One last Aussie Adventure (at least for awhile)

I realize this is very "belated" but thought I would add this, if anything, to whet your appetite even more to take that long airplane ride "Down Under" and visit Australia. Hey, one sleeping pill, a good book and you're there! You'll never regret it, I promise!

When we realized we were to shortly leave Australia last July, we decided we had to see Uluru or Ayer's Rock, which is waaayyyy out in the middle of the country, in the southern part of the huge Northern Territory; it's not exactly easy to get to. In asking around, many Aussies have not even been out there.
We flew 3 hours northwest to Darwin and spent an afternoon exploring that small city of about 100,000. It was hot! 86*F and it's winter for crying out loud! Cannot imagine what it is like up here in the summer with temps in the 100's* + 98% humidity! The city has been rebuilt twice in the last 70 years: after it was bombed by the Japanese during WW2 in 1942-43 (over 60 times!) and after Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
In Darwin we boarded "The Ghan" train to take us South overnight to Alice Springs. It is one of the two well known rail trips in Australia, running North to South, Darwin to Adelaide, or visa versa; the other being the Indian Pacific which travels West to East - Sydney to Perth. We've never been on an overnight train trip - it was very relaxing and a great way to see the countryside! The staff was wonderful and the food was terrific! Photos are of the lounge car, Roy in our compartment and me modeling when the seats folded down into bunk beds. Romantic it was not but very comfortable. We had our own tiny bathroom with a fold up toilet, along with the smallest shower I've ever seen! It was definitely an experience showering on a moving train, but very nice getting rocked to sleep.

The train's name is an abbreviated version of its earlier nickname, "the Afghan Express", after the Afghan camel drivers who ran supply trains into central Australia for 50 years before the railroad was completed in 1930 from Adelaide to Alice Springs. The last leg north to Darwin was not completed until 2004.
We spent the night in the small city of Alice Springs, which is almost in the dead center of Australia. This is a picture of the nearby Todd River, which they say if you see water in the river three times, you're considered a local. FYI, the last time was 2001.

From there we joined with a bus tour group to drive the 281 miles Southwest out to Uluru; which we learned has its pros and cons. Pros being you don't have to drive and can enjoy the scenery, but the cons are feeling rushed when we stopped to see things or the tour guide that would not shut up while driving so we could take a nap! Anyway........

Have you ever wondered where the name Ayer's Rock came from? I did, so here's the scoop: it was named in 1873 after the then- Chief Secretary of Southern Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. As the rock is in the Northern Territory, I found this a little odd.......
Uluru is the name given to this very large piece of sandstone by the local Aboriginal people, the Pitjantjatjara and is in the Uluru - Kata National Park. It is a little over 1100 ft high and is almost 6 miles around the perimeter; a heck of alot larger than I thought it was! Visitors can climb to the top but the trail is super steep even with the chain handholds; we saw people inching down on their bottoms and several have fallen and died over the years. We chose not to since it is a sacred site to the Aborigines. And, well, remember I mentioned the "not enough time" thing? The chain is directly behind Roy's head.
I mentioned it was winter during our visit so that explains why I look cold in this sunrise picture; we were able to see a sunset and sunrise on the Rock and it's true; it does change color as the sun rises on sets on it.
Lodging near "the Rock" is at the nearby Ayer's Rock Resort; a group of several hotels,ranging from camping to 4 stars. We took the bus back to Alice Springs and flew home to Brisbane via Adelaide.
Many thanks to our friends, the Antuar family for taking care of Rio while we were gone.
It was a quick but great trip. A must-see when you travel to "Auz". It's on your Bucket List, right? There are many more places we'd love to visit in this big beautiful world but taking the Indian Pacific Train trip is definitely in the top ten. Want to join us?

