Sorry guys. I have no excuse other than real life. *hangs head*

Sunday!!!!!

This was the day we were all waiting for. We finally get to see Jensen and Jared!!

The morning started out for Gold Ticket Holders with breakfast at 8 AM. In the past, there hadn't been assigned seating and it was chaos getting into the room and people stayed up all night in the hallways. Last year, Creation decided to do assigned seating as the hotel/firemarshal/someone complained about the bodies in the halls. Hmmmm We had excellent seats a little to the right of the stage and one row back. Excellent seats. :D

Breakfast was buffet style with all the usual items one would normal find. I really have to give the hotel props on their food; it was all excellent! Unfortunately, it was secondary to the real reason we were there that morning. I have no idea what I ate. lol

Jensen and Jared finally came out on the little stage and they were gorgeous, of course. Jensen usually defers to Jared when they're together on stage, but he was pretty animated during that time. At one point, he brought up the fact that they were using full loads in the weapons for "Abandon All Hope". They were blanks, but with full loads, they were still very dangerous; it's how Brandon Lee was killed on set. He and Jared are used to handling them, but not all the guest stars are. Samantha Ferris, Ellen, was mentioned that at one point, her shotgun didn't go off and she turned toward one of them with it still loaded. They then acted out on our little stage what it was like to try and get out of the way from a person unaccustomed to handling weapons. Jared hit the floor, Jensen turned to him, miming holding a shotgun and Jared crawled out of the way again. It went on like that for almost a full minute and it brought the house down. I tell you these guys are amazing how they instantly react with one another and seem to know what the other is thinking.

It was all over much too soon, but everyone was really happy. We trekked back upstairs to take our seats in the theater for the photo ops. Assigned seating went out the window for those, but it all went very quickly. I think we had 2 seconds with them to take the pics. In the past in Chicago, they had been seated for their solo photo ops, but this year they were standing. I was VERY happy! Jensen's were first and I walked up and put my arm around him with my head just sort of naturally fitting on his chest. :D I said, "Good morning." From above me and in my left ear came this low, warm, rumbling, sensual, shoot-me-dead-there's-nothing-left-to-live-for "Good morning." I didn't faint and I didn't make a mess, but it was a near thing.

Then it was back to the theater to wait for the J&J sandwich photo op. That went very smoothly and the guys were so sweet and kind to everyone.

Then it was back to the theater to wait for the Jared photo op. He's so tall that he was bending down for us short people. I asked him to stand up, tho, and just hugged him. He's a doll and so good natured and really cares about the fans, it's hard not to love him. :D

That was it for the day for photo ops for me and it was back to the theater to wait for their panel. We saw some more amazing videos and then they came out on the stage. Woohoo! This year they decided to be out there together the whole time instead of having some individual time, like they usually have in the past. Some of us felt a little gypped out of a 1/2 hour, but it didn't matter after a few seconds.

Most of the questions were sensible this year. One person asked them what they'd want to do if they weren't on Supernatural. Jensen's answer was Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs, then he said Jared should be "Man Vs Food". They then showed what it's like to eat together. Jensen eats what he wants from his plate, then slides it over to Jared who takes it and scrapes it onto his own plate and then takes everyone else's. Another instance of how well they work together.

At one point, the question was posed about the nasty voice mail. Jared thought it was an excellent question, but Jensen seemed a little confused by it, saying, "Zachariah changed it!" Jared then insisted that he didn't know that. Jensen asked if Sam knew it and Jared didn't know, so Jensen told him to ask him; then he said, "Action!" All of a sudden, Jared wasn't there anymore, but Sam was. Soon, Jensen said, "Cut!" and Jared was back. Amazing! They did the same thing in reverse with Jared calling the shots and Jensen disappearing, but Dean being there. Wow!

Jensen seemed to tune out a little or got distracted while Jared was answering a question and suddenly got this OMG! Busted! look on his face. He'd been messing with the microphone and unscrewed the round top. He looked really sheepish and said, "I was curious." It still worked, so he screwed it back on as Jared screwed his off!!! LMAO Just big little boys!

There was more, but you get the idea. :D All too soon, it was over and they had to set up for the autographs. Jared suddenly remembered that he had brought his S3 watch to auction off for his mother's school where she teaches elementary kids. I don't remember the exact program, but like everything else, it's underfunded and he was hoping to get a little money to help them out. Someone shouted out "$500" before he was done speaking and Adam said the auction could go ahead since they had a bid. Jared was shocked and started to turn it over to Adam, who insisted that Jared continue with it. He wasn't used to that sort of thing and was immediately overwhelmed when someone else bid $600. He could no longer speak.

Jensen, always having his back, picked up his microphone and began to auctioneer. All Jared could do was sit and hold the watch. The man was nearly in tears when the final of bid of $3,500 won the watch. It was a lady on the front row and Jared got on his knees in front of her and hugged her several times and put the watch on her wrist. When they were finally able to go back and get ready for autographs, Jensen rubbed his back as they left the stage.

