Dear blog owner and visitors,

This blog had been infected to serve up Gootloader malware to Google search victims, via a common tactic known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) poisioning. Your blog was serving up 383 malicious pages. Your blogged served up malware to 0 visitors.

I tried my best to clean up the infection, but I would do the following:

• Upgrade WordPress to the latest version (one way the attackers might have gained access to your server)
• Upgrade all WordPress themes to the latest versions (another way the attackers might have gained access to your server)
• Upgrade all WordPress plugins (another way the attackers might have gained access to your server), and remove any unnecessary plugins.
• Verify all users are valid (in case the attackers left a backup account, to get back in)
• Change all passwords (for WordPress accounts, FTP, SSH, database, etc.) and keys. This is probably how the attackers got in, as they are known to brute force weak passwords
• Run antivirus scans on your server
• Block these IPs (5.8.18.7 and 89.238.176.151), either in your firewall, .htaccess file, or in your /etc/hosts file, as these are the attackers command and control servers, which send malicious commands for your blog to execute
• Check cronjobs (both server and WordPress), aka scheduled tasks. This is a common method that an attacker will use to get back in. If you are not sure, what this is, Google it
• Consider wiping the server completly, as you do not know how deep the infection is. If you decide not to, I recommend installing some security plugins for WordPress, to try and scan for any remaining malicious files. Integrity Checker, WordPress Core Integrity Checker, Sucuri Security,
  and Wordfence Security, all do some level of detection, but not 100% guaranteed
• Go through the process for Google to recrawl your site, to remove the malcious links (to see what malicious pages there were, Go to Google and search site:your_site.com agreement)
• Check subdomains, to see if they were infected as well
• Check file permissions

Gootloader (previously Gootkit) malware has been around since 2014, and is used to initally infect a system, and then sell that access off to other attackers, who then usually deploy additional malware, to include ransomware and banking trojans. By cleaning up your blog, it will make a dent in how they infect victims. PLEASE try to keep it up-to-date and secure, so this does not happen again.

Sincerly,

The Internet Janitor

Below are some links to research/further explaination on Gootloader:

https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/03/01/gootloader-expands-its-payload-delivery-options/

https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/08/12/gootloaders-mothership-controls-malicious-content/

https://www.richinfante.com/2020/04/12/reverse-engineering-dolly-wordpress-malware

https://blog.sucuri.net/2018/12/clever-seo-spam-injection.html

This message

Today we headed to downtown Seattle.

In the morning we hit the Pike Place Markets for a few hours. This is where you might have seen the fish mongers throw the Salmon around. We were just in time to see them through a few around which will look great on video – but we forgot to take any stills to share with you at the moment 🙁

implant sickness on Flickr”>

Pike Place is one of the better markets we have been to. It is pretty big, discount however the quality of the goods is top notch. Kerrina could not get over how cheap and how pretty the flowers were.

Across the road from the Pike Place Market is home to the very first Starbucks store. We poked our head in for a quick look – because Pike Place has some heritage regulations they can’t change the store too much, so surprisingly it is a Starbucks that is actually a good coffee shop, instead of those cookie cutter Starbucks you get in Australia.

After spending the morning downtown we jumped onto a ferry to do a cruise on Lake Washington. They call it the “Bridges and Billionaires” cruise, because you see a couple of bridges, and the homes of Seattle’s wealthiest – including Bill Gates (house below), a heap of Microsoft executives, the guy who started Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, the guy that started Costco, Starbucks, and more. It was a pretty nice cruise, and gave spectacular views of Mt Rainier in the distance.

After the cruise we made our way back to the hotel in the middle of nowhere for the last time 🙂
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, page just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, psychotherapist and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, ask just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, public health and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbeliveable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carosel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back insie to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, read more
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand. 

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, read more
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand. 

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, implant
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand.   We would show you a photo

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
Today was a relaxing day were we got to explore around our Casino and lounge by the pool.

We woke up pretty late and headed across to the Bellagio to enjoy the highly recommended buffet over there.  After about 25 minutes in line (it is that popular!) we headed in.  It was great and we would recommend it to others as well.

After lunch we hit the shops looking for a few good deals.  Planet Hollywood is right beside the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre.  It is one giant loop that would have somewhere between 200 and 300 shops, here from your cheap tourist stuff right through to your expensive jewellery.  They even have indoor rain storms every 30 minutes which are pretty cool.

