Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Home Again

Blogs, Dogs and Cobwebs

Hello. *coughs* Is anybody there? *fading echoes*.

Phew ... it's musty in here. Let me open up a few windows. *sound of windows squeaking open*

That's better ...

Thursday, May 16, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney in a Nutshell

Following is the itinerary for our trip home from San Francisco.

San Francisco to Sydney - Days 31-32

Day 32 : Diamond Head Crater, Oahu

What better way to finish your stay in Hawaii than by attempting a 560 feet (170 metres) climb up the ridge of a volcanic crater in 80°F (27°C) heat along a track 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometres) long with 2 tunnels and 227 steps? We couldn't think of anything better, so, this morning, we set off for the Diamond Head State Monument to make the climb.

Tuesday, May 14, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Days 29-30

Day 30 : Grand Circle Island Tour, Oahu

Today, another tour, this time a 140 mile (200 kilometre) bus tour around the island of Oahu.

Sunday, May 12, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Days 27-28

Day 28 : Stars and Stripes Tour, Oahu

We arose this morning with the Sun - personally, if I were the Sun, I'd be asking the boss for a later starting time - to make sure that we met our tour pick-up bus at 6:40am, downstairs and across the road.

Friday, May 10, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 26

Day 26 : Honolulu, Oahu

There was no storm last night, just a few showers, so today was like yesterday : humid and overcast.

This is the first hotel room we've stayed in on this trip that has had cooking facilities, so this morning we made use of them. Debbie made French toast, which we had with Vegemite, making for a breakfast that's about as close to at-home as it's possible to get while not being at home.

Thursday, May 9, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 25

Day 25 : San Diego to Honolulu, Oahu

Regular readers will know by now that I don't like early starts. So you can guess how I felt about getting up this morning before 6:00am for a short flight to LA, followed by a lengthy transit stop and then an even lengthier flight to Honolulu. In truth though, it wasn't all that bad.

Tuesday, May 7, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 24

Day 24 : Balboa Park, San Diego

Look at that. Before you know it, it's Day 24 and tomorrow you're due to fly to the last place on your itinerary.

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 23

Day 23 : San Diego Zoo

Everything in the US, it seems, is world-famous. Well, that's how they bill themselves, anyway. Today, we visited the world-famous San Diego Zoo, though it does have some genuine claim to this description.

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 22

Day 22 : San Diego and Surrounds

Yesterday, I had no photos for the blog; today, I've got too many.

Saturday, May 4, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 21

Day 21 : Palm Springs to San Diego

There are no photos today. We spent most of the day, again, on buses - one from Palm Springs to San Bernardino and another from San Bernardino to San Diego. Greyhound buses are clean and reliable, but if I don't see the inside of one for a while, I won't miss the experience.

Friday, May 3, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Days 19-20

Day 20 : Palm Springs

With so much hiking and travelling over the past two days, and with another five or so hours of travel ahead of us tomorrow, we decided to have a quiet day today.

We spent the morning walking the streets of downtown Palm Springs, stopping occasionally to enjoy the air-conditioning inside a souvenir or a book shop. It's about 85°F (30°C) outside, the warmest I think it's been here since we arrived.

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 18

Day 18 : Palm Springs

About fifteen minutes from downtown Palm Springs are a set of trails collectively known as the Indian Trails. There are around twenty trails in the set, ranging in difficulty from easy to life-threatening. Debbie and I walked two of the trails today : Victor Trail (2½ miles or 4 kilometres and rated moderately easy), and Andreas Canyon (½ mile or 800 metres and rated easy, with 'some rock scramble').

Wednesday, May 1, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Days 16-17

Day 17 : Palm Springs

Aerial Tramway On the outskirts of Palm Springs is an Aerial Tramway that takes visitors from the base station 2,600 feet (800 metres) above sea level to the mountain station in Mt. San Jacinto Wilderness State Park 8,500 feet (2,600 metres) above sea level. The tram ascends at an average angle of 50° and the 2.5 mile (4 kilometre) trip takes about a quarter of an hour.