Autographs were called by row and the lady who won the watch came out of the autograph area with the shirt that Jared had been wearing. He was sitting back there with a black tshirt on! Amazing!

I had taken a picture of the quilt I made for the KazCon Auction to benefit the Kim Manners Lung Cancer organization for them to sign. Jared sat and stared at the pic for a few seconds so I explained and he was very very grateful. Poor guy! We almost did him in!

The guys came back out onto the stage for a minute, but I wasn't in there, so I didn't hear what they said. :(

Then it was Julie McNiven's turn. She'd had to reschedule due to a conflict. To be honest, I didn't hear much of what she said. The weekend had been such a high and really had ended for me when j & j were done. Exhaustion was complete! She was quite surprised that there was anyone left in the theater. She thought everyone would have gone after our boys were done.

Rob Benedict was on after her and he was a hoot! It was his first con and he said, "Wow! There are a lot of you!" lol He's a little guy and puts me in mind of Kripke and someone on the show said that's who his character was. I'd bought a photo op with him, but was too tired to use it, so I gave it to Muffy and she went in my place. She enjoyed the chance and I didn't have to move. Perfect!

There were autographs after that and then the weekend was officially over. I had to leave early the next morning, so I didn't get a chance to have breakfast with everyone and say goodbye, but it had been wonderful. I have my ticket for next year and a couple of photo ops already, too. :D

Wish you all could have been there!

Sorry I've been absent for a couple of days. Had a hammertoe fixed Friday AM and it's been a little foggy in my brain since then. Foggier than usual. :)

Saturday

Saturday almost turned out to be my favorite day. We were supposed to start out with Jake Abel, but he cancelled and Creation got Richard Speight (the Trickster) to come in his place. Richard referred to himself as Creation's Pinch Hitter. Apparently, he's come in at the last minute for them before. Hehe. I was thrilled to see him there. The Chicago Con last year had been his first and he had us rolling in the iles the whole time. This year was no different. Richard had told us last year that he didn't watch our show and it seems that that hadn't changed since then. When asked his reaction to the Trickster turning out to be the Archangel Gabriel, he said it was total shock. He decided to do some research, then called the writer. He said, "According to Revelations..." The writer said, 'We don't really go by that." They sent him some pertinent episodes to catch up on. He loves playing the Trickster and working on Supernatural and it makes me wonder why he doesn't watch it. *shrug*

He told a story on Misha about some pumpkin colored bikini underwear that were left in his trailer. One of the actors in the cemetary scene told Richard that he was going to leave a small gift for him. Richard was somewhat put off by the underwear. He went to the office to complain and the first thing they said was the actor had left this bag for him. It contained two beers and something else. Much better. Turns out that Misha had spilled something on his pants and underwear and had to change. Wardrobe washed them and left them in Richard's trailer instead of Misha's. Richard hung them up in the office and wrote on the back, "These smell like Cas". Haha!

Richard had a lot more funny stuff to say, but I'm beginning to think that laughter causes air bubbles in the brain and makes it difficult to remember things. :(

I don't remember the order of the rest of the stars for Saturday, but I do remember my face hurting from all the laughter. All of them were fantastic.

When Misha came out on the stage, he said he'd address the underwear and get that out of the way. lol Richard had said they were threadbare, but Misha denied it. He did admit to owning them, tho. He had on a 3-piece suit with coordinating shirt and tie. Really spiffy. He got too hot fairly quickly and took off his jacket.

I was sort of shocked at Misha's mouth. I said to the lady next to me that he had a potty mouth and she agreed. Now, I'm not a prude, but it does seem kind of odd that he was dropping the f bomb so regularly in such a public formum. Now, having said all that, I loved his panel. He can say things that are too funny for words without batting an eyelash or breaking his serious face at all.

At one point, he was asked about any other character that had made such an entrance on a show as he had.

Lady behind me: "Krycek" (from XFiles?)

Misha, looking in our direction: "Yes. Price check."

And then he went back to answering questions! He gave a girl from Australia a really hard time when she asked if he was coming back there. I hope that she didn't take him seriously at all.

Jim Beaver was also on the agenda for Saturday and he was the one I'd most wanted to see outside of the Js. Turns out Jim is quite a flirt! He was asked by a pretty young thing if he would be coming back to Aussie. His response was, "I am now!" I shouted out the question of how he was feeling, since he'd been sick for a while before the con. He stood for a minute and began to tilt, but finally said he was well. He's truly amazing and his panel was completely awesome.

Aldis Hodge was also there on Saturday. he wanted to get the whole 'killing Sam' thing out of the way right off the bat. He also kept us in stitches the whole time. He ended up calling his girlfriend on stage and held the phone up to the mic so we could hear her, too. We helped him gain some points with her and he loved it. We did, too. Turns out he loves Chicago and as someone who lived in that area for 35 years, I appreciated that. I get very homesick sometimes. He talked a lot about his role on Leverage. Everyone had been asked about pranks and he said the Leverage set was rife with pranks.