We then went to lounge by the pool in the sun.  There were a few VIP tents across the pool from us.  At first we didn’t think there were many celebrities around – there were a few black guys that looked like NFL players but that was it.  But as the afternoon went on a few that we recognised showed up.

drug on Flickr”>

There was the daughter out of Gilmore Girls – can’t remember her name, ophthalmologist but she was there with here entourage of similarly skinny and nuclear white friends.

But just as we were about to leave you will never guess who showed up… MINI-ME!  Verne Troyer, the guy that played mini-me in Austin Powers was beside the pool with his posse.  We were both surprised by just how small he is – he really is about the size of a baby.  He looked even smaller when one of the suspected NFL players went to shake his hand.

After dinner we went to the show we booked a few days ago – a magic show by Steve Wywick.  It was pretty good, however we had seats in the second row which meant you could kinda see how he was doing the illusions.  The icing on the cake was being able to hear the chains they used to drag in a lear jet when it was supposed to “appear out of thin air”. 

We then headed back into the casino.  Kerrina had a punt on Roulette and did pretty well, pretty much tripling her money.  Paul sucked and lost it all (all $20 bucks).
Today was a relaxing day were we got to explore around our Casino and lounge by the pool.

We woke up pretty late and headed across to the Bellagio to enjoy the highly recommended buffet over there.  After about 25 minutes in line (it is that popular!) we headed in.  It was great and we would recommend it to others as well.

After lunch we hit the shops looking for a few good deals.  Planet Hollywood is right beside the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre.  It is one giant loop that would have somewhere between 200 and 300 shops, order from your cheap tourist stuff right through to your expensive jewellery.  They even have indoor rain storms every 30 minutes which are pretty cool.

We then went to lounge by the pool in the sun.  There were a few VIP tents across the pool from us.  At first we didn’t think there were many celebrities around – there were a few black guys that looked like NFL players but that was it.  But as the afternoon went on a few that we recognised showed up.

There was the daughter out of Gilmore Girls – can’t remember her name, but she was there with here entourage of similarly skinny and nuclear white friends.

But just as we were about to leave you will never guess who showed up… MINI-ME!  Verne Troyer, the guy that played mini-me in Austin Powers was beside the pool with his posse.  We were both surprised by just how small he is – he really is about the size of a baby.  He looked even smaller when one of the suspected NFL players went to shake his hand.

After dinner we went to the show we booked a few days ago – a magic show by Steve Wywick.  It was pretty good, however we had seats in the second row which meant you could kinda see how he was doing the illusions.  The icing on the cake was being able to hear the chains they used to drag in a lear jet when it was supposed to “appear out of thin air”. 

We then headed back into the casino.  Kerrina had a punt on Roulette and did pretty well, pretty much tripling her money.  Paul sucked and lost it all (all $20 bucks).
Today was pretty much a day lost to travel.

Our first leg was Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Las Vegas airport had been shut down earlier in the morning so there was a bit of a back log when we went to check in. Again we both got “randomly selected” for special treatment for going through security.

The flight from LV to LA is about 35 minutes, link however we spent about an hour and a half sitting in the plane on the ground between the two gates. So all up it would have been almost faster to drive.

We had to change terminals in LA because we were switching airlines. That unfortunately meant we had to go through security again. Suprise suprise, thumb when we pick up our boarding passes for the LA to Honolulu leg… guess what – SSSS – we are selected again for special treatment “at random!” We must be blacklisted or something!

The line for security was absolutely huge – people were complaining that they had been in line for over 90 minutes and were no where near the x-ray machines. We kept walking looking for the end of the line.

We thought we found it, pharm and walked down the roped aisle, but as we got closer we realised that we had walked down the First Class express security line. We both played dumb (which we were because we still can’t figure out where the end of the line really was), and the nice TSA man let us through.

Once inside the terminal we still had another 5 hours to wait because our flight was delayed an hour – which meant we made it to Honolulu late in the evening.

Kerrina’s family decided to fly out for a week in Hawaii when we booked our trip, so when we arrived they were already at the hotel waiting to greet us.
Today was pretty much a day lost to travel.

