2017 Australia - Day 3 - Sabbath and the sanctuary.

February 12, 2017

Before I head into today's activities, a couple of things that happened yesterday that I forgot to share.

First...we got trapped a few times.  We were trying to get to our car for the first time from the apartment and got into a stairwell of no return.  We went down a level and fortunately the door was open to let us back in otherwise we might still be there!  No just kidding.  We eventually figured out how to get to our car.  Just took a bit of intelligence that seems to have left me these days.  The other time was in the elevator.  We kept pressing the key to take us to the floor that we wanted to go.  But the light would not go on, yet the elevator would head up and up and up not stopping at our floor.  Finally, when someone got on, we noticed he had to tap his key fob on a device and then he could choose the floor to get to.  Duh....and lastly...the same thing with getting our car out.  The first time, we did not realize we needed to tap the fob on a device to get the car out.  We went up to the garage door and just kind of sat there wondering why it did not go up.  We ended up backing this car down a ramp to see if there was a device and sure enough...there was.  We were grateful no one was watching!!!  Crazy, mixed up Americans.

Last night, we walked to a store to get some groceries and then bought a really good hamburger to split.  I told Denise to order a large fry to split.  HOLY SMOKES.  I have never been given so many French Fries.  We could not begin to eat all those fries.

After eating, we tried to watch a TV show that I had downloaded to my IPAD.  We were laying in bed.  Denise lasted about 5 minutes and said she was tired.  Within 5 more minutes, she was talking in her sleep.  So I turned off the IPAD and rolled over myself.  I'm sure I was gone in 5 minutes too.  Very long day it was.

Ok...now today.  We were up chirping with the birds at 5 AM.  I guess that was good as we could text and communicate with our family back home then.  That was fun.  Looking outside, it was cloudy and much, much cooler.  If this continues, I might be wearing the same pair of jeans all week long.  I only brought one pair of jeans!  I mostly brought shorts as it's supposed to be 'warm' down here.  Anyway...we got up, got ready for church and headed out the door before 8:30 AM.  We found an English speaking Sacrament Meeting that began at 9 AM about 15 minute drive away.  There was a chapel within walking distance but the 9 AM meeting was in Mandarin.  We would not get much from that!

We arrived at the church just as they were starting.  It felt really good to be in an LDS building among people shared the same beliefs and values.  Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints makes the world a smaller place.  Denise and I have attended meetings all over the world.  And when you walk in, the meeting structure, the teachings...all of it is the same and you feel like you are home.  I also know that if I had an issue, I could reach out to folks like these and they would be there for me.  It's amazing.  It was good to take the Sacrament and listen to the speakers share thoughts on The Plan of Salvation.  Why are we here in morality?  Where did we come from?  And what is our purpose.  The concluding speaker did a nice job sharing the parable of The Good Samaritan and taking it apart and correlating it to why we are here, where are we going and the wonderful role of Jesus Christ in that plan...to be our mediator before our Father in Heaven.  Great teachings.  Helps me get through hard times thinking about who I am and my purpose for being.

After church, we headed back to the apartment to change our clothes and gather a few things.  We wanted to do something that kept the sabbath day what it needs to be.  So we decided to take an hour's drive out to an animal sanctuary where animals that are indigenous to Australia were found.  It was a great decision.  The drive was on small highways that took us through areas that were like Napa Valley with Butte County sprinkled in.  Lots of wineries.  Lots of golden, rolling hills.  The sanctuary was nice...easy walking as we saw things like Walabe's, Tazmanian Devils, Koala Bears, Wanbats, tons of birds and lots more.  They did have Kangaroos.  But before we got to go to the exhibit, where you walked among them, it got shut down.  Apparently one of the Kangaroos was ill and acting agitated.  So they had to shut it down.  I spoke with a worker there about their Kangaroos.  She said she got them in her backyard all the time.  They are pretty gentle mostly.  When driving we saw a 'Caution, Kangaroo Crossing' sign.  I wish we would have taken a picture.  You don't see that in the States!   

