Saturday, February 20. 2010
Sydney, Australia here I come...
I don't think my husband was amused with me yesterday. I told him I had bought him presents and when he found out it was a couple pair of board shorts for his trip back to the boat and the BVI in April he told me board shorts would only be a present if he was actually going on vacation. Spoil sport. I am always happy to go back to the boat for short periods as I get to go diving and take underwater pictures!
Mom and I had tears watching the movie Dear John last night. I knew I was in trouble when I saw it was adapted from Nicholas Sparks when the opening credits rolled. Dad said there was not enough shooting and Bazza twisted a piece of paper 16,000 different ways. I don't think it was their favorite. Wasn't their birthday so it did not matter now did it??
I think we are almost at the end of our Australia adventure, being that it is time for us to move on to the Sydney portion of the entertainment hour. Never having been there, I was looking forward to it and since it was the finale and we were going to shows etc, I decided to "break the bank" so to speak. If you are looking for a very nice place to stay in Sydney that has great views and is right in the midst of the action, try Grand Suites on Circular Cay. I know this is going to be something very unusual you hear from me, but I am not sure I have anything more then a couple minor things about the hotel that were not to my preference, but I would be too embarrassed to even write them down they would sound so petty! That is high praise indeed from me!!
The concierge/bellhop type person was incredibly helpful, so much so, that aft I finished checking in and before we were even shown our rooms, we had our entire time there planned, maps, ferry schedules, private tours and other shows to see. This is the first suite I have been in that i actually got Bazza to do up a diagram of the lay out etc as it had everything I would want, with lots of opening and curved walls...
Here are some of the views from our two rooms....
And here is some of the rooms. Can't believe I miss the living room looking out to the balcony and water!
This is looking at our building from the water.
After oohing and aahing and having a drink we made our way out for a walk and watched the old men feeding the Seagulls... They are baby seagulls compared to the seagulls we have in Victoria!
On the ferry we went. Sydney has great bus and ferry public transportation. Had to see the sights from the water and make our way over to Darling Harbour...
This is the cruise ship dock. It docks right in the middle of all the action as well. In fact there were tons of boats going every which direction ALL the time. Believe me, I have never seen anything like it! Even with living in the BVI...
Of course we had to take a picture of the Opera House from the water...
And Luna Park as well...
And just scenery.. Lovely ferry ride.
Found another Kangaroo for mom to have her picture taken with...
Had a pre theater dinner at Meat and Wine, or something like that..Maybe it was meat and water! Nice place, right on the water although it appeared that they shoved as many tables into the room a la Paris as they possibly could and had on a whole bunch of staff that were not familiar with the restaurant either. Service tried, but it really fell down.
By this time we were nice and hungry though!
I ordered an iced mocha tino or something that i swear had about two ice cubes blended into it (which anyone who knows me, knows that that would drive me crazy!) AND had an entire can of whipped cream squeezed on top. It quickly became Bazzas... Speaking of ice, I was surprised that ice was not a particularly large thing in OZ. I spent a lot of time asking for extra ice. You would think with the humidity it would be. Apparently having to use copious quantities of ice is mostly an American thing!
Had to laugh, as my father, going over the fixed menu prices and not seeing any hambuger helper, thought he was being quite safe when he chose cheese as his appetizer....
You can probably tell by the look on his face that his idea of cheese and what he received on his plate were NOT one and the same thing...
I don't think the Bruschetta was a hit either, although it looked good.
My caesar salad had an entire poached egg on it!
We all had steak, which was average, and then walked over to the theater to see WICKED. We all enjoyed the production very much and two weeks later I am still humming "defying gravity" all day long! This was a very good day...Next morning is the Sydney Tour...
Mom and I had tears watching the movie Dear John last night. I knew I was in trouble when I saw it was adapted from Nicholas Sparks when the opening credits rolled. Dad said there was not enough shooting and Bazza twisted a piece of paper 16,000 different ways. I don't think it was their favorite. Wasn't their birthday so it did not matter now did it??
