Bateman's Bay Down Under

Soon after arriving the Thomas's took Jaimie to Bateman's Bay down the coast from Sydney. Sounds like about a 3 hour drive along a very scenic coast. While they were there they enjoyed some beach time with some relatives from Andrews side of the family and were able to find some Aussie wildlife. Jaimie wanted to see a Wallaby really bad and although Andrew told her he hadn't seen one in a number of years one actually showed up. (Hope that is the Wallaby as a novice such as myself might not know the difference from a 'Roo.)

Check out this goanna at Pebbly Beach!! It's hard to judge scale here but I'm told it was about 8 foot long and I'm sure Andrew wouldn't exaggerate. That's a monster lizard any way you slice it. Guess Jaimie was a little shy about petting this one, or going anywhere near it!

Some deep sea fishing was in order and Jaimie landed a few as did the rest of the party. Not sure what these are? I'll have to ask Andrew.

On the way home they stopped by a kangaroo farm so Jaimie could pick one out to ride to school. I think she chose the one with the long ears. They also swung by Lake Conjola and met up with Fuller family for some water sports. The Fullers are hosting Will, one of the other American exchange kids. Their son Matt stayed with Wills family here. The temperatue was a cool 33C (91F). Quite a contrast from our -6C (20F) weather here. Andrew said he got his turn on the tube and could barely walk the next day. Now that's how you know when you've had a good enough time.

Looks like a great holiday. Wish I was there!!

Americans Arrive in Australia

Well they got there OK. Sounds like they are already being wisked away on a variety of adventures. They had an arrival BBQ and now the Thomas's are taking Jaimie down the coast to Batemans Bay for a couple of days. Temperatures hit 110F the day before they arrived. Ouch!

When the Aussie's were here they all really seemed to bond with Bill Yarkosky very quickly and kept commenting on how he was like Jess's father. When I looked at Andrew's picture here I was surprised how much he really does look like Bill. I think this is the first picture I've seen of Andrew without a cap, sunglasses, or a Santa Claus beard.

Bye, bye Jaimie

It's the American kids turn to travel down under and live with their Aussie partners. Jaimie had to catch an early flight to LA so everyone is up a 3:00am for the drive to the airport. We meet up with the rest of the group and get the kids checked in. This is not without problems 'cause thanks to the most incompetent travel agency in the world (STA Travel) the ticket numbers have not been entered into the system with the reservations. It took the ticketing agent about 30 minutes, and several phone calls to clear things up, but the lesson learned is Never Book with STA Travel.

Well this played out pretty much the same as the Aussie farewell with lots of hugs, and tears from the ladies. In the end, the kids are off and we waved goodbye as they pass thru security, and head for the gate.

One interesting footnote: When the Aussie kids left we couldn't figure out why Kayley was held up at security for so long. Looked like they were really going through her stuff. Turned out that despite numerous warnings from her American family, she tried to pack a dozen or more bottles of perfume, and lotions in her carry-on bag which everyone knows is not allowed (3 oz and 3 bottles limit). I guess they confiscated some but let most of it go anyway. Well instead of ditching it she went through the whole thing again in the Los Angeles airport on the connecting flight to Sydney. Pretty funny but the American coordinators were not amused.

We got the safe arrival call at 6:00 this morning, and Jaimie is already complaining that it's too hot and her hair is too curley. Guess that hair straightener will get a workout. Interestingly enough, we also heard that Jess is complaining that it's too hot. Guess she adapted to the "cold" Colorado weather better than she thought.

Ice Fishing

Since Colorado has turned into an icebox this year is seemed appropriate to go ice fishing last weekend. Friend Steve Heibert and I set out at 4:30 Saturday morning so that we could be on Williams Fork Reservoir by sun rise. On the way we passed through Fraiser (see previous post on this icebox) and the exterior temperature reading from Steve's Duramax was -31 F. Yes you read that correctly, and man was it cold. Arriving at WFR it had warmed up to a balmy -2F.

Today we debut my new second generation homemade electric ice auger. It worked great of course, and we proceeded to drill holes and fish for the wiley Laker's that are most commonly caught here. Well, ...5 hours later we were still waiting for a bite. That's why the don't call it "catching".

Seemed like the thing to do was change venues, so we loaded up and drove over to Willow Lake near Granby. Our luck really improved then and we started hauling in the big ones. Careful Steve, better use both hands on the that whopper. (Damn dinky rainbow trout.)

Check out the moose in the background, yeah, that little dark square right of center along the tree line. OK so it was too far for a decent photo but this was pretty much the highlite of the trip. A cow, and calf moose which we did actually see closer up, but they were in the trees, and too hard to get a clear picture. Don't get to see moose to often in Colorado.

Well the epic wasn't over yet. As we approached Berthoud Pass on the way home we got turned around at the Mary Jane Ski area exit by a police road block. Seems an avalanche earlier in the morning (10:30am) swept some cars off the road, and they expected to have the pass closed all night. Guess we just missed that by about 4 hours. That was a major bummer since we basically had to turn around and drive about 60 miles out of our way to get around to I-70, and we had already been half the way there at WFR. I can't believe they didn't post warning signs at more advanced points on the road so we won't have wasted all this travel time. To make it worse, we hit rush hour ski traffic on this detour, and with ground blizzards now blowing at the Eisenhower tunnel, traffic was moving at a brisk standstill. Well five more hours later we finally got home. That doesn't quite match my record 6 hour trip from Breckenridge 2 years ago (normally a 90 minute drive), but it was close.

Farewell to the Aussies

It was a sad day today sending our Aussie daughter off. She has been packing for several days and finally got things crammed into the suitcases. I checked the website to see what the weight allowance was, and then weighed her bags. Her biggest one was just over the limit of 32 kg (70lb) so we transferred some shoes into the smaller bag 20 kg (45lb). These are some big bags! Pretty hard not to collect a lot of souvenirs after 6 months. Despite the desperate packing, Jess will still be hand carrying her Aussie flag, backpack, two stuffed Teddies, and her heavy letter jacket.

The families arrived at the airport at 7:30am and started the checkin process. Lines were long as the holiday crowds were still finding their way home to other parts of the country. Finally it was time for the kids to go through security, and everyone had their last hugs. Almost all the Aussies had friends from school there to see them off. It was a great experience, and we will truly miss Jess, and all the other Aussies. It is just incredible how fast the six months passed

A week from Thursday, on the 11th it will be the Americans turn to visit Australia. That's when Jaimie will leave, and the house will be really, really, unbelievably quiet. It sounded good before,... but now I'm not so sure.