After spending a few hours at the sanctuary, we headed back to the city but with stop at the Melbourne LDS Temple.  Temples are so beautiful.  The grounds kept are always so pretty and we enjoy seeing and taking pictures of them.  This temple is a smaller temple that is co-located with a Stake Center.  People were just coming out of church since it was about 4 PM with their services completed.  We were definitely under dressed and certainly looked like tourists.  But it was great to be there.

We then headed into the city.  I wanted to go see Rod Laver stadium where the finals of the Australian Open is always held.  We got there...but some event was letting out of one of the other stadiums there and people and cars were everywhere.  So we just kept driving.  This stadium was among many stadiums there as this was an Olympic park.  I wonder what games were held there.

After making it back to the apartment, we again dropped our things and headed off to find food.  Lee, our host, gave us a tip last night to go to Hardware Lane...kind of a popular place where the street is shut off and lined with restaurants.  So off we went walking.  It was easy to find.  We ate at the first restaurant we came to, after having walked the whole street to check them all out.  No one was eating at this restaurant and the guy outside was really trying hard to get someone to come in and eat.  So we did.  By the time we left, I think it was half full.  The food was really good and since it was happy hour, they gave us some fairly good deals.

After eating, we headed back to the apartment.  We are very tired but had a great day.  Tomorrow will be our last day in Melbourne and we have much to see and do.  It will be a full one.  Until then......

Pictures:

Nice view to wake up to....

Ready to head to church....

Finally, the door letting us out goes up....once the driver figures out that the fob is needed!

After getting off the freeway, the road looked like this for about 40 minutes as we drove to the animal sanctuary.

Love the different terminology in some of their signs.  This is....you got it...Yield.

The Sanctuary entrance....

Enjoying a cool walk around this park....

Koala Bear...

Tazmanian Devil

Wanbat....

Dingo....

The Melbourne Temple...

Yes...another selfie!

Hardware Lane....

Enjoying warm chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

2017 Australia - Day 2 - Arrival and Touring Melbourne

February 11, 2017

Notice, February 10th did not exist for us.   We were on a plane soooo long that Friday never existed on the ground.  The flight was 15+ hours long and it was dark for 14 hours of it.  That was odd.

We arrived pretty much on time to Melbourne...at 9 AM.  The airport is pretty big and handled crowds fairly well.  Getting through customs was quick and easy.  It should be for the $200 mistake I made in acquiring the wrong visas at home!  They could put a little money into catching mistakes in visa acquisition...but that's another story and rant I could go on.

Upon clearing customs, we headed out the door looking for rental car buses.  It turns out that they are like SLC and had a building across the way where they house rental cars.  But unlike SLC...there were no easy access paths to it.  We had to go for a rather length walk down to a cross walk and then back to get there.  I had booked a car through National on the airplane.  I paid a few dollars for about an hour of Internet access.  And I was able to do that.  I got a much better rate than I thought I would for having the car 8 days and dropping it in Sydney.

Once we had the keys, we now had to sit down and figure out where we were going to stay.  The place that I had my sights on was rejected.  The host was out of town.  Had I given them more notice, they would have made arrangements for us.  But I was too late.  So we sat down outside on a bench and began searching AIRBNB.  I came across a fellows flat in the downtown business district whom I had corresponded with previously.  He had told me that he doubted that it would be available.  But lo and behold...it was.  So we decided to book it.  And it was an immediate book option for it...which was good.  Some AIRBNB's you have to 'request' to book something and then you have to wait...which can take up to 24 hours.  But immediate bookings are just that...immediate.  So now, I needed to contact him.  So I started messaging him through AIRBNB.  He got right back to me saying that people were still there until noon and that it would be ready at around 2 PM for us.  It was 11 AM.  So I asked him if we could park our car there and go walk the city until 2 PM...seeing the city a bit.  He said that would be OK to do.   The current guests must not have had a car.   Anyway, we went an got the rental car and Ireland\England came flooding back.  Everything is on the wrong side of the silly car and they drive on the wrong side of the street!  No wonder we broke away from England in 1776!