I think we are almost at the end of our Australia adventure, being that it is time for us to move on to the Sydney portion of the entertainment hour. Never having been there, I was looking forward to it and since it was the finale and we were going to shows etc, I decided to "break the bank" so to speak. If you are looking for a very nice place to stay in Sydney that has great views and is right in the midst of the action, try Grand Suites on Circular Cay. I know this is going to be something very unusual you hear from me, but I am not sure I have anything more then a couple minor things about the hotel that were not to my preference, but I would be too embarrassed to even write them down they would sound so petty! That is high praise indeed from me!!
The concierge/bellhop type person was incredibly helpful, so much so, that aft I finished checking in and before we were even shown our rooms, we had our entire time there planned, maps, ferry schedules, private tours and other shows to see. This is the first suite I have been in that i actually got Bazza to do up a diagram of the lay out etc as it had everything I would want, with lots of opening and curved walls...
Here are some of the views from our two rooms....
And here is some of the rooms. Can't believe I miss the living room looking out to the balcony and water!
This is looking at our building from the water.
After oohing and aahing and having a drink we made our way out for a walk and watched the old men feeding the Seagulls... They are baby seagulls compared to the seagulls we have in Victoria!
On the ferry we went. Sydney has great bus and ferry public transportation. Had to see the sights from the water and make our way over to Darling Harbour...
This is the cruise ship dock. It docks right in the middle of all the action as well. In fact there were tons of boats going every which direction ALL the time. Believe me, I have never seen anything like it! Even with living in the BVI...
Of course we had to take a picture of the Opera House from the water...
And Luna Park as well...
And just scenery.. Lovely ferry ride.
Found another Kangaroo for mom to have her picture taken with...
Had a pre theater dinner at Meat and Wine, or something like that..Maybe it was meat and water! Nice place, right on the water although it appeared that they shoved as many tables into the room a la Paris as they possibly could and had on a whole bunch of staff that were not familiar with the restaurant either. Service tried, but it really fell down.
By this time we were nice and hungry though!
I ordered an iced mocha tino or something that i swear had about two ice cubes blended into it (which anyone who knows me, knows that that would drive me crazy!) AND had an entire can of whipped cream squeezed on top. It quickly became Bazzas... Speaking of ice, I was surprised that ice was not a particularly large thing in OZ. I spent a lot of time asking for extra ice. You would think with the humidity it would be. Apparently having to use copious quantities of ice is mostly an American thing!
Had to laugh, as my father, going over the fixed menu prices and not seeing any hambuger helper, thought he was being quite safe when he chose cheese as his appetizer....
You can probably tell by the look on his face that his idea of cheese and what he received on his plate were NOT one and the same thing...
I don't think the Bruschetta was a hit either, although it looked good.
My caesar salad had an entire poached egg on it!
We all had steak, which was average, and then walked over to the theater to see WICKED. We all enjoyed the production very much and two weeks later I am still humming "defying gravity" all day long! This was a very good day...Next morning is the Sydney Tour...
Friday, February 19. 2010
On the plains around Adelaide today
We spent the entire day driving to the North East of Adelaide. You come out over the mountain (and I use that term loosely) range and there are all these glorious fields spread out before you with old buildings that are pretty as can be scattered everywhere. Most small towns we went through seemed to have a bar and a bakery. Of course we stopped at the bakeries!
So, I will just share the pictures. We all agreed that it was our favorite scenery day.
We also stopped at Manam on the Murray River. Big river, lots of house boats that you can rent from there and go up and down the river. Truthfully, it just looked very hot to me. Did not see that there would be a ton of air conditioning inside, the water did not look like anything you wanted to swim in and the flies might have carried you away in the over 40 heat. I think I will pass!
