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!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
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.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
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!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The best laid plans ...
Well, we're home at last ... although our journey did not proceed the way we thought it would, we're here, and happy.
On Friday we left Bill and Anni Harnois at Avila Beach, and drove northwards, past San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay, rather than south to Los Angeles, so as to visit a couple we had met on the ship, Bill and Toni Pisor. After a delicious lunch, and much reminiscing, we acceded to their suggestion that we should stay the night with them, rather than staying in a motel closer to LA. So what for plans? This would be much more fun. We'd been to Morro Bay 11 years ago, when 5 metre (16 foot) waves were crashing over the breakwater, but this time the sun was shining and the ocean was truly Pacific - it's a really delightful seaside tourist town, with wonderful shops and art galleries.
The Pisors have a 2 year-old grand-daughter, who loves an afternoon trip to the Morro - a huge lump of rock situated in the bay, joined to the shore by a sandbar and breakwater. We joined them, to feed lettuce and cabbage leaves to a colony of about 50 cute squirrels, and to watch a number of sea otters lazily swimming 4 or 5 metres offshore. We're used to seeing little Asian otters in local zoos, but these were much bigger - at least a metre long - and instead of running around near a stream they floated on their backs, soaking up the sunshine. Some carried a baby, resting on their chest, as though they were furry boats. Skylar's outing then took us a couple of hundred metres away, to see a pod of sea lions which hang out near the fish shops. They were huge! Some 3 metres long, and very round, they would slide effortlessly up onto a pontoon almost within arm's reach of us, then slide back into the water, around a fishing boat, and back again. One delighted in swimming under the jetty, barking loudly so that the concrete jetty magnified the sound. It was really impressive!
Throughout our driving journey we endeavoured to avoid the Interstate freeways wherever possible, driving on local roads in the same direction, and so it was as we headed for Los Angeles, travelling on Route 101. After a pleasant journey through farmland for the first 100 miles, the road followed the shoreline almost all the way for the last 120 miles, with rugged mountains including the Santa Barbara range, covered with Joshua trees and cactus, directly beside the road on the other side. We stopped at a farmer's market at Ventura and bought bread, spicy sausage, cheese, strawberries and California oranges for lunch, which we ate beside the sea, then travelled past renowned surf beaches such as Malibu and Santa Monica, goggling at the way all the homes were built over the sand of the beach - how they must fear high seas!
After a six-hour journey we arrived at the airport, where we were informed that we had driven 3670 miles (5872 kilometres) since we had collected the car in Minneapolis-St Paul - a really enjoyable and worthwhile journey. We gathered our bulging bags and headed for the Qantas counter, expecting a boring 8-hour wait before we caught the plane to Brisbane at 11.20 pm ... but once again our plans were to alter!
"We're sorry", we were told, "but that plane is not leaving tonight"!!! It was suggested that "maybe" we might like to fly to Melbourne instead - and we would only have a wait of "two or three hours" before we could fly to Brisbane, another three hours away. Our startled faces must have shown our opinion of that suggestion, because the next words were "Or perhaps you might like to stay here tonight and fly tomorrow - we'll put you up at the Hilton, and of course all meals are included". As you can guess, the Hilton won, so, after some frantic phone calls to stop Rochelle arriving at the airport at 6 am, we slept in very-un-aircraft-like comfort.
A great flight, the sight of Rochelle waiting for us at 5 pm, a comfortable ride home, and a baked dinner left for us by Stephanie and Jim - what a wonderful ending to a fantastic trip. It's great to be home, and we plan to stay put for some time ... but it's good to dream, isn't it? Thanks for being with us along the way.
Frances and John
On Friday we left Bill and Anni Harnois at Avila Beach, and drove northwards, past San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay, rather than south to Los Angeles, so as to visit a couple we had met on the ship, Bill and Toni Pisor. After a delicious lunch, and much reminiscing, we acceded to their suggestion that we should stay the night with them, rather than staying in a motel closer to LA. So what for plans? This would be much more fun. We'd been to Morro Bay 11 years ago, when 5 metre (16 foot) waves were crashing over the breakwater, but this time the sun was shining and the ocean was truly Pacific - it's a really delightful seaside tourist town, with wonderful shops and art galleries.
