beach, visited a ranch for lunch (tough beef spareribs!) and went to a macadamia outlet (they do admit to macadamias being from Queensland, though most American tourists don't believe them) and the huge Dole pineapple plantation. To our horror, they were selling pineapples for US$7.96 each - smaller than the ones we buy near Coolum at 3 for AU$2.00!! Food in Hawaii is dreadfully expensive - most things seem to cost as much per pound as we'd pay for a kilo! Fortunately, we're not buying much - we're so well fed on the ship that the thought of other food seems indecent!

Almost all of our fellow passengers leave tomorrow - but we have another 12 days, which pleases us. We plan to visit Waikiki tomorrow, and to visit the world-renown Bishop Museum on Monday, courtesy of a botanist who works there, but came out to work in Brisbane some years ago.

We've just heard about the AFL grand final - thanks Belinda! - there's no news that ain't Am-errrr-ican here!!

Merry Maui

Hawaii has us in its thrall ... last night we attended the Hawaiian deck party, drinking Pina Coladas with the best of them (well, virgin Pina Coladas with no alcohol, anyway!) and having our photo taken with the captain - great fun. Today we're in Maui, for the first of 4 days - two this cruise, and another two next week.

This morning we hired a car and set off, first from Kahlui on the mid-north coast to the beautiful Iao valley, where incredibly steep green mountains dripped all around us as we drove to the revered Iao Needle, pointing towards sunny skies. Then we headed across the island, looking for waves ... how disgusted the boys at Coolum would be with the gentle seas we found! The other side of the island is much drier - but that pleases the thousands of holiday-makers who throng to that shore seeking sunshine.

We stopped for lunch at Cove Bay, ready to dine on sourdough bread, meat and pickles, with "apple bananas" (Lady-fingers, we reckon) and a huge pomelo, which we bought from a farm. All was wonderful, except that we couldn't get through the 3cm deep pith of the pomelo with our paltry knife! A nearby Hawaiian fisherman, Maurice and his partner Jenna came to our aid with a large cane-knife, and we shared the pomelo (like a sweet grapefruit, but the size of a cabbage) with them, and a black lass now living in Hawaii, and a couple from Boston, James and Emily, who were due to be married on the beach an hour later!! We had quite a party!

We love life on the ship - but it's nice to see the real world, too - tomorrow we may travel on the local bus - life's fun! Hope it's good for you, too!

Everybody's family here!

We've heard Hawaii called "the friendly isles" - and they're not wrong! We've visited two islands now - first of all the dry west coast of the Big Island (pronounced Ha-Vy-ee as the island, as part of Ha-Wy-ee, the American State!!!) and then beautiful Kauai, the most westerly island, before returning to the east and south of Big Island ... don't ask us WHY we're all over the place - we're just going along for the ride! On both islands we've been treated like family - today's bus driver called us 'cousins' - and made to feel incredibly welcome.

Yesterday we landed at Nawiliwili and travelled through former sugar cane country (now planted with coffee trees) beside beautiful sandy beaches, then on to the Waimea canyon, which is reminiscent of the Grand Canyon, but nowhere near so grand! We visited the place where Captain Cook first landed, and some wonderful blow holes. Today we landed at Hilo and travelled to the Kilawea volcano - a large caldera with lots of steam and sulphurous gases blowing out, which we viewed from an observatory on the rim of the caldera, while the earth moved gently under our feet! From there we went to a botanical garden, full of the same plants as we try to grow at home, but really luxuriant, due to the rainfall of 3000 millimetres (120 inches) a year. It was so beautiful that it inspired John to buy a beautiful arrangement of pale pink anthuriums and deep pink ginger for our cabin!

Thanks to all of you who've registered comments to our blogs - you can also write to us at windolf@ozemail.com.au as we check our mail every couple of days. Hope this gets through - we're having some trouble with satellite connections!

Pane (Frances) and Keonii (John)

Aloha!

Our Hawaiian experience began yesterday, when we lunched with a Hawaiian couple, part of a group returning home from Vancouver, who decided that this cruise was a great way to see their own country! Last night was the Talent Quest, which we would normally have avoided, but we knew that Chester and Shubby's group was performing, so we went (it was kept as a surprise from all other guests). They were a triumph!