We made our way winding over to another wine region (God, South Australia is BLESSED!) at McClarenvale, where we stopped to see Bazzas younger and prettier sister and her husband Mick. We went down to the local pub with them and they had schnitzel. We were full from lunch, but dad still jealously eyed their schnitzel and thought it was a better place to go to then the restaurants where he only wanted salad cuz he could find nothing. Funny man, as he is really not a steak eater. He likes his beef ground up into hamburger. Nothing makes his eyes light up more!
We then had a drive along the south coast over sunset, and the sunset was spectacular too.
We stayed at a HOtel called Majestic Roof Top Gardens in Adelaide, downtown on Frome St. Expedia or Orbitz or something rates it as the #2 hotel for value in Australia. I might disagree with that. Although MUCH better then our hotel in Brisbane, with air conditioning that worked really well and helpful front desk staff, there were all kinds of problems with the room keys and we were constantly having them changed and having to get staff to let us up the elevator and into the room. Similar to Brisbane! Our bad luck or are these key systems unreliable? They had a wonderful deep tub, however, the japanese inspired sink was so shallow I constantly got water everywhere. The bed had heating blankets on it (!) and even though a room was in the $200.00 range, you paid $25.00 a night Valet Parking on top, about $27.00 a day for internet connection (found internet VERY expensive everywhere we were for basically not much download data..I think everywhere has decided there that they are going to make up on internet charges what they loose in long distance phone calls in rooms nowadays...) and a further $25.00 a person for a crummy breakfast buffet in the morning and pay extra for your hot chocolate please and thank you. We arrived at the buffet shortly after 9, knowing it closed at 930 AM and while sitting down we were informed by the waitress that the buffet closed at 930 SHARP. It did not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I had another episode in Brisbane like that. When we went to the airport to get our plane to Brisbane, we had time to spare so we went into the Qantas Lounge which you have privileges in with your AA admirals Club. In AA you can bring your immediate family in. I pulled out my ID and the temp card I had gotten from the Admirals Club in LA, since when I renewed it there, they told me since it had been expired by more then a month, I had to get a temporary and the permanent would come in the mail. No problem.
At Qantas lounge the one girl looked at my card and basically said she did not know what the hell it was and couldn't accept it. I explained and she kind of tossed it over to the other girl who read it and said "it must just be their temporary card" and then said "how many cards do you have" I said "just the one" and she said "well you can only bring one person in with you" I said "but they are my family and family is allowed in" and she said "not when you are using a AA membership on Qantas" and I started putting everything away and said "well how am I supposed to know that?" She said "it is all plainly spelled out on our web site"
Well forgive me, when I am told by AA at LA that I have no problem and can use it at the Qantas lounges in OZ, I did not rush to the web site to read all the fine print!! She was very busy looking down here nose at me, and I am not sure what i said then. I had finished putting everything away and was then told "that I was going to forgive it today and let you in for today ONLY" Which really pissed me off, as would it not have been better customer service to rearrange how she told me it and say " I am going to let you in today with your family,but Qantas policy is for AA Club members to only let you bring in one guest each time?" So my back was not immediately up by being told no?
I did tell her that I did not appreciate being chastised, and I sure as hell don't like many of the versions of customer service nowadays! We ended up going in for breaky, with us feeling quite uncomfortable.
Ok, enough ranting today. It is my mothers birthday today. The big 70! We all took her out for a high end lunch of Costco hot dogs, and now we are going to take her out for Dairy Queen instead of cake and then off to see the movie Dear John that she wanted to see!
I am starting to look for a RV lot for sale around the San Diego area...Just in case anyone has any knowledge of them! Or a piece of land to put the RV on and build a workshop, although so many places have zoning restrictions in that neck of the woods for putting RV's on property (in California? No, you are kidding!) Decided the not-as-humid- left coast might be better for our RV.
So, I will just share the pictures. We all agreed that it was our favorite scenery day.
We also stopped at Manam on the Murray River. Big river, lots of house boats that you can rent from there and go up and down the river. Truthfully, it just looked very hot to me. Did not see that there would be a ton of air conditioning inside, the water did not look like anything you wanted to swim in and the flies might have carried you away in the over 40 heat. I think I will pass!