So off we went with GPS Denise gently instructing me where to turn, brake, go, etc..  She successfully navigated me to the building...which is 40+ story high rise. Our room is on the 33rd floor.  More to come on that though.  We met Lee on the street and he opened the garage for us and told us to drive to level 7.  I've never driven 7 levels of parking....I was dizzy by the time we got there!  We parked the car and he gave us keys to get into his flat once he had it ready.  He would message me.

The good news...I probably won't need the car much.  Everything is right here within walking distance. This guy does not even own a car.  He walks or uses the trams.  Anyway, one of the things Denise wanted to do was go to Queen Victoria's Market.  And lo and behold...it was outside our front door.  What an amazing place and atmosphere.  Lots of vendors selling their wares.  Food vendors everywhere...and tons of people.  It was really neat.  Denise had heard that you could find exotic food only found here...like Kangaroo.  So we found it.  It was being sold raw.  But when Denise told the guy that she really had no where to cook it...he said he would.  And so he did.  We ate a kangaroo.  That sounds funny.

After going to the market, we found where the city trolley stops.  Like SLC, inside the downtown area it is free to use their trolley system to get around.  We were told to catch trolley 35...the City Circle trolley as it gives you about an hour tour with a narration at each stop.  That turned out to be really cool.  We now know better what we want to see and do over the course of the few days we will be here.

At about 3 PM we headed to our car to get our bags and then up to the 33rd floor to see what awaits. I should have known...this pad is small.  Basically, two small bedrooms, a small kitchen area that ties into a small living area.  And it has one very small bathroom that is ours to use.  The host is a young man who is from England.  He lives alone.  He does something with Bars and Restaurants and apparently is gone most nights.  But we'll see.  There is nothing 'private' about this set up.  But we've had a lovely discussion with him and I think all will be well.  It is very clean and nice with an amazing view of city lights.

It felt so good to finally shower and get into some 'summer' time clothes.  We are pretty spent and sleeping will feel so good tonight.  Not sure if we'll go back out to get dinner.  We saw a small grocery store near by.  We might go get some juice and stuff for breakfast in the morning.  We'll see.  Much more to come!

Pictures:

Ready to head out on a driving adventure that is all backwards.   No wonder we separated from England in 1776...we could see they were backwards back then!

Crazy traffic heading into the business district...

Some of the sky line.  Unknowingly at this time, the building to the far left in the picture is the one we are in...I believe.

Queen Victoria Market....

Raw Kangaroo.....

Cooked Kangaroo.....

The 'City Circle' Trolley....trolley #35!

A part of the harbor in Melbourne...

Melbourne's version of the London Eye.  This is not quite as big though....

Flinder's Train Station...the main train station in Melbourne.

Our humble abode (bedroom)....

The living room, balcony and entrance to our hosts bedroom....

Same shot as above only with a bit of the kitchen.  You can see our bedroom door just across from me.

Looking out the balcony....

Looking down from our bedroom window....yikes!  I've never slept this high up.

2017 Australia - Day 1 - Travel Day

February 9, 2017

Denise and I set out today to try and make our way to either Auckland, New Zealand, Sydney, Australia or Melbourne, Australia.  Our day started at 4 AM (MST) as Denise had to complete her last shift in the Bountiful Temple.  We are making this trip during the two week period when the temple is closed for cleaning and maintenance.  I have plenty of PTO so we decided to make a run at this.

Planning for this trip has been a bit mentally challenging because of flying stand by and not knowing if or which city we would touch down in.  You can research and think about all the options.  But the plan cannot come together until you get that last ticket in your hand and then you hope you have some time to make some quick reservations before the flight departs.

On Wednesday morning, the 8th, Auckland had some 18 seats available.  Sydney at 20 from LAX and 20 from SFO.  Melbourne only had 9 seats.  It looked promising.  After going to visit our parents and grandkids that evening, I checked the plane loads again.  Auckland was over sold.  Sydney had a couple of seats in both flights, but the stand by queue placed us well down on the list.  Melbourne still had 5 seats....but no standbys.  We really wanted to go to Auckland first....but that window seemed to close.  And we had to make decision to go to LAX or SFO as Auckland only went out of SFO and Melbourne out of LAX.