We were really in the mood for Kahlui-Kona, on the Big Island - the island of Hawaii - today, and were up by 6am to prepare for our tour - very different to our lazy sea days! This port has no jetty, so we had to be tendered in in some of the lifeboats - now that's an experience! Once on shore, we set off for a tour around half the island - the dry half ... and wasn't it dry! Almost all our journey was on the slopes of the Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea volcanoes - lumps of lava all the way. We're told that a few years ago that's all we would have seen , but now African Fountain Grass has covered a lot of the lava, the seeds having escaped from hotel landscaping.

We visited a wonderful national park, with King K******'s fort (sorry, any word with 17 vowels and 3 consonants defeats me!!), then continued on to the Parker Ranch, a huge cattle ranch in the north of the island, owned by 6 generations of Europeans intermarried with Hawaiian royalty - and they lived like kings! This was interesting in itself, as was the nearby town, but above all we appreciated seeing the countryside, which looked a bit like the (Australian) New England plateau in a drought - brown grass and dying gum trees. Further on we came upon a forest of Queensland Silky Oaks - growing better here than they do at home. So many plants were familiar - we felt quite at home!

A little shopping later, to prepare for Hawaiian Elegant Night tomorrow - a clip-on frangipani for my hair, and what I described as a "cheap lei" for John to wear around his neck ... OOPS!!! Let's just say, it will be unusual to see John with a necklace of flowers ... and from here on, I'll be careful with my descriptions!!

Aloha!

Caring Carnival

Well, we're on our second of five sea days, and with grey skies and grey seas our thoughts have very much turned inwards. we celebrated the first Elegant Night of this cruise last night, and followed the wonderful dinner with a visit to the large Egyptian- themed theatre for a performance called Jazz Hot - we saw it on the last voyage, but the four singers, twelve dancers, large band, superb costumes etc etc were so wonderful that we returned. This time we couldn't help but see that just below our balcony seats were two interpreters for the deaf, who translated every song into American Sign Language - it was a performance almost as fascinating as that on stage.

It is amazing to see the care for people with disabilities on the ship. On the Alaska cruise we became friendly with a fellow who was wheel-chair-bound after breaking his back some years ago. When we went on the Saxman Village tour, Carnival had ordered a coach with a lift which came out of the side of the bus, and allowed him to sit in an area half-way along - they had also provided someone to push his chair, to allow his wife (a nurse!) to have some time to herself. June said that their stateroom was the best adaptation she had ever seen for the disabled.

Every sign on the ship is marked in braille - although we still haven't worked out how blind people know the sign is there! The young woman with Down Syndrome who sits near us at dinner is treated as an honoured guest, but with no condecension at all.

Not disabled, but special, is a large group of German travellers on the ship - they have a translator, so all important announcements are made in German as well as English. Everybody, including us, is made to feel special! The little Indonesian lass who cleans our bathroom noticed that we love reading so she brings us all the magazines she finds, before taking them to her room to improve her English - this is such a wonderfully caring environment!

Sailing westwards

We've been north - loved Alaska, its friendly people, verdant mountains, snow and glaciers - even saw a bear (it looked as big as an ant from such a distance!) we've been south again - to Vancouver for 12 sunny hours - which we spent on the VERY quiet ship - only a dozen or so people going onwards - we took the opportunity for an 'at home day' - John read and snoozed, Frances did some of her university work, which has been rather neglected due to the good times we've had. We have 3 days in Vancouver at the end of our 3 months, and will explore then.

Now we're heading west - 5 days sailing and we'll be in Hawaii! Different people, different music, different menu in the dining room - but the same wonderful staff, same stateroom - we're happy! A new adventure beckons!

Different days, different nations

Yesterday we were truly international travellers - we boarded a mini-bus in tiny Skagway (summer population 900 people) and followed one of the trails towards the Klondike goldfields ... well, the first few miles of it ... into Canada, at the top of White Pass. We passed the 3ft gauge train that took tourists up and down, but decided we preferred the road route, where we not only saw the views (yet another clear, sunny day), but could stop beside waterfalls, or to look down into the gorge where so many miners horses died, trying to climb tremendously steep rocky mountains with huge loads - each miner had to carry 1 ton of food into Canada, a feat which took many journeys up and down the 3,700 ft to the pass. Our trip to Canada was brief, but really different - rocky slopes in all directions, a couple of glaciers, white mountain goats, creamy lichens and scarlet fireweed - beautiful.

