Australian Loves

Several years ago now, we hosted a foreign exchange student through AFS when we lived in the Chicago suburbs.  Her name was Sandy and she was from a small town outside of Melbourne.  I called her Sandra Dee, much to her dismay.  If anyone gets that reference, then kudos to you.

With AFS, students typically stay for 11 months.  It takes time for them and you to adjust, usually a few months.  She arrived in August and after Christmas, I think she started feeling more at home.  Or was it that new boy she'd met?  Being responsible for someone else's 16 year old daughter when they begin dating is SCARY, let me tell you.

Fast forward 16 years and they are happily married and living in Australia. I hadn't seen their two oldest children in 7 years and had never seen the youngest, she'll be 5 this month.  While my husband was traveling to Mexico and the US, I decided I should go visit.  I AM on the right side of the world these days, but it is still a pretty long flight.  The price was reasonable and Sandy said, "come".  So, I did.  Here's a glimpse of my very fast visit with them.  I played a lot!

 This area is called Lake's Entrance which borders along the Bass Strait.  

We walked over to the beach for a lovely view.  

Another day we drove to Raymond Island and took the ferry across.  

We were hoping to see Koalas and Kangaroo.  

This is a Galah, part of the cockatoo family. Alas, I saw NO KANGAROO, the entire visit!  

 The cute kiddos on a busy afternoon after school.

 My last day there we spent the day in Melbourne. This is an alley of cafes.

 It poured the day we were in Melbourne, which was the day I left.

Little bit was tired out. 

We found the alley of graffiti and took advantage of the photo opportunity.  It was so fun to be with them and HH and I need to go back TOGETHER.  I realized that I need to do a post on a visit to Kyoto.  Sorry about that.  It will be a little out of order.  Have a great weekend!


Karen

Spontaneous Sightseeing

Hello again.  Things are hopping around here as you can imagine.  We are preparing to move at the end of the month.  This next week the packers arrive to pack up our two shipments, one by air and one by sea.  It's getting complicated to say the least.  On Monday we took our paperwork into Los Angeles to get our Visas.  They were able to process them in one day since we had the paperwork done and approved.  It allowed us about five hours of unexpected time to explore downtown.  We parked right across the street from the Disney Concert Hall.  I've always wanted to see it in person.  I was excited for the opportunity.

It really is as beautiful or more so than it looks in pictures.  I wish it had been a beautifully clear day, but it was hazy.  I highly recommend using the free audio tour through the building.  It gives you so much more information and insight than just a walk around it would give you. 

 One of the concert halls.

 Beautiful curves everywhere.

Look at that massive pipe organ!  

 This donor wall is made out of felt with steel letters imbedded into the strips.

The gardens were beautiful.  This rose fountain was made out of valuable Dutch Delftware Tiles donated by the makers.  It is in memory of Lillian Disney.

Loved seeing the donor in this section.

Can you imagine that this beautiful building was originally designed in stone?  Several people tried to convince the architect to build it in metal after seeing the Guggenheim museum.  He finally made a model and was convinced.  I can't imagine it any other way. Check out their website for more information. I'll have to show you other pictures from our day next time.  This post is getting TOO LONG.  All the pictures are from my iPhone, since I had no idea we would be touring this beautiful building.  They aren't even edited.  See you soon!

Karen

Out and About

Hello again. I recently was able to tour the gardens of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. What a beautiful place and full of incredible history. You can check them out at Huntington.org. 

This was the Japanese Garden. 

This is the Chinese Garden.

A couple of days later I got to go antiquing with my girlfriends. 

I came home with this very cool ledger and some old post cards.

What a fun week that was!