The Pisors have a 2 year-old grand-daughter, who loves an afternoon trip to the Morro - a huge lump of rock situated in the bay, joined to the shore by a sandbar and breakwater. We joined them, to feed lettuce and cabbage leaves to a colony of about 50 cute squirrels, and to watch a number of sea otters lazily swimming 4 or 5 metres offshore. We're used to seeing little Asian otters in local zoos, but these were much bigger - at least a metre long - and instead of running around near a stream they floated on their backs, soaking up the sunshine. Some carried a baby, resting on their chest, as though they were furry boats. Skylar's outing then took us a couple of hundred metres away, to see a pod of sea lions which hang out near the fish shops. They were huge! Some 3 metres long, and very round, they would slide effortlessly up onto a pontoon almost within arm's reach of us, then slide back into the water, around a fishing boat, and back again. One delighted in swimming under the jetty, barking loudly so that the concrete jetty magnified the sound. It was really impressive!
Throughout our driving journey we endeavoured to avoid the Interstate freeways wherever possible, driving on local roads in the same direction, and so it was as we headed for Los Angeles, travelling on Route 101. After a pleasant journey through farmland for the first 100 miles, the road followed the shoreline almost all the way for the last 120 miles, with rugged mountains including the Santa Barbara range, covered with Joshua trees and cactus, directly beside the road on the other side. We stopped at a farmer's market at Ventura and bought bread, spicy sausage, cheese, strawberries and California oranges for lunch, which we ate beside the sea, then travelled past renowned surf beaches such as Malibu and Santa Monica, goggling at the way all the homes were built over the sand of the beach - how they must fear high seas!
After a six-hour journey we arrived at the airport, where we were informed that we had driven 3670 miles (5872 kilometres) since we had collected the car in Minneapolis-St Paul - a really enjoyable and worthwhile journey. We gathered our bulging bags and headed for the Qantas counter, expecting a boring 8-hour wait before we caught the plane to Brisbane at 11.20 pm ... but once again our plans were to alter!
"We're sorry", we were told, "but that plane is not leaving tonight"!!! It was suggested that "maybe" we might like to fly to Melbourne instead - and we would only have a wait of "two or three hours" before we could fly to Brisbane, another three hours away. Our startled faces must have shown our opinion of that suggestion, because the next words were "Or perhaps you might like to stay here tonight and fly tomorrow - we'll put you up at the Hilton, and of course all meals are included". As you can guess, the Hilton won, so, after some frantic phone calls to stop Rochelle arriving at the airport at 6 am, we slept in very-un-aircraft-like comfort.
A great flight, the sight of Rochelle waiting for us at 5 pm, a comfortable ride home, and a baked dinner left for us by Stephanie and Jim - what a wonderful ending to a fantastic trip. It's great to be home, and we plan to stay put for some time ... but it's good to dream, isn't it? Thanks for being with us along the way.
Frances and John
Thursday, April 23, 2009
California, here we come!
The drive from Carson City, Nevada, on the plains, to Lake Tahoe, in the Sierra Ranges of California, is only a few kilometres, but is almost mind-blowing in geographical contrast. We wound our way up the range, through a forest of pine trees, and there was a bright blue lake, the second deepest in the United States, surrounded by forests and edged with granite boulders. We were fascinated! We stopped at a public access point for photographs, and detailed investigation, then travelled on again, planning to stop frequently to view the lake from other viewpoints. Oh, how wrong we were ... this is the USA, not Australia, and almost all of our 66 miles journey around the lake displayed only the backs of houses, each of which had their own personal, wonderful view of the lake, but which totally obscured the view for lesser souls who hadn't purchased land.
Fortunately, we managed to view from two or three public access points, as we dodged the Sunday traffic (what MUST it be like in the summer, or in the middle of ski season?), but the best view of all was as we came out of the forest, along a steep downwards spur, with no protection on either side of the road ... never mind viewing the lake, it was hard enough looking at the roads to drive, as every inclination was to shut our eyes in terror! We agree that Lake Tahoe must be a wonderful place to stay for a vacation ... the anbience left us somewhat underwhelmed ... and the decidedly 1950s style motel (by age, not modern reproduction!) which we had booked into, added to our jaundiced viewpoint. We cancelled our reservation, and drove another 100kilometres downhill to Placerville, an old gold town.
