Home at last

We flew home on July 5th. Don't ask me about time changes or what time it is or was in what country. All I know is that it took 14 hours to get to LA. We arrived together groggy and convince never to repeat such a long flight any time soon. David, Dea Jae and I took off for customs once we got our bags. Dad was last seen filtering through his bag. He had shipped two boxes home from Australia and packed his smaller bag into his big bag. He left his domestic airline papers in his bag. He called later that he made it through customs and to his flight okay. Us San Antonians booked it over to terminal 1. This allowed us to get some feeling back in our legs. Southwest won't let other airlines check bags to them. We had to push a cart the whole way. By this time we had been awake for 24 hours. 3 hours later we were flying to SA. I must have conked out most of the way. What was a 3 hour flight seemed go quickly. We arrived to cloudy skies and low temps (in SA terms). Nanette, my house sitter, was able to pick me up. She opted to stay the rest of her time at her sisters, so we headed there immediately. After dropping her off I picked up food and headed home. It was 6 pm before I actually walked into my house and was greeted by my 3 cats. Nanette did a great job. The place looks great and still standing. It's nice to come home to a clean house. I stayed up until about 7:30. I didn't sleep the whole night through. I'd wake up about every 2 to 3 hours, read a bit , eat a bit, and sleep some more. I got up made coffee around 11 am. I have a feeling I'm going to have jet lag for a couple of more days. But enough about my trip home, I've still got 4 days of trip left to tell you about.

July 1

We had another long day adventuring. We started out by being picked up by a coach to Kuranda Railway station. This train was constructed between 1886 to 1891. It was built for the miners. It says it was built by hand and but Dad is convinced that the tunnels were blasted out. Here is the history of their engineering feat.

Kuranda is a wonderful tourist trap. You arrive near the top. You have to walk up a pathway into shops and restaurants. It is an actual town so you get to see some of the locals. Just as in all societies, not everyone is picture perfect. We decided to eat right away and then explore. Dea Jae and I wander the shops. David and Dad took off on their own. I was impressed by the fact they have quite few artisans working in this town. It reminded me of Gruene Texas.

We took the Skyrail down the hill. We hopped on this box connected to a wire. The views were even better than the train ride.

We were dropped off at the Tjapukai (sounds like Chupakay) Aboriginal Culture Park. They have created a really nice set up for instructing people about this particular tribe in North Queensland. They are very different from the Ayres rock tribes. We began with video/ live action presentation. It talked about the "Dreamtime" origins of their people. I find that they remind me of how Homer wrote about the mythology of his people, dreamtime is the Mythology of Australia's native population. After the show we went to a musical presentation. They sand and danced. Tjapukai have also recorded their own music. After the presentation we went down to another area to learn about the didgeridoo. It is fun to see how each group introduces the instrument. After that we learn "Women's Business". A woman showed how many different plants are used for medicinal purposes. We then learned how to throw spears and boomerangs. I didn't do so good on the spear throwing but the boomerang actually came back. Not to my hands, but curved around for easy retrieval. We ended up in their last video. This was a really depressing view of how a culture was destroyed and reborn. It ended with hope for a culture needing to exist in the modern world.

We all enjoyed our day and bemoaned not having enough time at each stop. We headed back into Cairns by coach. Here is a picture of the view from my hotel room.

July 2

We flew to Sydney 11 am. Jetstar flew an Airbus plane. Quantas is a great company for flying us around. We are fed about every hour. On Jetstar, you have to buy everything, even the sodas. At least on Southwest...we actually fly for peanuts. We were picked up and taken to the Grace Hotel. Our driver have us great advice about eating out. Sydney had these food courts all over the downtown. The Grace is in the middle. We dropped off our bags and walked down to the Queen Victoria Building. This is an incredible building filled with shops and a fabulous food court. it is also a maze. For actual information about QVB I've linked you to wikipedia text. I couldn't take a good enough picture of the place. Here is a picture

July 3

We had only one scheduled event and that was at 2. Dea Jae and I went to the Rocks. We enjoyed the old city architecture. This is prime real estate in Sydney and it was almost destroyed in the 70s.

We went into the Contemporary Museum of Art. This has a young museum collection. I was fairly impressed by their displays. Sometimes it is good to come across works that "Way Out There" to get your creative juices flowing. We were impressed by how Matthew Ngui created his work on tubes. We ate at the Gumtree cafe and met up with Dad and David at the Circular Quay to pick up our boat for the "Coffee Cruise". The boat gave us view of Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Fort Denison. It cruised up to the Middle Harbour. We saw palatial waterfront homes, parks, beaches and marinas. We even saw a nude beach! (nudes included bu not photographed).

We took the bus back to the hotel and got ready to have dinner this Boyd's son John, his while Carol and two children Michelle and Steven. Carol worked all day and managed to cook an excellent meal. The kids were on holiday so they stayed up with us as we chatted. It was nearly midnight before John took us back to our hotel.

July 4th

Dad sent off two boxes to Davenport and then we headed for the Opera House. We took the "lift" tour. This allowed us to see the place without climbing all the stairs. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the actual theatres but I managed to get a few interesting shots.

We took a cab back to the Hotel. I escaped from everyone and headed to the QVB. I met up with David and Dea Jae in "Victoria's Basement" but took off again on my own. I made it up to the top and surrounding city blocks before heading back to the hotel. I re-arranged my suitcase and crashed by 8. Woke up at 3 am to head home.