Our first leg was Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Las Vegas airport had been shut down earlier in the morning so there was a bit of a back log when we went to check in. Again we both got “randomly selected” for special treatment for going through security.

The flight from LV to LA is about 35 minutes, illness however we spent about an hour and a half sitting in the plane on the ground between the two gates. So all up it would have been almost faster to drive.

We had to change terminals in LA because we were switching airlines. That unfortunatlely meant we had to go through secutiry again. Suprise suprise, when we pick up our boarding passes for the LA to Honolulu leg… guess what – SSSS – we are selected again for special treatment “at random!” We must be blacklisted or something!

The line for security was absolutely huge – people were complaining that they had been in line for over 90 minutes and were no where near the x-ray machines. We kept walking looking for the end of the line.

We thought we found it, and walked down the roped aisle, but as we got closer we realised that we had walked down the First Class express security line. We both played dumb (which we were because we still can’t figure out where the end of the line really was), and the nice TSA man let us through.

Once inside the terminal we still had another 5 hours to wait because our flight was delayed an hour – which meant we made it to Honolulu late in the evening.

Kerrina’s family decided to fly out for a week in Hawaii when we booked our trip, so when we arrived they were already at the
Our time in Hawaii has been pretty laid back – basically a recovery week before we head back to work 🙁

Most of our time has been spent sleeping, buy eating, shopping, swimming, and sun baking.  However we have done a few little side trips whilst we are here.

We checked out Pearl Harbour and the USS Arizona Memorial which was pretty moving.  We then went on board the USS Missouri which is where the Japanese surrender in World War II was signed.

Paul went Mountain Biking on the other side of the island.  When he booked it he thought it would be just a nice ride through a valley, but when he got there he realised it is the valley where hollywood does a lot of filming.

Like Jurassic Park

Like Pearl Harbour

Like Godzilla

Like Lost

… and about 50 other movies or TV shows.  The scenery was spectacular, but unfortunately the ride was cut a little short due to the fact that the Lost production crew were there filming scenes for series five of Lost.

Whilst Paul was Mountain Biking, Kerrina and her family when for a bus tour around the island.

We all went to a traditional Luau and ate Pig that was cooked underground, and watched some attractive locals dance and run around in grass skirts.

Finally we have ate a few meals at Duke’s Bar at Waikiki, which has to be one of the best places to eat in Hawaii (and conveniently downstairs at the Outrigger where we are staying).  Duke was the guy that pretty much started modern surfing, and there are a few memorials around the place for him.

Today as I write this is our last day in Hawaii, and the last day of our holiday before we hop on a plane home.  Tonight we leave just before mid-night on our way to Auckland, and then back to Brisbane.  We totally skip Saturday 20 September this year due to crossing the International Date Line, which basically means we are back to work sooner than we really want to be!

We will post a few more photos up here when we get home… but for now, thanks for reading about our holiday and we both hope you have enjoyed seeing what we have been up to!

Paul and Kerrina
Our time in Hawaii has been pretty laid back – basically a recovery week before we head back to work 🙁

Most of our time has been spent sleeping, what is ed eating, symptoms shopping, anabolics swimming, and sun baking.  However we have done a few little side trips whilst we are here.

We checked out Pearl Harbour and the USS Arizona Memorial which was pretty moving.  We then went on board the USS Missouri which is where the Japanese surrender in World War II was signed.

Paul went Mountain Biking on the other side of the island.  When he booked it he thought it would be just a nice ride through a valley, but when he got there he realised it is the valley where hollywood does a lot of filming.

Like Jurassic Park

Like Pearl Harbour

Like Godzilla

Like Lost

… and about 50 other movies or TV shows.  The scenery was spectacular, but unfortunately the ride was cut a little short due to the fact that the Lost production crew were there filming scenes for series five of Lost.

Whilst Paul was Mountain Biking, Kerrina and her family when for a bus tour around the island.

We all went to a traditional Luau and ate Pig that was cooked underground, and watched some attractive locals dance and run around in grass skirts.

Finally we have ate a few meals at Duke’s Bar at Waikiki, which has to be one of the best places to eat in Hawaii (and conveniently downstairs at the Outrigger where we are staying).  Duke was the guy that pretty much started modern surfing, and there are a few memorials around the place for him.

