Feb 2016 Keys

As we near our last three weeks in the Keys, we look back over this year's stay and realize that our list of friends in the Keys is growing.  Our tennis group has grown close, we now have pickle ball friends that we enjoy being around, and some of our snow bird friends are purchasing homes here. 

The weather continues to improve and its now slightly warmer than we are comfortable with!  But we will manage to endure it.  The annual clam bake was a huge success again and I believe our visitors (R&L) enjoyed it.  

We think the biggest improvement in our visit this year has been the new golf push carts we purchased and brought down.  They have made the par 3 course much more enjoyable.  I can't say my game has improved any though.

2016!

This is the fifth winter we have been lucky enough to spend in the Florida Keys!  We left home January 1st and will hopefully return home in March!    This January has been unusually wet and cooler than normal.  In 31 days, we have had over 10 inches of rain in Key Colony Beach.  

We can't believe we are almost half way through our stay here.  We have been able to bike, kayak through the mangroves, play tennis and golf, and watch beautiful sunsets over the Atlantic Ocean and even got to watch Alabama win the national football championship with our friends here; some of which are from Alabama and some that live in Alabama but have strong ties to Clemson!  

I must admit to being just a little homesick for a precious 2-year old nephew.  I am thankful for facetime and a generous brother and sister in law that indulge us every few nights!  We look forward to visits in February from Madilyn (and her parents), and River (and his parents)!

We have found a fun new sport!  Pickleball!  Although there's not as much running as in tennis, its certainly an activity to get your heart rate up! 

Time To Go Home!

We left Sydney on Wednesday at 2 p.m. and got into Dallas on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.  Go figure!   But after a great 15 hour flight to Dallas and a short flight to Huntsville, we are home again!

We really did have a great flight because of a great flight attendant with Qantas.  I won't call names, but you know who you are!  We had booked exit row seats and as we were settling in, I stopped an attendant and asked where our TV monitors were.  She looked at me very seriously and said, "oh, with those seats, you don't get a TV!".   Then she quickly pushed a button between the seats and raised it up.  She later told me the expression on my face was priceless!   That began a great new friendship.  Right after take off, she asked what we wanted to drink and Richard asked for two glasses of red wine.  The other attendants were busy preparing a "welcome aboard" drink that looked like pink lemonade.  She quickly came back with a bottle of wine.  She looked around at the attendants and the pink stuff and said "you don't want any of that slop, I brought you an entire bottle from first class...I'll just put it here and you can let me know when you want more".   Did I mention a new best friend?  

Every time she walked by, she seemed to be giving us something else.  After the wine, came packs of M&Ms and two bottles of water.  After dinner, she came by with two plates of cheese, crackers, and figs along with a glass of Port and a glass of Cointreau; oh and then there was the vanilla bean ice cream.  An hour or so later, two twix bars, more blankets and pillows.  During the night I got a tour of upstairs.  She wanted to show me the best seats on the jumbo jet.  At sunrise, we got two new pairs of Qantas pajamas and two first class leather amenity kits that were designed by SK-2.   Then, shortly before landing, here comes a duty free bag with not one, but two bottles of Australian wine.  I'm so glad we checked all our luggage and had an almost empty carry on!  We exchanged emails with hopes to see each other again.  We hope she comes for a visit to Alabama!

So, we finally got home last night!   Life is good!

Last Day in Sydney, then Back to the Future!

Today we headed to Bondi Beach and did the coastline walk along the cliffs for awhile.  It was quite warm today and the sun was shining!

 

 

 

We ran into a couple from Florida that had been on the ship with us while at Bondi Beach.   We then made a brief trip to the botanical gardens.  It is 75 acres and has huge green spaces.  It reminded me of Central Park.  Maybe we were just weary, but we made our way through it quite quickly. 

 

Tomorrow morning (October 21, 2015) we pack up and leave Sydney at 2 pm.  We will get to Dallas at 1:35 p.m. on October 21, 2015.... before we actually leave Sydney!   Coincidently, tomorrow is the day that Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to in the  movie "Back to the Future Part 2"!   If Quantas has a

DeLorean parked on the tarmac, I'm staying in Australia!

 

 

 



Down Under

The apartment we rented in Kings Cross through Airbnb (Modern apt in heart of Kings Cross) is very comfortable.  Its close to the train station and is in walking distance to lots of restaurants.