Monday, April 29, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney Snapshots - Long Beach

Our photos of Long Beach comprise photos of:

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 15

Day 15 : Catalina Island

Avalon Bay

About 26 miles (40 kilometres) from Long Beach lies the island of Catalina, just under an hour's journey away by jet catamaran. Debbie and I stepped from one such catamaran onto the island's Avalon Bay at around 9:00am to warm weather and cloudless skies.

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 14

Day 14 : Long Beach

This morning we walked from our hotel down towards the ocean, stopping at an area known as Shoreline Village to grab a late breakfast alongside the Long Beach marina. Yesterday's rain, the second we'd had during our trip, had disappeared and the morning was warm and a little overcast.

Saturday, April 27, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney Snapshots - San Luis Obispo

To travel from Monterey to Long Beach via Amtrak or Greyhound meant at least 12 hours of travel and 2-3 hours in transit. So we decided to break our journey in San Luis Obispo and then delay the second leg to visit the San Luis Obispo de Tolosa mission.

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 13

Day 13 : San Luis Obispo to Long Beach (via Los Angeles)

Our sole reason for visiting San Luis Obispo was to see the San Luis Obispo de Tolosa Mission, established in 1772 as the fifth of twenty-one missions across California. The Mission's church is still in use for regular services, as well as being available to the general public. There's also a garden, a gift shop and a small museum displaying a range of religious and other historical items, such as photos of the Mission across different time periods.

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 12

Day 12 : Monterey to San Luis Obispo

We spent most of today travelling, first by Amtrak mini-bus from Monterey to Salinas, and then by Amtrak train from Salinas to San Luis Obispo. The train was late pulling into Salinas and, accordingly, we were late arriving at San Luis Obispo. The terms "late" and "Amtrak" appear to be synonymous, but today was our last Amtrak journey, so this is no longer of concern to us.

San Francisco to Sydney Snapshots - In and Around Monterey

Monterey is a city located on a sweeping bay about 2 hours drive south of San Francisco.

These pages show photos of our trips in and around Monterey:

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 11

Day 11 : San Simeon to Monterey

Another early start today as we needed to be at Hearst Castle by 9:30am for our 10:00am tour. Tours to the Castle are scheduled every 20 minutes of the day, and they have a slightly militaristic and mechanistic feel to them. Such Swiss-clock like precision allows the tour operators to push nearly 1 million visitors through the Castle each year.

Tuesday, April 23, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 10

Day 10 : Monterey to San Simeon

We spent a relaxing day today wending our way down Highway 1 from Monterey to San Simeon. For this trip of around one hundred miles, Highway 1 mostly hugs the coast, and it features dramatic overlooks and vista points every ½ mile or so. (An 'overlook' or 'vista point' in the US is roughly the same as a 'lookout' in Australia).

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 9

Day 9 : Monterey

Things are tough in the tourist industry right now.

This afternoon we took the Monterey Bay Scenic Tour in a tour bus that seats about 80 people. Including Debbie and I, there were three people on the tour, four if you count the driver. We could just as easily have hired a taxi and split the fare.

Monday, April 22, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 8

Day 8 : Monterey

Monterey is famous for its aquarium, and we spent most of today walking among and photographing the aquarium's nearly 200 galleries and exhibits. The brochure that we were handed as we entered claims that the aquarium is home to 250,000 creatures. I think Debbie and I have at least one photo of each of them.

Sunday, April 21, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 7

Day 7 : San Francisco to Monterey

We travelled today via Greyhound bus, the first of four or five times we'll do this during our trip home. The trip was pleasant enough and uneventful, and we saw parts of California that we'd surely never have otherwise seen, places such as Hayward, Los Gatos, and Watsonville, none of them among the shortlist of Californian tourist meccas.

Friday, April 19, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney Snapshots - Yosemite Valley

The Yosemite Valley is one of our favourite places and we were not leaving California without visiting it again. We last visited in September 1999 at the end of a long, dry Summer. This time we were visiting in early Spring after one of the heaviest Winter snowfalls.

