Although I am not sure which Jeff this is (Calgary?, somewhere else?) but he tells me that I owe him a blue drink as he found the fabric I wanted for the cushions and curtains on the yacht. I just went and ordered 25 yards of it. Now I just have to find someone to magically turn it into curtains and cushion covers...this spring/summer. Pleased with that, as it usually takes us tons of looking around to find something we like in many countries and we have never made the mistake we made the first time of getting white/light blue colored material!

The city inspector was at the house this morning to sign off on the foundation work that was done for earthquakes that had to be done to close. They took off the wheels that moved the home here about 35 years ago and poured concrete and strapped it down so it would not fly away! Always a good plan...



My father will be very happy to hear that he appears to have a bird house here when they come to this house as well. The only thing is we seem to get a lot of CROWS hanging around it!! A change from seagulls I guess111


Out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse last night. One of the better meals we have had there. Then to Coldstone for ice cream, which was way too much for us to even think about finishing...

Found a few old coins, including an old indian head

Even from afar, banking in the BVI can infuriate me. A week ago, I started the procedure of transfering the money into escrow to pay for the house up here. Seems simple hey? After all, I had filled out many forms before I left the BVI allowing me to wire transfer the money. Don't think for one second that THIS particular bank account has a means to do it yourself on line!

I emailed and faxed. I did both as the last time I faxed they told me they had not received it when I tracked it down days later. About 18 hours later I received an "out of office" reply from the person I had been told to send it to last time. Out of office for the entire week. Yes people, for some reason, most of us find that ANYONE we ever want to contact in the banks down there is "on vacation"

There was however, 2 email addresses in the out of office reply to forward on to. Score! Off I emailed both of them. Only to have them both come back. So I redid it. AND, just to prove to me the BVI banking gods are still on top of their game, the emails I sent to a BVI address came to my address. Never seen this before. THey are correct, addressed to the right person, from the right person, but they show up in my in box looking like they are being sent to me.

I could not figure it out. I tried to call, but for some reason the phone rings, and rings and rings......Not unusual, so I fax it again. It is now a couple days later. My teeth are starting to set on edge.

I finally resort to the tried and true method of emailing my request one more time to the bank manager. I have always found when I do that, it is taken care of within an hour with apologies phoned to me and affirmations that THIS is now the right person to contact for the next time. I only do this as a last resort, as really, it seems so petty to contact the bank manager all the time with these mundane items. But Jocelyn, you do rock!

In a crappy iphone picture, this is the Promenade mall. right where are house is. Karma isn't it? AND this is coincidentally, where an APPLE store is. Some people may say I planned that, but, honestly, I didn't!


Bazza and I went to Olive Garden for lunch. I enjoyed the salad. I enjoyed the pasta as well, it was not bad...


My parents are flying down on Tuesday. I guess I get to find my way to our local airport!

On the fence with that one people! On the fence...Maybe this one will be nice and the next one will be snarky!

The house closing is coming. along. excrutiatingly. slow. I know, not really in the scheme of things, but patience has never been one of my virtues and I freely admit it. On the plus side, we are not going to have to pay as much money for the house (not that it was expensive!, not at all...) but it needs to be tented for spraying for termites, and it for some odd reason even though they laid down new roads and we are only a couple blocks off the main street, has no hook ups for town sewer...and it needs new leach feels for the septic, both of which the sellar is going to have to issue us a credit on the house price for and then we will get them taken care off after the closing.

We figure it can be tented and the back yard torn up for septic repairs when we are in the islands just as easily as soon....
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Had to laugh when I went or called to hook up one of the utilities, don't remember which one. Because I have not had whatever it is hooked up before in the state of California, unless I could provide a letter from a former utility company stating I paid in good faith, I would have to pay a deposit that I would receive back after I had paid all my bills for the first year.

Being used to the BVI, where deposits of many hundreds to two thousand dollars are not uncommon, I asked what the deposit was and was told $100.00!! I figured I could afford as opposed to trying to get "I am a good girl" letters! Had to giggle though as I had just finished telling the girl that since I would only be here part of the year and would be not here for several months coming up, that I would like to pay it yearly in advance...which in my mind would negate the $100.00 deposit!

