A Late "Finale"

It's 14 January 2024 - just came across this draft post... bit late but what the hell... I'll publish it!

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We have been home for almost four weeks now, but I haven't had a chance to complete this blog properly and it just doesn't seem right if I don't at least make an attempt at it!

Our time in England was obviously very full as I really didn't have time to sort through photos and update the blog after mid June!! 

July was filled with family and fun.  Three highlights in particular: (1) the arrival of my niece Jessica.  Having time with her for about three weeks was heavenly for all of us.  (2) the family vacation in Cornwall, the second week when the sun came out!! and finally, (3) the Olympics.

Our first week in Cornwall was spent near Penzance.  Jessica, Jake, Sofia, Emily, Beryl and I enjoyed a lovely converted barn as our home for a week.  The weather was not great but we still were able to see some sights and truly RELAX!


The second week, Sally, Kate and John all joined us.  We were on the lizard peninsula, in a lovely farmhouse with a great garden that allowed the kids to chase each other and play tag.  The weather improved to the point that we had beautiful hot summer days and I think everyone, despite wearing sunscreen, got a tan!


It was sad to leave Cornwall at the end of July.  But like everything in life, all things must come to an end.  I took Jess into London and met up with her mom/dad.  I then met back up with everyone again (apart from Beryl) and we spent about three days in London at the Olympics.  We were fortunate enough to spend our last last afternoon with my brother, sister in law and Jess, which included a picnic in the park near Buckingham Palace, with Pimms, good food and of course, a little cricket activity!

We re-entered the United States on August 2 -- the heat and humidity relentless in their welcome!!  We had to hit the ground running - kids were back in school the next day, soccer practices were already in full motion, visits to doctors, dentists etc... were made, and boxes needed to be retrieved from storage and unpacked.  The list goes on...

We are finally more or less settled.  But after such a great experience, I don't think it will be long before we all get a bit twitchy and catch that travel bug again... 

Signing out...
  

Jolly Ole England

Our flights from Melbourne to England went smoothly.  We flew Qatar Airlines - knowing NOTHING about them.  What a pleasant surprise and experience!  Regardless of an uneventful journey, we arrived in the UK exhausted, only to find our rental car situation was a bit of a joke.  After an hour of wasted time, we finally had a decent sized car, squeezed ourselves and bags in and drove to Swaffham.  The roads were really quiet - I think we made it to Beryl's in record time.  Of course, the Queen's Jubilee celebrations were in full force that day (it was the Sunday), so people had an extra long weekend and wouldn't be traveling until the Tuesday...  We were greeted by the family, we ate and drank good food and wine, then crashed...

Our first week included Jubilee celebrations in my sister in law's (Sally) village and, my personal highlight, Jake's 10th birthday!!  Sally and our nieces slept over the Tuesday night so they'd be there the morning of the 6th.  Jake's day was full of food he wanted, cake he wanted, presents he was hoping for and a couple games of bowling.  I think all in all it was a great day for him!

On Sunday 10th June, we moved on to Cambridge so John could get settled at the university -- after all, he is still on sabbatical and working pretty hard!!  We lucked out with a gorgeous home about a mile from the city centre.  To date, we've experienced the busy streets of Cambridge, gone punting on the Cam River (with gorgeous views of the College backs) and taken in a movie.  Duxford Imperial War Museum is only 10 minutes down the M11, so I took the kids there to see the very impressive exhibits of planes (including the history of flying), American air museum, Battle of Britain and more!  Over the weekend, we drove to Oxford to see our good friend Mark and meet his fiancee.  Oxford was such a good time - it's a lively and beautiful city.  We visited a museum, several fabulous pubs and went punting again!  Mark and John did the honours so it was rather humourous at times!!  Sadly we forgot our cameras, so I don't have pictures of the punting...

Cambridge

Kings College

Cam River

In Oxford...

Duxford - War Museum... (remaining photos)

Concord (top & bottom)

Inside the Concord

A captured German plane

Air raid shelters

I am now in the process of enrolling in my classes for next fall.  Reality is slowly sinking in.  We've got about 6 weeks left before we fly back home...  The time is going fast!!

"CIAO!" until my next post...

A Final Look at Australia

Our last week in Australia included a big road trip from Sydney to Melbourne via the east coast and some time in the state of Victoria with good friends.  We started our trek with a quick stop at Bondi Beach - a well known surf beach on the east side of Sydney.

Bondi Beach - Sydney (top & bottom)

We then ventured off towards Melbourne!  The first part of the trip was really spectacular, with great views along the way.  After a good stretch of driving, we stopped for the night in a small town called Narooma.  We arrived in the dark and had trouble finding our place, but it was worth the effort as we ended up with a great little two bedroom suite.  The views in the morning were a fabulous surprise, showing us what a pretty little town Narooma was!

Our lunch stop... (top & bottom)

Views along the way... (top & bottom)

View by our hotel (golf course & ocean! pretty sweet as!)

Birdy birds... of the parrot sort!

The rest of the drive was more of a slog - it was pretty but nothing like the previous day.  We got ourselves to another small town (Bairnsdale) and stayed in a funny old motel.  We picked up fish and chips - which were outstanding!  The boys were able to watch the cricket on satellite TV so all in all, everyone was quite happy.

The next morning we got up relatively early and were on the motorway around 8:30/9.  With about four hours to go, we made our way to the Melbourne airport to drop off the car.  Simon graciously picked us (and our bags) up in his big truck!  The Eassom home was only about 50 minutes away.  Located on an acreage, their beautiful home was filled with dogs, horses, a cat and a warm, hospitable feel!  The fact that more than 10 years had passed since we'd all been together was insignificant - it was a really great four or five days. And the kids immediately felt at ease and grew very fond of our hosts.

A "welcome mat" doesn't compare to this fella!

A view from Simon & Lisa's front...

Our temporary home sweet home!

Our hosts!  Unfortunately the camera was not in focus!!

Our first full day included a trot on Billy the horse, followed by a lovely walk at Hanging Rock.  It was a really peaceful and enjoyable day -

Our second full day was spent in Melbourne city! Simon took us up to the top of his office building to see the beautiful views.  After we left him to work we started our walk along the river towards the sports complexes. John was really eager to take a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Club, hence we spent a good part of two hours there seeing the inside of the stadium and finishing up with a quick (and very late) lunch.  We had just enough time to walk back along the river, explore some of the fantastic side streets of the city's centre, and stroll through the botanic gardens. Simon finished work in decent time and we went back to our country retreat!

Our third day was another full day of exploration.  We drove to Ballarat to see Sovereign Hill to experience an old Gold Mine!  It was tons of fun for the kids, and even us!

The first half of our final day was spent packing up our bags.  Lisa and Simon were out - Lisa competes with her horses and she had a competition that day with Billy!  She and Billy got 6th overall, by the way - a really great feat!!  After we were packed and ready to go, the four of us drove off road (using the 4X4 Jeep!!) - our goal was to walk to the peak of a nearby hill/mountain - Mt. William.  It was a very short drive and maybe a 40 minute walk to the peak.  We saw kangaroos along the way - we literally were chasing them up the road for a bit!  After the walk, we got home and regrouped for our two flights to England.  The thought of 22 hours on planes was not exciting - but at least what was waiting for us at the other end (our family!) was!!

Kangaroos -- very hard to see -- but they are there!

Views... from Mt. William

Good bye Australia...  until we meet again!!