San Francisco to Sydney - Days 5-6

Day 6 : San Francisco

Quick : name the original seven dwarves. Well, there's Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Sneezy, right? Actually, no.

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 4

Day 4 : Yosemite National Park

Last night it snowed. I first became aware of this at about 4:30am as I was on my way to the toilet block, wearing thongs and a short-sleeved t-shirt. Early mornings have never seen me at my intellectual peak - this morning was no exception - and so it wasn't until I was about three-quarters of the way to my ultimate destination that I realised my feet felt unexpectedly cold. And damp.

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 3

Day 3 : Yosemite National Park

I'm typing this while something in the next cabin is barking. This leads me to suspect one of two possible scenarios : our neighbours have snuck a small dog into their cabin or they have a squirrel trapped in there that, with a voice that loud, is clearly not one to be messed with. It's raining outside so I'll defer my investigation until later.

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 2

Day 2 : Yosemite National Park

This morning we let ourselves sleep a little longer to fully recuperate from the many hours of travel we endured yesterday. As forecasted, it did get very cold overnight : I can testify firsthand to this based on my 6:30am visit to the communal facilities, necessitated by the absence of a toilet in our cabin.

San Francisco to Sydney - Day 1

Day 1 : San Francisco to Yosemite National Park

We arose this morning only to find the Sun still in bed. If I were asked to name my top 40 half-hours of the day, 4:30am to 5:00am would fail to rate a mention as would its close relatives 5:00am to 5:30am and 5:30am to 6:00am.

Saturday, April 13, 2002

Moving Day

It's Friday night. The pets are in boarding. Our furniture is wrapped, boxed and on its way home. We've spent hours cleaning every crevice, fixture and surface in what used to be our house. We've met our landlord who, as happens rarely in my experience, looked almost exactly as I'd imagined he would based on a scant few conversations with him : mid-to-late forties, greying, with a round, bespectacled face. Now, we're in a hotel in San Bruno, resting and recuperating before our assault on Yosemite, the West Coast of California, and Honolulu.

Wednesday, April 10, 2002

Another Suitcase In Another Hall

As has been the pattern in all the relocations we've endured over the past few years, the week or so before the move is punctuated by a series of disappearances. One day the phone is cut off, another day the rubbish stops being collected, and so it goes.

Monday, April 8, 2002

Countdown

In five days time we leave this house and end up where we started - the Courtyard Marriott at San Bruno. We farewell the pets on Thurday and, unless we visit them in prison, a.k.a. Quarantine, we won't see them again until August. It's going to be difficult - visiting times are Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:30pm-3:30pm. At least their long stay in Quarantine will give us time to find somewhere to live and ensure that the yard is Mitzi escape-proofed.

Wednesday, April 3, 2002

BWAIN (Blog Without An Interesting Name)

It's late on Wednesday night - about a quarter to eleven - and Debs and I are being just about as yuppie-like as it's possible to be. I'm blogging on my laptop on this side of the table and she's editing and captioning photos for the web site on her laptop on her side of the table. And no, for those of you who've asked, we don't instant-message one another across the table. E-mail's far more efficient ...

Saturday, March 30, 2002

Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Snapshots

Mount Tamalpais - or as it is know locally, Mount Tam - is 2571ft (about 800m) high and is located in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge. The east peak offers panoramic views of the ocean, cities and bay.

Napa Valley Snapshots

One of our early day trips was to the Napa Valley. The Napa Valley is about an hour's drive from San Francisco and is renowned for its wines. We took this trip at the start of February because we wanted to ensure that we finished the stock before we left (well all except one bottle ... see the Playing Catchup Blogging post for further details - Tony). Unfortunately none of the wines was outstanding - I guess that's what happens when you choose your wineries from a backpacker's guide.

I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet

It's just about impossible to live in California without, at some point, becoming inquisitive about earthquakes. Major fault lines run up the western coast passing within a mile or two of us, and a few run inland. Together these faults produce a plentiful supply of mild tremors - 314 in the last 7 days - and the occasional, more attention-grabbing, certified earthquake.

