Northern Territory

I’m not being very regular about updating this travel blog but we have been very busy people.  In any case here is a summery of the past couple of days.

Wednesday we poked around Brisbane.  I took a few pictures around Roy & Sylvia’s house.  Brisbane being a semi-tropical area they have lots of “exotic” plants.  Their house is a typical Queensland house although somewhat modified.  Basically the house is raised to provide a proper ceiling on the lower level.  This is a view of their house from the back.

These two pictures are of bamboo along the south side and a close up of some of the Lemons on their lemon tree.  More pictures later.

We went up to the north shore are on the north side of the Brisbane River.  This particular area is near the airport.  It is an old warehouse district that has been partially rebuilt with more ongoing projects.

We had a nice lunch at the Northshore Riverside Café.  Here is an idea of the menu selections we chose.

Interesting building with etched metal panels on part of the facility.

After lunch we enjoyed just sitting outside, enjoying the view of the river.

Sylvia and Katie

View down and up river.

Today we got up early to catch a plane to Sydney & Ayers rock.  Here are Katie and I, a little bleary eyed but glad to be on our way.

And for the spotted cow fans…….

On the way into Sydney we flew over the cities famous  landmarks.  Circular Quay, Sydney harbor Bridge and a third landmark that is a building.

For Dayna……can you find the name of the building and what the building is supposed to represent?

At Sydney we change planes and flew on to Ayers Rock airport.  An interesting fact about this part of Australia is the time zone.  Again for Dayna……what is unusual about the time zone?

Of course the reason for traveling here was to see the famous Uluru rock.  Our first sight was a sunset.  It was extra special because the moon came up in the East just a few degrees north of Uluru about the same time the sun set in the West. 

This picture was taken about 1 1/2 hours before sunset and the picture below was taken about 5 minutes before the sunset.

Other things we saw today:

This is the Bottle Brush tree.

Interesting colors in the trees against the blue sky.

Not sure what kind of bird this is, but he was not afraid of people.  He is about 2 feet from me in this picture.

And finally and interesting view of Uluru through a glass.

Till the next time….your comments are always welcome.

Brisbane–Sep 17, 2013

Many days have passed since I have reported on our travels.  Not that we are lazy, but se have been spending our time catching up on sleep.  It has been a good trip so far, but the flying to get here really takes the energy when one is well into the senior years.

We left home on Saturday morning and 36 hours later we arrived in Brisbane.  We were both tired and somewhat sore from all the sitting.

This picture was taken in Omaha before the first leg of our flying adventure.  We are looking rather chipper and wide awake.  Our first leg was Omaha to Las Vegas.

Katie had to drop a few quarters in the Las Vegas airport while we waited of our next flight to Las Angeles.

We got to LAX without incident and with our luggage.  We were concerned about getting from the Southwest terminal to the Air New Zealand terminal, but they were actually next door to each other.  We had about a 3 1/2 hour layover, so we had a little time to check in, explore the terminal, and grab a snack.

The next leg was on Air New Zealand from Los Angeles to Auckland.  This was our longest leg.  Flight time was about 12 hours.  We had booked and Air Couch, which sounded like a good idea.  The idea of an Air Couch is the seats will make into a sort of small bed.  Unfortunately we soon discovered we are both a little to big to fit.  The one advantage is we had a row of three seats to just the two of us, so at least there was room to spread out some. 

The flight itself was uneventful.  We had two nice meals (dinner and breakfast).  The entertainment system had lots to keep you occupied if you couldn’t sleep.  Monty was able to sleep a little more than Katie, but even so by the time we reached Auckland we were pretty tired.

This is in the Auckland airport.  We are pretty bleary eyed.  From there we flew to Brisbane and were met at the airport by Sylvia and Roy.

Here is a picture of Downtown Auckland and we headed West toward Brisbane.  Maybe someday we can get back and explore some more around this beautiful city.

For Dayna:  What country is Auckland located in?  How far is it from Los Angeles to Auckland?  Can you find the total distance we flew from Omaha to Brisbane?

We arrived in Brisbane around 11:00 AM, tired but glad to be in Australia.  We were met by Sylvia and Roy and headed to Manley where they live.

 

Here is a Lemon tree in their back yard.  Note the palm trees in the back ground.

These two birds are daily visitors to their back porch.  They are called Rainbow Lorikeet. 

We drove around the area just a little bit.  This is called a Boab tree.  It stores water in the wide part of the trunk. 

This is a view of Morton Bay from near the Manly harbor.  Really pretty area.

After a light dinner, the two of us were in bed and asleep by 7:30 PM.  The bed really felt good and 12 hours later we awoke feeling rested and ready to go.

By the way, we left Omaha on Saturday, Sept 14 and after 35 or so hours arrived in Brisbane Monday, Sept 16.  Not sure what happened to Sept 15!

Today, we had a lovely breakfast at Coopers along the waterfront in Manley.  Really yummy and even included freshly squeezed Mandarin juice.