We made our way winding over to another wine region (God, South Australia is BLESSED!) at McClarenvale, where we stopped to see Bazzas younger and prettier sister and her husband Mick. We went down to the local pub with them and they had schnitzel. We were full from lunch, but dad still jealously eyed their schnitzel and thought it was a better place to go to then the restaurants where he only wanted salad cuz he could find nothing. Funny man, as he is really not a steak eater. He likes his beef ground up into hamburger. Nothing makes his eyes light up more!
We then had a drive along the south coast over sunset, and the sunset was spectacular too.
We stayed at a HOtel called Majestic Roof Top Gardens in Adelaide, downtown on Frome St. Expedia or Orbitz or something rates it as the #2 hotel for value in Australia. I might disagree with that. Although MUCH better then our hotel in Brisbane, with air conditioning that worked really well and helpful front desk staff, there were all kinds of problems with the room keys and we were constantly having them changed and having to get staff to let us up the elevator and into the room. Similar to Brisbane! Our bad luck or are these key systems unreliable? They had a wonderful deep tub, however, the japanese inspired sink was so shallow I constantly got water everywhere. The bed had heating blankets on it (!) and even though a room was in the $200.00 range, you paid $25.00 a night Valet Parking on top, about $27.00 a day for internet connection (found internet VERY expensive everywhere we were for basically not much download data..I think everywhere has decided there that they are going to make up on internet charges what they loose in long distance phone calls in rooms nowadays...) and a further $25.00 a person for a crummy breakfast buffet in the morning and pay extra for your hot chocolate please and thank you. We arrived at the buffet shortly after 9, knowing it closed at 930 AM and while sitting down we were informed by the waitress that the buffet closed at 930 SHARP. It did not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I had another episode in Brisbane like that. When we went to the airport to get our plane to Brisbane, we had time to spare so we went into the Qantas Lounge which you have privileges in with your AA admirals Club. In AA you can bring your immediate family in. I pulled out my ID and the temp card I had gotten from the Admirals Club in LA, since when I renewed it there, they told me since it had been expired by more then a month, I had to get a temporary and the permanent would come in the mail. No problem.
At Qantas lounge the one girl looked at my card and basically said she did not know what the hell it was and couldn't accept it. I explained and she kind of tossed it over to the other girl who read it and said "it must just be their temporary card" and then said "how many cards do you have" I said "just the one" and she said "well you can only bring one person in with you" I said "but they are my family and family is allowed in" and she said "not when you are using a AA membership on Qantas" and I started putting everything away and said "well how am I supposed to know that?" She said "it is all plainly spelled out on our web site"
Well forgive me, when I am told by AA at LA that I have no problem and can use it at the Qantas lounges in OZ, I did not rush to the web site to read all the fine print!! She was very busy looking down here nose at me, and I am not sure what i said then. I had finished putting everything away and was then told "that I was going to forgive it today and let you in for today ONLY" Which really pissed me off, as would it not have been better customer service to rearrange how she told me it and say " I am going to let you in today with your family,but Qantas policy is for AA Club members to only let you bring in one guest each time?" So my back was not immediately up by being told no?
I did tell her that I did not appreciate being chastised, and I sure as hell don't like many of the versions of customer service nowadays! We ended up going in for breaky, with us feeling quite uncomfortable.
Ok, enough ranting today. It is my mothers birthday today. The big 70! We all took her out for a high end lunch of Costco hot dogs, and now we are going to take her out for Dairy Queen instead of cake and then off to see the movie Dear John that she wanted to see!
I am starting to look for a RV lot for sale around the San Diego area...Just in case anyone has any knowledge of them! Or a piece of land to put the RV on and build a workshop, although so many places have zoning restrictions in that neck of the woods for putting RV's on property (in California? No, you are kidding!) Decided the not-as-humid- left coast might be better for our RV.
Thursday, February 18. 2010
Still in Australia, I wonder if I will have blog material until I get back to the BVI in April?
