Accidently Infamous

Travel Etiquette 101

2011-11-06T14:01:00.000-08:00

The one thing which never ceases to amaze me when I travel is how other people are oblivious to those around them. On our recent flight from Portland to Minneapolis there was lady seated in front of me who I am sure had washed herself and probably her clothes in the perfume ‘Opium’.

I’m for perfume, I love it. However as most females can attest, everyone has a different scent that pleases them. I, for instance, love the smell of Casmir by Chopard - it’s been my signature fragrance for over 20 years. I have a friend who can’t stand the smell of it, makes her sneeze whenever she gets near me. As a result, if I know I am going to see her, I don’t wear it, and I certainly don’t put it on when she’s around.

Why can’t people be this considerate especially when in a confined space, like an airplane, for instance?

Back to the trip. The woman in front of me continued to fluff her scarf and jacket around her the entire flight, to the point I could barely see when we came in for a landing. My eyes were bloodshot red and weeping like I had sat through Beaches. On repeat. For 24 hours.

The feeling of my own misery soon dissipated when I saw the guy sitting next to her was substantially worse off than me. He had also spent the flight sneezing and wheezing, but I could see hives breaking out on his neck and hands when he got up to go to the rest room. As he passed by we both gave each other a look of empathy.

Then to make matters worse, just as the plane was arriving at the gate, she pulled out her bottle of perfume and spritzed herself again. I thought we might have to administer oxygen to the poor man next to her.

Having done a reasonable amount of travel, I’ve become accustomed to following a few guides I have learned to make sure I can contribute to everyone having a relaxing trip.

1. Perfume - Don’t wear it on a plane or train or when travelling on public transport. There is nothing worse than feeling overpowered by a scent which heightens ones allergies or causes headaches when you are in a confined space.

2. Snacks & Meal Breaks - On a plane, when it comes time to eat put your seat up so the person behind doesn’t feel like they are maneuvering through an obstacle course as they eat. In these days when airlines are giving you less and less space I don’t see why anyone needs to have their seat reclined the additional 9 or 10 degrees to eat.

3. Clean Up After Yourself - There is nothing worse than going into a washroom to find the sink covered in water, or in some cases, other things. Is it really that hard to wipe the sink area down and clean up after yourself? This rule also applies double to the toilet area!

4. Baggage - Yes, it sucks some airlines are charging for checked baggage but when you avoid paying the fee to check your luggage, consider those around you who have abided by the rules for overhead luggage storage. I recently saw a lady who stowed 2 full sized cabin bags, a sweater, a coat and a full size umbrella, plus 3 or 4 bags of duty free all in the overhead bin!! There was no room left for anyone else by the time she finished!! It grinds my gears when airline staff allow these people to get away with this.

5. Be Aware Of Your Surroundings - For instance if you are sitting in an aisle seat, don’t be annoyed when someone asks you to get up so they can get out - what are they suppose to do, be in discomfort because you don’t want to stand for a couple of minutes. Or, if you are sitting in a window seat and you are sharing a window with the person in front or behind you, if they have put the shade down to sleep, don’t yank it up without checking first. You have no idea how many times I have seen people ripped out of a peaceful sleep because of someone’s ignorance.

More and more people are travelling via plane and train and it really doesn’t hurt to be aware of those around you as you travel.

There are other rules I try to abide by as I become a tourist, but I’ll save those for another time!

It’s A Small World, After All…..

2011-02-22T22:54:00.000-08:00

Today will be the last day we spend, well for this trip, at the happiest place on Earth.

When we arrived at our hotel on Day 1, I mentioned to Tyler we should have seen if we could have trekked into Los Angeles to Universal Studios or something similar to break up the amount of time we would have at Disneyland.

If we had planned a little better we would have been able to do this. Regretfully it wasn’t in our budget at this point in time so we missed out.

In hindsight, 4 days at Disneyland is too much for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the place and if it’s not crowded (like it was our first night here) I could imagine it would be the most amazing place on Earth however when it’s crowded and people are pushy, well it’s similar to anything else - you just don’t want to be here.

This unfortunately, is the attitude I wake up with this morning. I feel if we were flying out today, then I don’t think I would be too fussed. And, even though he’s not saying anything, I think Tyler is feeling the same way. Nevertheless we put on our happy faces and get ready for our last day here.

Today we don’t have a plan, we figure we will take it as it comes. We know we have to pick up our “Fastpass” for the picnic dinner at tonight's World of Color in CAL and we obviously have to show up for the show, but the rest of the day we are playing by ear.

We were told when we booked the tickets for the World of Color show, to meet at one of the restaurants in CAL at 11:00am to collect our Fastpass. As it’s nearly 9:00am now, and we still have to have breakfast, we agree to start our day at CAL.

After getting ready we patiently wait in the lovely sun for our bus. Living in the Pacific North where it rains for 8 months out of the year is hideous. I never realized how much I missed the sun until it left my life.

Finally the bus arrives and takes us over to the Parks. We walk back to Disneyland Drive and grab a table at iHop for a truly filling breakfast and excellent service. After gorging ourselves we waddle back towards CAL.

It’s now 10:45am and the lines are already long - and we have not even entered the park yet! Yikes! We find the restaurant and join the queue to get our “Fastpass” tickets for the World of Color, thankfully there are not too many people there! Pretty soon we realize why.

To collect your Fastpass you have to take your picnic dinner with you now which is strange considering we have cold meats, drinks and salads which the staff at Disneyland expect to last until 6:00pm?! I wonder how many people end up with salmonella doing this? We ask if we can collect our food later and we are told a very flat “no” by someone who has obviously said this several times already today.

We take our Fastpass and our food which we know will end up spoiled by the time the show starts. Perhaps we can wait a couple of hours and have a little snack so the food doesn’t go to waste. The thought of eating again after the huge breakfast is enough to make us feel ill.

Tyler and I decide agree to go back to Disneyland and spend the day there chilling out. I have a thought which is quote relaxing. I suggest spending our remaining time sitting in Main Street in the wonderful sun and seeing if we can get some more character photos. Tyler does make a good point though - there are some rides we have not been on yet so we agree to try our luck at those first.

After entering we head towards New Orleans Square to see the status of the lines at the Haunted Mansion and the Pirates ride - we do this via our good friends on the Disneyland Railroad - we love this ride so much we agree to do a full loop around the park first of all before getting off! Such fun!

When we reach New Orleans Square we see we have made a mistake - there are too many people here for us to get on either ride so we walk over to Tomorrowland which is just as crowded - if not more so!

Bloody Presidents Day weekend - why couldn’t someone have thrown that on my calendar when I was looking at dates to visit. If I had of know, I would have come the weekend after.

Tyler suggests going to hang out at the kids rides which seems to make sense - there is hardly anyone lined up for Mr. Toads Wild Ride so we join that queue.

We have not been on this ride yet (this trip) so that is fun. I know the carriage rides are really cheesy and childish, but they can still crack me up!

I tell Tyler that I want to take something home with me from Disneyland to remember this trip by. So we pass on the remainder of the rides and head back down on Main Street to hit the shops.

I look at several jackets - but as I already have one, this seems like a waste, then I look at figurines of the Hitchhiking Ghosts in the Haunted Mansion, but I then spot it.

I find a lithograph of the Haunted Mansion with the Disney characters out the front. It’s perfect and I love it.

One of the people in the store is not interested in helping me find an unframed one (I don’t like their frame) so I find someone who does. She brings it out to me and I am already starting to figure out where I can hang this treat!

We walk around outside a while and meet up with Chip & Dale and finally Donald (who refuses to have his photo taken showing us the Oregon “O” - he’s such a nasty duck!) but Tyler get’s his photo taken again with his wonderful friend.

While waiting between character visits, we snack a little on our limp salads and semi-warm meats. Really not worth the $15.00 we paid for the meal but it did give us priority seating for the show tonight.

Mickey & Pluto show up and we all have our photo taken with them. I know they are people in a suit, but they represent so much more to most of the young at heart!

After a few more character meets I tell Tyler I want one last ride at the Haunted Mansion. He happily (ha!) obliges and off we go. The line is long-ish, but we wait patiently. Finally we get into our Doom Buggy for the last time and off we go.

Getting out, I bid a sad farewell my favorite spooks and specters, promising to be back to see them again soon!

Tyler suggests heading over to CAL as it’s starting to get late in the day. I agree as I want to to figure out where we need to line up for the show. After walking around a while we figure out where we need to be and after being shuffled around several times, we join the queue. We are one of the first in line so we have plenty of opportunity to take photos and relax a little. Tyler take a great panoramic of the park at sunset:

Finally they let people in and it’s time to find a spot. We avoid the “wet zone” like the plague and agree to get at the front on the second rise - this way we can see over most people and not get wet! Then we just have to wait patiently for it to start.

Finally the lights dim and the music starts and water starts to spray upwards. Before we can really understand what is happening we see projections of pictures and movies on the wall of water in front of us. It’s amazing! We both take a little video of what we are seeing - see below:

Half way through the show my camera card runs out of room and I am trying to swap it over in the dark - not a good idea, especially when I them drop it in the garden in front of me. Good Grief!

After the movie, fire & water spectacular is over we wait till the lights come back up and find my trusty card - thankfully!

As some of the people have already disbursed from the park it’s an easy walk out and back to the bus ranks which are still crowded. We patiently wait (for what seems like forever) for our bus and it’s a quick ride back to the hotel.

We decide to get up early and pack everything up - we are being picked up by the shuttle bus at 8:00am for a 10:30am flight.

All in all our trip to Disneyland was fun and exciting. I couldn’t think of a better place for anyone to spend their 40th Birthday.

Tomorrow we are back to the land of reality with lots of wonderful memories and some beautiful reminders of the Happiest Place On Earth.

Highlight Of The Day: All Of It

Continuing To Bask In The California Sunshine

2011-02-21T22:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we swore we would take things easy and we didn’t. So today we sleep in a little and rest our weary bodies. Being at the Happiest Place on Earth is incredible, but it’s also exhausting!

I am still on a high from the great day yesterday -combined with seeing Mickey and Minnie together as well as Sir Duck just topped off a bloody brilliant day. However it’s not enough to have me bouncing out of bed with a spring in my step!!

We have decided to spend today at California Adventure Land which is the other park operated by Disney. California Adventure Land (or CAL) is more for Disney’s recent characters - The Little Mermaid, A Bugs Life, Aladdin, Cars and other Pixar related movies.

This park is suppose to give you the quintessential California feel - which for the most part, it really does; there is a giant Golden Gate Bridge you walk under, while songs from the Beach Boys and the Mammas and the Pappas play out of loudspeakers. It’s just a very cool place to hang out in. And considering the construction presently going on, plus what has been added since we were there 4 years ago, I can only imagine what this place will be like in 10 years time.

After having breakfast at Denny’s - a restaurant we loved when I lived in Vancouver, BC we walk over to CAL and head on in. The first place we go is to get our Fastpass for Soaring Over California - which I have informed Tyler he has to go on, no excuses. He’s come prepared with Dramamine for his ever squeamish tummy!

Getting our pass we are told to come back between 3:00pm and 4:00pm - considering it’s only 11:30am, it’s a bit of a bummer, but never mind, we head off to explore other parts of CAL.

First stop after this is the Grizzly River Run - a white-water rafting adventure along the foaming torrents of the Grizzly River and up the craggy granite mountain known as Grizzly Peak.

We didn’t go on this ride last time, so we decide today is the day. And as it’s still quite early and no one is sure what the weather is going to be today (despite the sun shining) people are staying away from rides where they could end up soggy!

While lined up I meet a guy from Melbourne who is here for a couple of days before heading to Las Vegas. He’s a really nice guy and asks for some tips for the next stop on his trip - we gladly oblige, willing to share any of our travel information with anyone.

After a brief light soaking we bid our new friend adieu and we are on our way again.

We walk around to the Paradise Pier to explore a little and who should be there but Woody and the Army Guy from Toy Story.

I’m still wearing my birthday badge so everyone is wishing me a happy birthday - I can’t help bask in the fun of it.

We line up to say hello and when I get to the head of the line I tell them: “Listen guys. I love your movies, I really do, but I have one simple request. No more movies which make me cry like a baby”.

Army Man tells me the movies which are made are just documentaries about their lives and he’s really sorry they made me cry - Woody gives me a hug to make sure I know he’s all OK now. With this being taken care of we pose for photos and we are on our way.

Just before we can leave though, Woody taps Tyler on the shoulder and points to his Ducks baseball cap. Woody then makes the symbol of the Oregon “O” and gives Tyler the thumbs up. Tyler is stoked - Woody is a Duck Fan. Nothing could have been better for him.

In hindsight we wish we would have had a photo of this, but we didn’t think of it at the time. Maybe next time.

After leaving our new friends we head down the Pier to see what else there is to offer. We agree to play some of the arcade games and decide on a budget of $20.00 in total. Not wanting to waste any money - we take off for the game where you shoot the water at the bulls-eye and the horse races.

Tyler wins me a wonderful Dumbo elephant and we head off to the next arcade. He tries throwing some balls at bottles and we win a small duck wearing a rubber-buoy around its waist. Very cute, another play toy for the kids.

We line up for Mickey’s Fun Wheel and we realize all too late we are in the line which goes to the carts which spin around.

Not wanting to risk being spun around and also, I want to take photos, the attendants swap us over to the correct line. Yay!

We get on the ride and share our car with another group of people who seem quite nice. Being in such a confined space with people you don’t know it a little uncomfortable though.

If you click on the photo album at the top of this will show you some of the shots from the top of the ride and the construction which is presently going on, within CAL. It will also show you all the features in the man made lake for the “World of Color” show which we are going to see tomorrow night!

After our spin on the wheel Tyler and I agree to head towards the Back Lot area of the park for some Muppets. I love the Muppets, in fact we both do. For a while I tried to have a favorite Muppet, it ranged from Gonzo to Beaker to Fozzy - but I finally settled on Beaker - mainly because he is the one who always gets screwed over by the evil Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.

This is a show we have seen before, so there will be no surprises this time around, but it wont be any less enjoyable. We have the opportunity to sit down in the studio prior to entering the theater - they are playing a movie narrated by Ralph about what’s going on backstage before the show. Even though we have seen it before, it’s no less funny than the first time.

Finally we get to go inside and the show starts with my old buddies - Statler and Waldorf in the balcony. They crack me up. The 3D effects are great and as per usual, the show is over all too soon. We bid farewell to our furry buddies and consult the map for the next stop.

Deciding we have seen almost all we really wanted to see we try our luck at getting on Soaring Over California early. The lady at the head of the queue is really sweet and lets us in, despite it only being 2:30pm. We walk along the massive corridors they make people line up in - when there are lots of people there. For some reason now, it doesn’t appear there are lots of people?! Strange.

Finally we reach the top of the queue and we are seated and ready for take off. I love this ride, it’s probably the best one in the park - I have given a description before so I wont bore you all again with it, but you can read up on it here.

Leaving I ask Tyler how he is feeling and he tells me he’s fine and that he really enjoyed the ride.

Feeling a wee bit peckish, Tyler suggests we have some lunch so off to the Rainforest Café we go. I love this place, it’s so much fun. They tell me there is a 30 minute wait for a table, unless we wish to dine upstairs outside. We agree to do this and we are seated almost immediately! Brilliant - we are starving!

As usual the meal is huge and the food is spectacular and it’s nice to sit down outside for a while in the sun. After paying the bill we walk up to the monorail station to get the monorail to Tomorrowland - we have agreed to walk around Storybook land for a while and see if we can get on some of the other rides.

When we arrive there we realize our mistake. It’s packed. In fact it appears there are heaps and heaps of people in the park today. Figures. I pick to go in the middle of winter, but so does every other man and their dog!

We check out Mousewait and see there are smaller lines at the Haunted Mansion so we walk over there only to find it’s just as crowded.

Feeling like we have no where to go we agree to shop so back to Main Street USA it is. All we seem to be doing today is walking, lots of walking!

We end up picking up a great shirt for Mitchell and some stuff for the family - so it’s not a complete waste. We decide to take one last look tonight at Storybook Land and see if we can get on anything. As luck would have it, the Storybook Canal boats don’t seem to crowded so we line up there.

After about a 15 minute wait we board our boat along with a conductor who seems just as tired as we are. She’s barely enthused and I think this makes Tyler and I even more tired. After our jaunt through the mouth of the Whale named Monstro from Pinocchio we find a place to sit down and relax.

Looking at each other like “Why are we still here, we are exhausted and the place is still packed” we decide to head back to the hotel and get a reasonably early night. It’s nearly 8:00pm and we are still not hungry (lunch is still sitting well in our tummies) so we bypass dinner and head back to collect the bus.

As usual there are minimal seats to sit on so we stand and patiently wait before it finally arrives. I am sure I omit a sigh of relief as soon as I see the hotel - all I want is a hot shower and my bed and Tyler feels exactly the same.

I give the family a quick call to say hello and update them on today’s adventures. Mum notes I sound tired. I tell her she is suffering from distance distortion - because it was over 3 years ago she was here, she can’t remember how exhausting the place is. I am sure at some point she mentions the bloody Peter Pan Pool, but I’m too tired to argue.

Climbing into bed we watch TV for a while and I know I drifted off well before Ty did. I’m exhausted and part of me is wanting to avoid Disneyland at all costs tomorrow, but I know we have the Picnic Dinner booked for the World of Color @ CAL so we have to be there for the show which is a 6:45pm!

Tonight’s sleep is dreamless - but I remember thinking as I fall asleep - now I am 40 will I feel this tired all the time?

Highlight Of The Day: Seeing How Stoked Tyler Was When Woody Proved To Be A Duck!

Forty & Fabulous

2011-02-20T21:09:00.000-08:00

This morning we wake up about 8:30am - lazy start to the morning. After last night being so late we agreed to take it easy today.

Plus I have to remember, I’m old. Really old. Today I turn the dreaded age females detest - 40. In the last several years though, 40 really has become the new 30 - so I’m not too depressed about it.

Today I have a spring in my step and a smile on my dial. I’m turning 4-0 and I’m in freaking Disneyland - could life get any better?

Plus, the weather has cleared and despite it being cooler, it’s quite sunny. Anything beats spending my birthday in the rainy old Pacific Northwest!

Upon inspection it seems our jackets have dried out from last night, so just to be on the safe side, I pack this in my back pack before running off to grab the bus.

Upon arrival at the gates we decide to walk back out to the main drag and have breakfast at iHop. Neither of us have ever been here before and we are looking forward to a big meal to see us through the day. Today I want to see everything in Disneyland and there will be no time to waste!

We are seated almost straight away - and served almost immediately. The staff are excellent, despite it being super busy, the service is brilliant and the food is scrumptious. I can’t recall what we ordered but I know it was good and filling to boot!

After stuffing ourselves almost blind, we waddle back to the park where I have been informed I must pick up my “It’s my Birthday” badge to wear on my birthday. On Main Street USA there is a small visitors center near the Fire Station - this is also the place you go if you want to book tours in the park.

I tell them it’s my birthday and they give me a lovely badge with my name on it. What this entitles me to (probably nothing, knowing Disney), I’m not sure, but I’m up for anything today.

We no sooner depart with my badge and we see a Quartet of Barbershop singers (also known as The Dapper Dan's) outside one of the stores. We stop and listen for a while, soaking up the sun and their wonderful voices. After their song finishes we all applaud (there is no need to tip here, it’s all for our enjoyment) and the singers start to come around to say hello to everyone.

Before I know it, I have a singer shaking my hand and pulling me forward. He’s spotted the birthday badge. All too quickly I’m being thrown into the center of the quartet and a cheery rendition of “Happy Birthday” is being sung to me in front of an ever-growing crowd of people.

I thought there was only one shade I red I could turn, but it appears I was wrong - there are several more I can now to add to the list! After being mortally embarrassed, we through the crowd who are all wishing me a very happy birthday! It’s a lovely gesture, but I don’t know if I should keep this badge on or not?!

We stop for a while in the roundabout near Sleeping Beauty’s Castle to say hello to Walt & Mickey, plus soak up some more wonderful California sunshine.

The one thing I had never noticed are the characters on the fence surrounding the roundabout. It’s the small things at Disneyland which are usually overlooked.

I wished we lived closer to the part. I would come here all the time, just to find new things!

After spending some time here, we head towards the Castle only to run into the Queen Grimhilde (aka the Evil Queen) from Snow White. I’m such a huge fan I can’t help but line up to tell her “When I was a little girl, I wanted to be you when I grew up”. She seems suitably unimpressed and asks if it was my birthday wish to meet her. I tell her it was and she seems to tolerate me a little more.

Tyler seems to think Queen Grimhilde may have met her match, but I tell him I still have to sharpen my potion skills before I can compare myself to Her Highness!

Next stop is one of the most overlooked areas in Disneyland - the journey though Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. The journey tells the story of Sleeping Beauty and how she was placed under a spell which put her into a deep sleep until her handsome Prince showed up.

We didn’t go through this last time we were here so it’s a treat for Tyler. I went through the EuroDisney one and it’s pretty well much the same for me, but it’s still fun as we almost have it to ourselves!

Leaving the Castle we decide to try out some rides and head into Snow White’s Scary Adventure. I love this ride, in fact I love all the rides in Fantasyland - they may be dated and cheesy, but they are fun to us. Hoping to get Grumpy’s cart we are disappointed as we end up in Doc’s this morning. Never mind, it is still a fun ride!

Just before we depart for our scary adventure, I am wished a happy birthday by the attendant. I’m starting to get use to strangers wishing me a happy birthday - it is almost like today is one large celebration just for me!

Now for a Disneyland Insiders Tip for this ride, in fact it’s outside the ride. Stand outside the ride and look up above where the people enter.

If you stand there long enough, the curtains will open and you will see Queen Grimhilde scoping possible recipients for her next poisoned apple. Will you be one of the unlucky or lucky patrons?

Also, another tip for you - as you enter the ride you will pass a golden book on a stand and on the top right hand corner of the book is an apple. Touch the apple and listen carefully - you might be surprised at what you hear!

Deciding Fantasyland is getting too crowded we head over to Toon Town. Walking towards the entrance we can see it’s packed - unbelievably, painfully packed. In fact before we reach the entrance, I can already feel myself itching due to amount of children.

I shoot a glance at Tyler who is looking worried - he knows I have no tolerance for children, so he envisages it wont be long before we are thrown out of Disneyland, on my birthday, by Security! However, I’m secretly wondering exactly how many children I can fit into a 44-gallon drum of “Dip” before it’s full!

We think we will try our luck at Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin and on the way there we spot Goofy & Pluto. Being patient we line up and wait our turn, only to be 5 people from the front when Goofy and Pluto disappear. I am beginning to remember how this works - elbows and shoulders. As they say on CSI:Miami “We wont be fooled again”.

A quick look at Rogers’ Car Toon Spin and we can gauge the line is over an hour long. No thanks. We agree to take a small walk around Toon Town and see if we can spot any other characters.

The great thing about Disneyland is you never know where you are going to fund interactive stuff. Take Tyler, for instance. We are walking past a Fireworks Store and there is some TNT out the front of it.

If you pull up and press down on the plunger you might blow up the store. Tyler has no luck at this, but we give it a couple of goes, anyway! (see right)

Not seeing any characters around (they are probably hiding from the kids also!) we agree Toon Town is done for the time being - we make a hasty retreat!

Next stop is New Orleans Square to see how The Haunted Mansion is as well as Pirates - I have to go on both of these rides on my birthday. Walking towards New Orleans we are passed by several people who all see my badge and wish me a happy birthday - I’m going to get one of these every time I visit Disneyland! This is the best!

Getting closer we see the crowd heading to New Orleans Square so we start to manoeuver towards Adventureland to see if we can jump on the Indiana Jones Ride. The line is a little long so we grab a Fastpass and head over to the Enchanted Tiki Room - another first as I have never been here before.

Not really knowing what to expect we arrive just as people are heading inside. The show is animatronic birds and plants. I’m going to share a link with you from someone who has videoed the entire show. It’s classic.

