The climbers are up there if you can spot them.
Looking from further away. We counted at least about 8 climbers.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Giant Secquoia trees. They are huge and thousands of years old.
See the rock climbers going up the almost verticle rock face. It takes an average of 2 1/2 days to get to the top. Not my cup of tea.
Some of the amazing rock formations in Yosemite. They were formed through glacier movement.
Our one and only coyote. He went in for the kill and we think he got it. Unfortunately we didnt see any bears which was a bit of a disappointment. At least for me. Yogi was there somewhere I am sure!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
The trip up to San Francisco was easy the next day but after arriving at the airport we found it very confusing and busy. Definately a lesson there in arriving much earlier.
San Diego was an interesting place and much larger than we had thought it would be. The contrast in areas was interesting and it has huge gullys everywhere. They say that for every mile out you go the temp rises 1%. As we were there for the Heart of the Samuri leadership course we didnt get to see a lot for the week but hired a car for the monday and toured around. Had lunch in old town with Debbie and Tracey which was nice, eating Mexican and drinking Marguaritas (at least Deb and Laz did!) and they were huge ones too.
Old town is old! but interesting. We did a bit of a night trip to the university section which is Spanish in style and very impressive. We would love to go back there and look around one day.
We headed up the coast, through La Jolla (more upmarket part of San Diego) and breakfasted/lunched at a gorgeous arty place on the way to LAX in Orange County on the coast. The houses were much more upmarket and the restaurants and shops worth checking out with an empty visa card I think! The dollar dropping was a big sick and surprised us a bit at the tellers machine (alot really!)
Cant say much about Heart as I don't want to spoil it for anyone but it is an amazing program. Touches the heart in many different ways and I highly recommend it as a great experience in working with your purpose in life.
LAX airport is huge and busy so a great man at the hire car place dropped us off at the Qantas part. The staff there were so friendly, heaps more so than at San Francisco, jovial and joking around with us.
We flew to Honolulu and arrived at 7pm then out to Kona (on the big Island of Hawai'i) at 8.30pm. It was great to catch up with Trish and Derek, Clint and Kent Doyle and see where they are living. They all looked so well and happily settled in to their new home. We did a bit of sightseeing and swimming with turtles and eating and lots of talking! It was fun and a good down time before heading home.
Upgrade again but no airbed this time. Much smaller plane. Definately the way to go on the long hauls as heaps more leg room and great to be able to lie down and raise our legs up. They give out really glam pj's too!
Time for a quick shower in Sydney airport before the last leg home on Sat night.
We had the best time, saw heaps, learnt heaps, made great friends, gained a bit of weight (only me. The thoroughabred reckons he lost some!) and travelled many miles on the wrong side of the road. It is always great to come home especially to see the garden flowering and the cat and dog still alive! (Jase did a good job there. One small tropical fish disappeared and two more were born! Amazing!)
For me, this trip was one of achieving some long time goals. Flying in a skybed, seeing Yosemite, going down into Mexico, riding on the cable cars in San Francisco and riding over the Golden Gate Bridge. Yosemite and Mexico were 2 dreams of mine since I was about 14 yrs old so it was a real buzz.
Where to next year? Rwanda for a mission trip and maybe more of the US. Who knows.
God bless you and thanks for reading our blog (even if most of it was late!) Love you x
San Diego was an interesting place and much larger than we had thought it would be. The contrast in areas was interesting and it has huge gullys everywhere. They say that for every mile out you go the temp rises 1%. As we were there for the Heart of the Samuri leadership course we didnt get to see a lot for the week but hired a car for the monday and toured around. Had lunch in old town with Debbie and Tracey which was nice, eating Mexican and drinking Marguaritas (at least Deb and Laz did!) and they were huge ones too.
Old town is old! but interesting. We did a bit of a night trip to the university section which is Spanish in style and very impressive. We would love to go back there and look around one day.
We headed up the coast, through La Jolla (more upmarket part of San Diego) and breakfasted/lunched at a gorgeous arty place on the way to LAX in Orange County on the coast. The houses were much more upmarket and the restaurants and shops worth checking out with an empty visa card I think! The dollar dropping was a big sick and surprised us a bit at the tellers machine (alot really!)