I am not sure if I am on a new day or an old day! But I will continue along until I get to the end of the pictures anyways.... My sister in law Kaye is VERY artys and craftsy. Something that my mother is as well and I do not have one single bone of arts and crafts in my body, and quite truthfully, the tediousness of being precise would drive me straight up the wall really quickly!~
Anyways, Kaye does these intricately designed and folded cards that she sells at markets...
Mom thought they were perfect Australian Souvenirs, grabbed a few, wrote them out and before you could say lickedy split had a stamp on them and in the Oz post office. We had a dinner out the very aptly and British Sounding SLUG AND LETTUCE.
This was a dinner with a lot of the cousins and nieces and nephews, always fun! It was good, my father was happily eating beef schnitzel with gravy and did not have to suffer through another rocket salad cuz he could find nothing to eat!!
Seemed like there was a lot of rules though for going out for dinner!!!
This is Bazza and his mother one more time. I never can get over how similar they look!
My parents and I were thrilled to see this "thing" on the road. I believe it was called a Skag something. Apparently they bite. And there is quite a dance you do to confuse them so you can pick them up that Bazza says he was much faster at when he was younger! We were amused watching the performance though and god knows none of the three of us were going near picking it up! Nice to tour Australia with an Aussie to find out all these little thins!!
Went down by the water in Adelaide. took a picture of an old anchor. Of course. Boaty people that we are!
And, birds in the tree...
Bazza says that this water tower looked exactly like this when he first came to Australia...when he was about 8! He was surprised that it still looked the same...
The rest of us just loved this "house on top of a house" there were birds living in it so maybe it was just a large bird house??? Ambitious anyways.
Tomorrows blog has some of the prettiest scenery. We went quite far out into the plains and took some great pictures....
Anyways, Kaye does these intricately designed and folded cards that she sells at markets...
Mom thought they were perfect Australian Souvenirs, grabbed a few, wrote them out and before you could say lickedy split had a stamp on them and in the Oz post office. We had a dinner out the very aptly and British Sounding SLUG AND LETTUCE.
This was a dinner with a lot of the cousins and nieces and nephews, always fun! It was good, my father was happily eating beef schnitzel with gravy and did not have to suffer through another rocket salad cuz he could find nothing to eat!!
Seemed like there was a lot of rules though for going out for dinner!!!
This is Bazza and his mother one more time. I never can get over how similar they look!
My parents and I were thrilled to see this "thing" on the road. I believe it was called a Skag something. Apparently they bite. And there is quite a dance you do to confuse them so you can pick them up that Bazza says he was much faster at when he was younger! We were amused watching the performance though and god knows none of the three of us were going near picking it up! Nice to tour Australia with an Aussie to find out all these little thins!!
Went down by the water in Adelaide. took a picture of an old anchor. Of course. Boaty people that we are!
And, birds in the tree...
Bazza says that this water tower looked exactly like this when he first came to Australia...when he was about 8! He was surprised that it still looked the same...
The rest of us just loved this "house on top of a house" there were birds living in it so maybe it was just a large bird house??? Ambitious anyways.
Tomorrows blog has some of the prettiest scenery. We went quite far out into the plains and took some great pictures....
Wednesday, February 17. 2010
Lou Mirandas, Barossa Valley, Food, Cheese and Wine. Pretty much a perfect day except for the heat
Lets go onto the next day in Adelaide..We decided to take a drive out to the north and northeast. We stopped at Whispering Walls, where it is a perfect "something" oval shape and you can hear people whispering from a long way away across the dam. That is about as technical as I get.
My god was it hot out today! Bazza kept on thinking we should get out of the car for little walks and we kept on complaining (although in his favor, both my parents have said they lost 5 lbs on the trip which is pretty amazing for vacation!) We saw no animals. Why? Because it was too damn hot for the animals and they were all sleeping! Where we should have been!!!