Today it was First Nation people that we thought of - or, perhaps, Native Americans, as Alaska is American. We travelled from Ketchikan to Saxman Native Village - and what a welcome the Tlingit and Heide people gave us! We were a little embarrassed to be tourists, gawking at their way of life, but they explained to us that tourists, and their money, have enabled their community to provide jobs for their people, and encouraged a whole generation of young people to reamain local and develop a pride in their heritage and their language. We were shown their native plants and a film on their history, welcomed into the Beaver clan meeting house for a dance exhibition, and shown the way that they carve their superb totem poles. It was a wonderful day, and we felt SO welcome. We can't spell it, but we were pleased to say something like "Granache-cheeses Ho Ho", which meant "Thank you from the bottom of our hearts".

Another wonderful theatre presentation tonight - last night's New Orleans Show was worth at least $100 each in Brisbane, or any other city, but was of course a free part of our cruise - such a great contrast to life outside, but so enjoyable - this is the life!

Alaska is cool!

We're stting here in heavy jackets (Frances in furry hat and gloves), not because there's anything wrong with the shikp's over-efficient heating, but because we've just spent all day on deck, where the temperature was 11C (52F) without allowing for wind chill. Why? Because we've just spent one of the most beautiful days of our lives, cruising in Glacier Bay. It's glorious!

Yesterday, in Juneau, the capital of Alaska, we travelled to a salmon hatchery and the Mendenhall Glacier, in cold, miserable rain, and were impressed despite the weather. Today dawned bright and sunny, and we just couldn't tear ourselves away from the outside deck - at least a dozen glaciers, six of which are what John describes as "proper glaciers", which go all the way to the water. The surrounding mountains were huge, ranging from the height of Kosciusko to twice the height of Kosciusko. We had morning hot chocolate there, we had lunchtime chinese food there, we had carrot cake (and jelly for John, of course) there. Our tablemate, Cisco from South Carolina, had four bowls of icecream, two lots of french fries, a thick, toasted cheese and ham deli sandwich AND lunch there, while his wife Dianne was a little more restrained. Another new friend told us she'd lost weight today, just running from one side of the ship to the other, to take photos. Thank heavens for digital cameras - Frances has taken about 70 photos today, and John a whole heap more.

Uh oh! There's just been an announcement suggesting that we should go out to look for seals, sea otters and sea lions - this morning Frances saw a distant bear!!! Bye!

In the Spirit

Having left Victoria with regret, then enjoyed a fast, but wet, journey through Puget Sound to Seattle, we spent last night in an hotel, opposite the Seattle Public Library. We toured the library this morning, all 10 modern floors of it (ask John to describe the 4th floor red "heart" of the building some time!!) then headed for Pier 91 and the Carnival Spirit.

We're pleased to say that our embarkation was MUCH easier and faster than trying to get on the Carnival Splendor last year - no bomb scare! In fact, we were on the ship so fast that we almost wondered what to do with ourselves ... and we missed Janet and Colette who shared our wait with us last time.

Now we've eaten (magnificently!) and done 4 days of washing. We're travelling north past Vancouver Island ... Alaska, here we come!

Blooming marvelous!

Victoria is wonderful! No, you can stop patting yourself on the back, there in Australia - we're talking about the city of Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Our ATC hosts took us all around the beautiful city on Saturday, then on Sunday morning they drove us to the Butchart Gardens, leaving us there with detailed instructions for the bus journey home.

What a joy it was! These gardens were the most colourful we've ever seen - 55 acres of roses, dahlias, begonias, zinnias, and dozens and dozens of other flowers, a wonderful Japanese garden, a sunken garden in an old quarry - and that was just part of this 100+ year-old property. we walked for four hours, and could have spent days.

The bus journey was crowded beyond belief, until we changed buses, but an elderly First Nations lady, Freda, changed with us, and so we had an interesting wait for the next bus, hearing of her birth in a long-house and her life on the island more than 70 years ago. We love the people you meet when you travel!