Cant say much about Heart as I don't want to spoil it for anyone but it is an amazing program. Touches the heart in many different ways and I highly recommend it as a great experience in working with your purpose in life.
LAX airport is huge and busy so a great man at the hire car place dropped us off at the Qantas part. The staff there were so friendly, heaps more so than at San Francisco, jovial and joking around with us.
We flew to Honolulu and arrived at 7pm then out to Kona (on the big Island of Hawai'i) at 8.30pm. It was great to catch up with Trish and Derek, Clint and Kent Doyle and see where they are living. They all looked so well and happily settled in to their new home. We did a bit of sightseeing and swimming with turtles and eating and lots of talking! It was fun and a good down time before heading home.
Upgrade again but no airbed this time. Much smaller plane. Definately the way to go on the long hauls as heaps more leg room and great to be able to lie down and raise our legs up. They give out really glam pj's too!
Time for a quick shower in Sydney airport before the last leg home on Sat night.
We had the best time, saw heaps, learnt heaps, made great friends, gained a bit of weight (only me. The thoroughabred reckons he lost some!) and travelled many miles on the wrong side of the road. It is always great to come home especially to see the garden flowering and the cat and dog still alive! (Jase did a good job there. One small tropical fish disappeared and two more were born! Amazing!)
For me, this trip was one of achieving some long time goals. Flying in a skybed, seeing Yosemite, going down into Mexico, riding on the cable cars in San Francisco and riding over the Golden Gate Bridge. Yosemite and Mexico were 2 dreams of mine since I was about 14 yrs old so it was a real buzz.
Where to next year? Rwanda for a mission trip and maybe more of the US. Who knows.
God bless you and thanks for reading our blog (even if most of it was late!) Love you x
Got a bit busy and slack on the last part of our trip and didnt get any pics up from Yosemite so thought I would put up some over the next few days so you could get an idea of the beautiful country side. We spent two nights just out of Yosemite and a wonderful day in the park looking around. I took heaps of pics, and cant wait to go back to look at it more slowly next time. We then headed down to Sant Cruz which was a bit of a straight there trip and a little stressful! We got lost trying to find the right highway exit and entry at some town and arrived in Santa Cruz only to get lost again trying to find the restaurant we were to meet Kathleen and her sister Trish at. Aparently they got lost getting there too! It was one of those trips, we were told would take 2-3 hrs and took over 4 so lunch was late! Still it was great to catch up with them and spend a couple of hours together. Time went too fast. We headed north to Half Moon Bay, a lovely spot right on the water but it was sunset when we got there. Definately a must get back to place as well.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Rainbow Creek Lake Tahoe
Spawning salmon in the creek at Rainbow Creek. Sometimes you can see the bears come down to eat the salmon but unfortunately there werent any there the day we were there. Amazing fish that once they have spawned will die. Males get a funny jaw then cant eat. I guess the females are just plum tuckered out from all the babies they have!
A hugely expensive hotel near ours in San Fran. The Mark something
Hotel in San Francisco. Very expensive
Lake Tahoe
The changing colours of fall at Rainbow Creek and the island with a castle on it on TahoeMonday, October 13, 2008
Lake Tahoe is huge and one side is in California and the other in Nevada.
One of the beaches at Tahoe. All the gambling casinos are in the Nevada side of Tahoe.San Diego
We are in San Diego and arrived here this afternoon after nearly not making the plane. Discovered that you need more time here than at home as things are much busier and they always oversell the seats. I didnt have one for a bit, but somehow one turned up! Also sting you with heavy baggage. Best to take two bags than one big one. Cost $120us each for being a couple of klg over in weight. Will download pics soon.
Saw heaps of snow and have lots of pics but needing sleep now as big day tomorrow.
Replied to Amy and Andrea's msg. Thanks for leaving the comments, makes you closer to me. My heart to yours, you know what I mean.
Saw heaps of snow and have lots of pics but needing sleep now as big day tomorrow.
Replied to Amy and Andrea's msg. Thanks for leaving the comments, makes you closer to me. My heart to yours, you know what I mean.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Biking over Bridge
The view from the top is worth the ride!
Wee. I had bruises on my legs after this.