Texas State Fair

We drove 3 hours north to Dallas last Friday to take in the Texas State Fair. It is located in buildings around the Cotton Bowl stadium and we were told is the largest Fair in the nation (of course, everything is the biggest and the best in Texas! or so we hear, quite alot.)
Fairs are the best! Where else can you hear singing parrots, see dancing dogs, watch fascinating horse training demonstrations, beautiful quilts, and find all kinds of things to buy that you just can't live without, to name a few of our favorites.
We were excited to find they had PIG RACES, just like in California! Those were so much fun to watch! We were sitting in the "red" section and our pig came in second all 3 races; good thing this wasn't a betting race!
But the real fun of the day was the food, of course!
This is the sign we saw just after we came in through the gates and they meant it.The new item this year was "fried butter". It's a pat of butter with some bread dough wrapped around it, deep fried then rolled in cinnamon sugar and honey, it was very tasty. Yours truly, who had to try it and yes, I know I need a hair cut!





Didn't try the alligator or the chicken fried bacon. Also tried "guacamole bites", which, you guessed it, is deep fried guacamole and a lady at our table gave us fried dill pickles. Both are OK once a year.


Now you might be wondering how our stomachs fared the next day - not great, if truth be told.
Did I mention the weather was perfect? Sunny but not too hot and not one % of humidity - it was wonderful.
The next day was the "Big" football game held in the Cotton Bowl stadium - the Red River Rivalery or The Red River Shootout between the University of Texas Longhorns and the University of Oklahoma Sooners (the Red River is the border between Texas and Oklahoma). We watched the game at home on Saturday afternoon while doing chores; the Longhorns were victorious and were awarded the "Golden Hat" - a golden 10 gallon cowboy hat, mounted on a block of wood. This game has been played for 109 years! They take football very seriously here in Texas, and the entire South for that matter. Roy forgot his hat so bought a burnt orange Longhorn baseball cap and just fit right in with all the other UT clothing and fans at the fair, although he's really an Aggie (Univ of California Davis). This might be our one and only attempt at self portraits.

Settling into Houston

We finally found a house to rent in a beautiful suburb in northern Houston; we love our neighborhood with all the trees and our quiet cul-de-sac. Took me two l-o-n-g weeks to unpack what seemed like a zillion boxes but we got out all the important stuff and the rest will just have to wait because I am so sick of boxes, I can't tell you! Amazingly all of our stuff arrived the same week, long term storage from Wisconsin and shock of shocks, our container from Australia! WOW!
As previously mentioned we did tour the Johnson Space Center while Alex was here over Labor Day, which was amazing! For my Aussie friends: this is the place as in "Houston, we have a problem....." They have an entire rocket laying on it's side in a huge building - it would have been Apollo 18 but the mission was canceled. (it's just a few feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty!) I am standing in front of one of the huge Saturn 5 rockets.
We also went for a walk in nearby Bravos Bend State Park and look what we saw? Yikes! he was a big 'un!




My sister Marilyn and hubby John arrived on 1 October for a visit; we were excited to welcome them to Texas but the best part was they brought Rio to us! They were wonderful to dog-sit him the last 2 months as we were traveling and getting settled in. So now he can keep me company as well as happily chase the many squirrels in our large back yard. He and I have already found several nice nearby walking trails.


Now hopefully life will slooowwww down which sounds so good to us about right now. Our new Ward seems very friendly and the beautiful Houston Temple is only 20 minutes from our house. We're currently enjoying watching the MLB playoffs and cheering for the Angels, Dodgers, Philies, anyone but the Yankees! That's me talking, not Roy.
Roy is super busy at work and Alex is relearning about cold weather and hopefully studying hard at BYU-I.
All is well. All is well.

Where in the world are they?