The entire clip is about 20 minutes, but fast forward to the room itself - which is around the 7 minute mark!

For the remainder of the day I’m singing “In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Tiki Room”. It is an incredible amount of fun and it’s driving Tyler nuts - so I get double the enjoyment!

After relaxing a while listing to the wonderful sounds of the animals in the Tiki Room it’s time to Fastpass our way to the the Indiana Jones Adventure. Wandering down the dark and twisting tunnels almost has us exhausted before we get there. There is a father and son right behind us pretty well much walking on my heels they are so close. As a result it’s hard to stop and enjoy the things Disneyland has installed to keep you busy while progressing through the line.

Finally we reach the top of the line and they tell me I can get in the front seat - which I am stoked about. We got in the front seat the last time we were on this ride, and it was a blast. Like all of the rides though it’s over before you want it to be, which is a bummer as when we go to get another Fastpass we see they are not offering any more for today. :c(

Never mind. We walk towards the Jungle Cruise and see it is packed as well so we agree to head off to Tomorrowland to see if we can jump on Space Mountain - which neither of us is holding our breath for. We know it’s going to be crowded.

Before we left home, I downloaded an App for my iPhone called Mousewait. It tells you approximately how long the lines are for each ride and they are updated by people in the park. It’s a very cool gadget and it did save us a lot of time during our visit.

Now wanting to walk all the way over to Tomorrowland we agree the Disneyland Railroad is our best bet so it’s all aboard for our trip around the park. In fact, it’s so much fun we decide to loop around again before getting off!

Seeing Space Mountain is beyond packed we decide to check out Innovations - we have no idea what it’s about, but this is the joy of Disneyland!

It turns out this exhibit is about reducing your carbon footprint and trying to live as green a lifestyle as possible. They have tons of very cool gadgets to check out in their Innoventions house - a kitchen to literally die for is included. This definitely is worth visiting if you are going to Disneyland!

Telling Tyler it’s getting late and I want to hit my Favorite 3 on my Birthday we walk over to the Jungle Cruise again - it’s a little less crowded now, thankfully and it’s only a brief wait before we are deep in the Jungle being lead by our trusty Tour Guide.

After returning (a lot drier than we did last night) from our cruise we stroll over to the Haunted Mansion and it’s a short wait before we are taken to meet 999 Spooks & Specters! I know I’m smiling from ear to ear. I really can’t express how much I freaking love this ride. If for no other reason apart from this, I would visit Disneyland every weekend!

Not finding any more hidden ghosts on the ride today I’m wished a Happy Birthday by the attendant as we get out of our Doom Buggy!

We decide to get a bite to eat as we are starting to get hungry and a little cold. Tyler has left his jacket back at the hotel - so it’s off to find a jacket for him. Heading down to the best shopping district in Disneyland (Main Street USA) he gets a great one with Mickey poking his head through the chest of the jacket. He wishes it was Pluto, but he’s happy with his choice.

While we are down there, we agree to visit with Mr. Lincoln again as last nights showing was incredible. We spend a little more time tonight walking around the foyer and checking out the memorabilia on display before heading inside and being seated a couple of rows from the front.

Being up close to this animatronic being is incredible. It’s not one of those things where the closer you get, the more the effect is spoiled, in fact, it’s almost the opposite.

Both of us are wanting to hang out for the Fantasmic show at 9:30pm. It’s only 8:00pm now so we have a little time to kill. We think we will go and spend some time in the stores in New Orleans Square and on the way there we agree a cup of hot tea sounds excellent.

We make a quick pit stop at the Stage Door Café where we get hot tea and chocolate mud cake. The size of the cake could feed 4 people, easily. We sit upstairs and it’s not long before we feel weary from today’s adventures.

Wanting to wake ourselves up we decide see if we can get on Pirates (as I have not been on this yet today). Lots of people are lining up for the 9:30pm show already, but we decide to take advantage of this and get on some rides.

Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum later (plus the fact we were up the front and got wet!!) and there are even more people lined up to watch the show. Perhaps we should have lined up earlier to get a good spot - but like everything at Disneyland, when you line up you have to stand, there is no sitting down, security will see to this.

Screw it. I am over the show now, I’m heading off to the Haunted Mansion again. We go on this ride back to back - non existent lines as the show has started and no one is interested in any of the rides! Yay!

I’m one very happy camper - I’ve gotten on my 3 favorites and one of them I got on 3 times today! What else could I have asked for?

We agree it is time to depart before all the crowds start to think the same thing. On the way out we spot Goofy and decide to get a quick picture with him and then we see Holy Payload - The Duck, Mr. Donald.

Ever the Duck fan, Tyler needs his photo with Donald and there is hardly anyone around. It appears Misuser Duck is not a fan of Tyler’s sweatshirt so he covers up Mickey’s Face. It’s a total crack up.

After this photo, the unthinkable happens - we get to see Mickey & Minnie at the same time.

There is absolutely no one around we have them all to ourselves! This is amazing.

Seeing the 3 of them has zapped the last of our energy. We commence the walk to get back to the bus terminal.

We finally reach it and it is a short journey before we are safe and sound in our hotel room. I take an extremely long scalding hot shower before jumping into bed. I know I’m going to feel tired tomorrow, but I don’t care. I know I’ve had the best birthday ever.

Before falling asleep I call Mum and Nanny and they wish me a happy birthday. I feel bittersweet. I wish my family were here to help me celebrate this special day. I know they are here with me in spirit though.

The lights are barely off before I’m asleep singing: In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Tiki Room!

Highlight Of The Day: It’s My Freaking Birthday & I’m At Disneyland!!

The Best Way To Experience Disneyland

2011-02-19T23:44:00.000-08:00

For the last 30 days, I have had a count down on my home page of Firefox showing how many days, hours and minutes there were until we left to celebrate my big Four-Oh birthday!

Finally the day has arrived. Today we are going back to Disneyland! Three magical days at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Three days to hunt down Mickey Mouse. Three days of riding in The Haunted Mansion. Three days to visit with the Pirates of the Caribbean. Three days to hunt down hidden Mickey’s. Three days to behave like a five year old without any consequence.

It’s an early rise morning despite our flight leaving at 12:30pm. We have to be at the airport 2 hours before departure and as usual we have exhausted ourselves getting ready for the trip, so packing has been left till the last minute.

Last night I was dead on my feet so we decided to pack first thing in this morning - after all we will only need clothes for four days. How hard could this be?

The alarm rips us out of sleep at 6:00am and it’s a co-ordinated dash to get ready, pack, check then double check we have everything before leaving for the airport after bidding adieu to the kids. Kids I might add who are already well into their 5th nap of the day at 9:00am. Ahhh, to be a cat.

The weather is cool despite being sunny and the long term car park is packed. We locate an open spot before jumping the shuttle to transfer us to the airport. Our check-in takes no time at all as most of it was completed on-line the prior day. I really do love the internet.

We are told it’s a full flight and our seats are in the last row of the plane. Usually when travelling, time seems to stand still for me, however not today. It seems we are no sooner seated in the waiting area before we are called to board and we are underway. The flight is suppose to be 2 and a half hours, however we land 25 minutes early in overcast Anaheim.

We decided to fly into John Wayne Airport in Orange County rather than LAX as the transfer to our hotel will be easier and take less time. In typical Kylie style, I had pre-booked the transfer on line prior with a company called AM-PM Shuttle Service. $8.00 per person, each way. Seemed like a deal to me. The shuttle is there and before we know it we are travelling through California traffic (an experience in itself) and being dropped at our hotel - Motel 6 Anaheim Main Gate.

I must be getting old as lately it seems to me unless I’m going somewhere to pamper myself, I want to spend the absolute minimum on hotels. As long as the room is clean and comfortable and the area is safe, I’ve over spending mega-bucks on a rom for the night.

The staff are really welcoming and we have a great room at the rear of the property to avoid any sound of traffic. We are told there is a shuttle soon to transfer us to the park so we dump our bags and head off.

Just as we walk towards the shuttle bus, the rain arrives. I’m not a fan of rain, however after living on Oregon for the last 6 years, I’ve become use to rain for 9 months out of the year. In fact, every once and a while I check to make sure I don’t have webbed feet!

It’s nearly 5:00pm and we opt to head into Downtown Disney for dinner at ESPN Zone - neither of us have eaten since breakfast and the tummies are rumbling. Tyler really wanted to come here on our last trip, but we had all fallen in love with The Rain Forest Café so we missed out. This time I want to make sure we go to at least one place he’s interested in!

We are seated in the main hall which has a giant 30 foot projected screen on one wall with 6 x 60 inch TV’s on either side of it. They are all showing different sports.

The real kick is the front row of this auditorium is made up of recliners where the guys can eat their food and drink their beer while reclining watching sports - this is a real man cave!

As this weekend Los Angeles is hosting the 2011 NBA All Star Game, the main screen is dedicated to basketball. I choose to watch one of the smaller screens which is playing an ice hockey game, in particular a NY Rangers game. If I wasn’t a Canuck fan to the core, I would follow the Rangers.

We order and our meal arrives - well it’s more like a feast. I ordered a wrap which if I said it was huge it would be an understatement. The food is delicious and I know I’m going to have problems walking around Disneyland as a result of this meal.

After paying the bill we leave the restaurant and are greeted by light rain. We decide to hop the Monorail which will take us directly to Tomorrow Land and to the main rides we want to hit tonight - Captain Eo, Finding Nemo, Space Mountain. Lots of people get off the Monorail as we are boarding, which makes me incredibly happy as they are leaving the park - less people, shorter lines.

We head straight to Captain Eo which lets us in after about a 3 minute wait. Excellent. We are given 3D glasses and I am looking forward to seeing this. A Michael Jackson fan from way back, I recall when this was released. At one point it was the only reason I wanted to go to Disneyland. While this is not the full show, it will show the movie in 3D. If you want to see it in 2D you can always find some footage of it on YouTube.

I’m not disappointed in the show, despite it being a little dated. It does make me sad however - such a shining star left us too soon.

After seeing the film we head over to the Finding Nemo ride which has taken over from the Jules Verne Submarine Voyage. Once again there is a short wait before we are shuttled into mini submarines and told to take our seats for our underwater voyage.

It’s a great attraction showing all the characters from the film. The only downside is the windows are at “little kid height” so you really have to lean down to see out of them!

The next stop is Buzz Lightyears’ Astro Blasters which is a ride where you have to shoot at targets as you are taken through a maze in a car. I suck at these types of games and I can barely figure out where the target is, let alone hit the blessed thing. It’s surprising to me at the end of the ride, when I check our scores. I’ve scored higher than Tyler - who is a game fanatic. Amazing!!

The lines for Space Mountain are long and we decide to head over to New Orleans Square and Adventure Land to visit my favorite rides - The Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean & The Haunted Mansion.

The last time we were here we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean cruise several times, it’s probably my second favorite ride in the park. We get right up the front of the ride and I know we are going to get a little bit wet, which will only add to the amount of water we have already been exposed to!

As we creep along I repeat the mantra of “Dead Men Tell No Tales” to Tyler who only rolls his eyes at me. He knows I’m behaving like a kid and this is only the beginning of it. As cheesy as this ride is, it’s still a fun 5 minutes.

The ride is over too soon and the next stop is the Jungle Cruise. The rain is really coming down now and at least we will be under cover. How wrong could I have been?

We are seated on the outside of the boat and the water is running right off the cover on to me and the empty seat next to me. By the time the ride has finished I’m seriously soaked - jacket, shirt, jeans… the lot of it is soaking wet.

Not to let a little water or chattering teeth bother me, I tell Tyler we should head over to the Haunted Mansion as I want to ride that ride every day we are here - it’s my favorite in the park.

On the way there we travel through New Orleans Square and we spot the entrance to Club 33 - Disneyland's exclusive fine dining restaurant for members only.

The waiting list if several years long just to join and the membership fees are exorbitant, however it would be one of those things if you won the lottery, you would like to visit. it’s also the only place that alcohol is served in the park.

Thankfully when we reach The Haunted Mansion there is no line and we can head straight in.

As usual I notice things in the ride each time I ride it and this time I find in the dining room sequence, there are 2 portraits at the top of the room - each contains a person ready to duel. This time I see their ghosts turn and shoot at each other! It’s brilliant!

As it’s starting to get late we opt to head out of the park as the fireworks and all the shows have been cancelled due to the nasty weather.

I do take a couple of photos of Sleeping Beauty's Castle however they don’t turn out very well, which is a shame as there was no one else around. Seeing there is no one else around we take advantage of this opportunity and head up to Fantasy Land to get on some of the rides - Peter Pan’s Flight being one of them.

As usual we enjoy the ride and as we are exiting we notice a lot of the other rides are closing for the night.

Deciding not to overdo it on the first day, we agree to head back to the hotel and warm up. Between the wet clothes and the cool night air I’m worried I’m going to wake up tomorrow with a head cold!

On the way out we stop at the Opera House and see something which has just returned to Disneyland - Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.

Before you enter the main theater there is a large room with paintings and bronze busts of President Lincoln, however in the center of the room is a stunning replica of the Capitol Building in Washington DC. The detail is incredible.

Also, behind a bronze bust of President Lincoln there is a plaque reciting the entire Gettysburg Address. I’ve never read the entire speech and despite it being only eleven sentences, it’s probably the most awesome (and not the California definition of awesome, either) piece of writing I have ever read. I’m hoping this will feature in the main show.

The main show talks about the early life of President Lincoln before an animatronic Abraham Lincoln rises from a chair to recite part of a speech. Unfortunately it’s not the Gettysburg Address, but the words are still inspiring, just the same.

We head out of the park over to the bus area and get our bus back to the hotel.

All in all, our first day at Disneyland has been a fabulous one. I’m anxious for tomorrow. Tomorrow I turn the big Four-Oh-My-God and Mum said I have to pick up my special birthday button when we enter the park. I have no idea what it will do and at this point, I’m too sleepy to care.

Our heads barely hit the pillow and we are both counting sheep. It’s been a big day and it’s after midnight. No alarms for tomorrow morning. We will wake when we wake and get to the park when we do.

Highlight of the Day: Finding A New Hidden Item In The Haunted Mansion

Forty Is the New Thirty!

2011-02-18T21:51:00.000-08:00

For those about to turn two-score, I’m here to tell you it is everything & a bag of chips!

Several hours ago we got back from Anaheim, California, where Tyler and I spent 4 fantastic days celebrating my 40th Birthday at The Happiest Place On Earth - Disneyland.

Despite some dubious weather & some very tired feet, we had a blast.

I promise to write more about the trip soon, however here is a small snippet taken from the new show at California Adventure Park - Disney’s World of Color. Enjoy!

Disney’s California Adventure - World of Color - February 22, 2011

So Many Projects, So Little Time

2011-01-18T19:45:00.000-08:00

So tonight I kicked things into high gear. Got home from work and decided to get things underway. No more procrastinating.

Firstly I needed to choose a fabric so we can reupholster our dining room chairs. There are so many choices. I think at one point, I had about 25 windows open - all displaying very different fabric choices.

When people asked me what sort of style I was planning for the house (Tyler’s stock standard response when I talk color is: “I’ll leave that up to you”), it made me break out in a nervous sweat.

The only style I have ever had was my own and now I had to consider I was not the only occupant in the house. Besides if I answered well in “Kylie Style Obviously” they would look at me strange and wonder what the devil I had been smoking.

I always thought I wanted the “beige house”. You know the ones you see in home décor magazines where everything is neutral colored and Earth toned? I tried beige for the first year we were in the house and I nearly went insane from personality loss.

I needed color and beige gave me a great starting point to test, sample, swatch and experiment with.

Orange walls in the halls, charcoal trim throughout, leopard print carpet in the bedroom (courtesy of my wonderful friend Erin). I added so much color I put Ken Done and Pro Hart to shame.

However, when you go bold, sooner or later you must refine.

I’ve chosen 2 different types of fabric to recover the dining room chairs and samples are on the way. Neither are understated, however they are a starting point.

Fabric 1

Fabric 2

Very different from one another, however both will compliment the dining room, just in different ways.

I’m really curious to see what they actually look like as laptop screen can only display so much.

If either of these turn out to be the one, we could have this project done in as little as 3 weeks from now. Yay! Nearly cleared the first item from the “to do” list.

Feels like 2011 is going to be a full year!

New Years Resolutions

2011-01-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

There is a reason I chose this picture to represent my profile. It’s because most of my life is spent either making lists, or checking items off lists.

Yes, my name is Kylie and I am addicted to lists.

If I didn’t have a list, I would end up walking around the house aimlessly accomplishing nothing.

At the beginning of each new year I set a list of goals I wish to accomplish in the coming year and this year was no exception. The list gets hung up on the fridge for both Tyler and I to review and we try to take care of as much of the list as possible.

The list is usually ramped up in the years Mum comes to visit, mainly because I want to get as much done around the house as possible before she visits.

Knowing she wont be visiting this year (as we plan to meet in Europe for the 2011 Road Trip) takes some of the pressure off us, but still there are always things to do around the house, or as we like to call it “Our Very Own Construction Project”.

Over here some people call them “Honey-Do Lists” which is a word-play on the fruit - I just call them “Shit I Need To Get Taken Care Of” lists.

This is the first time I will be sharing my list with the interwebs, mainly to keep me on target. As I get stuff checked off the list, I will update it here, along with project photos, if applicable.

So without further ado, let me introduce me to the 2011 List for the First Quarter of 2011:

	Choose Fabric & Reupholster Dining Room Chairs

	Paint Dining Room Ceiling, Choose & Install Crown Moldings.

	Install & Paint New Skirting Boards / Baseboards in Dining Room & Kitchen

	Sort out my iTunes (the task that never ends)

	Scan Remaining Photos / Negatives. Sort into Picasa.

	Complete Editing 2009 Road Trip Movies.

	Update Remainder of Blog with 2007 Road Trip, Egypt Trip, Paris Trip.

	Finalize 2011 Road Trip Itinerary.

It doesn’t look like a lot, however when you throw in full time jobs and the weekly list of housework which needs to be completed, this is actually quite aggressive for us.

When we have the first 3 items complete, we will have fully renovated 1 room in the house. Buying a fixer-upper-er is a thankless task and one which never ends. If we can accomplish all of those in the next 2 and a half months, I will be exceptionally happy.

I’ve made pretty good progress on the 2007 Blog so far, so I think this will be the first item completed. However, considering we head to Europe in September we need to get cracking on finalizing that itinerary also.

So, that’s the list for the next 2 and a half months. It’s a big task, but I am sure we will be able to get it completed.

Wish us luck!

Scissor Sisters @ The Roseland

2010-09-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

So once again Tyler and I have taken ourselves off to The Roseland in Portland to see some brilliant live music. This time we are seeing the one and only Scissor Sisters.

The Roseland is becoming one of my favorite venues to see live music. It’s large enough to draw get a decent sized crowd, but small enough so no matter where you stand you have a great view and room to move.

After the seating debacle with 30 Seconds to Mars, I prepared myself this time to push, shove and kick people out of the way to get a great seat.

Today I was pleasantly surprised as the place was full of lovely gay bois, so there was no need for pushing or shoving of that kind. Looking back now, I remember there was a great energy about the place that night.

Most of the bois wanted to be downstairs to dance which is lucky for me tonight. Normally this is where I would be as well, especially if I was with my bois, however considering I am nursing a nasty head cold and a zillion miles away from my camp luvvies, I want to sit down, up stairs away from all the dancing queens!

We scored my favorite seats upstairs which I am stoked about and I settle in for a night of frivolous entertainment. Apparently there are 2 support acts (again) neither of which I had heard of, so I was not expecting anything to thrill me.

The first of the support acts is Casey Spooner. What my good friends at Wikipedia tell me, is he was part of a retro electropop band called Fischerspooner. I’m not one for the NY Artsy Fartsy scene, so this leaves me feeling even more miserable than I felt to begin with.

As I’m not expecting anything from the first act, I’m shocked when Casey Spooner comes out dressed as a 60’s crooner, a-la Frank Sinatra.

Total reinvention from what I have read – this is not what I was expecting. His opening number is “Cinnamon Toast'” which is high kickingly brilliant, super catchy and very tongue in cheek. I fall instantly in love.

This reinvented NY Artsy Fartsy queen has won me over in one song. That never happens. The next couple of songs have me hooked and by the time he sings RSVP – I’ve decided I need to visit the merch stand and get the CD.

The brilliance behind the lyrics to RSVP is : there is no way I’m going to show up to your drinks party / gathering / pot luck / funeral etc…. but there will be hell to pay if I don’t get invited! After this performance Casey should consider himself permanently invited to Portland, the crowd loves him.

His new album is titled “Adult Contemporary” and it can be purchased from his website – www.caseyspooner.com. So as soon as you finish reading this page stop by his site and purchase it – it’s well worth the $10.00 to download. FYI, I’m writing this nearly 3 weeks after the show and it’s been on the ‘most played’ list on my iPod since that night!

As soon as Casey leaves the stage, I tell Tyler I need cash as I’m going to the merch stand. He understands my wild ways and forks over enough for Casey’s CD and hopefully enough for the new Scissor Sisters CD called Nightwork – which I have neglected to purchase before the show.

Something I didn’t see before the Casey Spooner set is a DJ on stage playing tracks to entertain the crowd. The reason I couldn’t see him before is because he’s hiding behind a pole at the back of the stage and we can’t see him from our seats!

I pick up Casey’s album which I am thrilled about but the only Scissor Sisters merch they have is t-shirts. Bummer. Regardless, I make my way back through the ever growing crowd to our seats.

Before too long, the DJ wraps things up and the lights dim and we are treated to our first glimpse of Del, Randy, then Baby Daddy, Ana Matronic and ever sexy Jake Shears.

We are all left wondering where the second support act is, well, we wonder for about 3 seconds and then totally forget about whoever they were suppose to be!

After about 10 seconds of the Sisters being on stage, everyone is on their feet (me included) the shirts are off the bois next to us and the entire venue is is dancing their asses off and having a great time.

I understand what everyone talks about when they say Jake is high energy. And the great thing is that his energy is seriously contagious!

From the minute he struts on stage he’s a jumping-bean full of dancing, gyrating and generally teasing the crap out of the bois (and girls) in the audience. It’s incredible.

Ana looks fantastic. She’s wearing a PVC dress and has her hair rolled a-la 30’s, which is typically her. She’s playing for her home crowd tonight and she’s just as excited as we are.

Between songs she tells us about growing up in Portland and how Mamma Matronic is in the audience tonight as Mamma stands up to wave hello.

The more I see Ana, the more I love her. She’s staggeringly beautiful and has an addictive stage presence.

The band plays the usual suspect of songs and as the show progresses Jake’s costume disappears layer by layer (see the photo album above for Jakes progressive strip tease).

The band is on stage for about an hour and a half, then they depart for a costume change. When they return Jake is in a weightlifting outfit with a star spangled jacket. The crowd goes nuts.

They play a couple of more songs and once again Jakes’ outfit comes off in layers (not that there is much to begin with) and before anyone knows it, he’s on top of the audience crowd surfing across the front rows. It’s so cool to watch from above, though though my photos suck as I was not expecting it to happen!

He gets back on stage and before we know it, the cannons explode on either side of the stage blowing out tinsel and three dollar bills which Ana stuffs into Jakes outfit as payment for his strip tease.

I’m lucky enough to have had the camera ready so you can see all the stuff they shot into the audience. It was a great effect and I’m goosing I got this photo (see right)

I manage to get a couple of the three dollar bills – see below. And if you have to ask about the three dollar bill joke, all I can say is "Google is your friend”

The show is over too soon and I’m sorry to see them leave the stage.

We finally make our way out of The Roseland and head on home. The next night while examining the three dollar bill Tyler and I find a hidden website in the 5 155 515 5. 0 //// in the above photo. If you hold the note up to the light it reads - www.scissorsisters.com/xxx/

So being the curious people we are, we go to the site and click on the “Yes we are over 18” button and it’s Jake’s profile at RentBoy.com. If this link no longer works, click here for a great interview with Jake and the photos from the site.