Also trying to figure out this bundling of services thing. We do have fibre optics to the house (no sewer but fast internet!) which I could bundle with various other things and was going to give me 30 mb second dowload and 15 mb upload speed. After the internet in the BVI that worked in my books. Bazza tried to discuss with me whether i REALLY needed that much speed, and tried to give me examples like "what does it matter whether it downloads in 1 second or 6 seconds" Those who know me will understand that I just told him to move along...he was not winning that one!

However, since we have Directv already in our RV that has 20 months left on the contract, I did deem to "bundle" with them and Verizon and accept the very slow speed of 15 mbs download and 5 mbs upload.... I have no idea what all this is costing me, as there is numbers thrown out everywhere but you get credits when you take this, and discounts on that for 6 months and this free but add on $3.00 a month for that. I told Bazza that it will just be a surprise when the first bill comes...
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This is my local costco. Costco is about 4 minutes drive from the house. Yes, that makes me very happy. I have another place I can fill up with "stuff"


We have also experienced our first, what I imagine are, Santa Ana winds...My aunt had a cocktail party over in Palm Desert on Tuesday, so we went over for that gathering (and to pick up my phone that I stupidly left there on the weekend...)
Not only was Bazza absolutely amazed that I had MORE relatives he had never met, he was under the mistaken impression that we were moving somewhere that was far away from all of them! Ha! Fooled him!! To his utter shock I also had to prime him about the people that he has met down on the boat, Promenade, before! Poor Man!


My aunt and cousin Karen had cooked up a storm for this gathering and it was all very good too! You notice everyone has their winter coats on hey?


Methinks my aunt might have had a glass or two of wine, as she was as cute as can be when she stood up and starting singing and dancing to "don't give a ****!" I truly wish I would have had video on my camera as she looked about 4 years old with the biggest smile!


OK, time to do some work...I have about 66 emails in my inbox to deal with and a ton of computer and web site stuff to catch up on !

We took off driving in another direction Sunday afternoon, over the San Bernadino forest area to Palm Springs area. The scenery was spectacular, and it was a nice drive...



My aunt and uncle are spending the month down here, so we thought we would surprise them in their airstream and take them out to lunch! This is my aunt, she is actually my grandmothers (on my mothers side) youngest sister, and they look very much alike!


We went over to Marie Callenders for lunch, and I had their pot pie and REALLY enjoyed it! It was just out of the oven!!


Silly me to make a long story short, lost my iphone, spent time looking everywhere for it and did not bother to go on ME and use the "find my iphone" feature until I got back home!! Good thing we are going back over their this afternoon for a cocktail party I can pick it up again!!!

It has been positively busy trying to do all the inspections for this house. We did walk through yesterday...Here is the outside...


and today Bazza went back over for the termite and septic tank inspection. The septic tank is screwed, but we should be able to hook up town sewage right in, so we will see. It all means the place is going to cost us less anyways as they have to be done! It also has to have some cement poured for earthquake laws now too..... and the house tented for termite control, so there is a lot going on!

This is a picture of our greehouse AFTER the sellers cleaned it out! Yes, there is less in there....


I apparently also have a kitchen aid (whew, I was worried about that!) and a blender. The blender will come in handy!


Then yesterday afternoon it was going to the gas company to show them our ID up in Corona so we could get service and calling Trash, electric, water etc etc.

After all that we thought we had not had quite enough fun yet and went shopping. And those who follow my blog might have seen pictures like this more then once or twice in the past. Full carts lined up outside of a costco...


That usually means one thing. Correct! Boat shopping! I went to get the "stuff" the boat needed. And then we stuffed the car full...



And then Bazza got to pack it all and now we are on our way to the post office!

We have had fun exploring our new home and seeing what we have for restaurants. I am a pathetic person, as some of the restaurants I had to be near were NOT an option. I am too embarassed to even talk about that! I will say that we have found some good really casual restaurants near us, and in a move that just may beat costco's hotdog, we have a hot dog shop that has a hundred different combinations of dogs! My dad will be in heaven....



