Pictures

Sorry about the double picture

Sorry about the two shots of the same field of Kangaroos.  The little guy is called Sol.  I got to feed him his 6 AM milk replacer the day we left.  I was the only one up in the lodge as usual, so Sandy let me feed him and give him his morning constitutional.   I will upload some more pictures of Kangaroo Island.  See if you can guess which is Seal Bay, Remarkable Rocks and the Southern Ocean Lodge.  More later with new and exciting tales and pics.

Adelaide and First Day in Sydney

We just arrived at the Park Hyatt in Sydney.  Our view shows the Opera House and the circular quay surrounding downtown Sydney.  It is quite the town.  We had a wonderful time in Adelaide.  We spent the entire day yesterday in the Barossa Valley.  It is a huge wine growing area.  The rolling hills of grape vines, trees, and wheat fields are quite spectacular.  We had two guys from Florida and Atlanta with us on the tour.  They were a kick.  Susan tasted and drank most of the day away!  I had fun with the people who actually make the wine and the French Oak casks that are used for the aging of the wine.  I have a nice oval cask being custom made with an engraved carving on the front of the cask coming via mail to Seattle.  I will not be able to see if for a couple of months as they have to make it and then ship it to us.  Cindy, I also bought a very nice quilt in a little town called Tanunda.  I will show it to you when we return.  I met the gal who made it.  It took her a year to complete. Susan was petered out from all the wine tasting (swilling if you ask me) so she is in her favorite position in the room-that being asleep in bed.  I have been wandering the down town area of Sydney looking at things.  We take our air tour in the morning, have Thursday to ourselves and then a sailing tour on Friday.  Saturday, we are off to Brisbane.  It seems to be going way to fast.  I will be posting a bunch of pictures to this post.  I am sure you can guess where they are.

Good Day Mates

We had another great day at the Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island. We went to Seal Bay to see the sea lions up front. The weather is good and the experience with the sea lions was quite some fun. We leave tommorow for Adelaide and the Barossa Valley. I hope to be able to upload some photos of Kangaroo Island with a faster connection. Needless to say, we are having a ball. We miss our pups a bit but they will survive in the good care that Erica is giving Dexter and the drill sargent is giving Cody. More later from Adelaide.

Kangaroo Island

We arrived at Kangaroo Island early yesterday on Thursday (Wednesday for you folks). A quick tour of the island by our friendly driver brought us to the Southern Ocean Lodge. You can see some of the pictures of the lodge at their website. I am going to add a few of our room and the view from the lodge. The lodge is in a very remote area and is something out of any one's perspective of being nice. The people are wonderful and the food is definitely five star. We visited the Kelly Caves yesterday while today took us to the site of Remarkable Rocks and a cliff side walk to see flora and fauna. The guide, Sandy, has a baby Kangaroo that she found in a road kill female. She nursed the little joey to health and vigor. The little guy is about 18 inches tall and quite friendly. He sat with me for an hour and fell asleep in my lap. What a treat to actually hold a living little Kangaroo! We have another full day tomorrow followed by a treat Susan bought me at the spa. More about that after the next day is done. Needless to say, we are having a ball. Everyone we meet is so very friendly. If you have a desire to see Australia, then follow up on before you get too old!
More later and more photos later. The internet connection is a bit slow to add photos to this site, so I will add when we are in Adelaide or Sydney.

And The Journey Continues

Second day in Australia has been great.  Yesterday, we sat in a huge cobblestone plaza along with a couple hundred Aussies and watched the hoopla of the Melbourne Cup.  It was really quite exciting to see how much these people get so pumped up for the horse race of the year. The whole town is still in a frenzy and more is on the way as Thursday is Oaks Day (also called Ladies Day) at the track.  The women will again get dressed up and sport another new hat.  The hats are quite impressive.

The architecture of the city is something everyone will need to see.  I took some photos from atop the Rialto Towers observation booth. It may be hard to see the city through the photos, so I will have show them to you when we return.  This city is so very vibrant.  The people stay in the inner city long after the work day to attend the sporting events, restaurants, pubs and any event that is going on.  They love their city and it really shows.  As an interesting side comment, we have yet to see any police presence in the city.  The people of Melbourne appear to not need the police to remain civil.  Trash on the street is almost non-existent. A trip to Australia must include a visit to Melbourne.  I would suggest at least a week in order to see all their is and to eat at the numerous restaurants on Lygon Street.

We went to the Melbourne Aquarium today as well as many other sites.  We just got back to the hotel to change into shorts and check on the election. It appears our horse won the race in the US.  We are now off to the train depot to catch a train that tours the inner city.  It has been fun and exciting in Melbourne.  We are off to the airport in the morning for our flight to Adelaide and then a quick flight to Kangaroo Island. 

First Day in Australia

This is Susan and me on Brighton beach in Melbourne.  We took a great tour of the city and surrounding suburbs.  The city has a lot of nice parks and beach areas.  If you notice the little shacks to the left of the picture.  These shacks sell for over 200K.  They have no windows or any place to sleep.  They are used to store beach stuff like chairs and other items.  It was explained that it is some kind of status symbol to own one. Kind of like having a lambo in your driveway that has no engine in it! 

Today is the famous Melbourne Cup.  It is a three mile race for 3 year old horses.  The favorite horse is from Ireland named Septimus.  For those of us who never knew, this is a race that stops all of Australia.  Susan and I saw hordes of people in the bar at 9 this morning.  The ladies are all dressed up to the nines.  There seems to be a competition for who has the best hat and overall outfit.  All the jobs are shut down, the stores closed and everyone is heading to the track.  The big race starts at 3 this afternoon.  Susan and I are going to try to get tickets and head out to the track ourselves.  You know how I love to bet those ponies!  More later on the race and our stay in Australia.