USA Trip

Recently I went to Houston for a 4 day work conference. After the conference Maria came over and we spent the next 2 weeks traveling around Texas, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico (just), Arizona, and Nevada.

Since the trip was so long and would take for ever to blog I am breaking up the trip into stops and adding a new stop to our blog site every couple of days.


March 29 to April 3.
First up Houston, Texas.

I arrived early at the airport as I wanted to do some duty free shopping and have a parting hot chocolate with Maria, unfortunately Qantas had other ideas. The check in process took over an hour and half to complete by this stage maria was getting fed up with the wait so I recommend that we say goodbye in the check in line. After finally getting my boarding ticket and quick shop to get some duty free alcohol :) I went to customs and security. The wait here was also very long and by time I got through the plane was boarding. After running to the gate I encountered another security check point, but luckily this one was quick.

Finally I was on the plane with 12:30 hrs of flying to Los Angeles. The arrival in Los Angeles went pretty smooth and after a 15 minute walk I was ready to go through the whole security process again to catch my connecting flight to Houston via Denver. personally I think the security at the Australia Airport was superior to the airports in America. In Brisbane they queried a lot of my items, but in America they just waved me through. It seriously looks like security was added on at the last minute to most of the airports.

Arriving in Phoenix I had a short walk to the next terminal to catch the flight to Houston. Unfortunately at this stage a teenage child managed to pass through security without being checked so the terminal was placed in lock down mode for 20 minutes until the child was located. I seriously think security over there is just for show.

Finally I arrive in Houston and picked up the hire car, a Ford Fusion, not a bad car. After surviving the drive to the hotel via the toll road and the crazy drivers I finally had a chance to rest. Driving on the right hand side was not difficult, after about 10 minutes i really didn't have to think about it that much.

For dinner I went to the Krogers store (think Coles, Woolies) and bought some precooked Baby Back pork ribs. Not bad at all.

That night I managed 3 hours sleep it was going to take a while to get over the jet lag.

The next day I decide to visit one of my favourite places in Texas, Brazos Bend.


Brazos Bend

Brazos Bend is a small state park that has a lot of wildlife including alligators, deer, etc. You can basically walk up to an alligator and touch it if you are game.

Below are a few pictures of Brazos Bend

Small Gator

Big Gator

Large Gator in Flowers

Tortoise

Deer

The full gallery can be viewed here. The gallery includes more photos of alligators, birds, flowers, the park, etc. It is a truly great place to visit.

After Brazos Bend off to Goode Co for some Barbecue :)
The Beef Brisket here is just so good, but I was actually disappointed in the pork ribs. I must be getting better at cooking my own :).

Since I was in Houston for work I probably should mention what I did. I was in Houston for the First Annual R&D IT meeting. The system administrators from various R&D centres gathered in Houston to have a brief meeting with each other, do some team building exercises, etc. Overall it was a good 4 day meeting. The Meeting finished on Thursday which was when Maria was Flying in.

More to follow.

2008 Stradbroke Island Camping Trip

Thursday
Arrived on Thursday and setup our double site. Cylinder Beach has really changed since last year, as they have had a few storms. Had a few drinks with Mark and Sue who where there with their new caravan/trailer. They went and had dinner with family & friends that were visiting. Mikey and I went for a sunset walk around The Gorge then back to the site to make burgers for dinner. Then we caught up with Mark and Sue after dinner for a few drinks.

Friday
Gelato for morning tea then The Gorge Walk with Mark and Sue, I then walked back with Sue to the campsite. We had lunch at a lovely café “SeaShell’s” at Amity Point, the boys sticking to tradition of drinking brightly coloured lolly drinks and Sue and I polished off a bottle of white wine. We then drove to the beach were the boys snorkeled around the rocks, Sue and I just sloughed in our pickled haze.

A bit of Frisbee then we all had a Chili con Carne dinner, which we all paid for later

.

Saturday
Picked up Mum and Dad (their first time to Straddie) at the water taxi, then drove back to the campsite. We then took them on The Gorge walk (ended up being the best day of all) saw two large rays, turtles and about 10 dolphins. We then headed back to the campsite, then walked to the pub (5 minute walk), the food was great (food was a bit expensive, but the drinks where cheap). We then took Mum and Dad around the headlands after a brief shower and went snorkelling around the rocks in the about 2 foot of water. They were both amazed at the amount of fish. We walked back over the headland and back to the the campsite for a shower and change. A couple of drinks then dropped Mum and Dad back at the water taxi. Got back just in time for my Kangaroo dinner!

