Probable last post :-(

Hello everyone.

This is probably our last post from overseas as we fly back tomorrow night after spending another day in Disneyland (California).

We have had a very busy finish to our tour spending it in Disneyland and Universal. We have been able to convince (trick) Connie into coming onto a few roller coaster rides which has been a great source of humour for the rest of the family. Tessa has recorded a few of the rides and I have uploaded one onto the blog so check it out.

Los Angeles - Universal - Disneyland

Well, as stated above, we leave the US of A tomorrow and head back home. Tessa and I had our political asylum application rejected so we are heading back with Connie and Louis.

I hope you have all had fun following our trip online as we have had fun putting up the posts, videos and photos. Another really big, huge and sincere thank you to all the people who have looked after us on the trip including relatives and friends we have met for the first, but hopefully not the last, time.

Look forward to catching up with all our friends and relatives back in Australia very soon. Hope that pool is ready, Silvana!

So from Frank, Connie, Louis and Tessa, thank you all again. See you soon in hot and humid Brisbane.

AEST 16:52 03.02.2009

So long and thanks for all the fish.....

Los Angeles

Back again ... Los Angeles

Well, well, well - the land of the rich and famous. The weather is much warmer here, reaching 26 degrees around lunch time. As we drove in from San Fran, the luscious green of this place is so inviting. Even though this place is also in drought, it doesn't deter the city from using water to pretty their lawns and gardens.

Hollywood itself is ok with Hollywood Boulevard proving to be a bit of a let down. Maybe we're just not into it! It always seems bigger and better in the pictures. On the other hand, Beverley Hills was wow! We took a tour bus around neighbourhood of celebrities, however, due to privacy laws, current celeb homes were not revealed. Only those homes that once belonged to the famous. Highlight: Hansel and Gretel House.

Rodeo Drive is more like "Must-have-squillions-of-$-to-shop-here" Drive. Tess and I DID NOT shop here for obvious reasons! The streets were filled with sexy people, sexy cars, sexy shops, even the garbage bins and side walk trees were sexy! Frank was at home here (sexy Frank!) but the rest of us felt insignificant.

A drive down to Malibu beach ended our stay before heading to Anaheim where we'll try to end the holiday on a high note with three days in Disneyland ...

Adios (millions of Mexicans here - I think they're trying to re-claim America)
Connie.

Added bits - San Francisco

Hey guys,

Frank has insisted I write a few words about San Francisco even though he has already done so.

Another beautiful city - San Fran reminded me of certain areas of Brisbane. Spring Hill and West End come to mind. We spent quite a few hours on the bay, walking from pier to pier soaking up the atmosphere of a once very productive fishing industry. These days the fish have all but finished, leaving behind lots of bird life, seals and endless pockets of restaurants, souvenir shops and buskers.

Bye to all ...
Connie.

Penultimate stop - San Francisco

Hello all. Here we are in San Francisco, our second last stop of the tour.

We have finally hit some weather that pleases Connie enough to remove her thermals. Yes it was a very nice 15 degrees today as we toured the city on our tour bus followed up by a night tour of the famous Alcatraz Island.

San Francisco is a really nice town though a quarter of it's inhabitants are gay, apparently. NOT that there's anything wrong with that. Very expensive to live in and around the city. Average house prices, if can find one for sale is US$700,000. The recession does not seem to have hit this city much at all so far.

We pretty well got through the mandatory sights and as usual, the girls did their fair share of shopping. We also caught up with some relatives on my dad's side who were very nice and even treated us to dinner at a Thai Restaurant. Thanks to John and Janette for taking some time out to "chew the fat" with you Australia cousins.

Here are some more photos that we hope you enjoy. One more stop and then we get on the big bird home.

San Francisco

Bye for now.
Frank.
:-)

Fort Collins, Colorado

Hello from Connie here.....

Fort Collins

Driving through the Rocky Mountains, one can understand why this place is famous. It is quite a beautiful place.

Here we met up with Steve, Debbie and Callum Schnieder. Steve and Frank worked together for a long time and have maintained contact since Steve and family moved to Colorado several years ago. They very kindly offered their place to crash while visiting. I recommend this place to anyone whose looking for the best bed and breakfast in town!

The weather was unusually warm here so there wasn't any evidence of snow at the mountain base. However, closer to the top was another story. Although temperatues were cold, it was refreshing. We reached Bear Lake (yes, lots of bears up here, and coyotes, squirrels, elks and deers) and it was totally frozen over. It looked like a giant wedding cake, covered in soft icing sugar.

Our last day in Fort Collins was miserably cold and I wondered how anyone could live here after experiencing the warmth and sunshine of back home. But then again the natural and still unaltered beauty of this region would attract anyone with an appreciation for wilderness and calm ... someone should write a song about this place ...