Sorry to have been out of touch for a while. We've had a crazy last several weeks. OK, Reader's Digest version:
We somehow managed to get organized, pack and leave Auz in 3 weeks on August 3rd. We have to say, we never could have done it without the help of many of our wonderful Aussie friends, especially Paul and Jill Antuar. Rio left a few days before and is now happily temporarily staying with my sister in Tennessee until we get settled in Houston - thank you John and Marilyn!
Since then, we've visited favorite places and dear friends - many thanks to the Tilley's on the North Coast and Tony and LaRee in Sacramento for hosting us. Onto Utah while we waited for Alex to take his finals and Roy pestered the trout in the Provo River near Heber. Many, many more thanks to Karen and Doug who always generously open their home in Bountiful to us. We then enjoyed a fun week with all our kids and grandkids in Park City Utah - some of us tried the Alpine slide, ATV's, jet skis on nearby Jordenielle Reservior and all enjoyed a day at the Hogle Zoo.
Alex then "lost" some wisdom teeth (boy, was he glad he only had two!) while Dad headed down to Houston. ALex and I joined him a few days later. Since then have been house hunting, car shopping, driver's license test taking....... hasn't been all work and no play, though. Enjoyed a fun Astro baseball game, a drive to Galvaston, walking around/through Bravos Bend State Park to see alligators and a day at the Johnson Space Center. whewwwww!
Alex starts Fall semester at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg this week, so he's excited for that.
I promise to post some pictures of the above adventures as well as our last Auz adventure out to see Uluru. Soon!

A word about Vegemite

Please, no offense to our wonderful Aussie friends but about Vegemite; in one word - it's pretty awful.

Just in case you're wondering..... it is made from leftover brewers' yeast extract, a by-product of beer manufacturing, and various vegetable and spice additives. The taste may be described as salty, slightly bitter, and malty - somewhat similar to the taste of beef bouillon. The texture is smooth and sticky, much like peanut butter. It is not as intensely flavoured as the British Marmite and is less sweet than the New Zealand version of Marmite.

(thank you Wikipedia).

A favorite breakfast is the above - Vegemite on toast. and I'm also told that Vegemite goes well with cheese spread, kind of like our peanut butter and jelly. Haven't tried it.

I must also say that Alex likes Vegemite - took some to Provo with him and has been having fun attempting to convert his roommates; so far no luck.

Did you know?

In Australia:

all eggs are brown

all cheddar cheese is white

take out food is called "take away"

there is no one cent coin, so obviously is rounded up or down to the nearest five cents.

The coins are 5, 10, 20 ,50, 1 dollar and 2 dollars - your wallet can get really heavy!

the paper money is different colors - very cool!

movie tickets costs $15 apiece! You choose your seat or they assign you one and you have to sit in that seat. Our first time at the movies, we did not know this and sat in someone else's seat and he was not happy with us!

there is no frozen juice concentrate here; most fruit juice is a liquid called "cordial" that is concentrated.

cannot find semi-sweet chocolate chips

electricity is insanely expensive!!

cell phones are called "mobiles"

bathrooms are called toilets

it is one of the few countries in the world that eats their national symbol. We've seen Emu jerky and yes, you can buy kangaroo meat at the grocery store. I have only seen it "minced" or ground up. We have yet to try some.

all school children in private or public (state) schools are required to wear uniforms, complete with hats, and each schools' uniform is different. These cute little girls are my next door neighbors in their sports day and regular uniform, and the little boys are my friend Jen's sons - different school.

High school female students must either wear their hair pulled back or up in a bun. Grade 11 or 12 boys are required to wear ties. Girls' uniforms are dresses or skirts & blouses.

The Mall shops close at 5pm every night except for Thursday when they stay open until 9pm. Grocery stores close between 7 -8pm. That has taken some real getting used too!

Pharmacies are called "Chemist" and Doctor offices are called "surgery".

French fries or "chips" are dipped in meat gravy rather than ketsup. (which is called 'tomato sauce' and really is just plain tomato sauce.)

Sales tax is built into the price of everything: what price you see marked is exactly what you pay. That general sales tax (GST) is 10%!

Jello is called 'jelly' and is a dessert not a salad! A favorite is to put jelly over a scoop of ice cream.

In case you haven't heard....

Yes, the rumors you may have heard are true. Roy's company is transferring him again so we're moving back to the US next month. Got one of those phone calls: "I've got good news and bad news - the good news is we've still got a job. The bad news - it's in Houston, Texas". (no offense to our friends in Texas.)
So we're very sad to be leaving Australia alot sooner than we had expected -there is so much more of this beautiful country that we wanted to see and we've made some wonderful friends here. We'll just have to come back!

We're looking forward to being closer to our grandkids though. :)
Needless to say, the next 4 weeks are going to be crazy!