The photo ops and autograph sessions were great. We could ask for personalization and I asked for them to sign to Nana as last year, they all did to Carol. It got quite a few comments. *shrugs*

Jim takes a long time to sign, so they went ahead and started him at the same time as the others. We went to the dessert party at 10:30 with all the stars. They came in and were assigned handlers who kept them on time. I believe they had two minutes at each table, but the time went so quickly, it felt like 30 seconds. At 1:30 am, we gave up and headed to bed, meeting Jim in the hallway where he was just finishing up and heading to the party. He had signed autographs for 7 1/2 hours! We went ahead and went to bed since we had to be at breakfast at 8 AM on Sunday.

It was an awesome day which wore us out completely. Roomy and I settled right down and went to sleep...with only the occasional chuckle as we remembered something funny from the day.

Final Day tomorrow! I'm beat. lol

Friday

Friday morning was free time and it was a good thing since we'd been up so late. We met friends down in the lobby and then went into the restaurant for a breakfast buffet. Like I said, the hotel food was very good and we all ate lots of it. It was fun to grill Lia about the differences between American foods and those of Brazil. Very interesting.

The events in the theater didn't start until 12:30, so we had time to wander around the vendor's room. It seemed like there wasn't as much interesting stuff there this year, which was a little disappointing. The biggest disappointment, tho, was they didn't have the 2010 calendars for sale. It'd be a month, yet. Waaaahhhhhh!

We went into the theater to find our seats. It was really cool that Vanessa, Heidie, Tonya, Emily, and I were all in the same row. A music video or two were played and then first up was Alona Tal. No matter what a person thinks about the character of Jo, and I didn't care for her, Alona is an awesome girl! Her panel was very enjoyable and she's as sweet as pie. Still not crazy about Jo of S2, but I'm now an official Alona fan. :D

There was another great music video and then we were told that Julie McNiven, the angel Anna, had been rescheduled for Sunday after the J's due to her needing to film a commercial I believe. I wasn't sure about that as there was already someone scheduled after them. Hmmmm. We all adopted a wait and see attitude and the organizers tried to fill in the time.

We were also told that Jake Abel, Adam, scheduled for Saturday had had to cancel and Creation was trying to get a replacement. Again, not a fan of the character, but more angry at Kripke & Co. for going there in the first place. We found out later that night that Richard Speight, the Trickster, was coming in as a replacement and that was a win for me! I love that man!

After more great vids and some auctions, Traci Dinwiddie was up. Pamela Barns from Season 4. That woman is a hoot! What an entertainer! I'd already bought a photo op with her and was really glad. She's adorable. Someone asked her if she'd like to come back and haunt someone and if so, who? Her answer was Castiel! and then made poking in the eyes gestures. lol Her ready smile and quick humor made her a hit.

At our photo op, she started to say something to me, but there wasn't time. When I got her autograph, I asked her to personalize it to "Nana" as I'm known in the fandom. She said she'd started to tell me at the photo op that I reminded her of her own Nana and my hair was the same. *giggle*

Traci and Alona came out on stage together afterwards and posed for pics. They ended up being silly and taking pics of the audience with their phones. It was a good time! Great ladies. :)

After all that was over, Steve Carlson gave a concert at 9 pm. I'm not a huge fan, so I went up to our room and rested as I'd planned to go to karaoke at 10:30. The rest was wonderful! I'm too old for this much fun! lol

Went down to the bar for karaoke and got there in time to hear a woman singing 'Me and Bobby McGee'. She did pretty well until she got to the lalalala part. It was very loud in there, it turned out to be all country music that was being done, and worst of all, there were no empty seats. I stayed about 20 minutes and then had to leave; my back was absolutely screaming at me. Turned out to be okay, tho. I had a quiet hour or so, discovered a timer on the tv in our room, and went to sleep. The next day was much brighter. :D

I'll try to post more tomorrow or over the weekend, but here's my photo op pics. :D *hope I do this right*

http://s198.photobucket.com/albums/aa72/qultng1/ChicagoCon2009/

It's over and it's so hard to believe! We had a wonderful time and it was fantastic to see old friends again and to meet new ones. That's the wonderful thing about our fandom...there's a huge amount of great people in it. Some of my best friends have been met through this fandom. :)

Thursday

I arrived at the hotel at 2 pm and checked in before sitting myself down in the lobby to find people that I knew. It wasn't long before Vanessa Sgroi and her friend Heidie showed up and we sat and chatted for some time. More and more people arrived and finally my dear, dear 'sister' Muffy Morrigan was there. It was so good to see her and we hugged forever. :D It's a family reunion!!