I love it when bands do shit like this, it’s such a fantastic present for the audience!

If you ever have the opportunity to see the Sisters live, do it. They are super fun, super camp and incredibly entertaining.

Finally, we took a little video on the night to share with you all, I hope you enjoy it.

Scissor Sisters @ The Roseland, Portland, Oregon

The 2011 Vacation Countdown Begins

2010-08-26T20:16:00.001-07:00

Today I was discussing with my boss, the plans for my next vacation in 2011.

During our conversation he informed me (in jest) he had not seen a request for my vacation.

Our company has a policy on giving at least ninety days notice for vacation – I mentioned he could consider this conversation his notice.

He said unless it was in writing, he could not consider it. So, Steve, I present to you the following:

Get One At - My Vacation Countdown

Don’t say you have not been warned!! I’m off to Europe – in [reader should insert number from above] days!!

Viva Las Vegas

2010-08-03T16:28:00.001-07:00

Even though our flight isn’t until 3:00pm we have lots to do this morning. We have to check in 2 hours before the flight departs and we have to be picked up 1 hour before that… so this means we need to be ready to rock and roll by 12:00pm.

Sleepily I roll over to look at the clock and it’s 9:00am – thankfully we enough time to pack and relax a little before leaving.

We spend about an hour and a half packing and getting ready before checking out. This time I’m prepared. The check-in bag weighs well under the required limit, but my cabin bag weights about 35lbs – as they don’t weigh this, they will never know.

We check out of the hotel and tell them we had a wonderful stay then head over to the Imperial for breakfast. It was so nice yesterday we opt for the same today.

Breakfast is relaxing and enjoyable, yet very filling. Once again, I down about a gallon of coffee to really wake myself up. We walk around for a while and before we know it, it’s time to be collected. We grab our bags and head out to collect the shuttle.

Our shuttle driver is very funny and it puts the perfect finishing touch on our vacation. He helps us with our bags and we give him a great tip for keeping us entertained and happy, despite this being the end of our vacation.

We get to our gate, which is the same gate Matt Damon, George Clooney and Brad Pitt sat at towards the end of Oceans 13. While we wait, we charge up our iPhones. Whatever did we do before iPhones? As much as my iPhone is the bane of my existence, I honestly don’t think I could live without it.

Finally we are called to board the plane. It’s a pretty smooth ride back except for the charming child behind me of keeps kicking my seat and putting the shade near my head up and down. Finally I pull the bloody thing down and hiss at her to leave the bloody thing along. Problem solved.

I cringe to think what would have happened if I had of behaved this way when I was a child. I would have been given a stern look (and I knew what followed that look) if I even thought of misbehaving. Children these days get away with everything and their parents just smile as if to say “What can I do” Grr.

It’s not long before we are back in mild Portland and the weather almost seems cold despite it being in the 70’s. We drive home and are greeted by our 4 legged family who are very happy to see us.

Both Tyler and I are back at work tomorrow which means we have to be up early so it’s an early night for both of us. Regrettably the lazy sleep ins and relaxing days have gone for a while.

I think Tyler really enjoyed his birthday trip, the next big vacation will be Europe in September 2011. Until then we continue with the daily grind of life in Smalltown, USA.

Vegas On A Monday

2010-08-02T21:05:00.001-07:00

We wake up to a day with moderate temperatures. Figures, it’s our last day here and we just start to get some tolerable weather!

We have been gone for a couple of days now and I am only just starting to feel like I am on vacation. I often wonder how people in the USA (where they are lucky to get one week of paid vacation a year) survive. They must live in a perpetual state of pressure - just as they they start to relax, it’s time to head back to work!

We laze around for a while before getting ready for breakfast. Today we are going to have breakfast at the Imperial Palace, which we have heard good things about.

We walk next door and are warmly greeted and seated promptly - there is nothing I like better than prompt and efficient service! The food is typical buffet, nothing special, but the price turns out to be right! Breakfast is relaxing and during it, I quiz Tyler about what he would like to do today. He decides he would like to visit Madam Tussauds which is in The Venetian, just 2 doors up from us.

I’ve been to the original one in London, but I don’t mind checking out this one on the other side of the pond. And as usual we have a coupon - $5.00 off per a ticket, which is a good thing as the entry is $25.00 a person before the discount – ouch. I don’t recall it being this expensive in London.

To enter the museum you walk along a red carpet, which is very appropriate as the first celebrity to greet us is my own personal style idol, Joan Rivers. I love, love, love her.

The Red Carpet Arrivals of any ceremony has not been the same since she left it for the “Fashion Police” on the E! Network. I am not suitably dressed for an audience with Ms. Rivers and her scathing tongue, so I bypass the interview and photo opportunity with her.

We are then greeted by Branjalina – Brad certainly looks worse for wear since I saw him in London – perhaps it’s the gaggle of children he now has. Typically Angie is looking bored, why she can’t crack a smile is beyond me.

Moving along the red carpet, Oprah sticks a microphone in front of us, but unless she’s planning to give me “A NEW CAAAAAAAAAAAAR! I think I will pass on stopping. I like Oprah, but not as much as other people do.

The next person to seek us out is Kathy Griffin. And if you don’t know this comedian extraordinaire shame on you!! She’s a living comedy legend. I want to run and hug her, but considering I’m only infamous, no where near D-List, I pass.

I know Tussauds make their wax models life size, and Kathy is tiny. Literally, I could pick her up in the palm of my hand and walk out without anyone noticing.

In the same room as Kathy is Mel Gibson (I wonder how many people have wanted to kick that boy in the crotch?), Jamie Foxx and Hugh Hefner. I tell Tyler to go hang out with Hugh on the leopard print chaise lounge, but he’s not going for it. Little known fact, Tyler went to school with Holly Madison – she, like most of the playmates, was a Plain Jane back then… it’s amazing what a great plastic surgeon can accomplish!

She’s performing a “burlesque” show (read: tacky strip show) at another hotel in Vegas, he’s not even remotely interested in attending. He said, he’s seen it all before… I don’t even ask.

We then meet the world famous Buffy the Vampire Slayer and even I have to say, she is so lifelike, it looks like she is standing behind him. I really love this picture.

The next room along is the sports room with Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Dale Earnhardt & a cast of others. Tyler finally loosens up a little and we get some great shots of him with Babe Ruth (see right) and Shaq. I’m not sure what he’s doing with Babe Ruth, perhaps you can ask him, if you follow him in Twitter.

At the end of the sporting room is Jessica Simpson (why she’s here, I have no idea) but Tyler takes this opportunity to get a little too friendly with America’s Dizziest Blonde!

I’m sure he’s not the first person to do this, I’m pretty sure he wont be the last!

The next room is the music room complete with Billy Idol, Snoop Dogg, and my sister-in-laws obsession, Jon Bon Jovi – see the photo album icon Liz, for the photos.

Chris Angel is also included in this room, which is weird, just like him, I suppose. My photos don’t turn out so well in this area, but they are in the photo album linked above.

Also in this room is a karaoke bar where you can sing in front of a wax work of Simon Cowell. We are lucky (??!!) enough to be going through this room while a girl in her early 20’s belts out Sister Christian – good grief I hate this song. She reminds me of Cameron Diaz in My Best Friends Wedding, she’s so bad, we all have to cheer her on.

Between this room and the next room is a “House of Horror” section which looks cheesy, but we we have to go through it, right? The guy lining us all up is covered in blood, wearing a straight jacket and screaming insults at us. Like I said, cheesy, but a fun.

Continuing along, the next room is more of a hodge-podge of people that didn’t fit into a particular room - Mohammad Ali, Bugsy Siegel, The Rat Pack, Liberace and Judy Garland. Tyler has this great photo taken with Shirley MacLean, which I just love (see left). Also in this room are my boys Siegfried and Roy, sans their four legged family.

The next hall is all Americana, Presidents past and present are lined up as well as Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.

I see included in the line up is a little known writer of the Declaration of Independence – see if you can spot him next to the first President of the United States!

There is an opportunity to have an official photo taken with President Obama, which we both decide to pass on. The final stop on the tour is the merch store, and for once we don’t buy anything. Surprise, surprise!

After the museum Tyler suggests we walk around the Venetian and take a gondola ride. This sounds great until we get there and see the cost $60.00 for 15 minutes! Opting to save our money we will do the real thing when we are in Venice next year.

We stroll throughout the Venetian for a couple of hours – it’s so easy to lose track of time in these casinos as there are a zillion things to stop and look at. We find a great statue of The Blue Man Group, which Tyler can’t resist having his photo taken with – see left.

The afternoon is slipping by so we agree to go back to the hotel and have dinner at the Hash House A Go Go before heading over to the Rio.

This time we are prepared for the enormous meal and we tell them we want something small, really, really small. I order a Meatloaf Sandwich and Tyler orders a Blue Cheeseburger, after all how big can a sandwich be?

We should have known better, the plates are stacked a mile high – see right. The brown colored item on the plate is bacon and cheese mashed potato. Seriously, are you kidding me??? That bread is about an inch and a half thick. I just put it to the side, it’s impossible to eat, however we eat as much as we dare then grab the shuttle to the Rio.

Once we arrive at the theatre, we line up for drinks and I prepare to pay another $18.00 for 2 Diet Cokes, but this time it’s only $12.00. Bargain. Then I think again and realize it’s not that much of a freaking bargain.

We have great seats – on the aisle about 8 rows back. I am silently hoping Tyler will get called up on stage as I know he would love it – he would hate it at the time, but later on he would think it was pretty cool.

Before the show they have a pianist and an upright bass player entertaining the audience and I wonder if many people realize it’s Penn Gillette playing the upright bass. How they could miss him is beyond me, the guy is 6 feet 7 inches tall.

The show finally starts and it’s great - entertaining, funny, witty and intelligent. And the thing I love the most is they perform the Magic Bullet trick, which I have seen on TV before, but never live. If you want to see it, it’s on YouTube, but no where near as good as it is live.

Erin was so right, this is the best show I’ve seen in Vegas. After the show both Penn and Teller stand outside the auditorium to sign autographs and pose for photos. Everyone who lines up get’s an autograph or photo. What a great thing for them to do.

I go and get programs – one for us, the other for Erin as a thank you for the recommendation.

I literally have to force Tyler to have his photo taken with Teller first (see above), then Penn (right)…. afterwards he thinks it’s the coolest thing ever and it is. I’m glad I persevered with forcing him.

Heading back to Harrah’s after our celebrity encounter is entertaining. Just as we get outside the Rio, the shuttle arrives and at the same time so do the audience of the Rio’s Ladies Only show, which I assume is like the “Thunder from Down Under”. Good Grief!

Lots of ladies old enough to know better. The temperature in the bus is up a couple of degrees higher as the result of the post menopausal bridge and they are all a flutter giggling like silly school girls.

We get back to Harrah’s and gamble for a while, still doing no good. Oh well. Looks like we will leave Las Vegas just as poor as we were when we arrived. It’s our last night here and it’s been the best by far. We really enjoyed ourselves. Tomorrow we know we need to pack up and head back home.

I survey our room before turning off the lights and wonder how the heck I’m going to get all the crap we purchased back into our suitcases.

Highlight of the Day: Penn, Teller & Tyler

Happy Birthday Tyler

2010-08-01T20:31:00.001-07:00

Before heading to Vegas we assessed what shows we really wanted to see. Out of all the shows we short listed, my girlfriend Erin told me the Penn & Teller at the Rio was a must!

I wasn’t too thrilled about paying $90.00 a seat to see them, but thankfully the old Vegas tradition of “coupons” could save us us some of our hard earned cash - 2 seats for the price of 1 - bonus!!

The only downfall - you had to visit the Rio box office to purchase the tickets. The Rio is about 45 minute walk from Harrah’s. Normally this would not be a problem, but in Las Vegas in August, no one in their right mind would attempt that walk!!

Luckily there is a free shuttle from the back of our hotel to the Rio so after waking up and lazing around the hotel for a couple of hours, we grab the shuttle to the Rio for breakfast and to pick up tickets for show on Monday night.

We sit out the back of Harrah’s waiting for the shuttle, and once again the weather is a killer.

Finally the shuttle arrives and it’s a short trip to Rio, which is situated behind the casino which “shall not be named”. The Rio is a pretty nice place despite being a little dated. Contemplating it for a future stay, we agree if we are going to stay this close to the strip, we may as well stay on it not near it.

We get inside to the buffet and I, once again dose up on caffeine. It’s not long before I regret this decision as a waitress offers us complimentary mimosas as part of their “Sunday Brunch” – double bonus! Breakfast is lovely, though neither of us is overly hungry.

After breakfast we walk to the box office and get our tickets for the show, then decide to figure our where the theater is. Luckily we took the time to do this now as it’s tucked away at the back of the hotel.

We stroll through the casino trying to decide what to do today. Trying to get a decision out of either of us is pointless… I think by this stage in the trip our sensibility has shut down!! Finally we opt to head back to the strip then perhaps head over to Madam Tussauds.

As we sit outside waiting for the shuttle we change our plans and hop a cab to the Liberace Museum.

You know, I put my husband through all kinds of crap, which is just my own special way of paying him back for moving me to Smalltown, USA, but looking back now on Tyler’s actual birthday, I never realized how much crap I put him through.

Yes, on the day of my husband’s birth, to celebrate, I take him to the über campest museum anywhere on the planet, probably anywhere in the universe! For those who don’t know, and shame on you if you don’t, Liberace was a wonderful pianist who was known for over the top campness. And when I say over the top, what I really mean is : OH-MY-SPARKLY-GOOD-NESS!

We have no idea how long it will take us to get to the museum by cab, but we get a great female driver – who is informative and very sweet, and knows exactly how to get the museum, despite us not having the address of our destination.

We are welcomed to the museum warmly and told the rules, the most important of them is no flash photography! It’s like a mantra sometimes when you are a tourist!!

The first building contains some of Liberace’s cars and pianos. There are no words to explain the extravagance of this man, I think I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The car on the right is a Duesenberg Roadster adorned with thousands of rhinestones to match his costume for his 1986 performance at Radio City Music Hall.

And yes, he actually drove this car – there is even a matching rhinestone toolbox, not that I can imagine Liberace popping the hood if the mobile mirror-ball broke down!

The piano on the left is a 1885 Pley Art Case Grand Piano which is one of the many pianos on display here – and the ones on display are only a small selection of the pianos he owned! Most of his items were sold off after his death in 1987.

The pianos are so ornate it would be intimidating just sitting at one, let alone playing it!

There is also a great area showing his family history and the timeline of his performances and rise to fame. It’s interesting to read how someone came to the USA as a child with nothing, then worked his way up to the level of success he reached.

There are 2 buildings in the museum, and after walking around for a while, we leave this building to walk across the parking lot to enter the building which houses some of his awards and costumes.

The architecture of the newer building is more complimentary to Liberace's style than the first one – see right.

I am very much looking forward to seeing his costumes. I recall being a young lass back in Australia on holidays at my Nanny and Poppy’s house - we would watch Liberace specials on TV.

Looking at them, I can’t believe the intricate detail of some of these costumes - they are all so over the top. As my mind wanders, I ponder how much their weigh.

There is a great costume I do recall it’s called the Christmas Costume – see left.

It’s a red and white extravaganza which is quintessential Liberace. This man made capes famous way before James Brown did!

There is a lovely gent talking to other people about Liberace and his costumes – we listen to him talking and enjoy some of the stories he shares. For someone in their early 20’s he knows an awful lot about Liberace!!

After looking through the main area, there is a annex with some of Liberace’s household items, and then another room with some of his awards – Tyler locates a plaque from the people of Australia which is pretty cool.

The one thing which stops me dead in my tracks is a large Swarovski Crystal. I’ve been a collector of their crystal for some time now and this baby is incredible.

It’s 115,000 carats, has 134 facets and weighs approximately 50 pounds. I fall instantly in love – see below, right.

We read how Liberace single handedly saved the company from bankruptcy by only using their crystals in his clothes (the red jacket in the above photo is encrusted with Swarovski), pianos, cars (yes, cars) and other items.

And believe me, there are plenty of other items he bejeweled!!

As a thank you, Swarovski donated this crystal to him for his museum in 1985. It was estimated to be worth $50,000 then, and considering when I buy their figurines now a small 1 inch by 1 inch figuring is about $100.00 - it makes my head spin to think how much this must be now worth!

We decided to call this photo (on the above right) the walking crystal as there was absolutely no way of getting a photo of this puppy without us reflected at some point – by the way, those legs are Tyler's, just in case you were wondering why I had not had my legs waxed!!!

The final stop along the way is the merch store where I collect some campness for the family back home and a little bit for us as well!

If you want to see more of the flamboyance of Liberace, click on the the photo album picture at the top of the page.

On our way out of the museum, Tyler remembers there is a Pinball Museum around here which he would love to check out. The ever helpful museum staff point up the road a little and tell us it’s only a short walk away.

The museum is more like an arcade in a large warehouse than a museum. Nevertheless it’s free to get in, and there are lots of machines to play.

We get $10.00 in quarters each and play some games which is a fun way to spend a couple of hours. There are pinball machines from the 1950’s all the way through to current games. I have a great time playing Iron Man pinball and Tyler tries to hunt down the Doctor Who pinball, but unfortunately he’s not in luck.

We then walk back to the Liberace Museum to collect the shuttle and we are informed upon arrival it is not in operation today. They very kindly call us a cab and we sit at the entrance talking to the lady who welcomed us when we first arrived.

Our cab arrives and once again she thanks us for visiting. I get the feeling due to their location they don’t get a lot of people visiting, except maybe the “Faker Bud Tour Bridge”

Another short cab ride back to the hotel where we opt to relax a little before tonight’s Cirque de Soleil show.

Before we know it, it’s nearly 6:00pm so we get ready for the show. We arrive and the place is packed – people everywhere. So very different from yesterday morning.

Lucky we took our photos then. The photo on the left is one of my favorites I took on the day before. I don’t know why I like it so much, I just do.

We get drinks - 2 Diet Cokes @ $18.00 – wow. It appears Ned Kelly isn’t really dead, he’s running the concession stand at The Mirage in disguise!

We decide to sit at our seats and wait. The seating is set at an angle to the stage which is really strange, but we think we have greats seats, so we are happy.

For those of you who have not seen a Cirque show before, you should. They are incredible, it is an incredible blend of dance, music, theatrics and acrobatics. There just are no words to describe how amazing these shows are.

The lights go down and there are different sounds coming from all angles (including the speakers in the backs of our chairs!!) then we hear the well known opening chord from A Hard Days Night. I can only imagine what it would have been like to hear The Beatles play this chord live. It gives me goose bumps.

This show is a little different, there are parts which are jaw dropping, however it’s more based on dance than acrobatics. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone but I will say it’s incredible. A must see if you come to Vegas.

Tyler really likes the show and that is all that matters. It’s what he wanted for his birthday and I am glad we could do this for him. Walking back to the hotel we stop at the crossing and in front of us a car pulls up. Inside is a guy, probably in his mid to late 20’s looking our way and winking. He looks like he’s from Texas, complete with a 10-Gallon Stetson!!

I look at him wondering what the freak he’s on, then I hear giggling from behind me. Now I know - I turn around expecting to see some cute little chicky-babes flirting with him and I get the surprise of my life. Each of the 3 girls he’s flirting with have black and blonde mullet hair cuts. Yikes!

I want to tell them if they can afford hair color, they can certainly afford a hair dresser who does not think a mullet is style du jour! However, I keep my mouth shut and smile at the girl standing next to me. She knows exactly what I am thinking.

Back at Hurrah’s we gamble for a while before heading to bed. Neither of us does very well at slots, but we have fun playing. Before we know it, we have gambled all of today’s allowance and it’s only 1:30am!

Oh well, off to bed. We still have things we want to do tomorrow and don’t want to spend half the day sleeping!!

Highlight of the Day: Cirque de Soleil Love

Saturday in Sin City

2010-07-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

After a reasonable amount of running around the last couple of days, we decide to take things easy today.

We wake up and get ready, before heading down to breakfast at Flavors – the buffet in our hotel. Today we are going to use the first of our free gifts for visiting the Wyndham timeshare presentation.

Our gift allows us to avoid the queues, we just walk to the front of the line - nice! As payment for avoiding the long wait, we are given a lovely bracelet (resembling a hospital tag) which we have to show each time we visit a buffet on the list of places – there are 7 buffets in total. Yikes!! I mean, how many meals can one person eat at in 24 hours? Do people really come to Vegas for the buffets? Can’t they find other things to do with their time?

Anyway, I digress. We have a pretty filling meal and I load up on wonderful coffee.

Today we have decided to spend the morning at Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden, located in the Mirage Hotel. I’m really looking forward to this for a couple of reasons.

One, I love big cats, love them, love them, love them. If I could choose any job in the world it would be to work with tigers – they truly are majestic creatures. Secondly, I have never seen any of the Royal White Tigers Siegfried and Roy have almost single handedly saved from extinction, so today is a real treat for me.

The Mirage is situated just across the road from Harrah’s so it is just a short walk in the sun and heat. Tomorrow night we are seeing Cirque du Soleil’s Love which is also at The Mirage for Tyler’s birthday. We want to make sure we know exactly where we are going to avoid any problems, so this is also a good opportunity for us to figure it all out now, as well as check out the merch from the show.

As you can see by the photo on the right, the entrance to the theater is pretty easy to find even in a hotel the size of the Mirage!

We walk around taking some really great photos of the place – which is empty as it’s only about 11 in the morning.

I start to get excited as I’ve seen a couple of Cirque shows and I adore them, but this show combines the Beatles and Cirque. I am sure it is going to be a great.

To approach the entrance you have to walk along a really long walkway which continually changes colors – when it reaches the end, the walkway climbs up the wall to show silhouettes of the Fab 4 in their Hard Days Night poses (see left). It’s pretty amazing.

Next to this is a welcome sign, bookended with a picture’s of John & George. I recall reading somewhere the remaining Beatles wanted these two 2 photos displayed as they were the ones not with us anymore. I have more photos of this area – just click here or the photo album above.

It’s so very sad to look and I remember back to a horrible night when I was 9 listening to the news report saying John Lennon had been killed. I would be amiss to say it didn’t bring a tear to my eye.

We collect more presents for the family in the merch area then make our way through the casino to Siegfried and Roys.

I know a reasonable amount about my little German buddies and I know they are all about interactive education, so I am pretty excited to visit this place.

It’s $15.00 for each of us to get in, which is pretty cheap and I am hoping there is going to be an opportunity to see the two new white tiger cubs (Mohan & Majestic) who were born in June. I’m also hoping it will be similar to the MGM Grand and I will be able to get close to them – fingers crossed.

We spend a little while at the dolphin habitat. It is nice to see bottlenose dolphins, instead of the white side dolphins, which always look more like sharks to me. They are lovely to watch, but the big event is the tigers, so off we head.

We reach the big cat area and the first thing I notice is the fence – all chain link and really, really hard to see through – and as you can tell by the photograph to the left. These majestic creatures are impossible to photograph. It’s not really my idea of interactive education, but then I think about some of the boozed up party people we have seen since being here and I begin to understand.

I’m a little disappointed as I don’t think the experience is going to turn out the way I hoped it would, but I’m not going to let that spoil my visit.

The weather is becoming increasingly hot, I can only imagine how it is for these poor things under all that fur! Most of them are laying down asleep or passed out from heatstroke… regardless, they are amazing to just look at – even through a chain link fence.

There are lots of white lions and lionesses there, however there is only one white tiger and he’s so far away from us we can barely see him (see left).

I’m not one of those people who visits a zoo and expects the animals to do anything other than what they planned to do but I would love to see this guy up close. Tyler explains to me for the 15th time since we arrived “No, they are not going to let you in the cage to play with them, it doesn’t matter what sort of disclaimer you sign”

We walk around for a little while longer looking at the animals and come across this guy (see right) – isn’t he adorable?