Then Katie and I went to South Brisbane and the Queensland Art Gallery where there was a quilt show of quilts from 1700 to 1945.  Unfortunately no pictures were allowed so you only get this picture of the sign.  Here is a link to the display

In the next gallery, however was a show of quilts by Ruth Stoneley, so here are a couple of our favorites.

We also enjoyed seeing the Monitor Lizards.

And the Ibis hanging around on the museum walls.

Overall a fun day.  I will leave you with a couple of pictures taken around the museum grounds.  A really nice museum with fountains, waterfalls, and lovely plantings.

On the Road again

Hi and welcome to our travel blog.  As most of you know we are on the road, this time for our big trip of the year.  In a little over a day and a half we will be heading for Australia.

As you can see we have sort of started gathering stuff to fill our bag but have a long way to go.  Surprisingly it will get done by the time we have to drive out of the driveway.
We will be gone for 30 days.  We leave to catch our first airplane Saturday morning, fly from Omaha to Los Angeles where we get on an Air New Zealand flight to Auckland, NZ, change planes and then on into Brisbane, Australia.
Of course we will be visiting with Monty’s sister Sylvia, brother in law Roy.  While in Australia we have planned a trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kings Canyon and we are going to spend some time in Sydney and Canberra.
For those that aren’t familiar with Australia,Canberra is the National Capital, like our Washington DC.  Of course between Sydney and Canberra is the Blue Mountains.

The rest of the trip is currently unplanned but there is lots to do around Brisbane and we all have the knack of finding lots of interesting things to do.
So, this is our first entry for this trip.  Welcome aboard, we hope you enjoy riding along on our trip.  This is our third trip to this part of the world and if it is anything like the previous trips, it will be fun.  Probably our next entry in this blog will be after our arrival in Australia, so don’t expect to see anything till next week.  Meanwhile…..thanks for stopping by.  Kia Ora & G’day Mate!

Oshkosh, WI to Albert Lea, MN

Today we parted company with Laura and Scott and Jill and started toward home.  We had a leisurely drive across Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. 

One the way out of Oshkosh we spotted this old fire house.  It is quite a building.

The morning drive to La Crosse was uneventful.  The weather was cool and partly cloudy with no rain.

We made a stop at Olive Juice which is a quilt shop just west of La Crosse.  That was the only quilt shop stop we have made so far this trip.  From there we found a nice place for lunch near downtown and just off the water front.  It was called Piggy Restaurant.

It is in an old industrial building.

We ate in the bar area since that is where lunch is served.  The Bar back and bar front were both interesting pieces.  The Bar back is from an old stern wheeler and the bar front was supposedly part of the Altar in an old church. 

Here are a couple of views along the Mississippi River front.

The local bike racks were fun also.

From La Crosse we drove along a scenic route (MN 16).  It crosses low hills and beautiful valleys.  At it turned out MN 16 was partially closed due to road work so we ended up on a detour.  As a result we saw things we might not have normally seen.

The library building with book shelves painted on the outside in Houston, MN.

The overlook at Rushford Village

The Bald Eagles in a farm field

Ostrander, MN

Or Susie’s Roadhouse

Overall it was a fun day even though it means the trip is coming to an end.

Tomorrow, we will be home.  A couple of planned stops for quilt shops, but should be home sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Minocqua and back

Today was mostly road trip for a drive to Minocqua, Wisconsin and back.  The reason for the trip was to visit a cousin that none of the Ostrander clan had seen for a few years.  In this case it was a cousin, by marriage, from the Kinchloe side of the family.  Sam Kinchloe married Evah Ostrander.  Evah was Sam’s second wife, so Cousin Jeanie is Sam’s granddaughter by his first wife.  Further explanation…..Evah is one of the 4 Ostrander siblings, Ivah, Evah, Dan, and Ruth.  Katie Ostrander Wilson is Dan’s daughter, Jill Gosma Hershberger is Ruth’s daughter, and Laura Wilber is Ivah’s daughter.  Complicated but that is the story and I’m sticking to it!!

Weather for the drive up to Minocqua (150 miles) was rainy and drizzly, but the roads were good all the way and traffic was light.  The scenery in route was green and lush with rivers and lakes along the way.

We met up with Jeanie and had a lovely lunch at the Boat House restaurant. 

   Jill, Scott, Laura, Katie, Jeanie, Monty at the Boathouse restaurant

After lunch Jeanie and the ladies went to visit with Jeanie’s Mom while Scott and I poked around the town of Minocqua.  The town is located in and area full of lakes and streams.  The primary industry is tourism.  It is a pretty area.  Had the temperatures been warmer it would have been fun to play on the water. 

We did see one brave soul that was water skiing.  With and air temperature of about 60, I’m sure it was a chilly ski!

After a fun visit we headed back to Oshkosh for our last evening together.

We did happen to pass a Piggy garage.  It was cute.

We ended the evening with a dinner at the Ground Round.

I have to end with the view from our Motel window.

Tomorrow we head west toward home.  We will drive across Wisconsin and part of Minnesota as far as Albert Lea.

Till then……