For dinner, Pat and Wayne took us to the Victoria airport, where we watched planes take off as we ate, then drove us around country roads, past lakes and rolling fields, bordered by tall sequoias. we've visited a wonderful place, made new friends, whom we hope will visit us in the future ... we're sorry to leave.

The Victoria Clipper, a fast catamaran to Seattle, awaits - and, tomorrow, the Carnival Spirit. We'll write again in a few days, from Alaskan waters.

Travelling with angels

"Well", said our friend Rochelle, as she drove us to the airport, "this will give you something to write in your blog". She was right! Rochelle and her daughter Caitlin had collected us in Caitlin's station wagon, packed in piles of luggage - and a few kilometres down the road we suffered a severely split tyre. As we hopped out of the car, an angel in a cab (an unusual sight on the Sunshine Coast!) came along, so John and Rochelle disappeared to collect Rochelle's car. As Frances and Caitlin pulled out the luggage, a passing ambulance-man pulled up and insisted on helping to change the tyre ... a second angel ... actually, the fourth, counting Rochelle and Caitlin.

In the 'City of the Angels', however, we found a severe lack of angels - we collected our luggage, chatted with a delightful Customs officer who couldn't decide if John was from a Harry Potter movie or Lord of the Rings ... and then we hurriedly pushed our laden luggage trolley to the very furthest terminal, to catch a United plane to Vancouver. Here we waited in a queue of more than 50 people for one of two assistants to acknowledge our bookings - we got on, after queuing for more than 30 minutes, but some transferees eventually missed the plane. Our holdup was the security demon who, refusing to acknowledge that Frances' new titanium knee was the alarm she heard, took her away for a full check of everything!! Even travellers cheques and money were swiped with special clothes (every one individually!) to see if she was carrying drugs!! The plane, when we eventually reached it (it was held up, too) was like a poor-quality council bus with two seats either side of a narrow aisle, and we think we met every passenger on the plane, as the aisle was constantly filled with people waiting to use the single toilet - of 50 people on the plane, 40 stood beside us and talked!!

Vancouver was a quick stopover - we slept (lots!) at a Days Inn, and travelled to our new angels - Affordable travel Club hosts, Pat and Wayne, who have been hospitable beyond belief ... more of that in the next blog, as now we're off to the beautiful Butchart Gardens ... bye!

Hi all! We're off on another trip - this one to the USA and Canada, cruising, visiting friends and hopefully achieving our aim of having visited all 50 US states - we've got 10 more to go!
Our itinerary is roughly this:
3 Sept Brisbane to Los Angeles to Vancouver
7 Sept Leave Seattle on the Carnival Spirit for a 7 day cruise to Alaska (state #1)
14 Sept Leave Vancouver on the Carnival Spirit for a 12 day cruise to Hawaii and around the Hawaiian islands (same stateroom - no packing - yeah!) (state # 2)
26 Sept Leave Honolulu (Carnival Spirit again) for another 12 day cruise, around the islands again, then across the Pacific to Mexico and San Diego
8 Oct - 13 Oct Visit 3 lots of friends in California (hire car)
14 Oct Travel on Amtrak California Zephyr to Chicago through Salt Lake City & Denver (and Nebraska - state #3)
16 Oct Arrive Chicago, transfer to the Cardinal to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, through Ohio, West Virginia, Washington DC (West Virginia is state #4)
18 Oct - 1 Nov Visit two friends in Pennsylvania - lots of talk and autumn leaves!
1 Nov Travel by Amtrak through New York to Albany NY, hire car
2 Nov - 13 Nov Drive around New England (Vermont - state #5; New Hampshire - state#6; Maine - state #7; Massachussets - state #8; Rhode Island - state #9; Connecticut - state #10!)
14 Nov By train to Montreal, Canada
16-17 Nov Prince Edward Island (known by all who've read Anne of Green Gables)
18-19 Nov Nova Scotia (island on Canada's east coast)
21 - 22 Nov Ottawa
23 - 27 Nov Train Ottawa - Toronto - Winnipeg etc to Vancouver
29 November Fly via Los Angeles and Sydney, arriving home on 1 December

Whew! We're exhausted just thinking about it!
Hope to blog every 2-3 days, if we get computer access .. do come along with us, for the virtual ride!