Check out time

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

We have to leave Dunsborough today and drive back to Perth.  Hate to leave, it's been so much fun.  Lots of great memories, probably mostly of all the family dinners with a glass of wine, just catching up with everyone.

After arriving back home we have a few hours before Will and Willis leave for Melbourne, so several people make a quick trip to King's Park.

view of Perth and the Swan River

Another beach day

December 27, 2010

Another day at the beach, no waves for surfing but the snorkeling was good.

Matt

Will

Bill, Ai, and Josh heading down to snorkel

Yumi discovers sand - and loves it!

A minor operation needed when Ai had to try to extricate Yumi's tiny fingers from Josh's nipple ring - ow. double ow.  At least I think that's what Josh was screaming.   

Christmas week

December 26, 2010

Took a tour of Mammoth Cave, which proved a great way to cool off for a bit, since the temperature was about 30 degrees cooler inside than out.

All of us at cave entrance (Willis took picture)

Afterwards we headed off to do some wine tasting, with a French winemaker who seemed to really enjoy talking - a lot.   He was very entertaining though while imparting lots of information about wine in general.  Then back to the house to cool off - in the boat.

Not sure why but these three liked sitting in the boat - with water in it.

And this little one did not.  Poor Yumi.

Christmas Day -2010

December 25, 2010

Opened presents, took a bunch of photos, and headed for the beach.

Kristin, Liss, Ai with Yumi, Willis
Bill, Matt, Vicki, Josh, Kiki, Will

Will, Matt, Liss
Josh with Yumi, Kristin

Kristin, Liss, Ai, Willis
Bill, Matt, Josh with Yumi, Vicki, Kiki, Will

Ai with Yumi, Bill
Willis, Will, Matt, Vicki, Josh, Kiki, Liss

Christmas week - 2010

December 23, 2010

Today is Kiki's B'day so we have chocolate cake for dessert.  Problem is everyone likes the cake so much we end up having chocolate cake every night, the entire week, and lots of carmelized onions too, although not together.  Seems chocolate cake and carmelized onions are the theme for the week, and since it's hot we BBQ a lot.  But everyone takes turns cooking and we have a variety of great dinners including Asian, Mexican and Italian meals.  For Christmas day we do the traditional American turkey dinner, but then follow the Australian tradition of going to the beach.

Christmas at the beach

December 22, 2010

Amazingly Bill and the kids manage to cram everything into the two vehicles although I have no idea how they did it.  It looked as though just the luggage alone would take up all the space and we hauled along a lot more than just suitcases, but it all fit, somehow.  The house was less than a 5-minute walk from the beach and also from the little town center, so the location was great.

Bill,  Liss, Kiki and Will checking out the beach 

Matt, Kiki, Willis and Will

Christmas holidays, 2010

December 18 - 20, 2010

The kids (some with their significant others, called "partners" here) have all arrived, mostly two at a time, and by now Bill could probably drive to the airport blindfolded, he's made so many trips.  It is amazing to have everyone here, (all 11 of us) and tomorrow we will attempt to get everything into our car and the rental van for the 3 hour drive to the beach house we've rented down south in Dunsborough.  

Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Helped decorate the hall we rented for the American Women's Club Thanksgiving dinner.  We had exactly 100 people attend and it was really nice.  A great raffle with lots of American foods and products, and the food was quite good.  Turkey here is incredibly expensive so most people don't bother cooking their own, and for $65 each it was actually cheaper for everyone to join with the other Americans from the AWC to celebrate.

Request for funding from AWC

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Some of our animals:

Baby boobook owl

Jock the joey

Kookaburras

puggle (baby echidna)

Wedji, our emu

I attended the AWC board meeting today to request a donation for Kanyana to install a sprinkler system for the educational animals in case of fire.  They agreed and made a generous donation of $2000 to have the system installed.  The overhead sprinklers can also be used to cool the animals down on unusually hot days, and the fire danger this year is the worst ever, since this has been the hottest, driest summer on record.

Flight from hell

Monday night, November 15, 2010

Well our plane left on time, but the pilot soon announced that we would need to land in Bali to refuel, since we had to divert around the volcano ash.  She assured us it would only be a 20-30 minute stop, but she forgot to request clearance to land, and once we did, the Balinese airport officials refused to allow us to leave.  There was speculation among the passengers that Jet Star most likely did not want to pay the fine, and attempted to negotiate a settlement.  We were stuck on the tarmac for well over 5 hours, with a pilot that kept announcing that "Clearance is on the way and we should be leaving in 10 minutes."  After about 3 hours of this they finally allowed us to get off the plane, as long as we stayed close by.  Well there was certainly no where to go because we were off at the far end of the runway with no buildings in sight in the middle of the night.  However, a whole lot of guards suddenly showed up and ordered everyone back onto the plane.  There were a dozen or so people that refused to get back on board, and things got rather ugly.  But they did eventually get back on the plane and once again we listened to the pilot continue to tell us we'd be leaving in just 10 more minutes.  People started booing her every time she got on the intercom and in all this time the only thing we were offered was a half full glass of warm water.  Finally the guy next to me demanded that the flight attendant bring him something to drink, and he pretty much exploded when he was told he'd have to wait, since we were "leaving in just 10 minutes."  He told the flight attendant, "Your idea of 10 minutes and mine are very different, and I demand you bring me something to drink now, because I'm getting dehydrated."  The flight attendant immediately brought him a soda, and amazingly did not charge him.  However, as soon as we finally did take off, they began serving food and drinks at full price.

We finally landed at 6:30am, so Bill got 2 hours of sleep before he had to be at a meeting.  Truly the flight from hell, and yet as we landed the flight attendant went into her usual cheerful spiel of "We hope you enjoyed your flight…"  There was a LOT of booing at that point.

Botanic Garden, Singapore

Monday, November 15, 2010

We took over 500 pictures here, absolutely an amazing place, especially the Orchid Garden.  Although we spent over 4 hours, we still didn't see quite everything, but we had a flight to catch.

Canceled flight, Singapore

Sunday, November 14, 2010

While checking in for our evening flight back to Perth, we were suddenly informed that the flight had been canceled, but no explanation was given.  The 30 or so passengers all came to the conclusion that more than likely Jet Star decided it simply wasn't worth it to fly with so few passengers, so they put us up in a hotel and told us to return at the same time the following day.  That actually gave us the chance to see the Botanic Garden, which we would have otherwise missed.   Bill had no meetings scheduled for Monday but I had to miss my shift at the animal hospital.  But the hotel was nice and they gave us meal vouchers so it could have been worse.  That is until the flight back, but I'll get to that in the next blog.

Sentosa Island and Night Safari, Singapore

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Our friend dropped us off here to spend a few hours - lots of shops, restaurants, a casino and amusement park.

Then on to the Night Safari, located right next to the zoo.  Lots of nocturnal animals doing their thing, hard to get any decent pics though in the darkness.  Very worthwhile - you can walk, take a tram, or do both.  Lots to see.

Singapore Zoo

Friday - November 12, 2010

Went to the zoo, it was awesome.  Animals have lots of space, open enclosures, and the orangatans swing back and forth in the trees right overhead.   Seems like they could get out but the trees around the perimeter are equipped with spikes and wires so they can't get down to the ground.

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The white tigers seemed pretty happy, lying in the shade.

These flying foxes were close enough to touch, and were all busy eating the fruit that was stuck in many of the trees.