Wednesday, March 27, 2002

There's Snow In Them There Mountains

Where did our early Spring go? The doona was cleaned and put away, the fire logs were stored in the garage and then, suddenly, Winter's back and it's freezing again. Last week I was driving south. It was such a clear day I could see the mountains on the other side of the Bay and there was snow on the peaks!

Monday, March 18, 2002

Blog!

It's Monday and I'm blogging again, exactly two weeks after I last blogged. There must be something about Mondays that makes them paticularly blog-worthy. It's a versatile word 'blog', and variations come readily to mind.

Sunday, March 17, 2002

We're On Our Way Home!

“Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening at once.
Lately it doesn't seem to be working.”
Anonymous

We're finally on our way home and all of a sudden it seems like there's a million things to do in very little time. We are hoping to leave Burlingame on the 12th April and make our way home via Yosemite National Park, San Diego, Palm Springs, Joshua Tree National Park and Hawaii.

As this is probably my last chance to write from American soil I am making no apologies for this wordy blog.

Monday, March 4, 2002

The Burlingame PEZ Museum

It's Monday, only a day after the previous post, so there's no new local news to pass on. Instead, we'll jump straight into the next installment of Debbie's and Tony's daytrips.

Sunday, March 3, 2002

They Passed!

To our considerable relief, we learned Friday from our local vet that Mitzi and Astra passed the rabies antibody test. This means that we can now start the multi-stepped process for transporting them (and us) home. Ironically, the registration tags for both of them arrived on the same day that we received the news so, just as they've become legitimate canine and feline members of San Mateo County, we're about to commence the task of turning them back into Aussies. Ah well, at least the new registration tags make cool clinking sounds when Astra and Mitzi move. Debs thinks that this sound makes Mitzi sound like a large dog. This goes well with her throaty bark and with Mitzi's own delusions of her size and import, but sits incongruously with her 5kg weight and 25cm stature.

Wednesday, February 27, 2002

Golden Gate Bridge Snapshots

I know we already have tons of photos of the Golden Gate Bridge on the site, but you haven't seen it from this angle. Instead of cruising under the bridge or viewing it from afar we decided to walk across it.

Saturday, February 23, 2002

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

This, I promise, will be a much shorter blog than the last.

It's Sunday here now and the afternoon chill is just starting to settle in. We're still no closer to knowing exactly when we can leave the US, or when we can even start to plan to leave. The results of the pets' latest blood tests should be available early the week after next. Until then, there's nothing much else we can do.

Playing Catchup Blogging

As Debbie so correctly pointed out this afternoon, I'm falling behind in the blogging of our daytrips. I've yet to cover the Napa Valley, San Jose or Coyote Point and, with a sure-to-be-blogworthy trip to the Burlingame Pez Museum scheduled for tomorrow, I do need to start chronicling some of these earlier journeys before the memories fade.

Sunday, February 17, 2002

An Updated Web Site!

We have a new record - it's only been 12 days since the last major update of the web site. (This reference is to our previous web site - Deb 2011.) I'm not counting blog updates because it is easier to update the blog than the rest of the site. Because we're studying HTML and JavaScript I find I'm spending a lot of time trying new things out on the web site and correcting errors in my original code. At the same time, I want to ensure that the web content does not fall too far behind the blog.

Thursday, February 14, 2002

San Jose Snapshots

San Jose is a sprawling city in the Santa Cruz Valley. It is hard to think of Santa Cruz Valley as a valley - you can see mountains in the distant east and west but in between there are miles and miles of flat space. We travelled to San Jose by train, only an hour's journey from our station at Broadway. Along the tracks there were all the signs of suburbia : backyard fences, shopping malls, busy streets. I was surprised to see blossoming fruit trees alongside wattle(!) trees. I guess the wattle shouldn't have surprised me - the El Camino Real is flanked by huge eucalyptus trees.