Friday morning, while working, I made the decision to go after Melbourne seats, playing the 'odds' game.  We were #1 and #2 in the stand by list for that flight.  So off we went from SLC to SFO and then from SFO to LAX.  Surprisingly, getting out of SLC was easy.  Lots of seats.  The flight from SFO to LAX was supposed to be the same.  For the first time in all our travels, the plan we boarded on to go to SFO from SLC was going to be the same plane to take us to LAX.  But, upon arriving, we checked the plane load.  It once had 30 + seats available...but now was down to being oversold.  That is what the app said.  This was due to bad weather in SFO and many cancelled flights.  Nonetheless, the heavens parted and just minutes before they were done boarding, many seats opened up on the board and we got on quite easily.

We arrived in LAX around 6 PM (PST) and immediately found food.  We ate at a Wolfgang Puck eatery. It was really good.  And it was actually cheaper than the food court across the way which I found very interesting.  After eating, we had a 4+ hour wait to see if we would get tickets on the flight to Melbourne.  Those are long waits.  I kind of poked around on hotels near LAX in case we did not get on.  I was also messaging AIRBNB hosts to see if they had availability and lining up a couple that I would try to book quickly once we had a ticket.

When the Melbourne flight started to board, the Gate Agent paged the stand by's to the counter.  That was odd a bit as they did not call out names.  It turned out to be bad news.  She told me that the flight had a weight restriction on it and that SA's...stand by passengers...would not be allowed a seat unless there were a number Mis-connections or no shows.  Well, Denise and I were still 1 and 2 on the list.  Denise's hope for Business\First class was gone...but getting a ticket was still open.  We just stood by the Gate Agent with another lady hoping to get on so they knew we were there.  We listened to them talk and then one of the agents said to the other, they just release two seats for SA's.  I felt really glad for Denise and I.  But I felt sad for the lady standing by me also hoping to get on.  Denise and I boarded and I don't know if she got on or not.  I REALLY hope that she did.

After scrambling to get on, I quickly tried to book an AIRBNB room.  But unfortunately, my credit card was old...the number was wrong.  And as hard as I tried with their phone app, I could not get it to accept my card.  So I just gave up and thought I'll have to do this when we land.  But after falling a sleep for a few hours and then waking up, I decided to try United's WIFI and Internet a million miles over the ocean.  I figured I only needed an hour....so I purchased that for $5.  Whole flight usage was $21.  Anyway, it took my card!  So I quickly rented a car that we will use the next week to tour around Melbourne and then drive up to Sydney and tour around there.  I then fixed my problem in AIRBNB and searched a bit more for apartments\rooms.  I went with an apartmentl...so we won't be sharing stuff with others like a true B&B.  But I could only put a reservation request in.  And because it was late at night in Australia, the host probably will not see that until we get there in the morning....at least I hope.  So we shall see.

I'm writing this with about 3 hours left in our 15 hour flight.  It has not been too bad.  We did get Economy Plus...so I do have a little leg room.  Denise is right behind me.  So we are close and can talk.  We are excited for our next week of exploring and wonder if we will try to extend our adventure to New Zealand at the end of the week.   We'll see.  More to come!

Ohh...one story.  Naturally our seats were middle seats on the flight down here.  When I came to my seat, there was a guy and a girl...both very young college aged kids.  It appeared to me that they had just come to know each other.  They were chatting about why they were headed down to Melbourne and stuff.  After I sat down, the young man asked if I wanted his aisle seat...so he could sit by this young lady.  It was amazing what transpired.  By about half way through the flight, they were sleeping on each other.  He was massaging her back, stroking her hair.  I was amazed.  I'm 100% sure that they did not know each other before that flight.  As they were getting off, the young man was trying to carry it forward a bit more as in 'let's go get a drink, talk a bit longer, etc.'.  But she was excited and worried about getting to her dorm (they were coming here for a study abroad program...but for different schools).  Anyway....I was amazed how quickly the 'hooked up'.  I am getting old!