Bazza had bbq sauce, baked beans and bacon on top of his. I have swiss cheese and baked beans. Yum....Plus they serve beer in there, which would be a real plus for most!


In celebration of finally purchasing a place, and also to get into practice for making them again next month on the boat, we celebrated with blue drinks! funny, I have not make any for months but I had all the ingredients besides cranberry juice in the RV tucked away safely....... They were tasting way too good and I was on a bit of a high since we purchased the house that i had to physically stop myself from drinking too much.



My friend Janice over in Virginia is towing her boat out of storage for the summer. Considering I just saw snow in all her pictures it seems like 2 weeks ago I am not sure boating is the thing to do yet! I certainly know it is not warm enough to boat on this side!!


Question all: Does anyone recognize this fabric? I saw it on a couch and I think it would be perfect for the salon couch on the boat. I want it. Just not sure how to find it!!



And with the kite jam being last week, and apparently everyone in the world getting their picture taken with Branson as there was not enough wind to actually kite sail....I thought I would throw up this picture of blog reader Drew and Branson from last night. I know some of my girlfriends think Branson is incredibly sexy so...... An eye candy picture!!




Hello hello. So how many months have passed ? Its hard to remember, and yet I seem to miss those days more and more. I follow your blog, looks like you guys are doing great. I am happy to see that.
I am now 8 months into this company. We have grown and are doing well. (For those who don't know, he went into a landscaping company with a friend of his and he is now really grown up and looking at buy a place to store all the STUFF that goes with that!)
It has been a very steep learning curve. I do payroll, WSIB, accounting, book keeping, sales, and fix and maintain most of our equipment. So my hours are long. Too long, almost half as long as Promenade's
I have to thank Bazza for the little electrical skills I learned from him. I have a volt meter and have repaired many things. On one occasion I even saved the day fixing a salter motor. AND, on occasion, someone cleans up tools after me How the days have passed.

And then I even heard from Simeon and he had this to say about him SMILING for new employers!!
"I know, I admit i was smiling on the photos, my first thought was I hope kerry does not see this. We were just messing around with no real posed shots, honestly."
And apparently, he is doing most or all of the captaining..."I've been on the helm from minute one and do 99% of all driving, he's busy cooking so he leaves me to it. Diving is all down to me as well."

We will catch up with him in April, and I will take new pictures and see if he gained any weight!

Well, hello there. Coming to you from a rainy Sunday morning...Just finished my SaildiveBVI charter blog web work, now I will try and get up a personal blog and then I think I am free to roam for the afternoon.

Have to explore our new living environment you know! Yesterday we went up a bit to Lake Elsinore and then over to San Juan de Capistrano before going down the coast to San Diego and back.

This is just north of where we are, about 10-15 minutes, Lake Elsinore. We looked at about 17 different houses out there one day. I really think the realtor misunderstood us when we said we did not want any yucky areas. Although not yucky and scary, it certainly was not my idea of an "ok" neighborhood (for me, let me clarify that...)
Housing was affordable. If you wanted a place for a hundred thousand, you could find one. Of course you had to debate whether you wanted the ten dogs beside you with the jacked up cars on one side of you, or the condemned HUD houses on the other. When we left there, I did not ever want to go back. It also has somewhat of a hippie/biker feel, at least the area we were at. But then the next day I saw the tattoos on our realtor and realized why she said she would like to live out there!

Anyways, here is a couple pictures of the lake there, just as we turned. Yes, I did climb a hill. Yes, I thought I was going to die. Moving right along...




Drove through some forests, watched the clean up from a car going over the mountain! and was glad we were in the car NOT the RV while I was looking over...Made it to the coast a short time late and turned south...


Ah, yes, forgot this picture...Bazza enjoying the view in the hills, threatening me about putting the pic on the blog! Hey Bazza, it is so much better then a conch shell picture isn't it?


There appears to be no shortage of seagulls here on the beach either. Thank god. I would hate to not see a ton of them like everywhere else we live. In Victoria they are very bad at shitting on our car!!




Down to the Enbarcadero in San Diego. Lots of glass, lots of flash... What we could see in between the rain drops anyways!