We had dinner in the bar and my roomy, Sandy, showed up in time to eat. We also ran into Wolfpup, A BlackWinged Bird, and LiafromBrazil in there. Turns out they had tried to get hold of me and left a message in my room, but I was waiting in the lobby. Figures. lmao The food at the hotel was quite good, too. After dinner, many went up to their rooms to watch the episode, but we elected to watch it in the bar. It was on every television and there was a slight echo along with the regular noise of a bar and it was difficult to hear. I have to watch it again now that I'm home and can hear it. lol

We finally got together with Wolfpup et al and spent the rest of the evening together way into the small hours of the morning. :D It was a grand time, but I'm getting too old for this much fun. lmao

I'm getting sleepy again tonight, so I'm going to cut this off right here and continue on tomorrow. Enjoy everyone!

That is a real tuffy! I love all types of foods, except for HOT. It isn't listed in the question, but since I'm an American, I'll have to go with American food. I'm a little timid trying new things and my favorites are American.  Besides, being the melting pot of the world, we have the greatest variety. Hee

I just finished reading this book and and have to say that I loved every word; even the ones that made me cry. Jim's amazing journey through the year of Cecily's illness, death, and Jim's recovery afterward is important and he was gracious enough to take us along for the ride. I'm not eloquent when it comes to stuff like this, but Jim made me feel like I had been right there with him during the entire thing. He's honest and forthcoming with all emotions, good and not-so-good, and I found that to be very refreshing. I found myself wanting to alternately hug him to give comfort and slap him on the back of his head.

It was amazing how real it all was from the very beginning and mirrored my own experience with my father's death. It's been twenty-six years on August 5 and I still miss him. Jim was right, you don't get over the loss. His experience of running home to share something with Cecily, realizing she wasn't there and wouldn't be anymore was like me reading a book or watching a tv show that my dad would have liked and reading for the phone to call him. The pain was new every time that happened.

The struggle with Maddie's diagnosis of autism and Cecily's determination and love for her little girl made the cure for this precious little one all but impossible. Cecily never gave up on her and neither did Jim. Having to go through all of that combined with the loss of his true love really proves the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

Like I mentioned before, I'm not eloquent with this kind of thing, but I really hope that everyone will get the chance to read Life's That Way and benefit from Jim's experiences. I loved it!

Thanks, Jim, for allowing us in like this.

Happy Birthday, sweetie!  Hope you have a perfectly awesome day!

Nana

P.S. We're both Cancers!  :D

Hey! Many happy returns of the day, my friend! Hope your day is special beyond words.

Huge Hug

Nana

I guess the first thing I want to say about the new Transformers movie is...WOW! 

This movie was HUGE!  We wanted to see it at an IMAX theater, but the nearest one was over two hours away.  Our new theater complex has stadium seating and that's awesome.  No heads to dodge.  Hehehe

I still have a little trouble telling the AutoBots from some of the Decepticons in their non-alien form since my first experience in this world was with the first movie.  However, it wasn't a big deal, as their identities were soon obvious.  They sure do go through a lot in their transformations and I'm amazed every time. 

Almost all of the original cast is back and that's fantastic.  :)  Samantha Smith told us in Chicago that she was reprising her role as the army wife, but her part must have been cut; she wasn't in the movie and her name wasn't in the credits at all.  I missed her.  It would have been good to see her.

This is a terrific, fun action movie with no potty breaks that I could see.  Ray thought there was one, but he was wrong.  Wisely, he didn't ask me what he'd missed when he got back.  On several occasions, I found myself leaning forward in my seat.  Toward the end, when it all was coming to a head, Ray and I both were leaning forward in our seats.  Whew!

The only negative that I could even say about it was the introduction of a couple of new AutoBots that were just silly.  We both could have lived without them, but that was minor. 

I suck at doing reviews, but wanted you all to know how much we enjoyed the movie and encourage everyone to go see it.  If you're lucky enough to live near an IMAX, it's probably worth it.  :)

Happy Birthday my dear, dear friend!  I hope you have an awesome day full of sunshine and good things.  I'm so happy to have you in my life.  :D

*Hugs and Kisses*

Nana

Hey Lisa! Just wanted to wish you a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  You rock girl!  Hope you have a great day!!!!!


*Hugs*

Been a while since I last posted. The final week of our trip was completely awesome and I have the best friends in the world!

The Saturday before the trip ended, we went to an AFL game. Ray and I had no idea what to expect as we'd been told it was nothing like American football, nothing like soccer, and nothing like rugby. I kind of like soccer and was hoping it would help me understand the game a little, but there really was no way to prepare for what we saw. I'm going to try and explain this from an outsider's pov as that's what we really were. Ray managed to record some of the action and did a fantastic job with it. I'll try and get it posted here so you can see it.

First, it was a very chilly evening. Jeans, warm socks, jackets, hats, and scarves were in order. It was raining quite a bit, but the stadium had a retractable roof, so we didn't have to worry about that. There didn't appear to be a furnace, tho, so shivvering was rampant for those of us who weren't tanked. There were lots of tanked people there. Sort of like at an NFL game.