I guess I had not realized that there was such a large wine district by Adelaide. The Barossa Valley. There were vineyards from many well known variety's, Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Hamilton, Jacobs Creek, and a ton more. We decided that it was a perfect day to stop at a nice AIR CONDITIONED wine cellar and restaurant. It was one of the best decisions we made the entire time! We stopped at Lou Mirandas...
What sold me was the fact it was obviously air conditioned! But, it was lovely inside as well. Massive wood tables, wine bottles made into wall sconces, and a great menu..
The Pinot Grigio we had was totally clear.
We had a great cheese plate that we all enjoyed and also had fresh almonds and dried apricots with it..
We pretty much just picked a whole bunch of meals that really did not go together and put them in the middle of the table. I had forgotten how GOOD REAL fresh scallops taste! It was amazing. I am sure the ones we get in the BVI now are stamped rays cut out. There is no comparison. We also had baby corn with a mayonnaise on top, salt and pepper calamari (which is still big everywhere in OZ) and of course, lots of fries for dad.
The piece de resistance though was dessert. We had a chocolate fudge banana cake that was to die for. I can still taste it weeks later!
Took this picture from my daughter in law. She had a baby picture of her Wade with Bazza in the shower. LOOK AT HOW SKINNY HE WAS!!!!!!!! I also hated the beard! Apparently he also had a lot more hair then!
Compare that to the man happily eyeing over the pie counter here in Australia!
OK, it is just possible that there was more then Bazza looking over the dessert counters!
Went out for more meals with our son and daughter, Karen and Wade. One thing all our children have to admit is that they get fed well when I am around! Imagine....
My god was it hot out today! Bazza kept on thinking we should get out of the car for little walks and we kept on complaining (although in his favor, both my parents have said they lost 5 lbs on the trip which is pretty amazing for vacation!) We saw no animals. Why? Because it was too damn hot for the animals and they were all sleeping! Where we should have been!!!
I guess I had not realized that there was such a large wine district by Adelaide. The Barossa Valley. There were vineyards from many well known variety's, Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Hamilton, Jacobs Creek, and a ton more. We decided that it was a perfect day to stop at a nice AIR CONDITIONED wine cellar and restaurant. It was one of the best decisions we made the entire time! We stopped at Lou Mirandas...
What sold me was the fact it was obviously air conditioned! But, it was lovely inside as well. Massive wood tables, wine bottles made into wall sconces, and a great menu..
The Pinot Grigio we had was totally clear.
We had a great cheese plate that we all enjoyed and also had fresh almonds and dried apricots with it..
We pretty much just picked a whole bunch of meals that really did not go together and put them in the middle of the table. I had forgotten how GOOD REAL fresh scallops taste! It was amazing. I am sure the ones we get in the BVI now are stamped rays cut out. There is no comparison. We also had baby corn with a mayonnaise on top, salt and pepper calamari (which is still big everywhere in OZ) and of course, lots of fries for dad.
The piece de resistance though was dessert. We had a chocolate fudge banana cake that was to die for. I can still taste it weeks later!
Took this picture from my daughter in law. She had a baby picture of her Wade with Bazza in the shower. LOOK AT HOW SKINNY HE WAS!!!!!!!! I also hated the beard! Apparently he also had a lot more hair then!
Compare that to the man happily eyeing over the pie counter here in Australia!
OK, it is just possible that there was more then Bazza looking over the dessert counters!
Went out for more meals with our son and daughter, Karen and Wade. One thing all our children have to admit is that they get fed well when I am around! Imagine....
Tuesday, February 16. 2010
I am on a plane, but the blog is in Adelaide now...
Backside is square. And I have another 8 hours of sitting like a sardine with the 4 of us across the entire middle row. I like it better when we fly overnight! It is much easier to sleep. The plane had engine troubles before leaving today, so we were a couple hours late taking off. That may just be enough time for us to miss our flight to Seattle..They can always re route us through Las Vegas if they want!!!