We wandered around looking at the boats in the Maritime Museum...





And saw the Star of India...



And even though there is not ONE single solitary boat here that I want, I LOVE the rigging on them all....









Watched more birds who were not afraid of us at all...



Watched a couple cruise ships leave in a monsoon. Somehow cocktails on the back deck was not sounding like such a great idea watching! Also instead of tshirts watched the outside vendors selling jackets and the tourists with socks in their teva sandals! Had lunch at the Elephant and Castle and was immediately jealous of Bazzas roast beef and yorkshire pudding instead of my fish and chips, took him down to the border with Tijuana so he could see it and back home!

...have to learn Spanish now having a place in Southern California! Not sure of my chances as I have not learnt how to do anything more then to order beer after living next door to Puerto Rico for the last 12 years!

These pics have nothing to do with the house or my blog entry. I just thought they were spectacular and wished I was able to crouch down in the surf to take pictures like that, but it is not going to happen!

These are done by CLARK LITTLE




Instead of boring everyone and their dog with a billion pictures on the blog, I put them on a separate page for those who want to look at them. They are not in any order of "good areas to worst" in fact, I would say the first pictures are the worst, but carry on, they get better!

I think I finished my blog entry there too!

You can see them by clicking here...

That was my major blog entry tonight..I have so much work to catch up on tomorrow from doing this the last few days...

I am not sure Bazza was impressed when I sent him links of boats for sale too!

There is a very good reason for it...

I bought a concrete pad on a piece of land for our RV to live at! Halfway between San Diego and Los Angeles. Temecula/Old Town Murrieta!!.

Well, this concrete pad also has a garage, carport, greenhouse, swimming pool, 3-4 sheds, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 office, and a 1/4 acre with it.... For really not that much more then what i would have paid for a damn concrete pad!!!

It is also 7 minutes away from Costco and Outback, which might have just been the deciding factor for those who know me well!

More later and pictures.... Must sign our signature a million more times now...

Or at least somewhere over the mountain outside Temucela, just north east of San Diego....Beautiful hills, views, wide modern cities, avocados, (CALVOS), Oranges and vineyards..... We are at a RV resort at Pechanga casino which I have not been into yet but appears to have about 16 restaurants in it....

There seems to be a theme in my life lately with vineyards, although I also told someone this morning that if they were fields of flavored vodka instead of grapes I would be MUCH happier... We are going to spend a few days looking around this area at properties...
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Had to laugh, when I stopped to take the picture of the sunset above, there was a mail box wwwaaaayyyyy above our head, which said "air mail". Someone had a sense of humor!


Me who is not a fauna and flora girl even stopped to take pictures of the flowers on the sides of the road today and we could have had enough avocados and oranges forever...Bazza helped an elderly man hook up his tow car today at the park and he kept on trying to give us both of those. He did not offer any wine though!

I think we are still going down the Oregon and Northern California route here. I took this picture for my parents who like old cars.


We were impressed as we managed to see lots of Elk...


And even went for walks in the forests...


We made the winding drive along the avenue of the giants to see all the humongous Red woods, and they really were. We both enjoyed seeing them. Still wonder where ALL the animals are! Hardly see any it seems any more...



I am not sure the dead pelican counts...


The first thing we did when we made it to my sisters was to unhook the car and take it to the car wash. It had layers upon layers of grime...


The second thing we did was go to Hap's Original Steak and Chop house for dinner. It was pretty good. Pricey somewhat for suburbia though... I was trying to be arty in these pictures...






The next night we had my niece so we went for the less cost options at Applebies for dinner. My niece does not like looking at the camera!


And I am afraid to say that our next days entertainment looked exactly the same...Out to dinner at Espetus Churrascaria, a Brazilian Steakhouse. Not quite as good as Texas de Brazil, but we still stuffed ourselves full with cow! This is actually a picture of my sister smiling...Very unusual! See what happens when she gets lots of meat?


Chris still had his tab over to green for more meat long after the rest of us had gone on to dessert!


Of which I am not sure how I found room for peanut butter and oreo ice cream pie but I certainly did and then whined all the way home! I am thinking maybe pasta tonight!