One last story....there was a medical emergency on our flight.  And the fellow sitting next to Denise was a doctor who lives down here.  All came out well...I guess.  But we could not get off the plane until paramedics came on to check this young Asian girl out.  She was ok.  Who knows what here issues were.

Pictures:

Wolfgang Puck's Eatery....

Tough life waiting at LAX to head to Australia....

The happy travelers mid-flight......we're almost there!

2016 Puerto Vallarta - Day 5 - Ocean Grill

November 16, 2016

Today, we woke up to a lazy morning.  I got up and grabbed my laptop and worked an hour or two.  There were some things to do at the office.  It was nice to work outside as the mornings here are pretty nice.  I worked on my computer as the crew showed up to work on the building going up next door.  It is pretty amazing to watch these guys climb the rebar towers they are creating getting ready for cement to be poured.

At 9:30 AM, we went back to the 'orange' bus...the only bus that takes you south towards Mislamoya. Only this time, we were going to the end stop of Boca de Tomatlan.  What a beautiful place that is...as small harbor.  There we waited for the boat to take us to the Ocean Grill.  It picked us up at 10:45 AM. We had a reservation for 11 AM.  They have 3 settings...11, 1 and 3.  The two latter times were already booked out...so we had to go with the 11 AM one.  But boy...pretty neat.  The place sits over the water in a cove around the corner from Boca de Tomatlan.  The menu was pretty simple.  We ordered Ceviche...which was so good...with chips as a starter.  Denise ordered the Catch of the Day...which was Red Snapper.  And I ordered their specialty....Octopus.  It was buried in an olive sauce.  I was in heaven.  It was a pretty unique experience.

After eating lunch, we walked back to the very small beach in the end of the cove.  Boats were constantly coming in and leaving.  Some were water taxis bringing a small number of people.  But a couple of times, tour boats came in for people to snorkel and play around.  They brought a ton of people.  Nonetheless, Denise hung out on the beach and I went out snorkeling.  The snorkeling was better than I thought it would be.  Lots of coves where the waves were crashing into the rocks.  That caused the water to bubble a lot.  But down deep...pretty clear its lots of sea life.

We met some folks there, believe it or not, from Pleasant Grove, Utah.  It was cool to visit with them.  It is a small world sometimes.  At about 2:30, we headed back to the restaurant to catch the boat back to Boca de Tomatlan.  There we caught our 'orange' bus back to our condo.  It was a fun morning and afternoon.  

At the condo, we just relaxed.  We did get a chance to FaceTime with both Ashley, Dustin and Kerri for a few minutes.  It was great to see them.  For dinner, we headed down to 'Derby Burgers'... Which was recommended by Armando...our security guard.  He grew up in San Diego and he said it iis the best burger he has ever eaten.  Well, it was huge and very tasty.  We both said that we should have shared a burger.  But it was too late...so we just ate both of them.  Not good.  We got the burgers to go and ate them up on the roof of our building.  That was fun.  Last night here....but we're ready to go.  So ready we did two loads of laundry!  That sounds odd...I know.

It has been a great trip.  We fly home tomorrow at 4 PM through SFO.  I hear we might be going back to snow.  I only have shorts.  It could be a cold ride home tomorrow evening.  Oh well....we'll be glad to be home.

Pictures...

Our orange bus....we have taken this 4 times this week round trip......

The bus did get crowded a few times...and quite hot.

Waiting for the Ocean Grill Water Taxi to retrieve us....

Water taxis at Boca de Tomatlan....

On the pier...waiting....

Our purple water taxi cometh.....

About a 10 minute ride around the corner to the grill....

Ocean Grill.....pretty amazing.  The floating dock there had a hammock that you could swim out to and lounge in.

The restaurant....looking out into the water.

They provide you with icy towels...which felt so good.

My meal....octopus.

After eating, they had a lounge area with comfy couches to relax in....

Snorkeled extraordinaire!!!  So darn much fun...I love it.

The small beach and cove by the restaurant....you can see me walking out to sea to snorkel.

Our water taxi driver.  He had his son on board.  Cutest little guy you'd ever see.  There to help his Dad finish his day.  

Hamberguesas on the roof.......nice way to close the day out.