Tara and Lisa had gone early to get us some good seats and Matt drove Debbie, Ray, and me to the stadium which I think is in downtown Melbourne. It was night and I couldn't see much, but we drove by it the next day and I think that's where it was.  We just had to cross the bridge and the stadium entrance was right there. However, we were on the opposite side from where Tara and Lisa were. Thus, the trek began to find them. Oh, we were also on the wrong level. We asked a number of people where the elevators were and got a number of different answers...one for each person asked. Debbie and I finally decided to wait while Ray went to actually locate the elevators himself. He came trotting back pretty quickly with a happy smile and off we went.

Arriving at the proper level, we then had to hook up with Tara who had overshot the elevator by a tad. We got together, tho, and she led us DOWN THESE VERY STEEP stairs to the front row of the level. Whew! My heart was in my throat and I was holding on to Tara and Ray with a death grip. I don't do heights well at all. We had awesome seats and the railings were right in front of us, so there was something very sturdy to keep me from pitching right off the seat. That was a good thing and allowed me to breathe freely and concentrate and what we were there to watch.

First off, the stadium is round. The field appeared to be round, too, but it might have been slightly oval. Not sure about that. It also appeared that the game required the use of the entire field. Not sure about that, either. There are four goal posts at each end of the field. If the ball is kicked between the two center posts, it's worth six point. If the ball is kicked inside either of the outer posts, but outside the inner posts (clear as muc?) it's worth one point.

Oh, I should mention that the players wear no padding whatsoever and some are in sleeveless shirts. The rest are in short sleeves. All are in shorts.  ;) Much nicer than our NFL. The refs are in red shirts and black bottoms.

The players run out onto the field and somehow decide who does what. I'm sure there are actual positions to be manned, but I have no idea what they are. Members from both teams surround a circle in the middle of the field and the ref takes the football-shaped football and slams it into the ground really hard, it bounces straight up in the air (!), and play begins. All members of both teams go into action. The action doesn't really stop until the 30-ish minute quarter ends. There are not huddles and play doesn't cease. Whistles go off, but no one appeared to take any heed and play continued. I'm sure they meant something, but action didn't halt.

At one point, a guy in a fluorescent yellow outfit ran out onto the field and seemed to randomly go towards various players while trying to stay out of the way of play. I leaned over to Lisa and asked her if she knew what he was doing. She didn't; her first game, too. She asked Tara whole told us the guy was a runner. My confusion must have shown because she then expounded a little by saying he was bringing messages from the coaches to the players. Oookkaaay. Really not like American football. These guys showed up at various points throughout the game and the players never looked at them or seemed to acknowledge their existance, but I believed they were delivering messages since that's what Tara told me. :)

Later in the game, some other guys ran out onto the field and seemed to randomly approach various players, also while staying out of the way. They, apparently were bringing water onto the field. Really, really not like American football.

Once in a while a ref would grab the ball for some reason that I didn't understand and go out of bounds with it. Whistles blew and everyone waited with baited breath. The ref would stand with his back to the field, only glancing back to see that all players were not too close (I guess). He then leaned forward and threw the football back over his head so hard, we thought he'd tumble over. Play began again.

The players, when running with the football, had to dribble the ball (!) every 15 metres. It always bounced and came right back up into the player's hands, which amazed me no end. I have a tremendous respect for these players as they seemed to go non-stop except for quarter breaks and half-time. Amazing athletes! Definitely a young man's game.

We were cheering for the Richmond Tigers and they slaughtered the Northern Melbourne team. I guess they had a rocky start in the first quarter, but I was busy trying to figure out what was going on so I didn't notice. :D

The crowd: I have to comment on this one guy who was sitting directly behind me. Don't know what he looked like and he didn't spill any beer on me as our tour guide said to watch out for. He had this very low, gravelly voice and seemed to know every player's first name. Definitely a Richmond fan. Every now and then, he'd come out with "Well done, Jacko!" or "Well done, Brett!" or "Well done, boys!" The word boys had two syllables and his voice reminded me so much of someone I've seen in a movie or on tv or the radio or something. It sounded like it came from his boots, it was so deep. :D

Anyway, I have another sport that interests me and Tara found that it's played here in America with a team in Chicago. Woohoo! I hope to take in a game up there sometime. I really liked it and it's beginning to make more sense.

Since the play is fairly non-stop except for quarter breaks and half-time, we were out of the stadium at 10 pm after a 7:20 pm start. Out on the concrete and looking for our ride home at 10 pm. Wow!

I hope maybe I've sparked a little interest in this game or at least gave you a grin. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for reading. :)

Woohoo! What a day we had yesterday!