However, the next day exceeded our expectations for enjoyment. Still under brilliant blue Californian skies, we ambled through the El Dorado area of the Sierra foothills, not a long way inland from San Francisco, surrounded by beautiful views, green trees, and lots of wildflowers. It was like every dream holiday one has heard about ... and hardly another tourist in sight!
Later in the day we headed up above the snowline again, so as to be as close to Yosemite National Park as possible for the next day ... and what a day it was!
Yosemite is all they say it is ... huge mountains, beautiful vistas, immense waterfalls, gushing with fresh snow-melt, wildflowers, birds, deer ... no bears, though, as presumably it's still too early for them to come out of hibernation. We estimate that we drove around more than 500 bends, each of them on the outside of the road, with no barrier between our narrow strip of bitumen and the 4000ft drop beside us ... but it was worth it! This is a beautiful place, and we were grateful to see it on a non-busy day when there were only about 1000 other people to share it with. It must be incredibly awful in summer, but we loved it!
Yesterday, as we drove westward towards the coast, with the snow still visible in our rear-vision mirror, the temperature rose and rose, until it reached 100F - it was SO hot, as we travelled through miles of Californian fig and almond trees. What changes in weather we've experienced! Now we're at the coast - the first time we've seen the sea in a month - and enjoying a visit with friends Bill and Anni. Tomorrow we beging the trip back to LA, and then back to Australia. We're not signing off yet, though - watch for another blog next week, reviwing our trip.
We've enjoyed jour company along the way!
Frances & John
Fortunately, we managed to view from two or three public access points, as we dodged the Sunday traffic (what MUST it be like in the summer, or in the middle of ski season?), but the best view of all was as we came out of the forest, along a steep downwards spur, with no protection on either side of the road ... never mind viewing the lake, it was hard enough looking at the roads to drive, as every inclination was to shut our eyes in terror! We agree that Lake Tahoe must be a wonderful place to stay for a vacation ... the anbience left us somewhat underwhelmed ... and the decidedly 1950s style motel (by age, not modern reproduction!) which we had booked into, added to our jaundiced viewpoint. We cancelled our reservation, and drove another 100kilometres downhill to Placerville, an old gold town.
However, the next day exceeded our expectations for enjoyment. Still under brilliant blue Californian skies, we ambled through the El Dorado area of the Sierra foothills, not a long way inland from San Francisco, surrounded by beautiful views, green trees, and lots of wildflowers. It was like every dream holiday one has heard about ... and hardly another tourist in sight!
Later in the day we headed up above the snowline again, so as to be as close to Yosemite National Park as possible for the next day ... and what a day it was!
Yosemite is all they say it is ... huge mountains, beautiful vistas, immense waterfalls, gushing with fresh snow-melt, wildflowers, birds, deer ... no bears, though, as presumably it's still too early for them to come out of hibernation. We estimate that we drove around more than 500 bends, each of them on the outside of the road, with no barrier between our narrow strip of bitumen and the 4000ft drop beside us ... but it was worth it! This is a beautiful place, and we were grateful to see it on a non-busy day when there were only about 1000 other people to share it with. It must be incredibly awful in summer, but we loved it!
Yesterday, as we drove westward towards the coast, with the snow still visible in our rear-vision mirror, the temperature rose and rose, until it reached 100F - it was SO hot, as we travelled through miles of Californian fig and almond trees. What changes in weather we've experienced! Now we're at the coast - the first time we've seen the sea in a month - and enjoying a visit with friends Bill and Anni. Tomorrow we beging the trip back to LA, and then back to Australia. We're not signing off yet, though - watch for another blog next week, reviwing our trip.
We've enjoyed jour company along the way!
Frances & John
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Going west - tunefully
Salt Lake City delighted us ... once we recovered from driving on its freeways! All the 'Interstates ', and many other freeways, have a 75 miles per hour speed limit - that's 120 kilometres per hour - and they stick carefully to that limit. Not so in Utah - the signs say 75mph, but the drivers use that merely as a starting point ...whew! It was a relief to find ourselves in the city streets, and to drive to our hotel in Temple Square.