There are 4-1/2 million people that live in Sydney.  We waited until after rush hour to take the train to the harbor.   From there, we took the ferry to Manly Beach.  This is where our friends Jim and Corolla live, when they aren't sailing the world.  We met them on our South America cruise last year.  Unfortunately, they weren't in the country today.

We stopped back by Watson Bay and walked around this quaint little suburb.  Apparently they are fighting a large developer that is wanting to convert several historic buildings into hotels.  They don't want it to turn into a Darling Harbor type area.  I guess we'll have to visit Darling Harbor tomorrow to see what it is they aren't wanting!

We went back to the harbor at sunset and walked around The Rocks.  A number of people were doing the arch walk, but we just didn't feel the need!

However, I get upside down, down under!

Moving on to Sydney, Australia!

We left home one month ago today (September 18th).  Last night after our Milford Sound trip, we were strolling along the streets of Queenstown looking for a place to eat dinner.  Richard happened to be wearing his hoodie with the Muscle Shoals documentary logo on it.  Suddenly, three very nice ladies ran up to him and announced that they were from Florence, Alabama!    Some students from the University of Alabama were on a study tour and one of the girl's mother and her friend came to visit her.   Naturally, after talking for two minutes we realized we had common friends and one of them was my sister's neighbor.   It is truly a small world.  But had it not been for the Muscle Shoals music documentary, we would have never met.....at least not in Queenstown, New Zealand!

We headed back to the airport this morning to go to Sydney, Australia.  Richard has been here before, but its a new country for me to check off.   We are flying Air New Zealand and have been impressed with them (so far....I'm writing this while flying).   When they began the boarding process, they announced that rows 1-15 would board through the forward door and rows 16-32 would board through the rear door.    Makes perfect sense, you've got the back door, why not use it to make things more efficient!   The safety video was shown on the TV monitors and it was a rap rendition of a Men in Black spoof.  The All Blacks are New Zealand's rugby team and are as highly thought of as our favorite SEC team.   It was pretty innovative and definitely kept everyone's attention to the end.  We also noticed that all the female flight attendants wear their hair in a neat bun at the back of their head.   I'm not sure what the hair requirements are for the men!

We continue to be thrilled with our decision to disembark the ship in Dunedin.   We did hear that the Golden Princess made it to Milford Sound after all.  As the people in Queenstown said, two days is too early to make a prediction regarding their weather.  

We look forward to exploring Sydney and the surrounding area for the next few days!   Until then.....

Milford Sound

If one picture is worth a thousand words,  then this post is going to go on forever!    As I mentioned earlier, the primary reason we jumped ship was because our overnight excursion to Queenstown and Milford Sound got cancelled.   Today reaffirms that we made a good decision.   The weather in Queenstown changes by the hour.  As soon as we arrived in Queenstown on Thursday we booked a scenic flight to Milford Sound for 10 a.m. on Friday morning.  They only make these flights if weather conditions are absolutely perfect.  At 9 a.m. that morning, we received a call informing us that they would not be flyng that day.  We rebooked for 2 p.m. the following day at their advise, because being familiar with their weather patterns, the company thought that was the best chance of going.  At 1 p.m. yesterday it was confirmed that we were going. 

They sent a taxi to our hotel to pick us up and took us to the Queenstown airport where we boarded the 6 passenger Cessna plane.

There was just our pilot, Nick, a young lady from the tourist information center, and us!   Milford Sound is located on the other side of the mountains, on the western coast of the south island.  The trip by car or bus is 5 hours one way.  Although we were told the scenery was beautiful, that's really a long drive.  Richard recommended we get there in 35 minutes by plane.  Great idea!

As we made our way through the mountainous terrain, Nick turned the microphone on the headsets to "crew".  He and Richard enjoyed too many laughs.  

He did comment once that to the passengers in the back, it looks like we're really close to these mountains!

 

Nick flew us to the mouth of Milford Sound, where it opens to the Tasman Sea.   It was truly breathtaking!

 

He then banked left, descended, and gracefully landed on a tiny runway surrounded by huge mountains.

 

The 1-1/2 hour boat excursion we took once we landed was very good, however, it paled in comparison to the flight over these majestic mountains!

On our return flight to Queenstown, I was so overwhelmed, that I realized tears were flowing down my face.  I've heard that travel is the only thing you can spend money on, that makes you richer!  This day confirmed that.