Tara (lovinjackson) and Lisa (angelustatt) picked us up at 10 am ish as planned and we headed out of Melbourne toward Ballarat to visit Sovereign Hill. The accent here is on Hill. The parking lot is on a slight hill. You go up a hill to the entrance to pay the fee and then the good stuff begins. There are several areas set up with life-like mannequins in clothes and positions to imitate life in the early to mid 1800's when the gold mine was begun. Sound effects were excellent. We watched a movie to go through a sort of casual orientation, then exited the building to the old mining town.

The town is really built on the side of a hill. Whew! Many, many people walking around in period costumes, functioning stores, candy making demos, goldsmiths working, all kinds of cool stuff. We had a beer in a bar, and afternoon tea in a hotel dining room. People can stay there and children in period costumes can actually go to school there for a few days.

It really was awesome. :D When we headed back, we were well and truly exhausted. The up and down of it all was amazing and I kept wondering why a town would be built in such a manner. The mine is still functioning to an extent and gold is still being taken from it. We watched the machinery working and a demonstration of melting and pouring gold. I got to hold a gold ingot of 100 oz. worth $100,000 Australian dollars, about $75,000 US! The guy held a gun on me the whole time. LMAO

Ray and I started kind of arguing over who was going to use the cane, so he bought another one. LOL

We picked up some items at the store and went to Tara's to have a favorite family meal. The true insanity began when we walked in the door. These are the most fun people on the planet! Dinner was finally served and it was delicious. Debbie (lovinandrew) is going to give me the recipe. :D

Caroline (Carikube) and her mother stopped by and I spilled a can of pop on the carpet and then about four conversations began at the same time...all at full volume along with a footy game on tv. It was great. The four of us in our RPG would spontaneously revert to our characters and it got pretty silly at times. LOL

I think the funniest thing was Ray's reaction to it all. He thought he was going to be with 5 or 6 women and there would be nothing but estrogen flowing, but the craziness was not like that. When we finally got back to our motel, he said he'd really had fun. Yippee!

Today, we're going to jail. :D The old Melbourne Jail where Ned Kelly was hanged. Maybe that's why his restaurant in Springfield closed. Hehehe

More tomorrow. :D

Ta!

Australia trip. :)

We left the hotel in Darwin at 11:30 am yesterday for the airport. Stuart, our driver drove 17 of us in the coach...it was our last time to get on and off that behemoth and our last time to see Stuart. He has a couple of days off and then starts south on a 29 day tour with about 30 German tourists. He says he's done stuff like that before and can always communicate in some way with whoever's on the trip, no matter the language. Quite a guy!

Gail flew home to Sydney around the same time as us. Gonna miss those guys.

The flights yesterday were fine, but both had very bouncy landings. Not sure, but since it was both flights with different pilots, it just might be the way they do things here. Kind of doubtful. We were toward the rear of the plane and the flight attendants were all sitting behind us. They made no comment either time.

We landed in Adelaide a tad late with like 30 minutes to catch our flight to Melbourne. As we entered the terminal, Ray noticed that our flight was to leave at the same gate. We had to get off so they could refuel and cater the plane and then get back on the very same one! When they finally let us back on (the pilot and first officer had come running down the aisle to the gate so they could fly), I said to the head flight attendant, "I just got off of this plane!" and giggled. She understood and was sorry, but the rules said everyone had to get off. I think it's in case there's a problem with the refueling or something. Safety. Safety's okay with me!

We were in the very back for the second leg and were the last people off the plane. I texted Tara that info so she wouldn't think we'd missed the flight and finally arrived at the baggage claim. Ray asked if we'd recognize each other and was assured that we would. When we arrived at baggage, she was looking at her phone and I said "There she is!". Ray went to get the baggage and I went to Tara. It was so completely wonderful to finally meet face to face, I can't tell you. We held onto each other for a long time.

I think our bags were the only ones left, as Ray was right there really quickly and we went to find her car. She'd come by herself in case we had lots of luggage. We didn't have a lot, but it was big. lol Ray sat with one of the bags in the back seat. :D

She brought us to our hotel where we got a little suite, very nice, and then we left him there and went to meet the rest of her crew. Time went very quickly and it was suddenly 12:30 am! Her family is insane and we spent the whole time laughing and having a wonderful time. Ray was sound asleep when I got back here.

Tara and Lisa are picking us up at 10 this morning to go to Sovereign Hill, a village sat up like it would have been in the beginning of the settlement of Aussie.  Looking forward to that! It'll be a lot of walking, but I'll have my cane. :)

More whenever I can have the time. :)

Sorry I'm a bunch of hours late with this update. We were at a farewell dinner for our tour and many of our number left at 1 AM, so there were goodbyes and tears all around.  Very draining.

