Going North For New Years

I am not sure why, but my family has a tradition of going North at least once every Winter. Why? No idea. It seem to make sense for us to travel South to visit relatives, or at least encourage relatives North of us to come South, but something draws us up well past the snow line into the, "Oh Gawd! It's cold up here," tundra zone. Of course, in my case it is my, "play with the Grandkids in the snow like I'm five," moment. This year, Connie wisely secured a hotel room away from the Grandkids with easy access to a hot tub. This minimizes the, "what was I thinking," and, "I am DEFINITELY not 18 anymore (ow)," moments to a minimum before drifting off to sleep at night -- crippled this time by a two-hour snowball fight followed by four hours of sledding. It would have been more, but Zoe wisely remembered her evening curfew and they were all too tired after dinner to go outside and play in the dark. Connie spent the day inside assembling a Lego Hogwarts with Nikki. Pictures tomorrow (maybe). :)

Home!

My Mom and Dad met us at the Madison Truax Airport (MSN) and drove us home to the Badger blowout of Nebraska on the radio. The heat has been turned on, pizza has been ordered, and the kids have been called. It took us 31.5 hours to get there. It took us 26 hours to get home and it was December 1, 2012 at every stop. End of adventure! 'Till January in Florida if not sooner! -Rob and Connie :)

Only a Little Left in Minneapolis

Waiting for the last leg to start at gate C22 of Hubert Humphry International in Minneapolis (MSP), Connie and I have no legs after 23 hours of running through airports, security screenings, and being packed like sardines in various aluminum tubes called airplanes. We were fortunate at LAX -- only a couple flights of stairs and a short walk between security and our gate.

Of course, I got put through the wringer again at security. The lady running the scanner decided to see if she could shake me by changing up the body scanner procedures and yelling at me when I did not move fast enough. Shoes on, shoes OFF, no metal in the pockets became nothing in the pockets. She actually put her hand on her gun when she saw I had left a dirty hankerchief in one. They then proceeded to inspect my wallet, removing every item and tried to crowd me out of observing their actions! Once it was clear I had nothing, they let me pass with that "we know we just picked on the wrong person but we'll catch you next time" attitude that lets you know they messed up going overboard on the wrong person. Oh well! Connie had been collecting my stuff and we rapidly recombobulated before enjoying some McDonalds.

The flight from LAX to MSP was fairly smooth, but we hobbled off the plane, worn from the journey, to discover we were at the end of terminal F and our next flight was in terminal C. My legs buckled. That journey is a good fraction of a mile. Someone at Delta deserves a Christmas present from us, however, as they had one of those electric golf carts waiting for us. We rode in luxury. Now we have an hour's wait plus one more in the air and we are back in Madison!

Back In America Again! (Well LAX anyway)

Our plane just landed at LAX after almost 14 hours in the air. There were a few rough spots, but Virgin Australia is a class outfit with lots of room, service, and entertainment. We only had to wait a few minutes on the runway for a bunch of AA planes to take off and for a plane to be towed off a gate. We are here five hours before we left Sydney. Nothing like getting a second Saturday -- retired or not! :D. Unfortunately, we will be respending that time winding our way through customs and navigating the LAX labyrinth. More soon. :)

Sydney and Home, Part 1

Yesterday, Connie and I moved from the Dawn Princess to the Sydney Hilton and explored the town. We bought day passes on the monorail, which came with 20% discount coupons for most of the museums and sites in town.

Our first stop was the Powerhouse Museum, dedicated to engineering design and fashion. They had a large display on lace: metal lace, traditional lace, lace made from paper, and other unique experiments on creating lace for practical and artistic use. The lace made via CNC machine using titanium (woven at 2000F!) and stainless steel were particularly unique. Based on one design, Connie may crochet our next airplane engine. [picture pending, but can be seen at: pic.twitter.com/ukmsL8d ] They also had a space flight section, with both Soviet and US satellites, and an exploratorium. Connie and I skipped the section on the Wiggles -- too Barneylike in design. Only a five-year-old could get more than ten feet in there without wanting to turn around, badly!

Later, we explored the nightlife in Darling Harbor. The South Korean Navy was back (or have they been here all month?!?) and Sydney was out in full force. The area was filled with street musicians; nightclubs spilled out into the pier; children (of all ages) entertained themselves in the massive playground of jungle gyms, rope ladders, and assorted equipment in the park/gardens. Young ladies, dressed for trouble, mixed with sailors and young single men. Apparently, school/college ends this week for their hot summer season and Christmas. Connie's leg acted up early, so she got some sleep, but I went back out to wander the madness until the cooling rain began to fall -- scattering all.