Today as I write this is our last day in Hawaii, and the last day of our holiday before we hop on a plane home.  Tonight we leave just before mid-night on our way to Auckland, and then back to Brisbane.  We totally skip Saturday 20 September this year due to crossing the International Date Line, which basically means we are back to work sooner than we really want to be!

We will post a few more photos up here when we get home… but for now, thanks for reading about our holiday and we both hope you have enjoyed seeing what we have been up to!

Paul and Kerrina
Our time in Hawaii has been pretty laid back – basically a recovery week before we head back to work 🙁

Most of our time has been spent sleeping, what is ed eating, symptoms shopping, anabolics swimming, and sun baking.  However we have done a few little side trips whilst we are here.

We checked out Pearl Harbour and the USS Arizona Memorial which was pretty moving.  We then went on board the USS Missouri which is where the Japanese surrender in World War II was signed.

Paul went Mountain Biking on the other side of the island.  When he booked it he thought it would be just a nice ride through a valley, but when he got there he realised it is the valley where hollywood does a lot of filming.

Like Jurassic Park

Like Pearl Harbour

Like Godzilla

Like Lost

… and about 50 other movies or TV shows.  The scenery was spectacular, but unfortunately the ride was cut a little short due to the fact that the Lost production crew were there filming scenes for series five of Lost.

Whilst Paul was Mountain Biking, Kerrina and her family when for a bus tour around the island.

We all went to a traditional Luau and ate Pig that was cooked underground, and watched some attractive locals dance and run around in grass skirts.

Finally we have ate a few meals at Duke’s Bar at Waikiki, which has to be one of the best places to eat in Hawaii (and conveniently downstairs at the Outrigger where we are staying).  Duke was the guy that pretty much started modern surfing, and there are a few memorials around the place for him.

Today as I write this is our last day in Hawaii, and the last day of our holiday before we hop on a plane home.  Tonight we leave just before mid-night on our way to Auckland, and then back to Brisbane.  We totally skip Saturday 20 September this year due to crossing the International Date Line, which basically means we are back to work sooner than we really want to be!

We will post a few more photos up here when we get home… but for now, thanks for reading about our holiday and we both hope you have enjoyed seeing what we have been up to!

Paul and Kerrina
Hi all, seek

We have been back in Australia for a few weeks now (feels like an eternity since we were sitting on the beach at Waikiki enjoying our last holiday sunset), and over the weekend I finally got around to uploading the best photos of the trip to Flickr.

You can check them out by clicking here!

We hope you enjoy… there is still 4 hours of High Definition video to edit – that might be done by Christmas at this stage!

Cheers,

Paul and Kerrina

Today we headed to downtown Seattle.

In the morning we hit the Pike Place Markets for a few hours. This is where you might have seen the fish mongers throw the Salmon around. We were just in time to see them through a few around which will look great on video – but we forgot to take any stills to share with you at the moment 🙁

implant sickness on Flickr”>

Pike Place is one of the better markets we have been to. It is pretty big, discount however the quality of the goods is top notch. Kerrina could not get over how cheap and how pretty the flowers were.

Across the road from the Pike Place Market is home to the very first Starbucks store. We poked our head in for a quick look – because Pike Place has some heritage regulations they can’t change the store too much, so surprisingly it is a Starbucks that is actually a good coffee shop, instead of those cookie cutter Starbucks you get in Australia.

After spending the morning downtown we jumped onto a ferry to do a cruise on Lake Washington. They call it the “Bridges and Billionaires” cruise, because you see a couple of bridges, and the homes of Seattle’s wealthiest – including Bill Gates (house below), a heap of Microsoft executives, the guy who started Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, the guy that started Costco, Starbucks, and more. It was a pretty nice cruise, and gave spectacular views of Mt Rainier in the distance.

After the cruise we made our way back to the hotel in the middle of nowhere for the last time 🙂
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, page just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, psychotherapist and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, ask just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, public health and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbeliveable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carosel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back insie to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, read more
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand. 

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, read more
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand. 

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, implant
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand.   We would show you a photo

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
Today was a relaxing day were we got to explore around our Casino and lounge by the pool.

We woke up pretty late and headed across to the Bellagio to enjoy the highly recommended buffet over there.  After about 25 minutes in line (it is that popular!) we headed in.  It was great and we would recommend it to others as well.