We decide to leave and see if we can get to Freemont Street to see some of the older casinos. We hop a cab and it costs us about $20.00 to get there which is a bargain as it would have cost me more in sanity to battle public transport!

Freemont Street is the place everyone sees in the movies where the lights are flashing overhead to the beat of the music playing in the outdoor area.

From what I understand it’s a very cool place to hang out on a Friday or Saturday night, but we are a bit early for the festivities as it’s only about 2:30pm!

We walk around for a while and look at the classics like the Golden Nugget and the 4 Queens. From what I can see everything is a little less crowded here than the strip and we think the next time we come back we might stay here instead!

The last time we were in Vegas we missed the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign and it’s on the list of things I want to check out this time. After exploring Freemont Street a little more we jump another cab and head out to the sign. Little did we know the cab would take us right past the hotel to the other end of the strip to see the sign. Oh well, live and learn.

The cabby agrees to wait for us as we have have our photos taken with the sign and just as we are walking back to the car we see Elvis – he lives and apparently will have his photo taken with you and his pink Cadillac - for a fee, of course!

I didn’t want a photo taken with him, but I do want a shot to send to the National Enquirer as proof he is alive!

Jumping back in the cab, we ask him to drop us off at the Flamingo for an early dinner as we have tickets to see Rita Rudner tonight. It is great to be back at the Flamingo, I really like this hotel but the crowd here is just a little young for my liking.

We have a wonderfully relaxing dinner right next to the flamingo habitat and koi fish pond. They have a great selection of food as well as a chocolate fountain where I can’t resist risking the allergies. I grab 2 strawberries and soak them under the delicious chocolate - they are delicious!

We walk back to Harrah’s so we can get ready for the show. The show is in our so we don’t have far to travel and better yet, we can travel in air conditioned comfort!

We get to the theater and are seated at a table with 2 older ladies. The table is perpendicular to the stage and Tyler is sitting on front of me and he will have someone sit in front of him.. There is no way either of us will be able to see the stage so I ask the maître d' if there are any other unassigned seats. He walks around for a moment then signals for us to follow him. He has decided to seat us in he second row – BONUS!

Rita comes out and does about an hour and a half of stand up. She is very funny and I really enjoy her show. I also feel bad for her as it’s a Saturday night and the place is not even half full. Regardless we laugh and have a great time - especially considering the tickets are free!

My part is where she talks about her husband, in particular when he does not understand her shoe obsession and when she tries to explain he say's “What’s it like in there?” while rubbing her forehead! This becomes Tyler’s catchphrase for the remainder of the trip and probably the remainder of our lives together!

At the end of the show she tells people she is selling her merch (as everyone does here) and if you buy one of her books (Turning the Tables – which I have read since being back and it’s quite funny) she will autograph it for you. Me not being able to resist a) purchasing; b) books and c) autographs…. I get one. It’s over priced at $30.00, but worth it.

Once again I feel bad as there are only 4 people in line waiting. Despite the dismal turnout, Rita comes out is lovely, very polite and I have a brief conversation with her about the show and then say my farewell.

We head back to the casino floor for some more gambling before heading to bed just after midnight.

Highlight of the Day: Meeting The Writer of Peter’s Friends

Frolicking in Vegas on a Friday

2010-07-30T23:05:00.001-07:00

There is no greater feeling than waking up of your own accord on a Friday morning. No alarms to jolt you out of your slumber, no feeling of dread that you have to get out of bed and be productive. Nothing.

We lounge around in bed for a while wondering what we will do today – we planned to take a hike up to the Luxor and look at the Tutankhamen museum which has a replica of the Kings Tomb in it, but as I have seen the real thing, I’m not fussed if we get to it or not.

We do want to visit the MGM for the Lion Habitat so this is what we agree to start today.

Also, we had seen a restaurant on the Travel Channel called the Hash House A Go Go which is located in the Imperial Palace. The breakfasts looked wonderful and as it’s only next door we decide this will be a perfect spot for breakfast.

The minute I stand up, everything changes. My feet begin screaming at my body in protest – “GET OFF ME YOU GREAT GALLAH, DON’T YOU KNOW THE PAIN WE ARE IN?”

Apparently all the trekking yesterday has made my feet a little tender!

I sit back down and wonder how pitiful it will look if I crawl to the bathroom then I figure I may as well just get it over and done with. I stand again and very slowly hobble off for a shower which I am hoping will alleviate the pain. Once done, I dress for heat however I decide on trainers and I search for my spongiest pair of ankle socks in hope they give my poor feet a break.

All seems ok until we reach the walkway between Harrah’s and the Imperial Palace and the heat hits us. It almost knocks me on my ass. Tyler and I look at each other before taking a very fast walk to the air conditioned comfort of the Imperial Palace. Once inside the smoky hotel, we head upstairs to the Hash House which serves, as their slogan says “Twisted Farm Food”.

We are greeted immediately and given a booth. My feet are dancing a private dance of joy as I am now sitting and shall be for a while, well at least for the time it takes us to eat breakfast. Everything on the menu looks wonderful, it’s carbohydrate city here though… so if you are Atkins-ing, this is not the restaurant for you!

I get coffee as we peruse the menu. I decide on the HH Original Benedict with smoked bacon, fresh tomato, fresh spinach, roasted red pepper cream, topped with two basted eggs and served on a split biscuit. Yum!

Tyler decides on a benedict of Crispy hand hammered pork tenderloin with market yellow tomato, spinach, bar b' que cream and topped with scrambled eggs. We wait and watch other peoples food come out thinking “What pigs, how can anyone eat that much food”. Little did we know.

We are relaxing over coffee when our food comes out…. and nothing, I kid you not, nothing could prepare us for what was put down in front of us.

The photo on the left is Tyler’s Pork Tenderloin Benedict breakfast. Please keep a couple of things in mind, see the green iPhone at the top of the picture?

That’s an iPhone 3Gs.

Does this give you some perspective of the size of this meal? Let me give you another idea (see right).

Now, Tyler is not a small guy, and he has a decent appetite, but even this has him shaking his head. When he ordered this, he thought it would be a slice of tenderloin, not the entire cut!!

Apparently this is an entire tenderloin weighing in about 18 ounces!!! My breakfast, thankfully is considerably smaller than Tylers’ however it’s still large.

We dig in and the food is delicious. Everything is cooked to perfection. I ask our waiter about how much food they throw out each day and he tells me yes, they do discard a lot of food, which is a shame. I wonder why it can’t be packaged for local shelters or something. Typical of America - they are such a wasteful nation.

All in all it’s a decent price for what they supplied – breakfast is under $30.00 for both of us, including tip!

We eat what we can, for Tyler it is less than a third of the meal and for me it’s about a quarter, then we get up (under much protest from our very full tummies) and head towards the monorail.

We collect our a day pass (it’s $12.00 for each of us) we jump on board into some air conditioning and head towards the MGM Grand, which Wikipedia tells me is the second largest hotel on the strip, next to The Venetian. I thought Caesars Palace was the largest, apparently I was wrong.

Last time we came through here we visited the famous Lion Habitat, which houses the MGM lions and then we had breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe. No breakfast for us today, so we opt for a quick stop at the Lion Habitat. This time there are people everywhere. Apparently there is the opportunity to have your photo taken with a lion cub who is 6 months old. Being one for big cats, Tyler and I line up and pretty soon we pay our $25.00 for the briefest of interactions with “Lucky”.

We are not allowed to touch the cub anywhere except the rump and we are told to look up while the photo is taken. Tyler being incredibly cunning, looks in a variety of places before they finally get a photo they are happy with. He’s prolonging my interaction with Lucky, bless him. I really do love my husband!

As soon as they are happy with the photo we are ushered away from Lucky and I can’t help but feel a little robbed. $25.00 for less than 2 minutes with a lion – this means they are making about $750.00 an hour! What a wrought!!

We collect our photo and it’s cute, though nothing overly fantastic. We walk through the mammoth casino to the Tropicana hotel and the minute we walk through the doors it’s like stepping onto a tropical island. The entire place smells like coconut. It’s delightful.

There is a preview exhibit for the new Mob Museum inside the Tropicana which does not open until next year (figures) so we stop and look at a couple of items they have on display – Benny “Bugsy” Siegel's’ watches and other personal items, pens and bow-ties owned by Meyer Lansky. It all looks very interesting and knowing how fascinated I am with the Mob and Vegas in the 30’s to the 60’s I am sure we will be back when it opens.

We decide not to walk over to the Luxor as it’s all becoming too difficult with the heat.

So you know, you can not cross at street level at most corners on the Las Vegas strip – you have to maneuver up to walkways above the traffic. Tyler and I decide to start walking back to the hotel via a couple of places – the M&M Store being one of them!

There is 4 floors of all things dedicated to M&M’s – yep the candy. We stop and pick up something for our nephew, Mitchell and decide to get some M&M’s until we realize it’s $13.00/lb – which is uber expensive, so we move along.

We are walking back and the heat is becoming unbearable so travel through Ballys to get the monorail back to the hotel – which is one stop. Lazy I know, but we will be in air conditioning and our feet are killing us. We mange to find the station at the very, very back of Ballys and jump on. The train deposits exactly where we need to be, outside our hotel.

Last night, Tyler and I got talked into a timeshare presentation. In exchange for 2 hours of our time we get free tickets to see Rita Rudner (remember her from Peter’s Friends?) as well as 2 for 1 dining passes and a free 24 hour buffet passes – all in all we add it up to cost about $300.00 so we figure it’s a decent deal.

I use to work as a property manager for a timeshare company in Vancouver, so I know all the tips and tricks. We are welcomed by our ‘Consultant’ Joe, who starts of being all nice and kind and lovely. He asks us about how we vacation, tell us we are probably VIP vacationers, you know, the usual BS people tell you when they are trying to get you to buy something.

We take a small drive to their property in Las Vegas which is lovely but we already know this is not for us at this point in our lives. All timeshare properties are geared up for family vacations and we are definitely not looking for ‘family vacations’.

Our mind was already made up when we agreed to do the presentation, and we were honest about this when we booked in, so we don’t feel bad. After telling Joe several times we are not buying anything today, he gets quite pissy and says “Fine, come on” and we assume this is the part where we meet his Manager.

We are correct and and we tell him manager the same thing. We are then shown to reception to collect our tickets and other items.

You know, the guys I worked with in timeshare we all professional. Yeah, they were in it to make money, however if someone continually said no, I never ever head of any of them treating us the way Joe did. So the best way we will repay his attitude is when we do buy into timeshare (and we probably will at some point in our lives) we wont buy into Wyndham.

We head back to our room with all our goodies feeling pretty pleased with ourselves and decide to take a rest before our night out. I’m really looking forward to Matt Goss, I’ve never seen him in concert before, and this will be a treat.

We grab a spot of very late lunch / early dinner at the buffet in our hotel which is called Flavors – we use our 2 for 1 coupon and only costs us $16.00 which isn’t bad. The food is abundant, which isn’t surprising though most of it is pretty average tasting.

Our show tonight is late, it does not start until 10:00pm which is a late show in Vegas – most shows start at 7:00pm. We get ready and walk over to Caesars and the first stop is shopping for merch or as it’s known to other people – the Merchandise area.

CD’s are a bit pricy at $20.00 a hit, but I get one, I also get photos to have signed for my boys back home – Tony & Brett. I pick out the prettiest photos I can find for them.

We then walk over to “The Gossy Room” (see right). The doors are open, so we head on in only to be told by a waitress the show tonight have been cancelled as Matt is sick!!!

She tells me to head over to the box office as we should have received a call to let us know. I march over to the box office and ask to speak with the Duty Manager – and when she arrives she tells me yes, the shows were cancelled and confirms we have received a refund.

I simply state this is not good enough – I want to know why we didn’t get a call. So she gets her Manager. He says sorry, there is nothing they can do except refund our tickets. He said he thought they had called some people, but obviously not all of them.

I tell him we are now stuck in Vegas on a Friday night without a show, which is the reason we came to Vegas. He says he can look into other shows for me, but most of them would have started by now as Matt does a late show. I roll my eyes and think “No shit, Sherlock”.

He let’s us know there is a comedian neither Tyler nor I have heard of which we can get into see, and apart from that, there is nothing else he can do. He can’t book us into shows at other hotels as that is against their policy despite the fact their own customer service is crap.

The conversation gets quite irate on my end at one point and I inform him while he probably does not care, I will never step foot in this hotel again and I will tell everyone I know not to stay here as you have no idea about customer service and he says sorry, nothing he can do.

He does tell me we can stick around and play on the casino floor if we like. Fat chance! Tyler and I head out of Caesars and this is the last time we go anywhere near the place for the entire trip. All of our hard earned cash was spent elsewhere.

We walk around for a while and try to check out other shows, but to no avail. We are all dressed up with no where to go!

After walking around the strip people spotting for a while we head back to Harrah’s and hit the casino floor – I have a lucky night winning $160.00 on the Sex & The City slot machine; then promptly lose it all. Tyler has a lucky night winning $150.00 on Treasure Island. He’s smarter than me, he cashes out while he’s ahead.

We head back to the room at about 1:00am tired and smelling of cigarette smoke, but we had fun. I send Matt Goss a Tweet before I head off to bed telling him he should find a new home for his show. I don’t expect to hear back from him, but I feel better letting him know our position

Tyler and I discuss what we should do tomorrow and somewhere during the conversation, I fall soundly asleep.

Highlight Of The Day: Playing with Lucky @ The MGM Grand

We’re Goin to Vegas Baby!!

2010-07-29T23:33:00.000-07:00

So the big day has arrived, Tyler and I are heading off to the Bright Light City also known as Las Vegas to celebrate his birthday!

When I asked Tyler where he wanted to go for his 30th Birthday (and I gave him the option of anywhere in the world) he said “Vegas Baby”.

We got a sweet deal on our hotel and flights, plus we have pre-purchased tickets to see Cirque du Soleil’s Love show, which is the show based on the music of The Beatles.

For those who don’t know Tyler, he’s a huge Beatles fan so he said this would be a real treat for his birthday.

We awake really early because, as usual we have left almost everything to the last minute. We tidied up last night, washed clothes etc, but the packing we have left until this morning.

Even though our flight isn’t until 1:30pm, we have to get to the airport, park the car in the long term parking, check bags etc… this all takes time and as usual I continually worry about being late.

We get packed, say goodbye to the monsters (who are already upstairs sleeping at 10:30am – ahhh the life of our cats!) and before we know it we are on the way – with a quick pit stop at Wal-Mart as I have forgotten my curling iron (eeek!!)

We reach the long term parking and grab a parking spot. It’s quite cool in Portland today at about 60 degrees so I am carrying a sweater to combat the chill I’m feeling, plus with all the last minute rushing around, I am tired which always makes me cold.

We get to the terminal and check in, we are flying with Alaskan Airlines who have stated if you would like to check-in a bag you will have to pay $20.00 per bag – can you believe it? When did airlines start being so arsey about this stuff? It’s bad enough you get jacked on taxes and fees to book flights, but now you have to pay for checking in a bag. It’s garbage, but we knew about this in advance, so I am not annoyed about it.

We pay for our one bag and when we get to the counter to obtain our boarding passes we are told our bag weighs 51.6 lbs and our limit is 50 lbs. What?!

The gentleman (for want of a better term) tells us we have to take a couple of pounds out of the bag. OK, so now I’m annoyed. Not only do I have to pay for the luggage, but now I am restricted by weight!

I explain to the gentleman no matter if the weight is in our cabin bag or the checked bag, it’s still being transported on the plane so therefore this should make no difference. He gives me a very bored look which indicates I should just take items out of the checked luggage, which I do. But I am silently protesting.

We arrive a little early so we have a quick bite of lunch as we have also been informed food will not be served on the plane, however if you want to have a snack there is a snack pack which will cost you $6.00! After lunch we patiently sit at the gate waiting to board and just before boarding, a stunningly gorgeous woman and her overdressed husband walk past us to sit in the seats behind ours. Great, I love sitting next to women who look like Megan Fox!!

They sit and continue their conversation about him being worried about flying. Her response is “Honey, they have been doing this for hundreds of years, we will be fine”. Tyler and I look at each other and wonder what parallel universe they came from as in this universe man has been flying for barely 100 years.

I feel so much better sitting near her now. Good Grief!!

We board the plane and what seems like only a short time later, we are landing at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. As soon as we get out of the plane, the heat hits us like a brick wall. It’s so hot when walking you feel like you are dragging your body through a pool of water. I obviously wont be needing my sweater down here!

We get a monorail shuttle to where our bags will be then pick up our transport (Bell-Trans) which will deliver us to our accommodation - Harrah’s Resort and Casino. A quick look around assures us we are indeed in Las Vegas because there are slot machines and gambling at the airport!!

Harrah’s is certainly not one of the flashiest hotels on the strip, however who wants to pay a heap of money for a room you are only going to sleep in?

And to give you an idea of the heat, as we are driving to Harrah’s I have my arm resting on the window of the shuttle. It’s not long before I have to move it as the glass so hot, it’s burning my arm! We reach the hotel, the shuttle doors are opened and the heat hits us again!!

I’m starting to worry about this heat. Despite growing up in Sydney, I don’t do well in hot, humid weather and this heat surpasses anything I have ever felt!

Our check in assistant is lovely and tells us we have a king sized bed with a strip view. She also gives us great tips on where to eat. Bonus! She then hands us book after book of coupons and seriously tells us not to discard them, they will save us lots of money – even better, I tell myself.

We reach our room (Room 2311) and it’s average, nothing to get overly excited about, but it’s clean and cool!! We dump our stuff in the safe and decide to take a walk around.

I thought the quickest way to get on to the strip was to go through the Imperial Palace – turns out I was wrong, however we came across something interesting (see left).

Human Nature are an Australian vocal band, which appear to be doing very, very well in Las Vegas. It turns out this weekend the boys are on vacation and not performing which is a bummer, however there are lots of other things to do in Vegas.

We leave the Imperial and head towards Caesars Palace, which I will not provide a link for as I don’t think anyone should stay there, but more about that later.

On our way we walk past where we stayed last time – The Flamingo who are presently hosting a show featuring Donny & Marie Osmond – which is almost enough to steer clear of the place!

The sheer opulence of the hotels in Las Vegas is nauseating and Caesars is no exception. In fact, Caesars is probably the largest hotel on the strip!

From my count there are 5 hotel buildings, plus 3 shopping malls – and no expense was spared to build this puppy. There are statues, animatronic fountains, marble everywhere. It’s a lovely hotel, but it will cost you if you want to stay there.

We hit the box office as I want to get tickets for Matt Goss on Friday night. For those of you who don’t remember, Matt Goss was in a rather large band in the 1980’s called Bros. Remember this?

Anyway he now plays twice a week at Cleopatra’s Barge inside Caesars. For his shows, the room is renamed “The Gossy Room”. Cheesy, I know, but we are in Las Vegas – everything is cheesy!

We are told it’s a small venue and cabaret style – it only seats about 100 people. Bonus, I tell myself, no shitty seats!

We walk around Caesars a little more, through the shopping malls (called The Forum Shops) and around the restaurants before we decide to head back to our hotel for a bit to eat at the buffet – which by the time we get back there, is closed! Bummer.

We hit a burger joint called KGB burgers and have this incredible thing called Macaroni and Cheese Sticks. Deep friend macaroni and cheese in breadcrumbs… I can hear my arteries hardening as I eat them. Regardless, they are delish!

It’s only 9:30pm and still too early to head to bed, we opt for a walk up to Treasure Island for the 10:30pm show. On the way there we pass the Mirage, the Venetian and Tyler takes some great photos of the strip (see right).

We finally reach Treasure Island and it’s packed, seriously packed. We opt out of seeing the show tonight and walk down the other side of the strip.

Since we were here last, The Mirage has upgraded it’s Volcano show and added in a statue of Siegfried & Roy, who, until Roy’s stroke, were the headliners for many, many years at The Mirage.

It’s my biggest regret I never saw these incredible showman and their amazing friends perform. Hopefully, one day they may perform again.

The weather has not really cooled down, the only break from the wall of heat we get is the air conditioning pouring out when we pass in front of open doors to casinos.

Finally we call it quits as we are beat. We have a big day tomorrow - Tyler and I have planned out several things we want to see while we are here. Last time we barely had enough time to see things, this time we came prepared.

We enter the hotel and are welcomed by cool, cool air conditioning. It seems forever to get to our room which as soon as I get to, I head towards the bathroom for a very, very long cold shower.

We hit the hay exhausted. We got out of bed at 5:30am, which made today long. We watch about 5 minutes of TV to see what is happening in the world before our eye lids start to droop. They are slightly sprung open by the weather report for today – 117 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s nearly 48 degrees Celsius for those back home) with 40% humidity. This brings the heat index to 158 degrees Fahrenheit (or 70 degrees Celsius for those at home). I’m surprised I’m not cooked from the inside out!!

Feeling exhausted from this last dose of information and knowing it’s going to be similar tomorrow, I drift into sleep dreaming of ice cubes and the arctic.

Pretty soon I’m sound asleep and Tyler is not far behind me.

Highlight of the Day: Getting Tickets To See Matt Goss

Home Renovations aka The Money Pit

2010-07-26T21:15:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, Tyler and I purchased our dream home (or as we affectionately call it: Our Freaking Dream House) back in March 2007. When signing on the dotted line we had big dreams of restoring our quirky 100 year old home back to it’s former glory. Little did we know how short lived those dream would be!

Our 1,300SF house had been housing tenants for the past 10 years and let’s just say they didn’t treat her very well. When we took possession we had no other alternative than to order a mini-skip and perform a soft demo on most of the place. Carpets, underlay, the downstairs bathroom… it was all pulled out.

The following photos will explain why we gutted the bathroom:

Now, please keep in mind these photos were taken 5 days after the previous occupants moved out. As much as I love the house, I took one look at this and told Tyler “I am never going to feel clean in this bathroom, even temporarily. Before we move in, we will have to gut it”.

Now normally if I was back at home, I could call on family members and friends (plumbers, electricians and carpenters) to advise me, however I knew no trades people over here (apart from Tyler’s Uncle who is an electrician) to call on for words of wisdom or moral support!

Our initial plan was to place a double sized shower in the bath stall and fully tile the bathroom, in classic black and white subway tiles. However that soon fell by the wayside when I found out how much it costs in the Good Old US of A to have a custom shower pan installed - $5,000. Yeah, that’s not a typo.

So, if I could not have my walk-in shower, then a spa bath it would be. We looked at a couple before making our choice and we were both happy with the Jacuzzi bath we chose.

Tyler's brother, Ben came over and helped us demolish the bathroom. Removing the tiles and the lath and plaster was easy, it was pulling out the cast iron tub which proved problematic as it weighted over 500 pounds! However the boys persevered and they got it out. And, we were lucky enough to find someone who wanted it for scrap so they came and hauled it and the matching basin away.

If it was a claw foot tub, I would have resurfaced it for use, however it was not very deep and I honestly don’t think I could have ever felt comfortable soaking in it no matter how much bleach I used!

So the following photos show the demo and the commencement of the rebuild.

So, as you can see above we pulled out the counter, the lighting fixtures and the lath and plaster which was behind the tiles as well as installing a new partial sub-floor. In hindsight we should have pulled all the lath out, however, hindsight is 20/20.

Once we were happy there was no further rot (there was only a little on the sub floor) we started installing things – first of all the floor, then the tub and then the walls. It all looks so easy now, however at the time, it was stressful as all get out – will we finish on time? will we run out of money? will we find any structural issues behind the walls? It was incredibly stressful.

Tyler’s Uncle Jake installed a new heat lamp / exhaust fan for us which was really appreciated as I don’t do plumbing or electricity – they are too problematic if they are done wrong. Anyway this heat lamps is a blessing on cold winter mornings!

After the bath / shower walls went in, we had the dry-waller’s come in and install the drywall (or gyprock) as it’s called back home. Then we installed the wainscot and, trim, sink, toilet, lights, mirrors etc. The finished product is below.

It’s not the bathroom I really wanted, but considering the small size (when this house was built, there was no indoor plumbing) and time we had to work with, we are happy with the outcome.