Riding bikes over the bridge was hard work but worth the effort.Muir Woods and more of San Fran
Pier 39 at Fishermans Wharf. The sea lions are smelly and tough but interesting. They are pretty aggressive and come to the wharf every day and mostly sleep and bullly each other.
Lombard street is fun, colourful, neat and very windy. Not from wind but from being the crookedest street in the world. We walked down it twice, only a little up it and drove slowly down it.
The streets are amazing. So hilly. Everything on the movies is true! We went up and down, up and down, up and down! Even drove down the street in the movie "Bullet" Laz had a ball!
Fishermans wharf is a buzz. Alive and bustling. Nice eateries.
We had a ball on the trams. They run in the main part f the city and connect to the main places to go. We had an all day pass and went from end to end. You have to hang on but can hang out the sides if you want. Guess who did!
Some of the old houses are so beautiful and there are heaps of them. Of course we only went into the old parts of the city.
The rest of the view including the bridge on far left and Alcatraz in front, If you look hard!
The view from our hotel window was amazing. We had a room on the 11th floor and could see Alcatraz, one part of the bridge and across China Town, The Marina, Fishermans Wharf areas. All the old parts of the city.
The amazing Golden Gate Bridge. We drove over this as soon as we got to San Francisco on the way to Muir woods. By the time we headed to the hotel back over the bridge, an amazing fog had started to come in and we could hardly see in front of us.
Playing with our new camera. Still practicing. Might take a bit. This was a pretty place.
Pacific Ocean at Muir Beach at sunset. Taken after the pic below. Still learning this program!
The giant redwoods at Muir woods are stunning and very humbling. Got there late after flying in and before booking in to our hotel so it was getting late in the day with reduced light.
Lombard street is fun, colourful, neat and very windy. Not from wind but from being the crookedest street in the world. We walked down it twice, only a little up it and drove slowly down it.
The streets are amazing. So hilly. Everything on the movies is true! We went up and down, up and down, up and down! Even drove down the street in the movie "Bullet" Laz had a ball!
Fishermans wharf is a buzz. Alive and bustling. Nice eateries.
We had a ball on the trams. They run in the main part f the city and connect to the main places to go. We had an all day pass and went from end to end. You have to hang on but can hang out the sides if you want. Guess who did!
Some of the old houses are so beautiful and there are heaps of them. Of course we only went into the old parts of the city.
The rest of the view including the bridge on far left and Alcatraz in front, If you look hard!
The view from our hotel window was amazing. We had a room on the 11th floor and could see Alcatraz, one part of the bridge and across China Town, The Marina, Fishermans Wharf areas. All the old parts of the city.
The amazing Golden Gate Bridge. We drove over this as soon as we got to San Francisco on the way to Muir woods. By the time we headed to the hotel back over the bridge, an amazing fog had started to come in and we could hardly see in front of us.
Playing with our new camera. Still practicing. Might take a bit. This was a pretty place.
Pacific Ocean at Muir Beach at sunset. Taken after the pic below. Still learning this program!
The giant redwoods at Muir woods are stunning and very humbling. Got there late after flying in and before booking in to our hotel so it was getting late in the day with reduced light.San Francisco Pics
Where to go in San Francisco
A causeway across the San Francisco Bay area from the air
Left is the foyer of our hotel. Above are houses used in Full House
Trams. Such fun and necessary to get up the hills. We went on lots of them!
Lake Tahoe
Forgot to say that Yosemite is also in my dream file and I have wanted to go there since I was 17 years old. We want to come back in the winter and also one spring.
Lake Tahoe is a beautiful. Huge and lots to see. Lots of money along the water as well. We stayed in a cute cabin, but it got down to -1 and the heater got turned off in the night so it was pretty cold by morning. We left there about 10 and headed around the top of the lake towards Carson City then down to Yosemite.
We had snow flurries during the night at Tahoe but by the time we got to the place we had breakfast at it had really snowed. Aparently it is the first snow falls here for the year. How amazing is that.
Enjoy the pics.
Lake Tahoe is a beautiful. Huge and lots to see. Lots of money along the water as well. We stayed in a cute cabin, but it got down to -1 and the heater got turned off in the night so it was pretty cold by morning. We left there about 10 and headed around the top of the lake towards Carson City then down to Yosemite.