Feeling quite grumpy this morning...I don't think I have an upbeat post in me. No reason I don't think other then probably that time of the month. Well, also had no cel service or internet really for 24 hours going down the coast line of Oregon. Did not think that was possible in the states nowadays. The only thing I could think of in my head was the Verizon commercial where it shows how much more coverage there is then ATT. Obviously ATT does not have a lot of presence on the coast of Oregon... Also was on some lovely northern california roads last night which practically shake everything off the damn RV. Then since we may have been on a "freeway" but it was no interstate, we did not find a place to stay until late.

It has been a bit of the "I hate RVING" couple days like "I hate BOATING" days you sometimes get... Since leaving...

- GPS Navigator died so we replaced that
-Realized how HORRENDOUSLY filthy the tow car gets while being towed (not like a tender on a boat!) and quickly got flaps of some kind to put on the RV, but the car is still thick with dirt and grime. I hate to see my paint under it.
-Lousy internet and cel phone service
-Poured incredible amounts of rain going along the 101 on the Oregon Coast. Stopped somewhere just before sunset which had "RV turnaround" to see the water, as it was blowing winds and crashing like crazy. Turned around where we were supposed to without unhooking car, but it was SSSOOOOOO wet, the RV got stuck. Yep, a couple hours ensued of trying to tow it with car, or back it, putting down boards etc etc in the pouring rain, and finally a policeman came to watch over us. Still no luck, so we had to get a larger truck with a cum along to tow the RV out. Continued on looking for a RV park in the pouring rain and I thought the RV just might blow off the highway.
-Pulled up at the Walmart to stay over last night and lined up behind a few other RV,s. just as the one in front of us had had a tire lock and his holding tanks had exploded which we were now sitting in, thank you very much. And did I mention it really smelt? Like wanted to make you gag smell>
-Although there were a couple restaurants around here, I wanted to get far away from the sewage smell so we went to unhook the car and the battery would not turn over...

That was probably part of the reason both husband and i were grumpy and take out sandwiches from Arby's had to suffice!!

Making our way down the I5...Funny this funny little house on top of a bridge just north of Portland and of course it appealed to my quirky sense of humor.






We stopped in Portland for dinner with an old friend of mine from high school. Young high school, like i was 14, in SHAPE Belgium...We have a very large community of friends on Facebook, and it sure has been fun to catch up with them all, and also learn more about people you went to school with but actually did not really know at all then. The shared connections...especially for military brats. Had to really laugh when Beth mentioned touring every military cemetary in Europe with her father and I could certainly relate to that, and usually when it was freezing cold out. She thought she had relived the beach landing on NOrmandy a million times, and all I could think was i felt the same about Vimy Ridge!

Then to top it all off my MOTHER came up with this old newspaper clipping of me (note that it is freezing cold in this picture as well...)



Beth looks still the same as she did in high school I believe, hair just shorter!


She says that Portland has like a 100 top restaurants, and took us to one of her current favorites Clyde Commons, where Bazza had the lamb. How unusual for him!


I had some type of pork shank with friend spatzle, brussel sprouts (misnamed as it was about 4 leaves from brussel sprouts, not really brussel sprouts!)


And we all had a lemon meringue tart for dessert!


Stayed overnight at a RV park just south of town and this picture is just where we had the RV stuck the next night. You cannot see the water pounding up and wind blowing, but the police man told us that was quite calm for here and this time of year! We truly are good time sailors...


The next day was a bit better for seeing the water going down the southern coast line in Oregon. Lots of place where we first went over to the coast that you could not see any water because of the trees...





I have the name of this dredger somewhere, but it was a great setting for photo's!








AND we saw seals and sea lions! So wildlife viewing was good!!








It has finally stopped raining and we have crossed over into Northern California, so we will see what the next day brings!

Gorge Road where we live in Victoria is covered with cherry trees in bloom on one side of the road only. The side that gets sun! I went out to take pictures and my camera battery died short there after. That ok, people weren't too crazy about us pulling over to take the pics anyways...