So as you can see, we have a lot more space to move around in without that huge counter in there. And most importantly I don’t feel like something is going to jump out at me from down the drains!

We have some (not a lot) of storage space in the rolling drawers and the cabinet which we spruced up with door handles we acquired at Disneyland and some decals and bathroom art I found at Ikea!

And while I don’t have my double walk-in shower, I do get to have a spa bath whenever I feel like it!

I will post more progress pictures as we finish each room, next time, I think I will introduce you to the new hallway.

Voodoo Donuts

2010-07-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

As a special treat for the guys I work for, I decided to bring in donuts from the infamous Voodoo Donuts in Portland.

Voodoo have a kitsch based marketing idea – their donuts are not quite traditionally shaped or flavored.

Some are in the shape of Voodoo Dolls (left), some are like joints (left), some are like Doggy-Doo.

The other idea they have is to top them with interesting concoctions. For instance they have a Bacon Maple Bar which is a long donut covered in maple flavored icing and then 2 strips of bacon!

Or a Memphis Mafia which is a Banana Fritter with Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Nuts on top of it.

The other interesting one is a donut shaped like…. well it’s called “Cock n` Balls” so you take your guess of what shape it is!

Like I said, very kitsch.

They make a decent donut (if you like yours with more substance than a Krispy Kreme) however it should be noted they are quite expensive - 16 Donuts was over $30.00!!

My guys thought they were a hoot and all of them were gone so it looks like I might be heading back there soon!

An Early Birthday Present

2010-07-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

There were literally hours and hours of deliberation between the family on what to get Tyler for his 30th birthday. After speaking with my Mum, and other members of my family, Tyler’s parents and members of his family, we decided to get him something he really wanted will use for a long time. We all decided to contribute and get him a new digital SLR camera. His old SLR is a 35mm and we found on our last trip 35mm film is hard to come by.

So off Tyler and I went to Shutterbug to look at the Canon T1i which he had taken a bit of a fancy to. After much discussion and deliberation, the sales clerk gave us a wonderful deal and before he knew it, he was the proud owner of a new Canon Camera!

The camera body, plus 18mm-55mm lens, with an additional 55mm-250mm telephoto lens, camera bag, UV filters for both lenses, 8GB high speed SD card was included in the bundle for just over a thousand dollars.

You only turn 30 once, so you may as well get something worthwhile.

This morning we went to Tyler’s parents house for breakfast and to show them what the money they gave him for his birthday went towards.

After breakfast, the boys decided on an impromptu game of wiffle baseball. They had lots of fun playing and I took up the role of official photographer!

For more photos, click here.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2010-05-12T20:21:00.001-07:00

Today would be your 61st birthday.

It’s been nearly 6 years now since I last heard your voice though rarely does a day go by I don’t think of you in some way.

Parents typically set the bar high for their kids, but you told me I should do what made me happy.

If you want to travel, then travel. If you want to work hard, then work hard. “Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do it or it’s not possible” I can still hear you say that to me.

By the same token, I can also still here “It’s pointless worrying about it Frog, shit happens”.

Though I know you hated the fact I chose to live overseas, you always encouraged me and I knew you hoped I would return home someday – even with the bloody Yank!

You were more than my Dad, you were my friend, my confidant my mentor and occasionally my drinking buddy!

And even though you are not here anymore, I hope you get to see where my life is and how it’s turning out. I only wish it was reciprocal.

Dad, no matter where you are, I hope today you get to crack open a cold one and enjoy it, after all today is your special day.

I love you, Dad. Happy Birthday.

30 Seconds To Mars @ The Roseland

2010-05-11T23:03:00.001-07:00

30 Seconds to Mars is the brainchild of ‘My So Called Life’ heart throb, Jared Leto. And for those who are still scratching their heads trying to figure who that is, perhaps you should move on to the next post.

I wouldn’t say I am a huge fan of the emo-based 30STM, however there are some songs which simply catch you unaware and before you know it you are singing along at the top of your lungs in the car.

Tickets went on sale several months ago and according to Jared’s Twitter Account – the show in Seattle the night prior was sold out and there were only 70 tickets for the Portland show at lunchtime today.

For those following via social networking, the ‘Into the Wild’ tour has been hugely successful, with sold out shows most nights – we were soon to find out why.

The Roseland in Portland is a great venue. You can choose to stand on the floor in the middle of it all, or if you are over 21, you can go in the upstairs area which is a combination of seats and standing room. No matter where you stand, you are almost guaranteed a decent view of whoever is performing.

15 minutes till the doors open, and the line up around 2 sides of the block contains more guyliner and teenage girls than I‘ve ever seen in one location.

Making our way to the back of the queue, we meet a lovely boy from a local band called Icarus the Owl. They have an ingenious idea of taking their first self produced album on their iPod and introducing themselves to fans waiting in line.

Not wanting to turn down new music, I have a listen and decide it’s something I would like to hear more of so we purchase their album for $5.00 (what a bargain!) and Joey and the boys agree to autograph it for me – yay!

We then witness the arrival of Neon Trees who’s performance was unfortunately marred by all the additional crap stored on stage. Have these people not heard of Roadies - people are use to waiting between bands while sets are put up and down.

I feel really sorry for their lead singer was forced to deliver a high energy set while maneuver over instrument amplifiers to interact with the audience – he literally had about 5 feet to move around in.

While not really my style live music, I am currently listening to their debut album, Habits, and it is fantastic. Highly recommended.

Next Tyler and I are re-introduced to a group called Mute Math. We had the chance to catch their not so typical ‘Typical’ video a while ago. I really liked the video, so I was pleased to see it performed live.

I do have to say their drummer, Darren is a total freak, which I mean in the nicest possible way. The first thing he does when he comes out on stage dressed like a Harvard College student is to duct tape his ear phones to his head. I did wonder how he plan’s to remove said tape, especially considering he’s sporting a 3 day growth! Their set is ok, nothing special but decent for a support act.

About 9:30pm we are treated to someone from the 30STM entourage telling us there are only 40 tickets left and the band has decided to purchase them and we, the audience can Tweet, text or email our friends because the first 40 people who show up get in for free. Not a bad marketing ploy, then you can say ‘every night has been sold out’.

Finally the main act arrives on stage and despite the differing ages in the crowd (there are people in the audience from 6 to 60) the place gets up on their feet and enjoys the energy emitting from the band.

While most of the songs are from the new album, however they do play snippets from their first and second albums. The one song I really want to hear is missing from the set list though – Buddha for Mary.

And, despite the fact Jared Leto (or as he is commonly known on ONTD – Dorian Gray) is sporting a pink and blonde Mohawk the girls still scream and lap up song after song.

At one point Jared appears on the mezzanine level on the other side from us and performs an impromptu acoustic set. Compiled of Message in a Bottle by the Police and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga – it’s one of the high points of the evening.

For those who want to hear his re-written lyrics for Bad Romance, Google or You Tube them, quite insightful, to say the least.

Not a lot of performers choose to move out into the audience these days, which is a shame, however Mr. Leto has no fear of it – he’s continually in, out and on the crowd!

Many things have been said about actors turning to music. I recall an interview given by Elijah Wood of Lord of the Rings fame, he was asked if he would ever turn his hand to music. His response was “I would never try to be like other actors and attempt to make (music) myself. I mean, have you heard 30 Seconds to Mars? ... Fucking awful, man!”

As someone who has heard more than her fair share of music from a broad spectrum, the set delivered by 30STM can’t be described as awful – that is simply unfair. They may not be your taste in music, but they are far from awful.

All in all it was a pretty good show. The only issue I took with it was the lack of interaction with either Tomo or Shannon (the lesser known Leto brother). The entire concert was “Jared Leto” which is not really indicative of how they like to sell themselves – the band does not like to promote Jared as the core reason for it’s success.

Regardless, Jared seems to enjoy the limelight, teasing and taunting the crowd. It is nothing like the days of Keanu and Dogstar, where you could barely get the poor man to lift his head up.

When they come back out for the encore, they drag fans up on stage – one girl actually takes off her shirt to get him to pull her from the crowd. The fans who do get up on stage (and there are about 30 of them) all enjoy themselves while Mr. Leto demands the presence of the entire audience on the floor.

I went to the show not knowing what to expect apart from 90 minutes of perving on Mr. Leto. I think this the best way to approach it – I had no expectations, so when they delivered a great show, I was not disappointed.

We did capture a bit of video below, and the obligatory photo album is linked at the beginning of the post.

I hope you enjoy the photos Cheryl, despite the pink and blonde hair!

30 Seconds to Mars @ The Roseland, Portland

Happy Mother’s Day

2010-05-09T15:00:00.001-07:00

Today is Mother’s Day and it’s a lovely spring day (for once!). I spoke to my Mum and my Nanny in Australia last night to wish them well. The internet makes all things seem closer, however I am still away from my family on Mothers Day.

Regardless, I am assured they had a wonderful day!

As for me, well I am the Mother to 3 wonderful kids, Mischief, Mayhem & Jasper.

People think I am strange because they are 4-legged children. To me, they are just as demanding, loving and wonderful, if not more so, than the 2 legged variety. Hammy loves to sit in his special chair next to me (see below) as I work or update my blog, occasionally he looks up and asks for some attention.

Missy loves to crawl under the blanket when I am relaxing on the couch to help me keep warm on those nasty winter nights. And Jasper, who is reasonably new to our family, knows when I am heading to bed and she sits there in wait to curl up next to me.

The kids woke me up nice and early this morning to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day – or they were demanding to be fed, I’m not sure which. I’ll pretend it was to wish me a wonderful day.

To all the Mother’s, Nanna's, Grand-Nanna’s and Great Grand-Nanna’s out there Happy Mothers Day! Today is your special day, enjoy it.

Cyndi Lauper @ Spirit Mountain Casino

2010-04-11T00:34:00.000-07:00

After many years of waiting, I finally got to see Cyndi Lauper in concert. While she’s certainly not the punk inspired Goddess of the 1980’s anymore she can still rock a microphone like a living legend.

After catching up with her back catalogue via EBay before the concert, I was well prepared for the new and improved ‘Disco Cyndi’. If you are unsure what I mean, check out Bring Ya To The Brink – it’s incredible.

She performed all of her oldies as well as the ones I love from ‘Brink’ so all in all it was a fabulous concert.

My friend Brett, in Australia, collects Barbie Dolls and he sent some to me in the US to forward to him. I took the Cyndi Lauper Barbie to the concert in hope I may catch an audience with Ms. Lauper after the show.

No such luck. However, while hanging around, I did meet two lovely queens who had met everyone from Rodney Dangerfield to Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Iggy Pop. Their stories had me in fits of laughter for hours!

While Cyndi doesn’t have the multicolor hair any more, she’s still the same old Cyndi – the shoes lasted about 2 songs and then they were gone. Most of her performance was done in bare feet!

If you ever get the chance to catch her live, I highly recommend it. Certainly one not to be missed!

Oh and if you are so inspired, check out the charity she is spokesperson for – Give A Damn. The Give a Damn Campaign is for everybody who cares about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. If you care about equal rights, this is one charity you should add your voice to.

101 Today

2010-02-28T09:28:00.001-08:00

Today would be Poppy Mell’s 101st Birthday. Though he’s no longer with us, he’s far from forgotten.

Rarely a day goes by where I don’t remember some funny anecdote or cherished time I spent with him.

Hope you are having a wonderful birthday where ever you are – I’m sure Uncle Ivan, Uncle Amos, Nan Iris and Mr. Mead & all your bowling buddies are all shouting you a cold one.

Give Sally-Woosh a huge hug from me, we miss her too!

Happy Birthday Poppy. We love you!

Spring Cleaning In Fall…..

2009-11-14T21:59:00.000-08:00

So instead of having several blogs where various information is kept, I decided to combine them all into this one space. I decided on Windows Live as I could save my blogs locally, then upload them on to the internet! This way if Google, MSN, Yahoo et al decide to cancel their blogspheres I still have all my hard labored work.

Accidentally Infamous is my perspective on transitional living & you will start to see it's not as glamorous as it might sound.

I'm going through several boxes of photos, travel diaries, bits & pieces collected along the way & as I find & scan or transcribe this information, I will share (selectively) some of it with you. I hope you enjoy this blog & start working towards (even if virtually) becoming accidentally infamous yourselves!! Enjoy!

A New Project!

2009-11-07T13:03:00.000-08:00

With my family being so far away from me, they find it hard to guess what we might like for Christmas.

So rather than get the typical crap which no one needs, Mum and Nanny usually pick out something for us we really want or need. This year was no exception.

For the longest time the dining room in our house has filled the role of storage closet and quilting room, while Tyler and I eat dinner on TV trays. We knew we needed a dining table, but forever the perfectionist, I never wanted to just ‘get’ a dining table, I wanted it to be one I really loved.

While out running errands one day, we came across a second hand store and they had an 8 seater table that I simply feel in love with. Solid oak, and not pine, the table has 2 leaves you can add or remove, depending on how much space you need.

The seats are not really the color I would have chosen, however I know I can reupholster those with minimal fuss.

While definitely larger than our ‘family’ needs, we decide to use the money given to us by Mum and Nanny to purchase it.

The store delivered it for us the following week and we just love it. Now all I have to do is figure our what color to reupholster the seats!

2009 Road Trip – Day 25 Ontario to Home

2009-09-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

It’s the final day of our road trip and we wake up today feeling a little more energized than we were yesterday. Today we (well Tyler and I) get to go home. Mum still has a few more days on her road trip before she gets to sleep in her own bed.

We have a great breakfast before checking out of the hotel then we hit the road. Only a couple of bags to pack up this morning as most of it was left in the car overnight!

It’s a decent drive back home, but because we know tonight we unpack a final time I think it makes today’s journey a lot easier. We have completed this drive before except in the reverse direction on the 2007 Road Trip (adventures coming soon) so it’s nothing new to us.

We make an impromptu stop on the way home when we see a huge sign stating “Pendleton Mill Outlet Store”.

Pendleton make incredible wool blankets and clothes. Their wool work is second to none. I tell Mum we simply must stop so I can show her, besides it will be a great opportunity to stretch our legs.

Just as we enter, we see a sign saying we have missed the tour of the factory by half an hour – never mind, the outlet store is still open, which means one last shopping trip!

In the back of the store they have a seconds section which I head straight to. Some of their blankets are $300 however because they have a minor imperfection on them, they are only $80!! Bargain.

Mum and I choose a blanket (which she gets for me as a present – thanks Mum!!) and we get one for Tyler's Mum as the branding on it is a Harding (her maiden name) blanket.

We almost have to crow bar the blankets into the car – and when I get in to take a look out my back window I note I can not see a think – the car is packed to the rafters!!

We drive home through varying degrees of rain, wind and sun to reach Portland and the sun comes out. It stays with us all the way home.

We pull into the driveway and we all breathe a sigh of relief. We unload all our things out of the car and the first thing I do when I get inside is check for is my cats, Mischief, Mayhem & Jasper.

Jasper comes to greet us, but Missy and Hammy take a little coaching to get out from under the bed. When they do, they realize it’s us and are as happy to see us as we are them.

After unpacking some things, we come downstairs later and Missy and Hammy are curled up (see left) on my good Pendleton blanket!

Never mind, they can sleep anywhere they like, it’s their home too. We tidy up a little, have some dinner then we all agree to turn in. I tell Mum to watch out, as if she has her blanket on the bed, she may end up with a Missy cat joining her!!

Mum pretends she doesn’t like cats, but I know she has a soft spot for all her Grand-Kittens.

I get into bed realizing as much as I love to travel, as much as I love to go on holiday, it’s just as wonderful being home.

Highlight Of The Day: Being Home

2009 Road Trip – Day 24 Yellowstone National Park to Ontario

2009-09-28T21:49:00.000-07:00

If I said it was a struggle to get out of bed this morning, I would be putting it mildly. We are exhausted.

Despite a good nights sleep, we are dragging our asses today. We shower, pack, then load up the car and check out of the hotel.

We drive over to Micky D’s and decide to park and go into McDonalds for our Bacon and Egg McMuffys as we are all too exhausted to drive yet.

I order their coffee as I know it’s strong despite tasting like crap. We have a 4 hour drive to reach Craters of the Moon National Park, which means we will be walking around desolate volcanic wasteland around mid-day.

We bid our farewells to West Yellowstone and before we leave, Mum takes a picture of the only grizzly bear we have seen up close on this trip.

We all chuckle as we know the minute we leave the wildlife will come out of hiding. It’s a common joke on our road trips, that the wildlife go into hiding when they hear we are going to visit. This time though we feel fortunate enough to have seen some of the wildlife we missed last time.

We get on the road and the drive is a quiet one. The car is groaning under the weight of it’s contents.

The landscape as we travel south-west across the state of Idaho is stark… actually, stark would be too kind of a word. It’s barren.

We stop in a small town to get the tires re-weighted as Tyler hit a huge pothole on one of the loops yesterday and the steering wheel is shaking like a demon.

It’s a cute little town we stop in: St. Anthony and they take their sweet time to balance the tires, just like all things in small towns do.

We finally reach Craters of the Moon National Monument 2:30pm and it’s as hot as hell, actually, Hell is probably Arctic compared to this place.

We stare at each other in disbelief. We honestly thought the Idaho plains were bad, this place looks like it survived a nuclear holocaust. I refer you to the above photo for proof.

We jump back in the car and pump up the air conditioning on the way to the visitors center. We collect the usual maps etc and get on the road. The road around the park is 7 miles so it should not take us too long to hit the highlights (fingers crossed).

We are all surprised how incredibly bare this place is. It sure does live up to its name. We reach our first destination which is North Crater Flow. It’s a long walk around this loop in the sweltering sun, but nevertheless it’s on the itinerary so we must at least see part of the place.

We all totally understand why it’s called Craters of the Moon – if anything survived out here, it would be a miracle.

The parks is made up of 1,117 square miles of volcanic lava fields, the last of which erupted some 2,000 years ago. As we walk around the pathway, we are entertained by a tour guide with a bunch of ‘fakers’ who trail behind us. Luckily we can walk faster than these old ducks with their zimmer frames is the blistering heat, but we do hear the tour guide say “the last eruption in this field was approximately 2,000 years ago and was the last recorded volcanic eruption on the mainland USA”.

Say what?

Living in the Pacific Northwest, Tyler (who grew up there) and I are quite aware of a little mountain we can see almost daily called Mount St. Helens which last erupted on May 18th, 1980. And considering it’s still rumbling now (I can feel earth tremors at my office which is about 25 miles from the mountain) I want to tell all the fakers this woman has no idea what she is talking about.

Tyler and I just look at each other, shake our heads then loudly tell Mum what we just overheard. It sucks to get a tour guide who has no idea what they are talking about.

We move along to the next stop which is the Devils Orchard Nature Trail.

It’s pretty well much the same type of scenery we saw at the last stop except there are petrified trees sticking out of the lava which is more pebbly, and appears similar in texture to pumice.

By the time we reach the end of this trail Tyler and I are done. It’s been 3 and a half weeks of non-stop travel and when you combine this with the heat, it’s zapped us.

All we want to do is get home. Mum still has a little more energy in her so we continue the drive and allow her all the time she wants to take photos and walk loops, but even her enthusiasm is starting to pale.

We hit one more trail which is The Inferno Cone and take pictures from the end of the trail. Mum goes up for a walk and you can tell when she comes back down, she’s done.

We drive around the rest of the loop and then leave Craters of the Moon wishing we had the energy to spend more time there, but knowing if we do, we won’t make Ontario tonight.

It’s another silent drive to Ontario and we reach there about 8:30pm. We are starving so Mum has a shower while Tyler and I hit the healthy (??) bar at the local McDonalds.

When you are this tired, it’s impossible to go out to a restaurant. We get food to go and head back to the hotel. I have a shower before eating and I feel slightly more energized once I do. Tyler sees how it’s recharged me a little so he does the same.

We are still beat but we know we are on the home stretch. Tomorrow we have another 7 hours of driving from Ontario to St Helens.

The great thing is we will be driving through the Columbia River Gorge which is some of the most beautiful scenery in Oregon.

I feel bad we didn’t really give Craters of the Moon a fair go today. Perhaps it will be a place we can come back to on our next US Road Trip?

We drift off to sleep and I am thinking tomorrow night I will be back at home in my own bed.

Highlight Of The Day: The Cold Shower At The End Of The Exhausting Day.

2009 Road Trip – Day 23 Yellowstone National Park

2009-09-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

It’s a semi-early morning this morning. We grab a great breakfast in a place called The Old Town Cafe. It does not look like much, but the food is incredible!!

One we have done stuffing our gullets, we head into the park to see what wildlife is about. Once again it’s not long before we spot our favorite elk and his ladies.

This morning they are very close to the side of the road, so close in fact there is a stream with some people fishing in it, and the elk are only about 15 feet from the fishermen!

Again we spot our favorite wildlife paparazzi who are trying their luck to get a close shot. Mum and I are running bets on who the bull elk will take out first as it appears the one they are trying to get close to, is pregnant!

The crowd of people grows and once again we decide to take this as our cue to leave.

We leave and drive through one of my favorite drives in the park, through Fire Hole Canyon Drive. There are several different roads, or loops off the main roads which allows you to see so much more than the normal tourist. You don’t need a 4WD, just the ability to drive slowly and safely.

I love this drive. I have no idea why apart from the fact when you get out of the car, I have a feeling of being totally alone, well apart from Mum and Tyler.

We stop several times along this road, sometimes we walk around, sometimes we take photos,

It’s all very peaceful and relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered for us weary travelers.

Once we clear the loop we take a drive over to another favorite location: Lower Geyser Basin. This is about a 3km walk around the path and you can experience a variety of geysers. There are bubbling pools of mud, geysers which spasm water, some which make noise and some which are just pools of blue water.

The landscape is so stark, the only living things on these plains are the bacteria. There are petrified trees, some have fallen, some are still standing, though I have no idea how they continue to do so.

We take our walk and thoroughly enjoy it. There is no timetable, we don’t have to be anywhere, we can stop as many times as we like. This is the great thing about travelling with Mum and Tyler – when someone wants to stop and take photos, the rest of us understand.

We take a sniff of our clothes when we get back to the car and yes, just as we expected, we reek of sulfur. When putting our things into the car we start talking to a lovely couple parked next to us. They are retired and have travelled from California.

They hear Mum and I talking and tell us they were in Sydney for the Olympic Games and how much they loved Australia – they particularly loved HG & Roy and their playful commentary. They tell us they have another couple of days here, then they head to their holiday home in Arizona for the winter months. (Must be nice for some!!)

We bid them farewell as we head off to the next spot which is Firehole Lake Drive, which is where I take the following panoramic photo:

Once again there are walkways to take so we do the loop, simply enjoying the scenery. The truly wonderful thing about Yellowstone is you don’t have to get off the beaten path to experience some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. The above photo was taken about 200 meters from where we parked the car and as you can see, there is absolutely no one about apart from us!

We make a couple of other stops then decide to head back into town to get some lunch. When we are driving back we realize as much as we have seen, we are not as thrilled with Yellowstone this time around. We conclude it is still a wonderful place to visit and we will come back here again, however because of the feeling of being limited to certain areas – we can’t head north because of the road being closed, we can’t travel south because of the bushfires we concur this has spoiled the trip.

After lunch we walk around town for a while. I want to pick up some things for Stuart, Liz,, Mitchell and Chelsea plus we need to get some things for Nanny and Tyler’s family as well. Before we know it, we have stuff for them and us. Mum has hit the scrapbooking store and Tyler and I have gone in search of t-shirts.

I shudder thinking about the poor car and the extra weight it will be carrying.

We to go back to the hotel for a Nanna Nap then head back into the park just before sunset to see what we can see, however when it comes time to go, none of us are too enthused about moving. I think the batteries in our poor old bodies are just about done.

Tomorrow is a big day of driving as we leave Yellowstone taking the first of 2 legs to get home. We will have about 7 hours of driving to reach tomorrow’s accommodation in Ontario, Oregon and we will have a stop at the Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho.