Ciao for now, Connie

VIVA LAS VEGAS....

Yes. We have made it to Vegas and the third last stop on our world tour.

For those that haven't been here it's one of those cities that you just have to see to believe it. Every casino is a small city in it's own right with some sort of theme be it Venice, New York, Luxor (Egyptian) etc etc.

While here we took a helicopter ride over the Hoover Dam and into the Grand Canyon where we landed on the canyon floor and had a modest lunch with Champagne. Once again, this experience and the canyon cannot be described with words. Those who have been to this wonder of the natural world will know what I mean.

Back in Vegas, the kids went on the New York New York roller coaster ride as a practice run for Disneyland next week. We also saw the show "Believe" featuring the world renown illusionist Chris Angel along with Cirque de Soleil acrobats. The show is in it's 10th year and some parts of the act are just incredibly amazing.

Vegas

Off to San Francisco in a few hours so I better get some sleep. Will try to keep you up to date right up to our return flight in just one week. Tessa and I are still working on a plan to seek political asylum so we don't have to come back but Connie and Louis are good to return.

Bye for now.
Frank.
:-)

Connie Continued......

Back to the USA …

After our visit to Niagara, we made our way back to the United States through southern Canada. The weather was awful … very bleak, cold, icy and visibility was very poor. After a couple of hours, we finally reached the border and made our way to Westland Michigan.

Henry Ford Country

Cold conditions followed us into Westland, west of Detroit. Not a good first impression as this once-famous and prosperous city greeted us with very poor road conditions, neglected suburbs and closed up industries. This apparently, is due to a severely corrupt and badly managed city council. However, no shortage of fast food, takeaway, cafes and restaurants here, like so many other American cities we’ve visited so far!

Detroit was the home of wealthy Henry Ford – no clues for guessing what industry he started.

Why are we here, you ask? We came to visit family (Frank’s grandma’s cousin) whom we met approx. fourteen years ago. Rocky and Pat visited Brisbane (and ALL other Australian capital cities, including Ayres Rock) and we have kept in touch ever since. Rocky and Pat (now in their late seventies, treated us like royalty – they love AUSTRALIANS! They planned a dinner in our honour (like wow!!!) so that we could meet all their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The following day, Rocky, Frank and Louis checked out the Henry Ford Museum in town while the girls checked out the local mall (pronounced ‘mal’), much more exciting! American malls are like our shopping centres and they’re everywhere. This particular mall was a little different to most malls we’ve visited so far. Very few white Americans frequent this mall. Tess and I noticed everyone one was African-American or Saudi-Arabian.

Our stay in Michigan was brief but it was a great experience … meeting old friends and making new ones like Tom and Jenny, Christina and Michael, Karla and many more with whom we’ve exchanged email address, aaahhh technology.

Chicago, Illinois

What a great city! To begin with, we expected Chicago to be the coldest city on our trip, but again, what little Queensland sunshine we had left in our luggage, managed to make its presence during our three day stay. "City of Substance" is what I've called it, this would have to be one of nicest places we’ve visited.

Louis met up with long time WOW game buddy Patrick and his Dad Frank (plastic surgeon!). Frank and Louis were treated to a spectacular show followed by ice hockey match, Chicago Blackhawks vs St Louis Blues.

Chicago, home of Barack Obama and David Schwimmer is a very wealthy city. Great architecture, great museums, great shopping, great restaurants … very well rounded.

We visited Millenium Park, a $500 000 000 project (half of it going to bribes! apparently) with it's famous ‘bean’ sculpture and modern art museum. Further down the road is Buckingham Fountain erected in honour of royal visit during the 1800s. We visited Shedd’s Aquarium (Dean Kennedy wonderland) filled with every variety of finned and non-finned creature connected to water. Most fascinating exhibit were three shark eggs with unhatched baby sharks visible through shells.

Another great monument was the John Hancock Building. Also know for its annual ‘Hancock Hustle’ whereby participants race to the top via the stairs to raise money for respiratory disease. I wonder how many die of respiratory problems during this event? This building is 96 levels high with a restaurant at very top and a viewing floor on the 94th. The John Hancock Building stands right in the middle of Chicago which allows a 360 degree view of the entire city of Chicago, including massive Lake Michigan. Also visible were the two water towers that were the only remaining buildings after a massive fire destroyed the entire city in the early 1800s (?).

Our visit to Chicago was nicely stitched up with ice skating in Millenium Park (yes, even I had a go) and dinner with Patrick at the Cheesecake Factory. But don’t let the name fool you … this restaurant hit number one on our ‘best places to eat while in the States” list, and believe me, there are very few. And yes, their cheesecakes are good, very good! Ask Tess …

Signing off, Connie.