We wondered if taking mom out for peanut buster parfaits at Dairy Queen and sticking a straw in it as a candle counted? We thought it did...

Very ambitious now, the rv and car are getting ready for a ROAD TRIP!! New mud flaps were installed to try and save my pretty car from rock chips...


Doesn't matter what we are doing Bazza has something to "fix"...



And we are ready. We are really going to like having our car with us. Off the island Sunday night on the 5 PM ferry, cost about $200.00 for us to get us and the vehicles off the ferry and we are on our way south!


You understand why I had to finish blogging about the Australia trip so I could move on to other trips!

On the road again... Since I just realized that we have to be back in the British Virgin Islands in 6 weeks, my opportunities for going down south are slamming shut quickly! We discussed options today, do we fly, take the RV, just take the car...just don't go or what? You know how I decide things quickly? Well, I am cleaning the RV and putting away all the crap we have scattered around from the last 3 months of not moving at all. Funny that, I had an old guy stop and want to look at our RV today as he liked the size. He mentioned that it looked like we were living in it...Very astute as there is so much crap laying around that would fly all over the place and decapitate us!!

The plan: Take the RV and car, head straight down to San Diego, spend a week or so there. Take a look around to see if we see potential RV spots that we may want to look into for buying. Then probably go by Palm Springs and see my great aunt for a few days, head up to Las Vegas, take in some shows, go to Texas de Brazil (FOOD!), let Bazza visit the Hoover Dam, and go metal detecting, and then come back up here for a week or two before flying back to the islands.

I will have to see if I have any pajamas or swim suits that fit before going back to the boat! I have a picture of me hitting the water trying to go diving and just floating on my back with all my appendages up in the air and not a hope in hell I will be able to put on enough lead to actually get under the water!

Anyways, although we may be going on a road trip the blog is back in Australia still, and I need to get that finished up! I don't like being a week behind.

We went out for a tour of the Sydney the next morning. This apparently here is the oldest pub in Australia. And it had a cellar under it where they dropped drunk men to send them out on the whaling ships...


The obligatory picture of us with the Opera House in the background...and a couple other assorted city shots. It is a very pretty city.






Sydney Harbour is very protected. This is the only entrance into the large harbour area. They tell me the water is fairly clean in here, except we had had lots of rain the last couple days so it was pretty dark and brown. Apparently more sharks in here too! That was enough for me!!




I like the couple cuddling on the ferry in front of the opera house!


We met up with a friend of ours for lunch that day. Laila, used to run the yacht Fantasy Island in the BVI for a couple years and then went sailing around the world in high and low altitudes on a monohull. SHe is Danish and a heck of a sailor! I have put pictures of her before on the blog. She is working on a white boat that is docked in Sydney Harbour for the next few months and then I believe is going to PNG. She looks wonderful, thin and tanned. What can I say? She was always such a pretty girl!


No, I am not trying to get a picture of your breasts here Laila, I was much more interested in the food on your plate!

We enjoyed catching up with her and she has now bought a place west of Sydney, although her heart might just be still in the Caribbean methinks!


We had arranged to meet mom and dad on the steps of the Opera House late afternoon. Here they are oblivious! Not everyone gets their picture taken sitting on the steps of the Opera House!


Mom could not get over the fact that we were going to see Man in BLack, a tribute to Johny Cash in the Sydney Opera HOuse. THe show was sold out, but we were there hours in advance at the box office hoping to get some turned in tickets, as we knew the parents would love it. We did manage to get wonderful seats too! Well, most of us. Bazza lost out but he did not appear to be too sad about going back to the hotel room! It was a very good show....

OUr joy was complete walking back to the hotel in the pouring rain as we found a Belgian Chocolate cafe. Which meant dessert for everyone. It was MUCH better then a starbucks or TIm Hortons! MIne had frangelico ice cream on it...Don't know why I have not thought of that on the boat, our ice cream maker could do something like that easy!



Bazza had no problems stuffing his little chipmunk cheeks...


And I think dad was wondering HOW he was going to eat it all....


Went back to our hotel room and enjoyed the night lights of the city. Time to pack up and find a plane again in the morning!

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...