We had snow flurries during the night at Tahoe but by the time we got to the place we had breakfast at it had really snowed. Aparently it is the first snow falls here for the year. How amazing is that.
Enjoy the pics.
San Francisco
We are having a great time but it has been full on. This is a bit of a catch up. We are leaving Yosemite National Park tomorrow. This is the most amazing place and so beautiful. The pics dont do it justice.
We left Lake Tahoe yesterday and had snow as we were leaving. The closer we got to the turn off to Yosemite the heavier the snow till they closed the pass. We had to go back the way we had come and right down the hills again. Added about 3 or 4 hours of driving to our trip. Laz did well considering he was doing all the driving, in hard conditions and on the wrong side of the road! We saw heaps of snow, had some wine and cheese and biscuits (for you Steven and Allison!) and took lots of pics. It got down to minus 6 before we hit the park area. Today we did a tour with two of the staff and another couple. We saw a small part of Yosemite but it was great. Saw dear and a coyote as well as several types of squirels and some amazing Sequoia trees which were huge. Off to Half Moon Bay tomorrow and catch up with Kathleen for lunch.
We left Lake Tahoe yesterday and had snow as we were leaving. The closer we got to the turn off to Yosemite the heavier the snow till they closed the pass. We had to go back the way we had come and right down the hills again. Added about 3 or 4 hours of driving to our trip. Laz did well considering he was doing all the driving, in hard conditions and on the wrong side of the road! We saw heaps of snow, had some wine and cheese and biscuits (for you Steven and Allison!) and took lots of pics. It got down to minus 6 before we hit the park area. Today we did a tour with two of the staff and another couple. We saw a small part of Yosemite but it was great. Saw dear and a coyote as well as several types of squirels and some amazing Sequoia trees which were huge. Off to Half Moon Bay tomorrow and catch up with Kathleen for lunch.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Catching up
Advanced Gold Coast
What an amazing time we had in Qld. The course was one of the most powerful I have done. We staffed it and 'being on another side of the fence' this time was huge for us both. I highly recommend it.
We were a bit sleep deprived though flying high emotionally.
Putting into practice some of what we learned more of, after a delay at Sydney airport (anyone surprised!) we got a wonderful upgrade to Business Class and guess what? Dream files come true. Mine has a pic of a skybed in it! Yahoo! We both got to sleep in one!
How cool is that!
What an amazing time we had in Qld. The course was one of the most powerful I have done. We staffed it and 'being on another side of the fence' this time was huge for us both. I highly recommend it.
We were a bit sleep deprived though flying high emotionally.
Putting into practice some of what we learned more of, after a delay at Sydney airport (anyone surprised!) we got a wonderful upgrade to Business Class and guess what? Dream files come true. Mine has a pic of a skybed in it! Yahoo! We both got to sleep in one!
How cool is that!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Preparing to go
Seems like the last minute rush to get everything done before we head to the Gold Coast on Monday to help staff the Klemmer Advanced course. We are looking forward to that especially as we have Amy and some special friends doing the course with us.
We then we head off to San Francisco on 6th Oct for 3 nights, then drive to Lake Tahoe then Yosemite, staying in log cabins for 3 nights, Half Moon Bay on the coast again for the night before flying down to San Diego for the Klemmer Heart course for a week. We are spending 3 nights with Derek and Trish Doyle and the boys in Kona (Big Island) in Hawaii on the way home.. it's all very exciting! I just have to remember to make lists and stick to crossing things off them! Thanks Di for the advice. Its a short holiday but a long way away. Maybe a taste for living there for a while!
We then we head off to San Francisco on 6th Oct for 3 nights, then drive to Lake Tahoe then Yosemite, staying in log cabins for 3 nights, Half Moon Bay on the coast again for the night before flying down to San Diego for the Klemmer Heart course for a week. We are spending 3 nights with Derek and Trish Doyle and the boys in Kona (Big Island) in Hawaii on the way home.. it's all very exciting! I just have to remember to make lists and stick to crossing things off them! Thanks Di for the advice. Its a short holiday but a long way away. Maybe a taste for living there for a while!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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