After lunch we hit the shops looking for a few good deals.  Planet Hollywood is right beside the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre.  It is one giant loop that would have somewhere between 200 and 300 shops, here from your cheap tourist stuff right through to your expensive jewellery.  They even have indoor rain storms every 30 minutes which are pretty cool.

We then went to lounge by the pool in the sun.  There were a few VIP tents across the pool from us.  At first we didn’t think there were many celebrities around – there were a few black guys that looked like NFL players but that was it.  But as the afternoon went on a few that we recognised showed up.

drug on Flickr”>

There was the daughter out of Gilmore Girls – can’t remember her name, ophthalmologist but she was there with here entourage of similarly skinny and nuclear white friends.

But just as we were about to leave you will never guess who showed up… MINI-ME!  Verne Troyer, the guy that played mini-me in Austin Powers was beside the pool with his posse.  We were both surprised by just how small he is – he really is about the size of a baby.  He looked even smaller when one of the suspected NFL players went to shake his hand.

After dinner we went to the show we booked a few days ago – a magic show by Steve Wywick.  It was pretty good, however we had seats in the second row which meant you could kinda see how he was doing the illusions.  The icing on the cake was being able to hear the chains they used to drag in a lear jet when it was supposed to “appear out of thin air”. 

We then headed back into the casino.  Kerrina had a punt on Roulette and did pretty well, pretty much tripling her money.  Paul sucked and lost it all (all $20 bucks).
Today was a relaxing day were we got to explore around our Casino and lounge by the pool.

We woke up pretty late and headed across to the Bellagio to enjoy the highly recommended buffet over there.  After about 25 minutes in line (it is that popular!) we headed in.  It was great and we would recommend it to others as well.

After lunch we hit the shops looking for a few good deals.  Planet Hollywood is right beside the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre.  It is one giant loop that would have somewhere between 200 and 300 shops, order from your cheap tourist stuff right through to your expensive jewellery.  They even have indoor rain storms every 30 minutes which are pretty cool.

We then went to lounge by the pool in the sun.  There were a few VIP tents across the pool from us.  At first we didn’t think there were many celebrities around – there were a few black guys that looked like NFL players but that was it.  But as the afternoon went on a few that we recognised showed up.

There was the daughter out of Gilmore Girls – can’t remember her name, but she was there with here entourage of similarly skinny and nuclear white friends.

But just as we were about to leave you will never guess who showed up… MINI-ME!  Verne Troyer, the guy that played mini-me in Austin Powers was beside the pool with his posse.  We were both surprised by just how small he is – he really is about the size of a baby.  He looked even smaller when one of the suspected NFL players went to shake his hand.

After dinner we went to the show we booked a few days ago – a magic show by Steve Wywick.  It was pretty good, however we had seats in the second row which meant you could kinda see how he was doing the illusions.  The icing on the cake was being able to hear the chains they used to drag in a lear jet when it was supposed to “appear out of thin air”. 

We then headed back into the casino.  Kerrina had a punt on Roulette and did pretty well, pretty much tripling her money.  Paul sucked and lost it all (all $20 bucks).
Today was pretty much a day lost to travel.

Our first leg was Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Las Vegas airport had been shut down earlier in the morning so there was a bit of a back log when we went to check in. Again we both got “randomly selected” for special treatment for going through security.

The flight from LV to LA is about 35 minutes, link however we spent about an hour and a half sitting in the plane on the ground between the two gates. So all up it would have been almost faster to drive.

We had to change terminals in LA because we were switching airlines. That unfortunately meant we had to go through security again. Suprise suprise, thumb when we pick up our boarding passes for the LA to Honolulu leg… guess what – SSSS – we are selected again for special treatment “at random!” We must be blacklisted or something!

The line for security was absolutely huge – people were complaining that they had been in line for over 90 minutes and were no where near the x-ray machines. We kept walking looking for the end of the line.

We thought we found it, pharm and walked down the roped aisle, but as we got closer we realised that we had walked down the First Class express security line. We both played dumb (which we were because we still can’t figure out where the end of the line really was), and the nice TSA man let us through.

Once inside the terminal we still had another 5 hours to wait because our flight was delayed an hour – which meant we made it to Honolulu late in the evening.