Any ways, we have some family time pictures now..We took the kids and the parents out for dinner in the Casino Railway Station in Adelaide as well as to go see Warriors of Brazil. Dinner was good, pricey somewhat. I find most of the meals quite expensive in Adelaide when you are changing our lowly US dollars nowadays...
My father was stumped by this meal, and come find nothing on the menu that passed to something similar to hamburger so he had to settle for Rocket Salad! The rest of us mostly have steak. It was fairly good.
This is us all sitting down to eat...
Probably the best part was the assortment of fresh breads, mostly middle eastern with the dip of mushroom spread. But, Of course, I have pictures..
This is the Rib Eye steak with the bone still on. I don't see that often where I go!
Bazza had lamb. Lamb and meat pies seem to be a staple of his when he is in OZ. Enjoy them dear, I don't do either at home!!
Of course, we managed to find room for dessert. After all, it is not like it is a LARGE dessert now is it? We enjoyed the Warriors of Brazil show. They were acrobatically sound, enthusciastic and some of those men could do things with their body and hips I have never seen before! I was teasing Bazza and Dad that mom and I would be ready at 9 AM the next day to see them practicing! They shook their head. The choreography was somewhat amateurish and they had a ways to go to be tight, but still very enjoyable.
This is our car license plate! We are in the Outback!! I wanted to take the license plate home. The 4 wd drive we have is big and lumbering and with a hundred thousand kliks on it, I think it has spent quite a bit of time there too!
We made the family rounds over and over..This is Bazza and his mom. She is busy fixing up here ranch still out at Pinery..
This is an old picture of here that she let me scan. Bazzas mother Barbara, is the one holding the baby on her lap. Bazza has his mothers and grandmothers eyes!
The bird liked me. At least this time the old dog had died who delighted in spending his hours when we visted licking all or one of uses crotch! I mean, you could NOT get rid of him..
Mom had to get into the bird action too here. Could not be left out!
Then we went and saw the baby. ALL the clothes I bought her she may be able to fit into a year from now! Obviously been a long time since I bought baby clothes, as I really thought they would be too small!
So, this is Miss Ella, her dad Wade and grand father Bazzy. We are on our way to TOYS R US to buy toys off course!
One of the toys was a ball of course..
She warmed up to the grandmothers before she warmed up to the Grand Fathers! Of course she had no idea who we were at first, but we did get her to sit on grampa's knee. By the third day we were there though, when we came in the door she had a great big smile and went around to each one of us in tirn wanting to say hi and have a quick cuddle!
Gramma got to hold Baby girl as well...She hoots like a little owl! In a very quiet voice. And of course, is into everything! Bazza and I just laughed and thought "your turn" Yep, I have spoiled here but it is now time for us to hand baby back to the parents for de spoiling and go on our merry way.
This is Bazzas older and prettier sister Pearl, just moved back to Adelaide from Tasmania...
There were birds everyhwhere, Magpies, Lillakeets, Galahs, Parrots etc. I often had my nose up a tree taking pictures!
Bazzas mom has storage barns and sheds everywhere on her property. We went into a couple of them to have a quick look around. Oh. My. God. Lets just leave it there! Crammed full to the rafters. My father said I could never complain to him again that he had too much "stuff"! Doesn't he know that i can always complain!!!
Any ways, we have some family time pictures now..We took the kids and the parents out for dinner in the Casino Railway Station in Adelaide as well as to go see Warriors of Brazil. Dinner was good, pricey somewhat. I find most of the meals quite expensive in Adelaide when you are changing our lowly US dollars nowadays...
My father was stumped by this meal, and come find nothing on the menu that passed to something similar to hamburger so he had to settle for Rocket Salad! The rest of us mostly have steak. It was fairly good.
This is us all sitting down to eat...
Probably the best part was the assortment of fresh breads, mostly middle eastern with the dip of mushroom spread. But, Of course, I have pictures..
This is the Rib Eye steak with the bone still on. I don't see that often where I go!
Bazza had lamb. Lamb and meat pies seem to be a staple of his when he is in OZ. Enjoy them dear, I don't do either at home!!