Sunday
Showers on and off for the day. Nice to get a bit of reading done, we watched Mark and Sue pack up and go. The weather couldn’t make up it’s mind what to do sunny/raining. So we went and did the Rock Pool walk. Wow, how it has changed since last year, the storms really striped the beaches. Rocks that haven’t seen the light of day in a very long time were exposed. Some where very red in colour, it looked like a mars landscape. A bit blowy but it was an amazing walk. Back to the Campsite for a curry dinner and a bottle of red. Listening to 4BH easy listening and staring up at the stars. We just went to bed when it started to rain for the night.

Monday
We woke up to wind and showers, so decided to lay in, until the wind blew over the kitchen and the table, so we went out to sort it out. When we came back in we realised that the bedding and the mattress were wet and the weave floor of the tent was leaking. So we waited a couple of hours to see if we could dry everything out, but it kept showing, so we decided to pack up a day early and go home. Had a quick drink at the pub before getting the 2pm ferry home to two waiting cats with lots of meowing and cuddles.

Gallery can be found here.

Addams Family V’s Munster Birthday Party.

On 23rd Feb (the first available time for everyone to get together – (oh the social butterflies that we are!!!) we had my 33rd Birthday Party.

It was definitely worth the wait! Everyone made a real big effort – as you can see from the photo’s! Considering that we finally got summer that day and was 40 degree’s, it cooled down to about 28 degree’s

Addams Family Cast Members.
Mortisa – Sue (perfected the Mortisa walk and rose cutting)
Gomez – Mark (Don’t talk French around this man)
Uncle Festa – Mikey (It was uncanny the resemblance! I loved shaving his head!!!)
Pugsley – Phil
Wednesday – Me

The Munster Family Cast Members.
Herman –Nick (10 out of 10 for Effort – for the papier-mâché forehead and
painting yourself green!)
Lily – Dionne (Dionne made her dress – awesome)
Eddie – Michael (love the knee highs)
Marilyn – Lesley (Lovely no matter what the hair colour)

We all had a great dinner of slow roast Lamb (thanks to Jamie Oliver) and Meringues made by Dionne.

Lesley and I had a little bit of a surprise for everyone – we had organised “Thank God you’re here….” Skits, which were a lot harder than we expected to organise, let alone play out.
Everyone was great sport, but all learned quickly it’s a lot more nerve racking than we realised.
Finished off with Family Pictionary on the white board.

Thanks again everyone, for your great effort – It was an awesome night!



Gallery can be found here.

Aunt Riet’s 80th Birthday Weekend

8-12 Feb Weekend.

Mikey, Johanna and I headed down to Wyoming (near Gosford 1 ½ hours north of Sydney) for Aunt Riets 80th Birthday.

We caught the plane to Newcastle, then hired a car and drove the 1.30hours south (Thank God for the GPS).

Had a little lunch at Riets when we arrived with Riet and her partner Bernie.

Johanna was staying with Riet, so we both checked into the Terrenora Motel down the road (never again!!!)

Then Dinner with everyone one and transport organised for the next day.

We organised to pick up Johanna and head out to the Birthday lunch at a wonderful Italian Restaurant, there were 21 of us in all, consisting of Riet’s relatives and Bernie’s relatives, we had a lovely lunch over about 3 hours.

Unfortunately our hire car was not locking so we had to go for a drive back up to Newcastle to exchange cars. So we took the opportunity to take the “Coast Road” back down – when we realised how spoilt we are in Queensland didn’t get to see much of the coast on the way. We stopped at the Entrance which was lovely and decided to bring Johanna back the next day for a day visit.

On the Monday Mikey and I drove out to the Hunter Valley for a half day outing – now these guys know how to have a cellar door. We only did 2 wineries but we were very impressed. Had the world’s most expensive Hot Dog ($10.50!!!!!!!!!!) then back home.

It was great to catch up with Riet and Bernie and meet all the new relatives, we had a great time.

Galeries, Riet and Party, Central Coast, Hunter Valley and Wineries

Springbrook

2nd Feb

Mum, Dad, Russell, William and us, all went for a drive down to Lamington National Park (2 hours south of Brisbane) we had a look at a couple of look outs on the way – depending on the look out, is depending on what we saw eg – thick cloud or a view of the Gold Coast.

Visited Purling Brook Falls and had a good view of the water fall and of teh rain forest.

We decided on walking the Twin Falls Circuit (there hasn’t been any falls in years due to the drought – but we’ve had a couple of days heavy down pour, so we were hopeful).

Mum and William got side tracked about 15minutes into the walk at the cascade waterfalls, so we left them to it to catch up.

It was definitely worth the walk, both falls were flowing it was great!
The four of us did the circuit without seeing the other two. Luckily William had his mobile, so were in contact. We had our picnic lunch about 2pm while we waited them the to catch up. They ended up doing another 4km walk and came out at another lookout, down the road, so we jumped in the car and picked them up.

The rain was coming so we called it a day and headed back home, with most of the family having a nap on the way.

Gallery