We repack our things so we wont have to take everything out of the car tomorrow night. It takes us a good hour and a half to do this. By the time we are finished we ready for bed!

This time it’s lights off all around. By the time the room is dark, we are sound asleep.

Highlight Of The Day: Lower Geyser Basin & Firehole Lake Drive.

2009 Road Trip – Day 22 Yellowstone National Park

2009-09-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

It’s another early morning this morning to make sure we are up and in the park to catch the early morning wildlife.

We have a quick breakfast at McDonalds and decide to grab a latte from the place we use to stop last time we were here. However when we get there it’s closed. Today appears to be a day I will go without coffee! This may not end well.

We can tell there are a lot more people here than were here last time, as we have to queue up to get in. We flash our National Parks pass and we are given our maps and told “Yes, there are fires at West Thumb and it will depend on how the weather is today if they put a pilot car in place”. We hope the weather stays fine and the wind stays away.

It’s not long after entering the park we see our first spot of wildlife. Off in the distance there is a bull elk and his lady friends enjoying the early morning sun and grabbing a snack before they head off back to covered grounds.

From what I am told, elk, despite their size scare easily. They don’t like being around people and who could blame them with the amount of people who hunt them. It is, thankfully, illegal to hunt anything on national park land.

The male is incredible. He is what I am told is a 6 pointed elk, which is very large. We keep our distance from them as they can move quite quickly and the males don’t like people near their ladies.

There is a large contingent of people, who we later find out are part of a photography conference on the hill next to elk. We rename them the wildlife paparazzi – see left.

Every time they move a little too close to the Elk’s ladies, the Elk calls out and the paparazzi take 2 steps backwards. It’s really funny to watch!

Feeling lucky to have spotted these elk so early in the day, we watch them for a little while before moving along.

One of the great things about Yellowstone is how open it is. Our drives around the park allow us all, even me as the designated driver, the opportunity the view the surroundings.

Our next stop is around Norris Pass where we spot a herd of bison. We safely pull over, grab cameras, tripods and take off to view these amazing creatures.

There are about 100 of them, ranging in size from babies to adult males and females.

As usual there are other people vying for pictures and they are moving closer and closer to the bison. We on the other hand, have seen these guys up close and personal. There is no way I’m getting too close to any animal who is larger than my car!!

Before we know it, 2 of the male bison start pushing at each other. Even though Mum, Tyler and I are about 250 yards from where they are standing, we take several steps back.

Next thing one of the male bison has his horns locked around the other and has pushed him backwards about 300 feet. Tyler caught some of it on video, however Mum and I were too stunned to get anything on film.

A ranger pulls up and walks towards the people who are getting closer and closer, despite what they have just witnessed and tells them in no uncertain terms to move back. Most of these bison weigh between 750 to 1,500 pounds and you definitely don’t want any part of them landing on you.

I’m a little annoyed with the Ranger as I have my camera poised ready to take some great action shots of bison taking some idiots out of the gene pool, but it appears this won’t be on today’s itinerary.

Our next stop is at the Norris Geyser Basin as we didn’t stop there on the last trip. Most of the geysers are surrounded by walkways so you can get up close and personal to them. The worst thing about being close to them is the smell of sulfur!

Some of the geysers just bubble and boil, like the one above, however some of them are very active like the one right. They usually make a reasonable amount of sound and by the time the water sprays at you, it’s cooled.

As we continue our drive south towards West Thumb, it’s apparent the bush fires are not behaving themselves and they are quite larger than what we thought.

Most of the time the Rangers won’t attempt to put the fires out, believing it’s good for the fires to burn every couple of years to remove the fuels on the forest floor.

This way if there is an unexpected fire, animals and people have more time to move out of the way of the flames. If the fuels on the forest floor build up and build up, when a fire does start, it literally flies through the forest and nothing stands a chance to escape.

We go through West Thumb and there is no pilot car so we continue our trip up the other side of the loop to Mammoth Hot Springs. We spent quite a lot of time in Mammoth the last time we were here, so today we decide not to hike up there, just to get a spot of lunch and walk around the ‘town’ a little.

By the time we are finished eating (the food is very average and extremely overpriced) and walking around, it’s nearly 2:00pm and as it took us nearly 4 hours to drive to Mammoth, we think we should start on back. Also, we are concerned we may get stuck as it the fires worsen we may not be able to get back to West Yellowstone.

So earlier I mentioned how the roads between Norris and Madison were closed. The roads through Yellowstone are a shaped like a figure 8. We are staying at West Yellowstone which is on a road that sticks out of the left hand side of the bottom circle in the figure 8. Madison is where this road joins the figure 8 and Norris is where the 2 circles join together. This means for us to get to Mammoth (at the top of the top circle making up the figure 8) we have to drive all the way down, across and up the bottom circle,then all the way up and over the top circle. In other words, it’s a very long day.

When we reach West Thumb, the worst of our fears are confirmed. There is a line of traffic not moving and we have no idea if there is a pilot car or if the road is closed.

We patiently wait and discuss if we should take a walk up to the top of the line and see what is going on. Just as Tyler is about to leave the car the cars in front of us start to move. Thank God… the thought of looking for accommodation tonight was leaving us all feeling a little anxious!

We pass West Thumb and wonder what all the fuss is about as the smoke seems to have substantially cleared. I suppose to people who are not used to bushfires it’s a huge fuss, but for Australians to have a pilot car in a bushfire zone, this means the flames are literally on the side of the road… and all we can see here is a lot of smoke!

On our way back, we decide to pull into Old Faithful and check it out. We walk toward the wonderful old geyser and we are almost the first there. We check the time it is next expected to erupt and we see we will have a wait of about 15 minutes.

Mum and I decide to sit up front, Tyler decides to stand back and take video.

The 15 minutes goes by quite quickly, and there are several short bursts before Old Faithful goes off.

During this time I decide to try continuous photography without my tripod (not the best idea I’ve ever had) and the result is the following stream of photos.

Both Mum and I have watched Old Faithful several times on the Webcam during various times of the year, however nothing compares to watching it live.

There are varying times the geyser goes off, the next one we see is scheduled to start in over an hours time. We head into the Visitors Center to do some souvenir shopping for the family and then head back to the hotel for dinner.

Tonight we will not be fooled by the restaurant next door, tonight we opt for a restaurant attached to a hotel down the road called the “Three Bear Lodge”. From the minute we walk in, we know we have found a winner.

Tyler opts for a bison burger, I opt for salmon and I can’t remember what Mum ordered, but the food is divine. After a really filling meal we take a walk around town to burn off some of the calories before bed.

We are all pretty tired so we don’t walk for long. We stroll back to the hotel and wonder about how much of the park we will get to see tomorrow. We are all concerned about the fires at West Thumb and we don’t want to get caught on the wrong side of them, so we discuss playing tomorrow morning by ear. However I think the general consensus is we wont be going past West Thumb.

By the time we get back to the hotel, shower and get ready for bed it’s 9:45pm and we are beat. Tyler opts to watch some TV with Mum, but I am done in. I plug my ear buds in and shut my eyes. Before they fully close, I’m sound asleep.

Highlight Of The Day: The Bull Elk & His Ladies.

2009 Road Trip – Day 21 Jackson Hole to Yellowstone National Park

2009-09-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

Today is an anomaly in our road trips. I’m looking back on our photos and combined Mum and I took 7 photos in total during the entire day. Now to give you an understanding of how strange this is, the 2009 Road Trip Mum, Tyler and I took approximately 3,500 photos in 25 days.

See what I mean?

The alarm wakes us up at 5:00am, and we crawl out of bed, put on warm clothes and head back into the park. It’s about a 20 minute drive and we arrive just as the sun is coming up. We head towards Windy Point and the sky has lightened to that perfect shade of blue / grey,however there are no elk. Bummer.

We drive to a couple of different spots and still no sign of our missing elk. Figures. We are not too disappointed but we are hungry so we opt to head back to the cabin for breakfast.

Today we will pack up the car (again) and head towards West Yellowstone, where we will spend 3 nights at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort. This is where we stayed last time we were at Yellowstone and we loved it.

After showers and breakfast (which thankfully is a non event this morning) we pack up our poor car who is groaning under the pressure and check out. As we are not really interested in seeing the parts of the Grand Tetons that we already saw yesterday, we opt to head into Jackson Hole for a look-see (read: shopping)

The town is large but still has a ‘small town’ feel to it. We park our poor little car and go pick up some souvenirs for the family (of course) and then have a look around for a cowboy hat for Mitchell. We are directed to a store which we are told will have hats in children's styles.

We reach the store and they appear to be going out of business so we are hoping to pick up some great deals. We walk towards the back of the store and there are racks and racks of cowboy boots.

I’ve never been one for cowboy boots, in fact I know someone who wears them occasionally and I have given him non-stop grief about them. The attendant comes up to me and he is, seriously, drop dead gorgeous. He asks what I am looking for then suggests a few things to me…. ostrich boots, shark skin boots, then he says “Well you are Australian, I have some kangaroo skin boots”…..

Saying this to an Australian is like saying “Well I have some boots made out of bald eagle skin” to an American, it’s incredibly offensive. He’s not to know and let’s face it, he’s so damn pretty I just smile and say no thank you. I tell him if I am getting boots, I’m getting ones which look like cowboy boots.

He shows me a pair which are brushed leather and are studded and stitched. They are short boots and have a wing tip. They are very cute so I try them on and they are a perfect fit!

He tells me they are normally $299 but I can have them for $90 which sounds like a bargain so I opt to buy them. By this time, Mum and Tyler have taken off elsewhere as me anywhere near where a shoe sale can be quite messy.

After making my purchases we walk around a little more and find a park where each of the 4 entrances are gated with elk antlers.

I’m appalled at the slaughter of elk to decorate this park, until I read a sign which says several times during their life, elk lose their antlers. This normally happens when they are at the elk sanctuary on the outskirts of the Grand Teton National Park.

As a dedication to the elk, they have used the antlers as decoration to the entrance of this park. It’s beyond belief that no elk have been harmed to make these amazing decorations, however they do seem a little creepy.

We decide to push on and grab a bite to eat at Dairy Queen before driving up to the West Entrance of Yellowstone.

Once again it’s a quiet drive and we don’t really pull over at all, which is unusual for us. I think we are all anxious to get to Yellowstone and start reliving the times we had there in 2007.

We reach the front desk and check in then dump our bags before setting off out to dinner. We walk around town looking at various restaurants before settling on the Oregon Short Line Restaurant which was severely overpriced and the food was bland and boring.

I’m craving a small amount of sweet so we get dessert to go and we head back to the room. We want an early morning again tomorrow, but we know we need some rest so we opt to wake up at about 8:00am and take it from there.

There is no breakfast at the Holiday Inn so we are left to purchase Bacon and Egg McMuffy’s at the local McDonalds. The good thing about this is we can eat on the road into Yellowstone, there we go with the multi-tasking again!

Highlight Of The Day: My new Cowboy Boots!

2009 Road Trip – Day 20 The Grand Tetons

2009-09-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

It’s a really early morning this morning when the alarm jolts us out of our peaceful slumber. Nevertheless I jump out of bed as today is the day we head into the Grand Teton National Park and today is the day I will see wildlife – well this is what I am telling myself!

I am first to shower so I will also be the first to start breakfast. There is a little BBQ on the front deck of our cabin which we are going to cook sausages and bacon on – the eggs we will have to cook inside.

To start breakfast I have to use the charcoal we purchased and considering the only types of BBQ’s I have ever used are gas, I’m scratching my head in wonder at how these things work. Mum gives me a hand and before we know it, we are underway.

About half way through cooking we realize the smoke from the BBQ is drifting towards the inside of the cabin. Just as I go to open some windows in an attempt to get rid of the smoke, the freaking smoke alarm goes off! Oh great!

Luckily Tyler is already out of the shower and his quick thinking gets it turned off, but not before the manager comes down to our room to see what is going on. Suffering from major embarrassment and not wanting to even see him, he tells us not to worry and reassures us this happens all the time – just usually later in the day! Double great!!!

We scoff down breakfast on the deck and people are walking by looking at us – we know they are saying “haHA! Those idiots set off their smoke detector this morning”. I smile back because, let’s face it, I just don’t care. I smile and wave – I just know this annoys them more!

We get into our empty car as all our luggage is inside the cabin. It will be great to travel in the car today without having a tremendous amount of luggage weighing us down – we will able able to move and relax a little more between stops.

We head through the gates and flash the National Park’s pass we purchased. He hands us maps and we ask for directions to the visitors center. It’s easy to find and we park then head inside. We see this evening there is a Ranger led tour to parts of the park to view the various animals and eco-systems.

Animals? Did I hear someone say the magic word? Of course we sign right on up. They tell us we will use our own cars and we need to be back at the visitors center by 4:30pm. No problem we say, we are chomping at the bit to see wildlife.

We look around inside the center for a while – obviously making the obligatory stop at the gift shop!

They have some incredible statues, one of which reminds me of Mum, Tyler and I (see right). I’m the one sleeping.

During our visit, we consult the map we were given and decide to make a couple of stops around the park. Luckily for us the road is almost in one large loop.

As usual we start off in a clockwise direction and it’s not too long before we are stopped in our tracks by the first real look at the Grand Tetons – see below. This photo below was taken at Teton Glacier Turnout.

Breathtaking, isn’t it?

Most of the National Parks we have visited have ‘turn out’ sites so people can safely pull over to take stop, view the scenery and take photos. We take this opportunity to pull into one of these locations just as as bus load of tourists do the same thing. Never mind, there is room for everyone to stand and take their photos.

We heard on the news this morning there was a climber killed on the highest peak yesterday (in the above photo it’s the top of the second mountain) and today they are planning to recover his body. So it comes as no surprise to us when we hear helicopters hovering over the top of the mountains later in the morning. I’ve never understood mountain climbing, it’s a rough sport and Mother Nature is not forgiving to those who make mistakes.

We decide to move along as we have a lot to see before we need to be back at the Visitors Center to join the Ranger for our tour.

We make lots and lots of stops to get out, walk around, take photos, however the one which really grabs me is is a stop at Jenny Lake. We walk down to the waters edge, which is a little dicey on the narrow, crumbling stairs, but we are all up for a challenge. After all, they would have closed off the stairs if they weren't safe, right?

Once we get down there we all take off in different directions. I decide to walk away from Tyler and when I turn around, the photo to the right is my view.

We decide to sit in silence for a while and enjoy the scenery, however it’s not too long before others take a page out of our book and we are bombarded with voices and other noises. We take this as a sign to climb back up to the car and make our way to the next stop.

We pull over several times for photos and viewing opportunities before we reach Jackson Lake:

There are so many people taking photos and walking around, yet the above photo makes it seem like I’m the only person in the world. And just in case you are wondering, the only part of the photo which was digitally manipulated in this photo was the fact I stitched them all together – this is in fact, is made up of seven smaller photos.

We move along to other parts of interest and before too long we are all thinking, yes this is lovely, but it’s not Yellowstone. We decide to head back to the cabin for a spot of lunch and to relax a little before tonight’s tour.

When we arrive back at the cabin we opt for a Nanna Nap to recharge the batteries a little as we know the next couple of days will be go, go, go at Yellowstone. However, all too soon we are back at Moose Junction Visitors Center to meet up with our Ranger.

He tells us we are going to see lots of wildlife and he hopes we are ready to take plenty of pictures. And, of course there is always one who wants to be the center of attention, let’s call her Miss Kodak – she must be related to the man who was on our Alaskan Photo Safari.

She wants to tell us about what she already seen and what photos she has taken. Mum and I look at each and roll our eyes.

We take off in a train behind the Ranger and we are luckily enough to be the first car behind him. I can see Miss Kodak in the car behind us and she is not too pleased being in second place.

We drive out to the Triangle X Ranch and as we close in on it, the things we thought were rocks are in fact Bison. He tells us not to get too close as they sitting on private property, in addition to this he tells us those babies, despite their size, can move real fast!

It’s also at this point in time we are informed the bushfires are at West Thumb in Yellowstone and today they have become so bad, they have instigated pilot cars to direct traffic around this area of the park.

Mum, Tyler and I all look at each other aghast. We knew when we were booking our visit we would have to travel anti-clockwise around the park as the road between Madison and Norris is closed. However if they now have pilot cars around West Thumb we may end up spending 3 days not seeing very much of Yellowstone at all!! I’ll explain more about this in next couple of entries.

The Ranger directs us back to our cars and tells us the next stop is a beaver dam at Schwabacher Road. I reverse up to follow the Ranger and before I know it Miss Kodak in her bloody big Yank-Tank has cut me off and nearly hit our car in the process.

I’m screaming and cursing at her. if she wants to be first in line so be it, but to nearly hit my car in the process, and possibly injuring us… I’m seeing red. Mum and Tyler tell me to calm down as nothing or no one was hurt but I’m going to give this idiot a piece of my mind. Finally they get me to see the light just as we are approaching the beaver dam and I promise not to make a scene. I’m not happy about it, but I agree to comply.

We park and take a walk out towards the dam which is an impressive site – see right.

We are told there is a family of 3 beaver who built this damn and currently reside in it – it’s incredible what these tiny little creatures can do.

We patiently wait and while I’m waiting I see a squirrel snacking on something at the base of a tree – see below.

I quietly turn as they are easily scared and grab 2 shots while trying to adjust my camera settings and before I know it, the idiot with Miss Kodak, let’s call him Mr. Knob-tastic comes barreling up towards us asking what we are looking at.

The poor little squirrel almost leaves his skin with fright and takes off . Great. What is it with some people, must they always be first, be loud, be the center of attention? it drives me mad, if they just calmed down they would realize there is enough time and room for everyone to get a photo or a look.

The Ranger tells us one of the beaver is coming out for the evening and we take our positions to watch it. It’s so cute, just adorable, swimming its way from one end of the river to the other.

The light is fading fast and photo opportunities in this poor of light are hard to get so we make the best of what we have and then the Ranger tells us we may or may not see elk at the next stop as by the time we get there, there will be limited light.

He’s right, by the time we reach Windy Point Turnout there is no light and we can’t see anything. We can hear the elk, but there is nothing to be seen. He tells us if we are up early enough they may still be here tomorrow morning. Mum, Tyler and I make a pact to get up early and hopefully see them in the morning.

We thank the Ranger for his time and knowledge and when heading back towards the car, I mutter as I pass Miss Kodak “f*&king idiot”. I have no idea if she hears me, but I am happy to have said my piece.

We jump back in the car and head towards Jackson Hole. It’s about 9:00pm and we are discussing what to do for dinner. During the discussion, I get a glimpse of something moving on the right hand side of the road then there is a blur in front of me as I slam on the brakes to watch a herd of elk run in front of the car. They are huge, I kid you not, they are monstrous in size. If I had of hit one of them, I would have written off the front end of my car.

We all sit in shock for a moment, before continuing to drive at a slower than normal pace. We normally drive quite slowly through the parks, now I am travelling at a snails pace.

We get back to the cabin safe and sound and as tomorrow will be another early morning we opt to relax in bed. We have decided not to go out for dinner, just to nosh on the goodies we have in the cabin. Mum writes some more in her journal, Tyler decides to read and I plug in my iPod and drift off to sleep.

Highlight Of The Day: Lots Of Photo Opportunities.

2009 Road Trip – Day 19 Wheatland to Jackson Hole

2009-09-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

Waking up early after what seems like nowhere near enough sleep, we shower, dress then hot foot it over to the hotel reception area for breakfast.

No hot breakfast this morning, it’s cereal, Danish and coffee and there is absolutely no where to sit – it appears the fakers have caught up to us again!! Rather than trying to stand and eat, we walk our goodies back to our room.

Multitasking all the way through breakfast, we pack up the car between bites and before we know it we are checked out of the hotel and on the road heading towards Jackson Hole.

When we were reviewing the alternative routes to Wheatland the night before last, Tyler pointed out Independence Rock is on a route we can take from Wheatland to Jackson Hole – as we don’t think we will get out this way again for sometime we opted to choose another alternate route! This works out well as there was nothing on the itinerary today, well apart from 7 hours of driving!!

I researched photos of Independence Rock on the internet when we were discussing the visit, and to me, it looks like an American version of Ayers Rock – with a significantly different history!

Independence Rock is an historical spot along the Oregon Trail – of which, I am learning there are hundreds. Emigrant wagon trains heading from the east towards the new west typically left the Missouri River in early spring, and would reach Independence Rock around July 4th or, as it’s also known American Independence Day. Hence the name, Independence Rock.

While stopped there, people would carve their names into the rock or they would carve messages to family members travelling on later wagon trains. Some messages are just a simple hello, others say the names of the people who had perished during their travels along the trail. What a horrible way to find out about the death of a loved one. To this day there are still carvings on the face of Independence Rock.

It’s a decent drive there and we are all pretty quiet during the drive. Living out of a suitcase for nearly 3 weeks is starting to take a real toll on our energy levels. Although an alternative stop has got us all a bit excited, I think we are conserving energy in the quiet. It’s good travelling with Tyler and Mum, none of us feel we need to make conversation, we all feel comfortable in silence.

While Tyler was packing up some things this morning, Mum and I made a bet. I bet her when we get to Independence Rock, Tyler will say in his best Sean Connery imitation….. “Welcome…. to The Rock” from the movie “The Rock” which was about Alcatraz.

He has no idea this bet is taking place and I know my husband well, dollars to donuts by the time we have left, those words would have passed his lips.

We reach our destination and as I suspected, it’s just like Ayers Rock. We jump out of the car with cameras everywhere as this place looks like an incredible photo opportunity! We walk towards the visitors center which is unmanned, bummer – no tips or help there, we will have to rely on the signs.

There is a walkway out to the rock with signs telling us to beware of rattle snakes and to stay on the path. There are also boards containing information on the emigrant trail. It’s all very interesting, but we are excited to jump on in.

We start off at a slow pace around the rock, as it doesn’t seem to be that big and we don’t want to miss anything. We scour the rock for carvings (of which we were told by the signs, there are many) and can’t really see anything which makes sense. Before we know it we are making letters out of patterns in the rock and telling ourselves these must be the carvings.

Regardless of what we do or don’t find, it’s nice to be outside walking around. I had planned for today to be a ‘sitting down all day’ day which I don’t really enjoy as I end up feeling more tired during the day than at the end of it when I get out of the car!

Before we know it, we are half way around the Rock and Tyler decides to take a vertical walk. Mum and I look at each other and then at our trainers before we make a decision to stay on solid ground.

Last thing either of us needs is to end up on our asses sliding down the rock!

Tyler says he was hoping to see some more carvings up on top of the rock, which he doesn’t.

We continue our little trek around and finally start to see carvings on the far back side of the rock. Some are dates, some are just names, some you can barely read.

Some, like the one on the right seem to be as clear as they were on the day they were carved. It’s incredible with the amount of sun, wind and rain exposure which must have inflicted itself upon this rock how these carving’s can still be read.

We make another turn and there is a makeshift cemetery with no markers which are able to be read. We stop to pay our respects to the people who were brave enough to forge their way west before moving along feeling a little more somber about the things these emigrants were faced with along their travels.

All too soon we are back on the side where we started. As we make our way back to the car, Mum and I are talking and before long, Tyler says “Yes….. Welcome…… to The Rock” in his best Sean Connery. I yell out “I WIN!!!”.

Mum and I are laughing so hard we can barely walk and Tyler is looking at us like we are insane – finally we let him in on the joke. He’s not amused as he seems to be laughing at us, rather than with us!

We make our way back to the car to continue our drive to Jackson Hole. A couple of hours later we need to stop for gas and a restroom break (yes, more information than you needed to know) and our ever vigilant eagle eye Tyler points out a sign saying “Sacagawea Grave Site”. Wondering if this is really true we decide to take another detour and check this out.

