FIRST DAY IN USA

We left home at 9.15am on Sunday and arrived in Hollywood at 2:00pm on Sunday after crossing the international date line and went back a day, we were traveling for about 20 hours.

We had to be at Brisbane airport 2 hours before departure. The iPad came in handy. We joined all the young ones with their noses in iPads or laptops as there was free Internet at the airport.

We traveled with Air New Zealand

and we were impressed with the Premium Economy seats and service.

It took 3 hours to NZ where we waited for two hours before connecting with the flight to LA. That took another 12 hours. Bernie met us at the airport and drove us to West Hollywood where our little family live.

We were met at the door by one excited little Fox.

I started Grandma duties straight away.

UP UP AND AWAY

We are off to LA, USA tomorrow morning to baby sit this gorgeous little guy. I'm sorry I haven't had time to visit any of you today. I will try to blog from my iPad and visit you if I can. If not see you in five weeks.

Fox 23 months.

A WALK IN THE PARK 4

Yes! Believe it or not, I got TOH out doors again. I want him to be fit for our trip to LA on Sunday. This time we visited Alexander Clark Park at Loganholme, fifteen minutes drive from home. It had been raining and I was trying to juggle an umbrella and my point and shoot camera. So the shots are not clear as I was moving and holding the camera with one hand.

 It is a pretty, well maintained park, which borders the Logan River.

 Every now and then there is a pontoon for boats and for us to see the river, 

which is brown from all the rain we have been having.

We walked in a circuit, by the river, through the forest and past many BBQ areas and children's playgrounds. This one intrigued us. It was like a rail line with these pedal bikes that went along the track. We hope we can take our grandsons there one day.

Uh Oh ! TOH has spotted our car, he's picking up the pace on the home run.

A WALK IN THE PARK 3

Time for another walk with TOH (The Other Half). We try to chose a different park each time. This time it was Springwood Conservation Park. The walk starts five minutes away from our front door and the circuit takes nearly an hour. It is pretty and shady with quite a few hills.

 Early morning light .

 We like this part even though its steep the path passes some nice rock formations and lovely lush ferns.

 Banksia

On the home stretch.

THE MAN WITH A SUGAR BAG

This post is for Taphophile Tragics, people who enjoy wandering through cemeteries. 
(I must admit that this was an email sent to me and I did not take any of the photos but I thought it would entertain some taphophiles over at Julie's meme.)

 People from Broken Hill will remember from their younger days this icon of the city. He used to go to all the public functions,  especially the picture theatres. He always carried a sugar bag to collect empty bottles and cans.
His name was Albert (Tapper) Torney.  Everyone thought he was a bit eccentric and kids would tease and hassle him. However, it was discovered that he was very talented. He only sold the empty bottles and some of the cans. 
After he died in (1998 aged 86) his large collection of model cars which he made from the aluminium cans was discovered. This goes to prove... “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover”, or a sculptor by his sugar bag.

It looks suspiciously like someone has added the cans and bottles to this photo.

STRAWBERRY FIELDS

While we were in Stanthorpe we visited Strawberry Fields, a farm where you could pick your own.

Diana was keen to do that.

First the flower

Then the fruit

Rows and rows of them

Now the eating, yum yum. We bought ours from the shop at the same price as PYO. I am not keen on bending over for long time due to a prolapsed disc. Since we have been home we have made a strawberry pie and a strawberry crumble.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Stanthorpe Qld Australia

THE ITALIAN CONNECTION AND LAW DOGS

 As mentioned in the last post, we spent  two days at Stanthorpe a beautiful town in the ranges. It was settled by Italians and their heritage is still very obvious in the district. Vineyards and orchards are everywhere. There are also Italian stores. The first night we had our Judo Club Reunion dinner at Anna's Italian Restaurant and it was delicious.

The next day we stopped by "Vincenzo"s" store and cafe for morning tea coffee. Can you believe this motley bunch of wrinklies used to do Judo. 

  

 All the tables had beautiful fresh roses another thing that grows well up there.

 The store was full of Italian delicacies like these sausages.

Lots of wine and liqueurs.

After morning tea we drove to an attraction called "Law Dogs Australia"

 It is where dogs, mostly German Shepherds are trained to be  protection dogs and detection dogs. This one is big Kye. He had powerful jaws and could knock a man down in a flash.

This is another one (I can't remember his name), in fact the trainer's favourite. Very intelligent and easy to train.

They start real training at 18 months but puppies are introduced to the idea early by giving them social skills . It was an informative show. I love German Shepherds, we used to have one years ago. He had loads of personality and was protective of our girls.