Tuesday, February 12, 2002

Yes, this Blog is Still Alive

Debs and I have been so busy learning HTML and Javascript over the past few days that neither of us have had the time to blog. The online course material has been generally good and rapidly digested, though some parts have been a little confusingly worded. It's the assignments though that suck up the time.

Tuesday, February 5, 2002

Filling In Time

We're still in the USA waiting for the pets to develop enough rabies antibodies to allow us to apply to Australian Quarantine to bring them home. It will be five weeks before we know whether this round of booster injections have been effective and, as yet, we haven't made much of a dent in the list of short trips I've compiled. We are conquering the local transport system and becoming quite adept at determining which mode of transport and what routes to take. Pity we won't be around to use it much in the future.

Sunday, February 3, 2002

The Updated Web Site : Coming Soonish to a Browser Near You

The last few days have seen our dining room become Web Site Update Central as Debbie has been ceaselessly updating our web site in preparation for the next 'edition'. We've now moved to Paint Shop Pro 7 as our photo-editing tool of choice, and Debbie's now become so proficient at HTML that she prefers to enter our web pages directly rather than use MS Frontpage. So, the last few days have seen 3am bedtimes ...

Friday, February 1, 2002

Brrr ...

It's about 5pm Friday afternoon, the Sun is disappearing, and the evening chill is beginning to set in. It's been like this now for a couple of weeks : generally coolish days followed by freezing or near-freezing nights and early mornings. Just a few nights ago there was a snow advisory for the entire Bay peninsula excepting only San Francisco county.

Wednesday, January 30, 2002

Phooey

Yesterday we got the results of the blood tests for Mitzi and Astra : two 'fails'. Neither of them had managed to produce the necessary levels of rabies antibody that would allow us to apply for their transport home. Sheesh! How hard can it be?!

Saturday, January 26, 2002

Coit Tower Murals Snapshots

In 1929, Lillian Hitchcock-Coit bequeathed $US118,000 to the "beautification" of San Francisco. With this money, Coit Tower was built in 1932 and the murals were commissioned as part of a public works program. The murals depict scenes from California life in 1934 and are frescos - dry pigment brushed on wet plaster. The artists had to work 12-hour days to ensure that their section was completed before the plaster dried.

Tuesday, January 22, 2002

The Locals Go Tourist

Over the past few weeks - while we're waiting to see if the pets have produced sufficient rabies antibody to allow us to get them back into the country (I swear, it's easier for us to go home than for the pets) - we've been playing tourist and taking one-day excursions to various nearby sights and attractions. We're a few trips behind in our posting; in future we hope to get these up much closer to the day we take the trip.

The First Post

(This was the first Blogger post on our old website - Deb 2012).

Well ... this should be fun ...

Tonight, the first of what will, we hope, be many entries into this weblog.

We plan to use this section of the site to give you the latest on what we've been doing and where we've been going. We'll post small versions of some of the photos here, list favourite websites of the day and maybe include some other bits and pieces. In short, this is the less structured, more informal part of the site.

So, here goes ...

Originally posted by TC.

Saturday, January 19, 2002

Mission District Murals Snapshots

The San Francisco City Guides is an organisation that runs "free" guided tours around the city (a donation is requested). We joined two tours to see murals in the Mission District and Coit Tower.

Friday, January 18, 2002

Thursday, January 10, 2002

San Francisco Bay Cruise Snapshots

The San Francisco Bay Cruise left from Fisherman's Wharf, followed the shore out to the Golden Gate Bridge and then returned past Alcatraz.

Año Nuevo Snapshots

Año Nuevo State Recreation Reserve is located on the coast about 1½ hours drive from San Francisco. Año Nuevo Point is where elephant seals can be found. The peak times are December-March, which is the mating season. During this time, the only way to see the seals is to take a guided tour. Weekend tours can be booked out weeks before.

Friday, January 4, 2002

Thursday, January 3, 2002

Singapore Snapshots

In Singapore I stayed with Hong, who's a friend from University, and her daughter, Yi-Ling. They live at Seragoon Gardens, outside the CBD, so I got to see a different side of Singapore life.