Tyler and I are skeptical about this being the place she was buried so we consult out iPhones for the internet to tell us the truth. The interesting thing about Fort Washakie, Wyoming…. there is little, if any cell phone service.

for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, Sacagawea was the female Shoshone Indian guide who helped Lewis and Clark chart and explore the western United States. She was their guide, their interpreter and indeed their partner in the expedition. She was an amazing woman.

Oh, and if you don’t know who Lewis and Clark are… well Google is your friend.

We reach what seems to be an Indian cemetery and decide to have a look around. At the top of the cemetery there is a large statue, which as we close in upon is of the lady herself (see left).

Tyler finally pulls up information on his iPhone which tells us to head back to the central area of the cemetery and there we will find 3 markers – one is the grave for Sacagawea, one is the grave of her son Bazil and the other is a marker dedicated to her other son Jean Baptiste.

It’s unbelievably inspiring to stand at the grave of a woman who in 1805 accomplished so much. With all the things we have in our lives today – internet, cars, airplanes, all the modern marvels and technology, we women will never accomplish a portion of what this woman pioneered.

The afternoon is getting on so we decide to bid ohlas (which is good-bye is Shoshone) then get back on the road for the final leg of the journey to Jackson Hole.

We still have about another 3 hours of driving until we reach tonight’s accommodations – Cowboy Village Resort.

Once again the drive is a quiet one as there is really nothing left to talk about – I think we are all reflecting on the things we have seen today.

We have to go past the Grand Tetons (which is on tomorrow’s itinerary) to get to Jackson Hole and as we approach them, the sun is setting and the site is spectacular.

There is a pinkish hue in the sky which sets off the mountains beautifully. And before we know it, we smell something burning and see smoke in the sky – yep, there is a bushfire in the Grand Tetons! Just our luck, so far this trip we have succumbed to rain, a bad day tour on the boat, construction, road works and now bushfires.

Regardless of the bushfires, the mountains look stunning and I can’t wait to see them in daylight!

We finally reach the place we are staying and check in about 7:30pm. I had told them when making the reservation we may be in a little late. The people are very sweet and welcome us before issuing us with keys and directions to our cabin. I’m so excited to see the cabin, if it’s half as good as it looked in the photos, I will be stoked!!

We reach the cabin and there are a group of women sitting on the verandah of the one next to us drinking wine and relaxing – they are not noisy and we say hello before heading inside to check out the place. It’s perfect.

Even though the photo to the right was taken the following morning, you can see how one would be excited about these little log cabin accommodations! I can only imagine how cool these places are in winter surrounded by 5 feet of snow!

We dump our bags, then run out to get some dinner and do a spot of grocery shopping. We have decided as we only really have one full day at the Tetons, we don’t want to be heading out of the park to get lunch. So we concluded the best thing to do was to make some bread rolls with meats and salads and get some drinks to take with us tomorrow. Problem solved.

Also, we are planning a bacon and egg breakfast to start the day off right. We hit an Albertsons supermarket and stock up, but not too much as we only have tonight and tomorrow to eat all we will buy. Once we check out of here there is no Esky or fridge to keep things cool!

By the time we get back it’s late, about 10:30pm so we shower then hit the beds. Tomorrow we are planning to be up and out by 8:00am-ish so we will be up at 6:00pm giving us plenty of time to make and eat breakfast, plus get ready.

There are 2 queen beds in our cabin and a pull out couch which Tyler opts for as he’s not really tired and wants to watch some TV. Mum and I are done, so as soon as the lights are out, we are fast asleep!

Highlight of the Day: Finding The Resting Place of Sacagawea.

2009 Road Trip – Day 18 Rapid City to Wheatland

2009-09-22T22:16:00.000-07:00

After a restful nights sleep, we are up and on the road again in no time. It’s only about an hour drive to Deadwood and we are anxious to get there. So anxious in fact, we don’t even grab breakfast – we decide to hit a drive thru along the way!

Driving and eating has become a practiced sport for us on this and other road trips. Why would we waste time sitting still to eat when we can multi-task? Drive and eat at the same time sounds like a plan, hey?

We reach Deadwood at about 10:00am and the place is a ghost town – seriously. There is barely a soul outside. We park at the railway station then decide to take our time walking up and down the main street of Deadwood. We opt not to go back to Mt. Moriah as we saw everything we wanted to see on our last visit.

HBO had filmed a show in Deadwood there about the times of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane, funnily enough called Deadwood. Apparently it was quite a good show, though I never watched it.

I’m sure it did a lot of good for the town – more than Kevin Costner buying a casino did!

Yes folks, Kevin Costner owns a casino in Deadwood called “Midnight Star” which, wait for it, operates a tour of Deadwood called ”Kevin Costner’s Original Deadwood Tour”.

When we first saw this Mum got quite excited. She figured good old Kevin had left Hollywood and was now providing bus tours of Deadwood. Come to think of it, considering his recent list of films, driving a bus full of tourists around a town with a population of under 3,000 people is probably a better way for him to spend his time, instead of making movies like Waterworld!!

Nearly every second building is a casino and they all have podiums set up outside offering tours of the town. We looked into them when we were planning the trip, however decided against. Deadwood is a pretty small town and we figured we could see all we wanted to see by researching it before we got there.

The casinos must operate 24 hours a day, either that, or they open really early. There are lots of overhanging street signs for the various locations as well as signs stating ‘Original Location of the Number 10 Casino” – which is the casino where Wild Bill was shot and “Original Location of where Jack McCall was captured” – he is the man who shot Wild Bill.

If you go into the casino which now stand on the spot where the Number 10 use to stand and head downstairs into the basement there is a display dedicated to Wild Bill.

Tragically touristy they have mannequins showing how it all happened with Jack McCall heading up behind Wild Bill (see left).

If it wasn’t so cheesy, it would be sad. However, as it’s a free display they offer one should not expect too much.

There is even a sign saying “Actual Location where Wild Bill Hickok was shot” . Like I said, it’s all very cheesy.

We head into a couple of other places to look around. Mum decides she would like to get another charm for her bracelet. Normally where ever she travels she gets a charm representing that area. Deadwood is wild west, so we look for dice or cards or a 6 shooter? Do you think we can find anything? Nope. They have lots of crucifixes and animals, but nothing which says “I got this in Deadwood”.

Tyler and I collect a set of playing cards for our ever growing collection then we decide to call it a day and move on to our next stop, Fort Laramie.

On the way out of town, Mum wants us to stop at a the statue at the entrance to Deadwood – typically Mum, she wants a photo.

As there is no where to park, we have to pull over to the side of the road and put on the hazard lights so Mum can take her picture of Wild Bill.

There is traffic coming up on our rear so I urge Mum to hurry the heck up so we don’t get hit or abused. And, let’s face it, this is Deadwood, there is a possibility we might end up getting shot!! Mum gets her photo (see above right) and we get on the road.

We travel across state lines from South Dakota to Wyoming. It’s a 7 hour drive from Deadwood to Fort Laramie – we anticipate to reach the Fort some time mid to late afternoon. Being the ever prepared travelers we had checked out opening and closing times and the Fort, luckily it stays open until 7:00pm.

This was a stop Mum put on the itinerary and she’s quite enthused to get there. I’m happy to stop there, but it’s not really what interests me. For Laramie was built in the early 1800’s as a trading outpost, the Fort was a primary stopping point along the Oregon Trail.

There is not much of the original fort still standing today, however there are a few buildings which have been reconstructed and preserved.

The Fort is situated in the middle of nowhere and if you think I am kidding, check out the photo to the left.

There are lots of buildings you can go in for a look see, the only one we, well I don’t go into is an area under the jails where prisoners were kept in sub-human conditions. I have no idea why I can’t go into it, I just don’t feel right crossing the threshold.

I’m not one who get all ‘ghosty’ around things, but I do believe we leave energy behind us when we die and the energy in this building is saying ‘stay out’.

Tyler does go in and takes video which I have subsequently seen and when looking at it, I get creeped out.

We walk around for a while, checking out various buildings and the ruins left at the Fort, before we decide to get back on the road and head to our accommodation for the evening “Best Western Torchlite Motor Inn”

It’s only a short drive (about 45 minutes) and we check in with ease. We dump all our bags and walk over to the Pizza Hut which is about a 5 minute walk on the way we stop to look at a bronze statue which is loaded on the back of a truck. The statue is of a cowboy on a horse, it’s incredible – see left.

By the time we get back to our hotel room we are beat. Between the carbs in the pizza and the busy day we are ready to drop.

Tomorrow we head towards Jackson Hole and we will stay there for for 2 nights – which is a blessing as we wont need to pack up the car for 2 whole days. We will also be staying in a cabin where we can cook our own food!! Yay!! It will be great to have home cooked food instead of eating out for a while.

Highlight of the Day: Visiting Deadwood, again!

2009 Road Trip – Day 17 Rapid City

2009-09-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

The alarm jars me awake in what seems like only minutes after I fell asleep. I begrudgingly awake, head to the shower and then dress. Tyler is not far behind.

We head down to NAPA and they look at the car. After a quick once over, they decide it’s beyond their diagnostic capabilities. They direct us to a local mechanic.

After driving around for 20 minutes we still can’t find the local mechanic so we take it in to a Pontiac dealer. They tell me they are going to run some tests, but it sounds like the computer needs to be replaced. Great.

We take a seat in the service area and wait… and wait… and wait. Pretty soon it’s 10:30am and they tell us we can get a hire car for the day (which is about $50.00 – not bad). They say they will call us and tell us what the issue is (when they finally diagnose it) and when we can collect my poor little Vibe.

Their customer service people organize the rental company to collect us and we choose a PT Cruiser for the day. This is a good thing as I have always wanted one so this gives me the opportunity to test drive it all day.

We stop by the hotel, collect Mum and start driving towards Crazy Horse Memorial. It’s a little later in the day than we thought we would start, but never the less, we are underway.

I recall Crazy Horse from when I was a little girl. My Grand Parents visited here and we had one of our infamous slide nights, I recall my GrandMother telling me “they are just starting this, but it will be all done by the time you are grown up”. I’m now 38 and it’s not quite done.

Crazy Horse was sculpted by Korczak Ziółkowski at the request of Chief Henry Standing Bear. Crazy Horse was one of the warrior leaders of the Ohlala Lakota Indian Tribe.

The entire memorial is privately funded – at no time have their been Government funds donated to this project, which was exactly the way Korczak wanted it. Government money was offered to him, however he felt the price of interference by the Government was too great, regardless of the amount of money they were donating.

Carving started in 1948 and continues to this day. And to give you a scope of the size of the mountain, the entire face of Mount Rushmore, would fit in the section of rock behind the head of Crazy Horse.

It’s an incredible place to visit. There are museums and cultural centers, along with local Indians who share the ways of their tribes as the museum is dedicated to all Indian Tribes, not just the Lakota's.

Upon arriving at the Visitors Center we are invited to watch a film about the carving of the mountain. While being interviewed, Korczak said when he first started he only had one piece of machinery (a compressor) which sat at the base of the mountain – the photo on the right is the actual piece of equipment he used.

Korczak said he would start the compressor up and then travel up the hundred or so steps to commence carving. He said on more than one occasion just as he arrived at the top of the stairs, the compressor would quit working and he would have to travel back down the stairs to restart it! The man sure had persistence!!

After watching the film we walk around the museum which is incredible, there is a photo taken in 1948 with the survivors of The Little Big Horn, or Custer's Last Stand. In the photo on the left, from left to right, there is; Little Warrior, Pemmican, Little Soldier, Dewy Beard, John Sitting Bull, High Eagle, Iron Hawk and Comes Again. Just to look at this photo is amazing and heart breaking.

Such a proud race of people and to see what they have been reduced to, makes me ashamed. It’s hard not to have sympathy for them, really.

After spending some time in the museum, we head out to the terrace to view the mountain. The weather has come over cold and windy (go figure!), however we are not deterred. We walk out passed the granite statue of what the mountain will look like when it’s complete and it’s nothing short of heart stopping. I don’t know if the mountain will look exactly the same as this rendering, however Korczak captured the resilience of the warrior and the temperament of the horse – of which the man was named for.

Finally we walk up to the end of the terrace and there it is, in all it’s glory. I’ve never seen anything like it, nor do I think I will again.

Despite the hideous weather the mountain seems to quell the sense of cold we are all feeling. I have no idea if it’s my psyche doing this, or the mountain but my mood is instantly altered to a state of serenity.

Considering we are nearly 2 miles away from the mountain we are limited to certain viewing and photographic angles. I wish we could have travelled closer to it. I would love to look upon the heroic face Korczak created.

We walk around a little more and we locate rock from the mountain which you can take home with you for a donation to the Trust in charge of finishing the mountain. I um and err about taking part of the Black Hills home with me. I would hate to take it away from where it belongs, but there is part of me who knows I would love to have a small piece to remember this visit by. After making a sizable donation (to quell my guilty conscience), we collect our small piece of the Black Hills to take home with us.

A small part of the Black Hills now sits in my display case, along with other items I’ve collected during my travels.

We decide to depart and push on to our next stop along what I am beginning to feel is the Alfred Hitchcock portion of the road trip – Mount Rushmore.

Rushmore is about a 20 minute drive from Crazy Horse. On the way we call the mechanic for an update and he tells us the computer needs to be replaced. The good news is he can have it ready for me in a couple of hours! Excellent I say, and what is the cost? $600.00! Great, I manage to say as I reach for a canister of oxygen!!

We are nearing Mount Rushmore, according to the signs and before we know it, we have driven right by it. As usual there are road works going on a the entrance, so there is confusion every where. We do a quick u-turn and zoom on through with our National Park pass to grab a parking spot.

The only way to view the mountain from it’s closest vantage point, is to walk along the Avenue of Flags, which is speckled with, as you would guess, the flags of all the states making up the United States of America. they are mounted on granite columns which are branded with the dates each state was incorporated into the Union.

We, being typical Oregonians, hunt down our flag and take photos of it. We walk up to viewing platform and look upon the four faces carved there – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln.

I hate to say this, but it’s the honest truth – I was really let down by this incredible dedication to American Presidents. I mean, it’s an incredible feat, however I think because I had built it up so much in my mind, nothing could have lived up to my expectations.

I really wanted to attend the laser light show put on by the National Park Service each evening in summer, however the more we stand outside viewing the mountain, the more we realize there is no way in God’s green Earth we will be able to sit outside and view any kind of show in the evening – it’s so cold, my fingers are turning blue!

We opt to take shelter inside and walk around the Museum which is attached to the Visitors Center. This is the first time we have looked at the attraction before stopping at the Visitors Center.

While walking around we meet a lovely gentleman by the name of Don ‘Nick’ Clifford who was a carver on the mountain from 1938 to 1940. He has written a book answering some of the questions people usually ask him.

He’s a lovely gentleman who is very patient with everyone who visits with him. Mum and I being the book junkies we are, visit with him for a long time. Mum and I purchase a copy of his book which he autographs to us as well as giving us a few of his baseball cards.

The Mount Rushmore carvers had a baseball team which, from what Tyler tells me, performed reasonably well in their day.

During our chat Nick explains how the carvers drilled holes into the mountain before chiseling away large sections of rock – which is what you see to Nick’s left, in the above photo.

Starting to feel guilty for taking up so much of his time, we move on and let other people visit with him before we head off to purchase some souvenirs for the family (of course!). As it’s getting later in the day we decide to head back to the mechanic and collect the car.

After driving the PT-Cruiser all day, I decide it’s not the car for me. It’s nice enough on the inside, however it doesn’t handle as well as I thought it would. Never mind, there are a zillion other cars out there I think I would prefer to have over the Cruiser.

We finally arrive back in Rapid City, collect the Vibe, drop off the rental and head back to the hotel to thaw out. We pull into the parking lot and something does not seem right with the headlights so we check it out and only one light is working. We have just paid $600 for them to fix one headlight! Brilliant! It’s too late to call them as they are now closed, and tomorrow we are on the road early as we have 6 hours of driving time, plus 2 stops to visit.

We decide to have dinner at the diner next to the hotel where Mum orders a glass of wine to combat the cold and the fact she’s paid $600 to have my car fixed – Bless Her. She must have looked at sight, because the woman delivers a tumbler full of wine – see right!

We discuss tomorrow’s itinerary which includes Custer State Park and Fort Laramie. We all agree we were disappointed not to have seen more of Deadwood so we agree to consult our trusty maps when we get back to the hotel so we can see if Deadwood, then Fort Laramie can be accommodated tomorrow instead of visiting another state park.

We have a wonderful dinner and Mum enjoys a couple of ‘glasses’ of wine before we head back to the hotel to shower and hit the hay.

We consult our maps and Trip Tick and see we can in fact remove Custer State Park in lieu of spending the morning in Deadwood before travelling to Fort Laramie. We are all happy with the alterations to the itinerary.

It’s been a long and exhausting day so an early night is in order for everyone. I know I have a lot of driving tomorrow and I need to catch up from the broken sleep I had last night so it’s not long before I am sleeping soundly.

Highlight of the Day: Meeting the amazing Nick Clifford

2009 Road Trip – Day 16 Billings to Rapid City

2009-09-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

After a restless nights sleep worrying about getting the car fixed we wake up to realize it’s Sunday morning and no mechanics will be open today.

Getting a car fixed is always daunting, however getting a car fixed when you are away from your local mechanic is nothing short of scary!

We decide to get on the road early as we have several hours of driving ahead of us, plus we want to get to a gas station to see if we have just blown the fuse which controls the headlights.

The other motivating factor is that we don’t want to be arriving in Rapid City tonight without head lights.

We pull into a gas station with a McDonalds adjacent to it just as it starts to rain. Tyler goes into the gas station to get fuses and Mum heads into McDonalds only to come out and report they have no power and are not really open – great! No bacon and egg McMuffy this morning!

We change the fuses and the headlights are still not working, so now we know it’s not the bulbs nor fuses – we resign ourselves to the fact a mechanic will be needed. We drive over to the Burger King across the road (as they have power) to eat and call AAA (the US equivalent of the NRMA). AAA turns out are absolutely no help at all.

They tell us to take the car to a mechanic and the great thing is that they can’t even recommend us to one. Why we pay all this money to them each year is beyond me.

Back on the road again, we take a short drive to Little Big Horn where General George Armstrong Custer made his “last stand” against the Cheyenne, Lakota Sioux and Arapaho Indians in 1876. Tyler recommended visiting here when we were planning the trip.

Though we didn’t really want to go this far east on this trip when we started looking in to the places we could visit, eastern Montana and South Dakota soon became a necessary stop on the 2009 Road Trip. Our philosophy during the planning stages was ‘While we are there, we may as well check it out as we may not get the chance to do so again!”

The weather seems to thankfully clear somewhat as we travel towards Little Big Horn. We arrive, park the car and decide like all good tourists should, to visit the visitors center first.

Attached to the visitors center there is a museum which has various items on display; from things which were found on the battlefield (ammunition, weapons and such) to clothes which were worn by Custer and his troops.

They also had these amazing dioramas of the battlefield (see left). What you are seeing here is actually a model in the foreground and a painting in the rear – I initially thought the entire thing was a painting.

They also have some Native American artifacts. I took a real liking to the hide of a bison – see right. The incredible thing we learnt about the Indians on this trip, particularly in South Dakota was if an animal was killed not one piece of it went to waste – the Indians used each and every part of it for something useful.

After looking around the museum we walked out to the battlefield. As the site is technically a grave site, the park service ask you to stay on the pathways, which is perfectly understandable. The pathways give you excellent viewing of anything and everything you would want or need to see.

We walk up Custer Hill, to a gated area which is where Custer and his men fell and where they were buried in shallow graves, until Custer was reinterred at West Point one year after his death (see left). The marker with the black center is General Custer's.

Most of the soldiers who died on the field were reinterred into one mass grave at the top of Custer Hill, which is marked by one large monument erected in 1881 (see right).

In 1890 white marble markers were placed where the US Military fell, however it was only in 1999 the first of five red granite markers were placed to mark where the Native Americans fell. At the time of writing, there are ten red granite makers (see left).

At the top of Last Stand Hill a memorial dedicated to all the Indians who fell at Custer's Last Stand was erected in 2003 and it’s adorned by an incredible piece of artwork (see below).

Walking around the entire place is sobering. Everyone speaks in hushed tones; this is a place of reflection and remembrance.

After spending some time at the Indian Monument, we walk towards Custer National Cemetery which is the resting place for those who passed after fighting in this Battle.

I think it’s important to visit those who came before us and to honor their memory. It’s important never to forget what they gave for the freedoms and liberties we enjoy today.

We walk around for a while and then go back to the visitors center. Both Mum and I purchase books (books are our crack) then jump back into the car for a 5 hour drive to Deadwood – the home of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok.

The drive to Deadwood is nearly 5 hours and it seems longer. The weather as usual can not make up it’s mind – it’s sunny, it’s raining, it’s cloudy, it’s sunny. I am beginning to get very frustrated with the weather. I am not fussed if it rains or if it is sunny, I just want it to make up it’s mind.

We reach Deadwood at about 5:30pm and we still have another hour to travel before we reach Rapid City (the home of tonight's accommodation). Being a fan of the movie Calamity Jane, I’ve always had a romantic fascination with Calamity Jane and Wild Bill. And, yes, I know they were nothing like they were in the movies, but I can’t help but sing to myself “Oh the Deadwood stage is a rolling on over the plains….”.

Unfortunately for us, Mum likes to sing aloud and she has been singing Whip Crack-Away for the last hour!

The main street of Deadwood is just like other smallish towns. The amount of casinos there are surprise me and we know while driving through town we will have just enough time to head towards Mount Moriah (the resting place of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane) and that will be about it. So much for exploring this wonderful historical site.

We stop at the visitors center and get directions then head up Mount Moriah. We arrive just as it starts to sprinkle with rain – go figure!

We pay our admittance fee (yes, there is an admittance to a graveyard) and we take the steep walk up to visit with Bill and Jane.

It’s a really steep walk, made worse by the fact we are at a brisk pace due to the weather and the fact it’s getting dark and the car has no headlights! We finally reach the place and see, similar to the graves of other cult figures, Wild Bills grave is covered with Aces & Eights (the hand he was allegedly holding when he was shot), cigarettes and other items left by people paying their respects.

Much has been said and written about these two colorful characters. Despite the historical facts, I prefer to think of them as Doris Day and Howard Keel in the Hollywood reenactment. What can I say, it’s the romantic in me!

We jump back in the car and blaze a trail to the nights accommodations; Best Western Town & Country Inn.

We are here for 2 nights, which we are thankful for. We check in and reach our room we find that yes, it’s two double beds. What is it with people? When one specifically requests a room for 3 adults, 2 double beds are not satisfactory.

Calls are made to the manager, and we are moved to a room with a bedroom, and 2 double beds – the bedroom is allotted to Mum and 2 double beds in the main area, which Tyler and I agree to take. As Tyler and I sleep in a California King at home we know taking a bed each while we are here will give us the best nights sleep possible.

Tyler and I agree to wake up early and take the car to the mechanics – which really sucks because tomorrow we had a big day planned – Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse.

We look online and see there is a National Auto Parts near by. I do some research online and see the headlight issue could be any number of things – all of which seem expensive and time consuming to rectify.

I finally stop torturing myself and drop into bed hoping for a good nights sleep – which I know is going to be a tough one to obtain.

Highlight of the Day: Little Big Horn National Monument

2009 Road Trip – Day 15 Glacier National Park to Billings

2009-09-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

We wake up at The Bates Motel gleefully happy we survived the night without a visit from Norman, or Mother!

I am first to rise and I head into the shower to wake myself up – which takes about 25 minutes of scalding water and steam.

Normally this is about the time on the road trip I start to get weary. The unpacking and repacking, each night in a different location – it all takes it’s toll on me. Plus I prefer to drive which also adds to my weariness factor.

I love our road trips, I honestly do. We see so many amazing things I defy anyone not to enjoy them. However just over the half way mark, which is where we are now, my bones start to drag and I find myself less enthused about visiting these places I was so excited to see when researching the trip.

