Phoenix after light rail

Melbourne has the best tram, trolley and train system. We can only dream that Phoenix's light rail will transform it. In Melbourne cars can drive over the tracks on most all the streets, so people can still turn left and use the rail lane when the trolleys are not using it. It is not restrictive, but instead flows together.
Good on ya!
How ya going?
No worries!

Stories from the Great Ocean Road

Bush and ocean meet.
Mum and Jacki

Mum tells a story of when she, her Mum and Grandma John when to Apollo Bay which is along the Great Ocean Road. Grandma John was swimming in the ocean and lost her teeth. They pondered how she might get them back and decided to put an advertisement in the paper. Well, a fisherman found them in his catch, read the ad in the paper and returned her teeth to her!

Australia

Sheep are everywhere out in the country in Australia and Kangaroo Island. They say there are more sheep than people. I know for sure that is true for Kangaroo Island.

Most of these photos are from Kangaroo Island. There are many animal crossing road signs on the island. This is a geese crossing. They are very rare geese called Cape Barren Geese. They were introduced to Kangaroo Island because they were almost extinct. They are doing very well on the Island.

Bailey and Aubree with kangaroo.

My Mum has been telling us stories she remembers as we go about our travels. She remembers a story her Mum told her about when she first married and moved to Queensland. Their bathtub was under the house (old Queensland houses are up on posts) and frogs would jump up and sit on the fence all around the tub when she was bathing. Grandma had a saying about such moments, she would say, "it struck me comical". I like that saying.

We are having a great time back in Brizzie staying with cousins Geoff and Annie. We have introduced them to Mexican Train Dominos and have been having games every night. Much fun and many laughs. We often laugh at each other's phrases. When someone plays on a spot you were planning to play on they will say, "you snaffled it" meaning you sneakily stole my play (or anything else). I don't know if this phrase is strictly Australian, but I like it, " you have thrown a cat among the pigeons."

My friend Lee in Phoenix is very ill in ICU at St. Joseph's hospital. Please pray for Lee, his family and his doctors.

Girls day out in Brisbane

Jacki, Annie and I took the city cat to Queen's Street shopping mall, walked across the bridge to the street market and then took city cat down river to the end of the line. Since the river winds like a snake through Brisbane, water is a big mode of transportation. There are also trains, buses and good ole shanks poney. It is amazing the number of people walking on the streets and across the bridge from one side of the river to the other.

Twelve Apostles

Pictures of rocks out in the ocean called the Twelve Apostles.

Great Ocean Road

Views along the Great Ocean Road West of Geelong.

Rain Forest

These were taken in the rain forest along the Great Ocean Road. It is a lush mix between gum trees, ferns, moss and mushrooms.

Admiral's Arch at last!

Admiral's Arch was breathtaking. I had sorta forgotton about the arch in my facination and joy with seeing and taking pictures of the seals. It reminded me that it was there with a punch! There was also a lighthouse and Incrediable Rocks in the area. The Incrediable Rocks had all kinds of warning signs, Danger! Slippery when wet! Children must be supervised! Probability of imminent death if you go past this point! Proceed at your own risk! But they were amazing, incredible and remarkable! It was sorta a misty, light rainy day and there was a rainbow in the sky for several hours. I will show you a picture of the rainbow another day. Right now I am just trying to get these pictures to upload and they are being very slow. Can't quite decide if I should give up or try again. I am a little behind because we actually went on the Great Ocean Road today driving along the coast west of Geelong.

Kangaroo Island

These pictures were taken at Admirals Arch on the Southern tip of Kangaroo Island. This is Sean, Aubree and Airah walking along the boardwalk to the arch.
The seals were numerous and very photogenic.
I don't have a good picture of Admirals arch right now because I was using the telephoto lens and Jacki was using the regular lens. However, you are walking down the boardwalk looking at the seals, turn the corner and are totally surprised that the arch is there. Even though I knew an arch was there somewhere, it took my breath away with it's magnificence!

Kangaroo Island

Driving through the bush
G'night mate

Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo crossing. We saw many kangaroos in the wild here. We also saw wild fairy penguins after they had come home for the night. They stay in burrows or under bushes a ways from the beach. At dusk and night we has wallabys in the front of our house and there was at least one penguin family across the street in a bush area.
We were driving down a dirt road going to a beach when we saw these kangaroos in the yard of a bloke named Paul. He said to be very quiet and walk slowly and we could get close to them. He brought an apple out and said that one of them is tame enough that it will take an apple. He let the girls feed the kangaroo.
Cute, Huh!

Adelaide

We spent 2 nights in Adelaide, which has many old, cute houses and hotels. The country around Adelaide is wine, and sheep country. 45% of Adelaide is parkland. I'm sitting in an internet cafe across the street from our apartment in downtown Adelaide. It took about 10 minutes to upload these 2 pictures so enjoy!
Many of the shops have Grape vines growing on them. It is early winter so the leaves are all red now. Out in the country there are vineyards and sheep as far as the eye can see in many places. I will try now to upload a couple pics from Kangaroo Island now. No worries, mate. If I am successful we say "good on ya".

Sydney Opera House

We went on a tour of the inside of the Opera House. We got to see the inside of 3 of the 5 theaters inside the Opera. Actually only one is for Opera and it is a medium sized theater. This is from inside looking out on the harbor and the Sydney Horbour Bridge.
This is a view of one of the stairwells showing all the concrete and wood, amazing workmanship and design. I was happy to get to see inside, because when I was here in 1985 (I think it was), we didn't have time to go inside.
This was just a fun picture. See if you can figure out what it is!

Sydney

Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Ferry in the foreground
This is the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. People hike up and over the top. Those tiny ant sized shapes are people!
Your's truly in front of the bridge. I tried to put pictures from Uncle Laurie's 90th Birthday for the 2nd day in a row. Today they downloaded, but at the end of my journaling the whole thing disappeared!

Uncle Laurie's Birthday and family

This is Uncle Laurie, still going strong and singing up a storm at age 90 with his son Geoff. This was taken at his 90th Birthday! My cousin Margaret did a great job planning and putting on 2 birthday parties for her Dad and 3 if you count my Birthday! Amazing!
This is the traveling seven in Brisbane.
This is Annie, Bailey, Mum and Geoff. We are staying with Geoff and Annie while in Brisbane. Geoff is my cousin. Geoff and Annie, Jacki and I tend to stay up till all hours discussing the state of the world, politics, religion and various other topics people are not supposed to discuss in order to remain friends. We love you Geoff and Annie!

Sydney Harbour Bridge

We were walking to the opera house when this flock of birds flew up. I am only able to upload one picture at a time

Sydney, Room View

This is the view from our room in Sydney. I am next door at a little convience store and have had some difficulties uploading pictures. We arrived yesterday afternoon and walked to the Rocks and toured the opera house.

Musical day at the beach

The sand is squeaky when you walk on it. I mentioned this to my cousin Geoff who says, "yes, yes, it is always like that". So now you know, in Australia they have musical beaches
The Gold Coast is South of Brisbane and has all the high rises. The water was really quite warm, even though it is winter.
The Girls absolutely loved the water. They didn't have their bathing suits on because we really were just planning to go down and look. They had great fun body surfing

This was our day at the beach at the Gold Coast near Surfer's Paradise.