This morning, I got up with the sun, as usual, but promptly went back to bed. Our breakfast plans were to wander until we found a nice cafe, but the streets were a steam bath, literally! Soaking with sweat, we ended up back at the hotel buffet, which soaked our wallets for more money than I care to admit paying for breakfast. After playing the repacking game to get all our luggage underweight we made a bouncy sojourn to Sydney International. Our gate, 51, is on the other side of a maze of shops and restaurants clearly designed by the same people who do mall parking lots and casino floors. Now, we wait for our flight to leave. More in LA! :)

[picture pending, but can be seen at: http://t.co/m0L4GYl ]

Last Day At Sea

The seas are calm. It is warm again! We are in the Tasman Sea a day out of Sydney, where tomorrow our journey with the Dawn Princess ends. Last night, there was a "Captain's Circle" party for those who regularly cruise The Princess. There was a couple with over 1,000 days at sea -- almost three years. We are somewhat less traveled, although the 90-day around the world cruise did sound appealing...

Today, we are enjoying our balcony by the sea watching the birds work the gentle waves and warming wind. We have but a couple of minutes of Internet time left, so this will be a quick post. Forgive us if we do not reply to e-mail until Sydney.

Until Then...

-Rob :)

Sunrise (I Think)

[Tuesday, 4:40am local time]

I am, as usual, up at dawn. The ship's channel on television says we are in Rough seas with waves reaching 15 feet and 60 knot winds with occasional rain. The spray of the waves breaking against our ship is reaching up to our balcony on deck 9. Somehow, I suspect the waves are higher than 15 feet. I can hear our neighbors, but not in a fun way. The ship itself is creaking and groaning like an old car driven by a fugitive running for his life. I love this weather, but most do not. We are truly in the circumpolar current with nothing, save a few small islands, to stop the storms and surges circling Antarctica. Connie, looks at me enjoying the ship's action, rolls her eyes, and goes back to sleep.

Done in Dunedin

[The Ship is about to leave so no time left to jump off and upload pics until Sydney.]

Today was our last day ashore in New Zealand before beginning our return. Connie and I walked the little neighborhood of Port Chalmers in Dunedin (pronounce like "Done Eden"). This little borough is filled with monuments. The Scots, who settled this city known as the gateway to Antarctica, gave it the Scottish name for Edinburgh back home. Byrd, Scott, and many other Antarctic explorers used this town as the jumping off point for their expeditions according to the small maritime museum just off the dock. It was also home to several intrepid sailors, including one who received the US Navy Cross for his valor at Guadalcanal, despite serving on a NZ ship at the time and only noticed posthumously "in dispatches" by Her Magesty's forces -- apparently colonials still did not rate in WWII despite their critical role in England's survival. Sad.

Anyway, eschewing the many excursion options, we walked the town until Connie's legs ached. We did not make it to the top of the main hill, but beyond some statues, the only view is of a couple of unpopulated islands that stand between us and the shores of Antarctica. The water temperature was a balmy 55F (13C) in the harbor. Tonight, we wander around the South Island via the Antarctic Ocean. Tomorrow, we roam the inlets of Fiordland onboard the Princess and head home...

Last Day in NZ

It is november 26 at about 7 am

This is our last day we can go ashore in NZ.  All I can say is wow.  If you have ever been to Big Sur and thought it was beautiful, you would LOVE New Zealand.  It is all rolling hills, wild ocean shores and forests of some of the largest tree ferns, pines, etc. i have ever imagined.  Every turn brings up another amazing vista.

Yesterday we saw some Hector's dolphins in the bay of Akaroa.  They are small and extremely rare.  We also saw the world's smallest penguin.  It was a relative of the blue penguin.  Cute. We were supposed to swim with the dolphins, but they didn't want to play.  Oh, well.

Today we are in Dunedin.  Pronounced something like done-doo-een.  Odd. We don't have a shore excursion today, so we will probably just wander around.  Hopefully Rob will find another internet cafe to post some pics.

Bye for now!

Wellington

It's November 24 at about 3:55 pm. We are in Wellington, NZ. It's the home of Weta Studios, the ones who did LOTR, The Hobbit, Tin Tin, Avatar....etc. We even drove past the various buildings used by the studios. Except for the Weta Workshop, none were labeled and looked very ordinary. Our tour guide knew them because he was actually an extra (elf-type) in the LOTR series. I think he might be in the Hobbit because he couldn't talk about it. I have his photo and will check when I finally see it. This town is really psyched about the premiere of Hobbit which is due in four days. There are posters, statues, banners, everything. We even met Sir Richard Taylor from Weta at the Roxy theater where we saw a short DVD about Weta. That was a real treat, he rarely does appearances or interviews. We also visited several filming locations. No props are left, but they had still frames from the movie and showed us the exact tree/hill/ etc. that was used. Very interesting.