America is so spread out – to see all the things we do on one of our trips, the driving is monumental. To give you an idea, by the time we finish this journey we will have travelled over 6,000 miles or 10,000 kilometers. This equates to driving from Sydney to Perth, then back to Sydney, then back to Perth again – all in just under 3 weeks. Or for my American friends it’s like driving from Los Angeles to New York, then back again, plus a bit more.

After a relaxing shower we head over for some breakfast which is exactly as anticipated – a toaster, bread and condiments, coffee, tea and water. It’s no frills, but the great thing is we have the room to ourselves so we get to eat in peace without fakers worried the food is going to run out.

Mum and I make toast and coffee while we wait for Tyler to join us. It’s so peaceful in Montana. It certainly is a place I dream of retiring to. They have real changes of seasons, very much like I am use to back home – unlike the Pacific Northwest where there is just summer and drizzle.

And though I am not really the outdoorsy type, I can see myself spending weekends in Yellowstone – either walking in summer or ski-ing in winter. Now I do know that most of Yellowstone National Park is in Wyoming, but to me it’s just an extension of Montana. However I digress, we will have more about Yellowstone NP later.

We clean up after ourselves and head back to the room to pack up the car. Today is another big day we drive literally across the state of Montana – which will take us about 8 hours.

We decided last night not to go to back to Glacier NP as the thought of being caught in the road works is not very appealing, plus we did have plenty of time to stop and look at the sites along the Going To The Sun Road on the way through the park yesterday. So today we head straight to Billings.

About 20 minutes after starting our journey we see this mammoth bald eagle sculpture on the side of the road and we can’t help but pull over for a better look.

It’s incredible, I have no idea who made it or why, but we are just absolute in awe of it.

And to give you an idea of the size, see right as Mum goes all Tippi Hedren on us!

This is one of the great things about road trips – in any country. You get to see the most bizarre and interesting things.

We get back on the road and it’s not long before we see a bear sanctuary called “The Great Bear Adventure Park”. Always being one for supporting the incredible rescue efforts performed by these people, we pull over as we would love to see some black bear up close and personal.

We are told to drive through the park and keep in the car with the windows up at all times. We are travelling at a really, really slow speed about half way through the park when we see our first bear.

One look at this beautiful creature tells me something is wrong. The bears almost look drugged - there is no life in their eyes, no soul. It’s heart breaking to see.

We continue our drive and I’m continually getting more and more upset at the way these magnificent creatures are not being cared for.

I’ve been to a number of different sanctuaries – the best of I’ve ever seen is the the Bear & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. They have rescued dozens of wolves and grizzly bears and no matter what time of the day or night, the bears always look alive as they have limited interaction with humans.

The bears in this place seem to almost be hand reared – it’s honestly gut wrenching to see. We spend a little more time there taking photos before getting back on the road.

On days like today there is not really much to say in a journal when your day consists of 8 hours of driving. I mean what do you tell people?

We stop at some stores in particular a fur traders as my brother has requested we purchase him a wolf fur pelt. I’ve informed him in no uncertain terms I will not acquire a pelt from either the dog or the cat family and to choose something else – he balks but he then chooses a skunk. I still have an issue purchasing fur pelts, but it’s the only thing he’s asked for, so I grant his request.

Off we head into the store where we purchase two lovely horse blankets – 1 will top our dresser back home, the other will be for the cats to lay on and I find Stuarts skunk. Mum buys some jewelry as we admire at all the wonderful things on offer and contemplate, then purchase gifts for family and friends.

After carefully packing our new purchases we are back on the road again – my turn to drive.

We drive through sun, rain, and in some points, light hail and it’s reminiscent of our 2007 Road Trip when we drove from Yellowstone NP to Monument Valley in a single day.

I do see however how some people can fall asleep while driving. The landscape is almost hypnotic.

The sun has disappeared well into the west and all of a sudden I see red and blue flashing lights behind me. I check my odometer and see I’m well within the speed limit. This is not good as I was pulled over for speeding on the last road trip by a very impolite Police Officer in Utah.

Normally I have the utmost respect for those who serve, but this guy was meeting some kind of quota – but more about that story can be found in the 2007 Road Trip journals when they are uploaded.

I pull over to the side of the road and Mum can see my knuckles are white, I’m already annoyed. I swear if he has pulled me over for speeding when I was not speeding, it will ruin all my beliefs that Montana is the best state in the union.

The officer tells me I have no headlights and that is why I have been pulled over as it’s a sign of suspicious activity (go figure). I breathe a sigh of relief and think he’s such a sweet police officer, then he asked do we have anything illegal in the car…. I’m now thinking, sweet, but not so bright!

I tell him no and I get out of the car to indeed confirm I have no headlights! Great. I tell him I must have blown a fuse as this morning I had both of them working so I don’t think it’s the globes. He gives me a quizzical look as I find out later the terms ‘globes’ is used to describe an upper part of the female anatomy and the correct term in this instance would be ‘bulbs’.

I tell him no matter what, we are heading to Billings tonight and we will have them fixed first thing tomorrow. He is very nice about the situation and tells me to take care on the roads before he lets us go.

We are back driving again in a mad rush to get to Billings before the sun totally disappears and I really need my headlights. We finally reach the hotel – tonight's accommodation is the Best Westerns Clock Tower Inn.

It’s raining as we check in (surprise, surprise) and we head up to our room to collapse into bed. We are all hungry, but exhaustion beats the hunger pains and we shower and I practically fall asleep walking to the bed.

Having to get the car fixed has thrown a spanner into the works – tomorrow we had planned to visit Little Big Horn & Deadwood – the 2 places I really, really wanted to see. Now we will have to find a mechanic and figure out what the problem is and how long it’s going to take to get fixed!

Highlight of the Day: Mum’s Tippi Hedren impersonation!

2009 Road Trip – Day 14 Banff to Glacier National Park

2009-09-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

It’s a beautiful morning in Banff. We shower, change, then head down for a light breakfast. Not a lot of fakers this morning, which makes me very exceptionally happy!

We pick up some maps on the way into breakfast and decide on our way out of town we should check out Banff National Park – it’s only about 5 minutes out of town and the lady at the front desk can’t recommend it highly enough.

We check out of the hotel and pack up the Vibe then head towards the Banff NP – on the way there we see a sign for the lake at the entrance and we can’t help but pull over for photos. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present, Lake Minnewanka! Not to be confused with Majorwanka of which there are many!

We take a casual drive around the park as it’s still reasonably early. The park road seems to be one large loop – it would be a great place to cycle on a nice day. Today despite it starting out lovely, the clouds have started to come in and becoming grey and overcast. We stop for photo opportunities (there are plenty) and there are people suiting up to go scuba diving in the lake. I have no real comprehension of how cold the water is until we get closer to the waters edge and I dip my fingers in.

I suppose one should expect the water to be exceptionally cold in a glacial lake – der!

We have a decent drive to get to our accommodation this evening and once we have completed the loop we get on the road as we will also need to also clear customs today. Back on to the Trans-Canadian Highway we go.

Today we continue heading east over to Calgary (which Mum is very excited about) and then we head south, towards the US / Canadian border. The reason Mum is excited is because of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. Why? I have no idea, I can only assume being in Vancouver has heightened her Winter Olympic spirit.

Tyler decides to drive for a while, and I sit in the backseat and take a nap – I don’t care if it’s mid morning… this is suppose to be a holiday. Finally we reach Calgary just in time as we need to pull over for gas (petrol for the Australian contingent) and a lunch break. You guessed it, there is a Tim Horton's so we decide to pull over here for sandwich and coffee.

This is the last time I will be able to get my Tim Horton's fix as once we pass that US border – it’s all over. No Tim Horton's south of the border, I’m afraid.

After lunch, we see a shopping center which has a scrap booking store. Ever the diligent scrap booker, Mum wants to get some ‘Calgary’ paper et al. We head into the store which has a decent scrapbooking section and Mum spends some of her hard earned cash.

Back on the road we out of Calgary and Mum points out the large ski-jump which was used in the Olympics – we look and smile as we are not as thrilled at this site as Mum is – she is literally dancing in her seat. I swear if she knew the theme song for those Olympics, she would have broken into song!

We reach the US border about 2:00pm and ask Mum politely to please put away her camera – the last thing we need is to be thoroughly questioned about why we are taking photos at a US border crossing!

After what seems like forever in the line (yes, even the border crossings are drive-thru), we approach the window and are grunted at by the customs agent – it appears we are not in Canada anymore. If this agent was only rude, it would have been a 10,000% improvement on the way she treated us. I feel my annoyance level rising, as it usually does when dealing with Government Employees, however this is serious stuff. I know if I piss off this idiot, I could be spending a couple more days in Canada - which I ponder may not be so bad as I will be able to get more Tim Horton's!

However, we bite our tongues and she basically throws our passports back to us and we are instructed to move along. I know these people have a serious job, but being a Grade A bitch about it does not help the matter any.

Regardless of the foul mood we have been infected with, we push to drive through Glacier National Park. My boss spent his holidays at this National Park when he was younger and he’s told me all about the wonderful things we will see when we visit here – and, being the people we are, we are all looking forward to seeing another US National Park. It would not be a US Road Trip without at least 1 National Park.

We love National Parks – it’s sad, but we can’t help it. If you are ever interested in the US National Parks, check out the DVD series: National Parks – America’s Best Idea by Ken Burns. It gives you the history of how the parks were started as well as shows you the parks in different seasons – stunning!

Back to the story. Situated partially in Montana, USA and partially in Alberta, Canada, Glacier National Park has one road travelling north-east to south-west, it’s called the Going To The Sun Road. We will take this road and end up in West Glacier where tonight we will stay at the Glacier Vista Motel.

The Going To The Sun Road (GTTS) is about 50 miles long and no sooner do we enter the park then we are out taking photos. It’s everything my boss told me it would be.

We make the obligatory stop at the Visitors Center to collect guide books, information, maps et al and we are told there is some roadwork on the GTTS Road and we should expect some delays as we cross to West Glacier.

We are not too fussed as tomorrow morning we will be exploring the park at our leisure. We decide to just take our time and drive across the park and if we have to stop for road works, then so be it.

HA! Little did we know….

Before we left for this road trip, knowing we were going to visit several National Parks we purchased an annual pass from the National Park Service. Costing about $100.00 is gains us entry into every National Park for 1 year – not a bad deal as this trip we will end up spending about $90.00 in park fees alone!

We commence our journey across GTTS Road, taking our time stopping at various points of interest along the way and not long into our journey we are stopped for road works. We take the opportunity to get out of the car and look around and of course, take more photos.

It’s a short delay and the pilot car takes us along the road ensuring we reach the end of the road works safely. Pretty soon we are winding our way up a mountainside and we see cars pulled over at the side of the road.

Now for those who have not been to a US National Park, cars pulled over at the side of the road is the national symbol for ‘animals about’. Being the avid wildlife hunters we are, we pull over.

We see a group of people looking up a the face of a monumental mountain – I have no idea how tall it is, but it’s darn big. When we ask them what they are looking at they say Mountain Goats. We pull out zoom lenses and scour the mountain side to no avail. Finally they point out (with our lenses) a group of little white dots – I kid you not they are microscopic – see above right. That is what they were looking at.

They kindly tell us around the next corner (they were travelling in the opposite direction to us) is a beautiful rainbow so we bid farewell to our high up friends in search of the rainbow. Finally found, we pull the car over for a better look as this is more exciting than the white dots on the mountain!

We no sooner get back on the road and we are stopped again for road works. While we are stopped we get out of the car and, yep, you guessed it, take more photos while we wait for the pilot car to show up. There is a long line in front of us, but we are still feeling good about time – it’s about 4:00pm.

About an hour later we finally reach the top of the line and wait for the pilot car to show up. What was supposed to be a casual jaunt across the GTTS Road has turned into a monumental time eater.

We discuss if we continue at this pace we might have to miss coming back tomorrow. We figure we will have plenty of chances to stop and take photos as we now cross the park. It sucks, but tomorrow we have an 8 hour drive to go to Billings – where we are staying for 2 nights.

Not decided one way or another, we push on to West Glacier stopping at road works and other points of interest. By the time we reach West Glacier it’s 6:15pm and we are hungry and tired.

Out of all the places to stay on this trip, the Glacier Vista Motel was the only one I thought might be a bit dodgy. There are no chain motels in West Glacier – no Holiday Inn, no Best Western, nothing. There were a couple of independently owned motels in the area, but this was the most cost effective and decent – from what I could tell from their website.

We reach the motel and pull up out the front and I swear, The Bates Motel looked more appealing. I look at Mum, Mum looks at Tyler and Tyler looks at me and we wonder how quickly we could find alternative accommodation. Finally common sense sees the light of day we figure it can’t be too bad otherwise it would not be in business. We park and head to reception – which is locked.

We knock on the front door of the reception and we are greeted by a lovely lady who welcomes us. She checks us in and introduces us to her cat (who I fall instantly in love with, but it makes me miss my own cats even more) then tells us breakfast will be served from 7:00am the following morning and that the pool is open all night, should we choose a midnight swim.

We ask her if there is a restaurant she can recommend and she tells us down the road there is a diner, but they close at 7:30pm.

We knew we were crossing time zones today from Pacific to Mountain time, but we didn’t realize it was that late – we thought it was only 6:30pm!!

We throw our bags into our room – it’s very clean and tidy and bolt to the local diner. We reach the diner just in time and when we are seated we notice the clock says it is 6:30pm, not 7:30pm! Ack! We tell the waitress and she knows straight away where we are staying. They call our hostess to let her know the diner will be open for another hour. They find it funny and they assure me our hostess does as well!

We have a great dinner and dessert then purchase some postcards before heading back for a well deserved shower and sleep.

First impressions were very deceiving on this lovely motel. The showers were steaming with lots of pressure (there was no bath / shower combination, just a walk in shower, thankfully), there was a lot of knotty pine in the room, and there was no TV, which after several nights of NCIS was actually a blessing.

We tease Mum when she goes to take a shower: ‘Have a nice shower……. Mother’ and we make the ‘rea-rea-rea-rea-rea’ sound. I them remember when I was younger Mum said she hated showering for ages after initially seeing Psycho in the 1960’s! Tyler and I have a ton of fun teasing her, before turning off the lights.

We have decided after the road works today we will not go back to Glacier National Park we are going to get up and head directly to Billings.

It’s not long before we are sound asleep – I bet Mum slept with one eye open though!

Highlight of the Day: Glacier National Park (minus the road works)

2009 Road Trip – Day 13 Salmon Arm to Banff

2009-09-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

We wake up at 7:30am to the sun shining and the birds singing. It’s a beautiful day in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

Anxious to get on the road, we head in for showers then walk downstairs to get breakfast. It’s not the style of breakfast we have become accustomed to on the ship, but it’s still muffins, toast, cereal, eggs etc. I put together a makeshift Bacon and Egg McMuffy and look for a place to sit.

One look around the room tells me that I’ve been followed – by fakers. Old, pushy people everywhere, all clambering to the food table in case they miss out on their 4th helping of bacon and eggs!

As the fakers are all sitting down to 3rd and 4th helpings and there is no where for us to sit I see a sliding door to the outdoor sitting area. Thinking it will be a great way to stay away from fakers, I head outside leaving the sliding door ajar as it’s an automatic locking door. This way Tyler and Mum wont need to fiddle around trying to get it open when they come out to join me.

What can only be described as ‘asshole faker’ decides the 2 inches I’ve left it ajar is offensive to him, so he gets up, giving me a filthy look and closes the door, essentially locking me outside. In the interim, Mum and Tyler have found us somewhere to sit, and they motion for me to come inside. When my arm movements indicate I’m locked out, they try to get the door open, but no such luck - they have to find a member of staff to open it for me.

All the time I’m standing there looking at ‘asshole faker’ with my ‘Well done, asshole’ look upon my face. It’s a beautiful, sunny day, I’m sure that small burst of fresh air you were experiencing wont make you melt or more appropriately, make you burst into flames!

They finally get the door open and I walk past asshole fakers’ table and as I do, Mum gives me the ‘don’t say a word’ look over her shoulder. I begrudgingly oblige and silently pass them without a sound.

Just as we are about to finish our breakfast, ‘asshole faker’ walks by our table and I mutter ‘such an asshole’. I don’t know if he hears me or not, but I feel better after saying my piece, then I feel even better when I view his footwear – sandals and socks. Really? What is wrong with some people?

We check out of the hotel, pack up the car and Mum decides she would like to explore Salmon Arm for a while and as we all have postcards to send so opt to head downtown to see if we can locate a post office.

We find the post office and a Tim Horton's so everyone is now happy! We drive around town for a while occasionally stopping for photos, and as you can see Salmon Arm is truly a beautiful town, I’m so glad we stopped here.

Today’s itinerary includes a picnic lunch at Lake Louise in Alberta. From the photos I have seen of this glacial lake it’s breath-taking.

It’s about a 4 hour drive from Salmon Arm to Lake Louise and during our travels across the Trans-Canada Highway we have amazing views of the Canadian Rockies. They are truly Mother Natures best works of art.

The weather is fine in some parts, then rainy, then cloudy, then fine. It’s like I’m in Melbourne – 4 Seasons In One Day!

When we reach Lake Louise the rain stops just as we pull up in the parking lot, and just like it was planned the brilliance of sun shine appears out of nowhere.

Cameras in hand, not knowing how long the good weather will last we make a mad dash out to the lake, where we are greeted with the following view.

A bus load of Korean Tourists show up just as we are pulling out our cameras – one group of which wants to capture his daughter and her friend jumping in the air with the lake in the background. It takes them about 12 goes before they thankfully give up and move on.

After about 15 minutes of exploring the lake the rain appears again so we head back to the car. So much for our picnic lunch. Soggy sandwiches is not really appetizing to any of us and the hotel overlooking the lake will probably cost an arm and a leg so we decide to push on to Banff. We figure we can stop somewhere on the road and grab a bite to eat.

We reach Banff at about 2:30pm, well ahead of schedule and as we attempt to pull into the allotted parking area we see we are blocked by another car. We stop and head into reception, to see if we can check in early, only to find there is a woman in front of us who has made reservations but she’s not sure she would like to stay at the Best Western Siding 29 Lodge. We can’t figure out why, but she’s trying to renegotiate her room rate and wants to check the rooms before she’s committed to staying there.

The desk clerk, with the patience of a saint tries to appease her and does inform her their cancellation policy is 48 hours prior to the day of check-in, otherwise you will forfeit your room fee. She’s making all kinds of threats and accusations before she finally agrees to check in. We then also find out Little Miss Annoying is the owner of the car blocking everyone’s access to the parking lot. Figures!

We approach the desk and I smile at the desk clerk which says ‘You poor soul, if I had to deal with her, I would have clocked her’. She smiles and welcomes us. Our room is nice and clean and we have a balcony with lovely flowers, which would be nice to sit outside, except the weather has started to get cold again.

We no sooner drop off our bags and we walk over to the main shopping street of Banff. Probably one of the most picturesque towns I have ever visited, it looks straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting - I can only imagine what it looks like at Christmas!

We hit all the typical tourist and souvenir stores, once again our shopping weighs us down with presents for family and friends – well at least that is what I tell myself! There are several Christmas stores in the town, and I have been anxious to purchase myself a nice Santa for the house – I was hoping I could get one here, but there is no such luck.

I walk into a store and there is an Australian girl behind the counter – we chat for a while – she is from Brisbane and she tells me there are heaps of Aussies around here. She said even more so when winter hits as the ski-ing is fabulous and it’s right at your door. She also tells me it’s really expensive to live here during those months, but if you are an avid skier (as she is) it’s well worth it for a season or two.

After hitting every store along the street, some 2 or 3 times we decide we should try and find somewhere for dinner. It’s only when we start to look at the menus on the front doors of restaurants I see what my Australian friend meant – dinner at an average restaurant will end up costing us about $100.00 – which is definitely not in the budget for any of us.

We stop to get a drink and ask someone for the best pizza in town and they recommend us to Boston Pizza. Having a pizza restaurant in the family, Tyler and I have become pizza snobs, however we bite the bullet and order delivery for our hotel. It’s nearly 9:00pm when they deliver and we all dive on in – I don’t think any of us realized how hungry we were.

We all agree it’s not great pizza, but it does plug the gap in our grumbling tummies. After tidying up, Tyler decides to read, while Mum puts on the TV to – you guessed it NCIS while I put on my iPod and start to zone out. I’m still adjusting to a day without Nanna Naps so it’s not long before I am fast asleep.

Tomorrow we head back into the US via Montana and Glacier National Park.

Highlight of the Day: Lake Louise

2009 Road Trip – Day 12 Vancouver to Salmon Arm

2009-09-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

Our ship arrives back in Vancouver at about 6:00am and as usual, it’s a rainy, cloudy day. I don’t know why we were expecting anything else, after all it’s only summer in the northern hemisphere!

We are up early as today we plan to head out of Vancouver over to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, then we take a 5 hour drive north-east to Salmon Arm.

We have our last meal on the ship then head to our room to pack up and grab our carry on, or in this case, carry off, things. It’s still early as we disembark and today the fakers are not doing the 5-minute mile down the hallway as there is still food being served!

We step onto land again and prepare to meet our friendly customs agent with his usual questions – how long will you be in Canada, what is the purpose of your visit. The only one missing from the usual list is “Where are you travelling from today"? as the answer is pretty obvious!

We clear customs without problem then walk out to pick up our luggage which is very neatly sorted into color groups. When we woke this morning, we found in our room ‘in box’ outside the door, a color coded ticket which they left when collecting our baggage overnight. This color coded card will tell us where to collect our luggage.

We collect the bags and walk through the terminal to meet the bus taking us back to the long term parking lot. I smile to myself as I realize I’m one of those people I laughed at on my way on board the ship - I’m heading off the ship laden down with bags upon bags of souvenirs. I tell myself the bags contain presents for family and friends – not all of the contents are for yours truly!

We load our stuff onto the bus that takes us over to the parking lot where my little Vibe has been waiting patiently for our return. The car does not look any worse for wear, so we start the odious task of packing the car within an inch of it’s poor little life.

I decide to take the first shift driving and Mum sits in the front seat, itinerary in hand. We drive out of downtown, over the Lions Gate Bridge over to North Vancouver. The rain has temporarily ceased, however there are still clouds hovering.

We reach the Capilano Suspension Bridge and decide the $30.00 entrance fee is a little too much to spend a couple of hours walking across a rope suspension bridge. In hindsight, I think we opted not to go over the bridge because we were so anxious to move onto the next town.

So after stopping and paying for parking, we jump back in the car and start driving east on the Trans-Canada 1. As we move away from Vancouver, the clouds start to (thankfully) dissipate. Finally, I think, perhaps we might be able to get out of the sweatshirts and jeans!

On our journey east we note we are driving behind a tour truck for Keith Urban. It’s not Mr. Kidman's bus, it’s only the equipment, but nevertheless a conversation on why I believe Nicole Kidman is a bad ambassador for Australia is started.

Around lunchtime we see a Tim Hortons and pull over for a well deserved coffee and lunch break. Realizing my Tim Hortons coffee experiences are now limited, I savor every sip. I get another cup to take on the road with me.

At about 3:30pm we reach Salmon Arm – tonight we are staying at the Holiday Inn Express Hotels and Suites. We check into our room and lay down for a while. After all the days on the sea with my daily Nanna Naps, I’m find I am really missing the opportunity to recharge my batteries.

After a little rest we head out for some dinner. After driving around town for a while we come across a White Spot which sounds so much worse than the burgers taste. When I lived in Vancouver, there was one of these just up the road from my house – they have the best hamburgers; burger, mayo, cheese. Yum.

After a filling meal we head back to the hotel to watch some TV and rest up. Mum is addicted to NCIS and we watch the first of many episodes tonight. For some strange reason on this trip no matter what time or where we are, there is always an episode of NCIS to watch.

She updates her journal as I drift off to sleep. Tomorrow is a big day, we head over to Banff in Alberta via Lake Louise.

Highlight of the Day: Tim Hortons & White Spot for dinner.