We are now in Queensland!

Click here to see the unique place where we stayed.

It was beautiful weather during the day, but it rained very hard at night which made it difficult to sleep!

I'd like to post much more but internet is difficult here sometimes and we have been traveling around a lot.  We spent the last two nights in a secluded Daintree rainforest cottage.  We are now in Port Douglas for four nights and looking forward to our Great Barrier Reef snorkel tour on Monday!

We took two bus trips out of Melbourne.

One trip was to Phillip Island to see the little penguins come in from the ocean at dusk and the other was a trip on the Great Ocean Road.  We saw some wildlife along the way in addition to the beautiful scenery.

Do kangaroos know the call "fore!"

Great Ocean Road highlight.

Crimson Rosella

The terrain changes dramatically along the Great Ocean Road.  We were on the road below just a few minutes before I took the photo.

Wallaby on Phillip Island.

We weren't allowed to take photos of the adorable penguins, but this is the grand stand where everyone watches them come in for the night.

Phillip Island Penguin link

Melbourne, Victoria

We ate dinner outdoors on this nice brick alley near the jazz musicians.

View from top floor of our hotel.

 

Melbourne is a city of contrasting architectural styles.  I've got some really funky and unusual building photos I'll show you when we get home too.   Takes too long to post here and I'm paying for internet use today!

Margaret River Region.

Margaret River Region is about three hours from Perth and we spent a couple of days there.

Sunset at Yallingup.

 

Sugar Loaf Rock.  The were about 16 dolphins swimming off to the right in the bay but it was hard to get a photo of them.

 

We had lunch at this beautiful winery.  The photo doesn't show the ocean in the background unfortunately but it was a really pretty place to have lunch.  There are more than twenty wineries in this area.  There is a nice chocolate factory too.  Yum.

We visited the huge and beautiful Kings Park in Perth.

 

Banksia

Morton Fig Tree

View of Perth from the park

Below, Rainbow Lorikeets.

Rick and I around Perth

Rick and I went to the Perth Zoo, Caversham Wildlife Park, and the Aquarium of Western Australia

Tasmanian Devil

Fake whale tail.

Logger head turtle

Rick got to meet my hosts and friends, Joyce and Gavin.

Identify these words!

Brekky,
Sunnys,
Chooks,
Mozzys,
Lollies,
Bathers,
Musos,
Footy,
Pokie machines.

I can't say if I'm spelling them all correctly, but I've heard all of these many times.

About 20% of Aussies are foreign born.

Today is ANZAC day

It is a really important and celebrated day here.  It is similar to our Veteran's Day.

OK I'm way behind on posting on this blog...

Hi Everyone,

Now that Rick is here, we are running around full speed seeing lots of stuff and I have been ignoring the blog!

I enjoyed showing Rick around the Perth area.
Stuff we've done since Rick's arrival...

Hillary's Boat Harbor and the Aquarium
Stayed at Joyce and Gavin's house
Several meals and board games with Joyce and Gavin and the kids
Stayed at the Good Earth Hotel in Perth
Kings Park
Perth Zoo
Sunset at Scarborough Beach
Dinner at friends Jacqui and Yas house (loved the dinner and the didgeridoo demonstrations)
Murray Street Mall
Caversham Wildlife Park
Dinner with Francis Lobo (Karen's friend)

Moved to Fremantle Norfolk Hotel (only one night - too fast)
Sightsee Fremantle
Boat to Rottnest Island
Then drove to Busselton (Yes Gail is driving on the left side of the road - with an occasional reminder from Rick!)

Stayed in Busselton Observatory Hotel (B+B) 3 nights
Train to end of Busselton Jetty
Underwater Observatory at end of Jetty
Lots of going out to eat
Visiting a couple of wineries (lunch view incredible)
Sunset at Yallangup (stunning)
Sugar Loaf Rock and saw dolphins in the bay
Dinner with world traveling Scottish couple.

Now you can see why I have gotten behind on the blog.  So much to see and do!!
Even if I put only one photo for each activity here, it will take me a long time.

I'll try and post a few tomorrow before I get further behind!

One and a half hours until Rick arrives!!!

Three days until Rick arrives!!!

Still trying to post a few of my photos....

 

Lawn bowling

Joyce made this dessert on my last night at their house.  It is a Brazillian desert called Munjar (don't know how to spell it).  It tastes like coconut with prune sauce.

Sun dial near Cottesloe Beach

I like this seagull cause he has really orange beak and feet.

Vegamite ick!

Australia's "Coat of Arms" or emblem

My new host family took me to a winery this weekend.

This is the family I'm staying with now.  A very nice family!

Lunch at the winery

Later.....

Marie's birthday party!

Today I took a free guided walking tour that was to give information on some of the area art sculptures.  This is a photo in the arts district by the art museum.

I like this display by the library.  It's made of marble from Italy by a guy from Japan.

A little entertainment...

 

My other music videos won't load today.  Check back another day!

A few more photos:

Eating DimSum with friends, pictures of the house where I lived last week in Scarborough/Doubleview with Amie and Cambell and their bulldog, a couple of Sci tech photos (me in infrared) and one of Amies fantastic dinners.   My photos won't move where I want them so you'll have to figure out the rest!

8 days until Rick arrives

His unexpected hernia surgery went well on Friday so hopefully he'll be ok to travel.  Good grief.  It will be challenging to get our luggage hauled around by other people the whole trip.  Or I'll have to do it.  ugh.

The Nature Conservancy

Australia has seen more than 20 mammal extinctions in the last 200 years. Why so many?

Vanishing Act for Australian Mammals

www.nature.org

(P.S. Some of the main reasons for native animal decline are feral cats, and foxes, but there are many other non-native species that have been introduced here that cause problems such as poison toads and rabbits.)

Ten Days until Rick arrives!!!!

Scarborough Beach video

Scarborough Beach

 I lived near this beach for one week.  It was heavenly.  I went to the beach almost every day that week.  I spent many hours there on my last day and Joyce and her girls came for awhile and I hung around until after sunset.  I didn't want to leave!