Of course, we managed to find room for dessert. After all, it is not like it is a LARGE dessert now is it? We enjoyed the Warriors of Brazil show. They were acrobatically sound, enthusciastic and some of those men could do things with their body and hips I have never seen before! I was teasing Bazza and Dad that mom and I would be ready at 9 AM the next day to see them practicing! They shook their head. The choreography was somewhat amateurish and they had a ways to go to be tight, but still very enjoyable.
This is our car license plate! We are in the Outback!! I wanted to take the license plate home. The 4 wd drive we have is big and lumbering and with a hundred thousand kliks on it, I think it has spent quite a bit of time there too!
We made the family rounds over and over..This is Bazza and his mom. She is busy fixing up here ranch still out at Pinery..
This is an old picture of here that she let me scan. Bazzas mother Barbara, is the one holding the baby on her lap. Bazza has his mothers and grandmothers eyes!
The bird liked me. At least this time the old dog had died who delighted in spending his hours when we visted licking all or one of uses crotch! I mean, you could NOT get rid of him..
Mom had to get into the bird action too here. Could not be left out!
Then we went and saw the baby. ALL the clothes I bought her she may be able to fit into a year from now! Obviously been a long time since I bought baby clothes, as I really thought they would be too small!
So, this is Miss Ella, her dad Wade and grand father Bazzy. We are on our way to TOYS R US to buy toys off course!
One of the toys was a ball of course..
She warmed up to the grandmothers before she warmed up to the Grand Fathers! Of course she had no idea who we were at first, but we did get her to sit on grampa's knee. By the third day we were there though, when we came in the door she had a great big smile and went around to each one of us in tirn wanting to say hi and have a quick cuddle!
Gramma got to hold Baby girl as well...She hoots like a little owl! In a very quiet voice. And of course, is into everything! Bazza and I just laughed and thought "your turn" Yep, I have spoiled here but it is now time for us to hand baby back to the parents for de spoiling and go on our merry way.
This is Bazzas older and prettier sister Pearl, just moved back to Adelaide from Tasmania...
There were birds everyhwhere, Magpies, Lillakeets, Galahs, Parrots etc. I often had my nose up a tree taking pictures!
Bazzas mom has storage barns and sheds everywhere on her property. We went into a couple of them to have a quick look around. Oh. My. God. Lets just leave it there! Crammed full to the rafters. My father said I could never complain to him again that he had too much "stuff"! Doesn't he know that i can always complain!!!
Sunday, February 14. 2010
Old graveyards and old country farm houses..
In the afternoon it was out for a drive again. We spent a lot of time driving around watching things...
This is one of the most picturesque spots we found. The flowers, the old houses, the graveyard that goes with the house. Obviously family members still keep up this cemetary as there were a lot of head stones that had been replaced...
Mom was thrilled as her son in law stops at a lot of little places that my dad would NEVER stop at...He says that if they stopped at everywhere she wanted they would never get anywhere... The mangoes they bought here all pronounced delicious, the best they had had in a very long time...
By the end of the last night in Brisbane, the heat and humidity was really getting to us all, but we still drag ourselves down to the Botanical Gardens to feed the Possums! That was neat. We had never seen possums before!
Off to Adelaide on the next blog....Where the temperature is hovering near 40 degrees!
This is one of the most picturesque spots we found. The flowers, the old houses, the graveyard that goes with the house. Obviously family members still keep up this cemetary as there were a lot of head stones that had been replaced...
Mom was thrilled as her son in law stops at a lot of little places that my dad would NEVER stop at...He says that if they stopped at everywhere she wanted they would never get anywhere... The mangoes they bought here all pronounced delicious, the best they had had in a very long time...
By the end of the last night in Brisbane, the heat and humidity was really getting to us all, but we still drag ourselves down to the Botanical Gardens to feed the Possums! That was neat. We had never seen possums before!
Off to Adelaide on the next blog....Where the temperature is hovering near 40 degrees!
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