We didn't have to be on the coach until 8 am yesterday and we went to see 3 very beautiful waterfalls. Some went swimming at one of them, but the steps down numbered 135 and they were quite steep. My virtigo prevented me from even attempting something like that! Oy! We have lots of wonderful pics, tho. I just need to get them uploaded and annotated. Ugh! The weather in this place is still hot and muggy, but the A/C in this hotel is awesome and a person can actually get dry after a shower. :)

We saw some HUMONGUS termite hills yesterday, too. They are estimated to be a few hundred years old and still going. We have pics next to that to show perspective. These are all grass eaters and they eat at the root of the plant. I DO NOT want them in my yard!!! One type of mound is called "cathedral" as they are shaped like a cathedral and the other is called "magnetic" as they all point north and south. They are 10 degrees from true north. The experts feel that is so when the sun is at it's zenith during the day, it hits the smallest area and doesn't overheat the mound. The temp needs to stay at 95 or so inside, but too much more than that would be fatal. The summers here must be unbelievable, judging by the current temps. This is fall! The locals don't think anything of it. *shakes head in wonder* Ray's body hasn't minded, but his lungs aren't happy.

We are finishing up our laundry and Gail has arranged for the porter to pick them up at 11 as that's checkout. Our bus to the airport is at 11:30, so that should be fine.

I talked to Tara last night and we're so excited to see each other tonight, we weren't making much sense. She's picking us up at the airport and taking us to our hotel, then she and I are going back to her house. Ray's going to crash. His lungs haven't done too badly on this trip, but it hasn't been good the last couple of days. We'll both be glad to get back to the cooler weather. :D

Ta for now.

Many happy returns, my friend. Hope you have an awesome day on Wednesday and everything comes your way.

Love and huggles,

Nana

Day whatever of our Australian coach tour

It's getting really tired here. :) We don't have to change hotels again for the tour, so that's very nice. We have a suite! A separate bedroom with the beautiful bath off of it. We have a kitchen with an almost full sized refrigerator and a stove with a couple of burners. We could cook a meal if we decided to. The living room is lovely and there's a balcony with table and chairs. No view, but it's nice. Too bad it's too humid to sit out there. :(  There's also a washer and dryer in the bathroom...free and free laundry soap! The internet still isn't free, tho. Thank God for our cell phones. :)

We had a quick breakfast and a bunch of us had to have our bags outside our door and be ready to go at 7:15 AM to get to the airport for a 30-minute flight over Kakadu National Park and Arnemland, which is for the Aborigines. The planes were fairly small 7 passenger planes and we had to be weighed!!!!!!!!!  That was how they decided who went on which plane with whom. The pilot asked if anyone wanted to sit up front with him and I volunteered. I took video of the takeoff and landing and of some areas along with a LOT of pics. The pilot told us that we could drive every mile of the roads in the park and only see 1 % of it. I totally believe it. Absolutely breathtaking!!!

While we were flying, our driver went back to pick up those who didn't and came back to pick us up. We went on to our next destination, which was up a hill to some places where the aborigines had scratched/painted their art on some rocks. Ray and I didn't go as it seemed like they were pretty much the same all over. We got to watch our driver change a flat tire, tho. Poor guy! If it's not one thing, it's two others. Equipment breaks down. What a trooper, tho. None of our guys were allowed to help, due to liability, etc.

We had to head on out to our lunch destination as soon as the bus was ready and we only had a short time to eat. We needed to get to Darwin and our hotel by 4 pm as many of us were scheduled to go on a harbor dinner cruise. It was quite a surprise to get here and see our accomodations for tonight and tomorrow night.

We were picked up by a small bus and delivered to the harbor where we had to walk a bit to get where our cruise boat was moored. There was a heavenly breeze once we got underway and they started serving things right away. The first thing they brought out was oysters on the half shell and enormous, fully intact prawns. Ewwwww I didn't eat any, as I'm really not into things that still have their heads, eyes, legs and tails. Oy! Ray ate a couple of the prawns, but that was it. The whole thing smelled very fishy, too. *shudder*

The next course was salad and it was wonderful. Made with a vinagrette dressing that was actually sweet and very tasty. The main course was potato salad and Barramundi (fish) and beef kabobs. They served the kabobs with a chutney that didn't taste good alone, but was quite tasty on the beef. The beef was kind of dry as it was very well done, and the chutney helped that quite a bit.

The highlight of the meal for me was the dessert, which was fruit pieces to be dipped in chocolate. YUMMY! I especially liked the pineapple pieced dipped. There was honeydew, but it seemed a shame to ruin that with chocolate. It wasn't bad, tho. :)

We were supposed to get a lovely sunset with our meal, but the clouds were too heavy for much of one. There was, however, a lovely lightning show from a storm that was trying to form into something. We really enjoyed that a lot.

We don't have to get our bags ready to go in the morning and we get to sleep in a bit. Aaaaahhhh. I can't believe this is just about over already!

See ya tomorrow!

'Nite

Day 13 of our Australian Coach Tour

Boy, it's really hot and humid now! Oy! I have no idea what the temperature got to today, but it's the hottest so far and it's been 98 until today. I tried to find out what the high was, but all I could find was that it's currently 86 and feels like 96 at 8:45 pm.  :(  There is still so much cool stuff to do, but I'm ready to head south to Melbourne right now!