Our main aim in going to Salt Lake City was to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in rehearsal, at the Tabernacle, which was two minutes' walk from our hotel. The doors were due to open, so we walked across at ten to eight, only to be greeted by the news that the choir wasn't rehearsing there that evening! Apparently they were rehearsing for a festival this weekend at the Catholic cathedral of the Madeleine, and were practising there, with no visitors allowed. You can imagine how disappointed we were (Frances has dreamt of this for almost half a century!!!), but fortunately a kind "Elder" took pity on us, and suggested that we should just quietly attend the rehearsal anyway. This we did, after a frantic rush to get the car keys, the car, and finally an almost-impossible-to-find parking spot ... and it was wonderful! Imagine more than 350 singers, a full orchestra, and a huge pipe organ, in a beautiful cathedral, decorated with superb murals ... and then imagine the music, everything from St Matthew's Passion to negro spirituals - WOW!
We were able to visit the Tabernacle at lunchtime the next day, this time to attend a half-hour demonstration of the organ - that too was a superb experience! The Tabernacle looks like a huge boiled egg - oval, with a completely curved roof, and it has superb acoustics - we were given a demonstration of how we could literally hear a pin drop, and a piece of paper tear, from more than 100 feet away, and even John (who's deafer than a beetle) could hear it!
We filled the morning in by visiting the Family History Library - five floors of family history information, in addition to the Family Search records, available on computer, but stored in an underground vault in the Granite Mountains north of the city. Most libraries are fairly impersonal, but this one was populated by eager (almost over-eager) volunteers, willing to help you through every step. To John's delight we managed to find a book with the records of his great-great-grandparents (the Labuddas) arriving as emigrants from Germany to New York, in 1873, along with 5 children, including his great-grandmother. Family lore told us that they had gone to America, disliked it, returned to Germany, then emigrated to Queensland, but there was no proof - and now there is!
We left SLC after lunch, drove across salt flats to Bonneville and Wendover ... and today we've driven 434 miles (695 km), right across Nevada ... tomorrow we head into California ... and the sun is shining! We've been surrounded by snowy mountains all day, but the temperature has been in the 60s F - that's in the 20sC ... it's wonderful.
Our main aim in going to Salt Lake City was to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in rehearsal, at the Tabernacle, which was two minutes' walk from our hotel. The doors were due to open, so we walked across at ten to eight, only to be greeted by the news that the choir wasn't rehearsing there that evening! Apparently they were rehearsing for a festival this weekend at the Catholic cathedral of the Madeleine, and were practising there, with no visitors allowed. You can imagine how disappointed we were (Frances has dreamt of this for almost half a century!!!), but fortunately a kind "Elder" took pity on us, and suggested that we should just quietly attend the rehearsal anyway. This we did, after a frantic rush to get the car keys, the car, and finally an almost-impossible-to-find parking spot ... and it was wonderful! Imagine more than 350 singers, a full orchestra, and a huge pipe organ, in a beautiful cathedral, decorated with superb murals ... and then imagine the music, everything from St Matthew's Passion to negro spirituals - WOW!
We were able to visit the Tabernacle at lunchtime the next day, this time to attend a half-hour demonstration of the organ - that too was a superb experience! The Tabernacle looks like a huge boiled egg - oval, with a completely curved roof, and it has superb acoustics - we were given a demonstration of how we could literally hear a pin drop, and a piece of paper tear, from more than 100 feet away, and even John (who's deafer than a beetle) could hear it!
We filled the morning in by visiting the Family History Library - five floors of family history information, in addition to the Family Search records, available on computer, but stored in an underground vault in the Granite Mountains north of the city. Most libraries are fairly impersonal, but this one was populated by eager (almost over-eager) volunteers, willing to help you through every step. To John's delight we managed to find a book with the records of his great-great-grandparents (the Labuddas) arriving as emigrants from Germany to New York, in 1873, along with 5 children, including his great-grandmother. Family lore told us that they had gone to America, disliked it, returned to Germany, then emigrated to Queensland, but there was no proof - and now there is!
We left SLC after lunch, drove across salt flats to Bonneville and Wendover ... and today we've driven 434 miles (695 km), right across Nevada ... tomorrow we head into California ... and the sun is shining! We've been surrounded by snowy mountains all day, but the temperature has been in the 60s F - that's in the 20sC ... it's wonderful.
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