There wasn't so much getting on and off the bus today. We went to Katherine Gorge and took a cruise on a pontoon boat to the end of the gorge, got out and walked along some rapids to the next gorge where we got onto another boat and cruised that gorge. It was very early and not too hot and the scenery was completely breathtaking. I thought it looked a little like the Wisconsin Dells. Just beautiful!!!

We were collected and then went to lunch and on to another cruise on Kakadu National Park. It wasn't as cool as it was in the morning and the mosquitoes were out in force. We had great success at seeing crocs and the most amazing birds imaginable. A few times, the driver said he was turning on the "air con" and speeded up to give us a breeze. LOL  One guy thought he'd seen a crock, but the driverr said, "Nah, that's a logodile." Hehehehe  It was very enjoyable, but were ecstatic to get back onto our airconditioned bus afterwards. Again, the scenery was very beautiful. I've got some pix and vids. :D

The hotel we're staying in tonight is a Holiday Inn in the park and it's in the shape of a crocodile. Yep. The bus pulled up to the front door to let us out and we had to pull into the crock's snout to do that. I'm going to try to get a pic of it, but will probably have to go across the street or something. It's pretty huge. They love their crocs here. If you buy a hat, or band, or anything that's made of crocodile skin, it should have a certificate showing that the animal was farm raised and not taken from the wild.

A bunch of us are taking a scenic flight over the park early in the morning and then we're doing some sight-seeing before heading on up to Darwin. It's not going to be cooler there.  :(  It's predicted to be 100 and the humidity is 100%.  Waaaahhhh!  *sniff*

We're doing laundry tonight.

See you tomorrow. :)

Day 12 of our Australia Coach Trip

The day started out with the realization that I didn't have my purse. Besides the 8 gig flash drive that was in it, the only other important item that couldn't be replaced at this point was my military ID. The US gov't REALLY doesn't like it when you lose one of those. We were both pretty desperate for about 10 minutes until I finally realized it was on the bed where I'd thrown the spread back and it got covered up. Woohoo!

The motel we stayed in was not what we'd become accustomed to on this trip. It was in a dying town, however, and the monthly visits from this tour might be their only income. We don't fault the company at all as everything has been top notch up to that point. None of our air conditioners worked and we all roasted. Tonight we're in another motel, but it's much nicer. The air doesn't adjust, but if we don't move around much, it's okay. lol

We left the desert behind today and headed into a much greener and more lush environment. The beauty is amazing after all the dryness that we've seen up to this point. So is the heat and humidity.

The place we had lunch at was hilarious! We have some pretty cool pictures from today and I'm anxious to get them posted here, but that takes a lot of time. They have a set of bowling pins and a couple of bowling balls out front that can be set up in the road and played by anyone. We had two 3-person teams, boys against the girls and the boys won by one pin. Gravel road and the balls went wherever they wanted to. It was a great time. The whole place was watching.

We drove a couple of hours after that to some natural heated springs that several went swimming in. I was going to dangle my feet, but the springs were way too far from where we had to leave the coach and the temperature was 34 (98 to us foreigners) so there was no way that was going to happen. We had shade to sit in and a bar with food and pop or whatever you wanted so it wasn't bad.

However, when it came time to get back on the coach, we noticed the driver with his tool box open and the engine compartment open, too. Sooooooo not good!  Gail, our guide told us to go back and sit in the shade and they'd keep us informed. We did that. Some of the others got wine or booze, but Ray and I had had a couple of cold drinks, so we were reading or talking. I saw a wallaby by the changing rooms and took some pics of it without getting close. A mechanic came from town with some fuel and they tried to start the coach. The wallaby didn't like that, so he came to see what we were doing!!!  I took some movies up close to him and then decided to try and pet him and he let me!!!!!!!!  Totally didn't mind and seemed to just love it. Ray got a pic of that. :)

The coach got fixed and we got on, grateful to have had shade and chairs and cold drinks. If this company were to be in any other place that we decided to visit, we wouldn't hesitate to use them. They've been fantastic! It was dusk when we got on the road and the wallaby's kept running across in front of us. I was sitting right behind the driver today and seriously thought about moving when I yelped when the first one stumbled and almost didn't make it. They're like our deer and lots of bodies show up beside/on the road. I managed to keep my mouth shut, tho, and dinally we made it without hitting one. Whew! I get that yelping from my mother. Don't I, Mom. :D

For some reason, it's not nearly as tired tonight as it was last night. Maybe it was the Bailey's coffee I had with dessert. :)

We got to dinner 1/2 hour late, but the hotel held it for us and the food was wonderful.

Oh, the termite hills are getting larger. I'm really anxious to get those pix up, too! Gail said we're going to see some HUGE ones tomorrow.

Oh, and whoever anonomously asked me not to remove them from my mailing list: I won't. :D

More tomorrow. We're winding down and I kind of hate to see this part come to an end. :(

'Nite