Kerrina’s family decided to fly out for a week in Hawaii when we booked our trip, so when we arrived they were already at the hotel waiting to greet us.
Today was pretty much a day lost to travel.

Our first leg was Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Las Vegas airport had been shut down earlier in the morning so there was a bit of a back log when we went to check in. Again we both got “randomly selected” for special treatment for going through security.

The flight from LV to LA is about 35 minutes, illness however we spent about an hour and a half sitting in the plane on the ground between the two gates. So all up it would have been almost faster to drive.

We had to change terminals in LA because we were switching airlines. That unfortunatlely meant we had to go through secutiry again. Suprise suprise, when we pick up our boarding passes for the LA to Honolulu leg… guess what – SSSS – we are selected again for special treatment “at random!” We must be blacklisted or something!

The line for security was absolutely huge – people were complaining that they had been in line for over 90 minutes and were no where near the x-ray machines. We kept walking looking for the end of the line.

We thought we found it, and walked down the roped aisle, but as we got closer we realised that we had walked down the First Class express security line. We both played dumb (which we were because we still can’t figure out where the end of the line really was), and the nice TSA man let us through.

Once inside the terminal we still had another 5 hours to wait because our flight was delayed an hour – which meant we made it to Honolulu late in the evening.

Kerrina’s family decided to fly out for a week in Hawaii when we booked our trip, so when we arrived they were already at the
Our time in Hawaii has been pretty laid back – basically a recovery week before we head back to work 🙁

Most of our time has been spent sleeping, buy eating, shopping, swimming, and sun baking.  However we have done a few little side trips whilst we are here.

We checked out Pearl Harbour and the USS Arizona Memorial which was pretty moving.  We then went on board the USS Missouri which is where the Japanese surrender in World War II was signed.

Paul went Mountain Biking on the other side of the island.  When he booked it he thought it would be just a nice ride through a valley, but when he got there he realised it is the valley where hollywood does a lot of filming.

Like Jurassic Park

Like Pearl Harbour

Like Godzilla

Like Lost

… and about 50 other movies or TV shows.  The scenery was spectacular, but unfortunately the ride was cut a little short due to the fact that the Lost production crew were there filming scenes for series five of Lost.

Whilst Paul was Mountain Biking, Kerrina and her family when for a bus tour around the island.

We all went to a traditional Luau and ate Pig that was cooked underground, and watched some attractive locals dance and run around in grass skirts.

Finally we have ate a few meals at Duke’s Bar at Waikiki, which has to be one of the best places to eat in Hawaii (and conveniently downstairs at the Outrigger where we are staying).  Duke was the guy that pretty much started modern surfing, and there are a few memorials around the place for him.

Today as I write this is our last day in Hawaii, and the last day of our holiday before we hop on a plane home.  Tonight we leave just before mid-night on our way to Auckland, and then back to Brisbane.  We totally skip Saturday 20 September this year due to crossing the International Date Line, which basically means we are back to work sooner than we really want to be!

We will post a few more photos up here when we get home… but for now, thanks for reading about our holiday and we both hope you have enjoyed seeing what we have been up to!

Paul and Kerrina

Today we headed to downtown Seattle.

In the morning we hit the Pike Place Markets for a few hours. This is where you might have seen the fish mongers throw the Salmon around. We were just in time to see them through a few around which will look great on video – but we forgot to take any stills to share with you at the moment 🙁

implant sickness on Flickr”>

Pike Place is one of the better markets we have been to. It is pretty big, discount however the quality of the goods is top notch. Kerrina could not get over how cheap and how pretty the flowers were.

Across the road from the Pike Place Market is home to the very first Starbucks store. We poked our head in for a quick look – because Pike Place has some heritage regulations they can’t change the store too much, so surprisingly it is a Starbucks that is actually a good coffee shop, instead of those cookie cutter Starbucks you get in Australia.

After spending the morning downtown we jumped onto a ferry to do a cruise on Lake Washington. They call it the “Bridges and Billionaires” cruise, because you see a couple of bridges, and the homes of Seattle’s wealthiest – including Bill Gates (house below), a heap of Microsoft executives, the guy who started Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, the guy that started Costco, Starbucks, and more. It was a pretty nice cruise, and gave spectacular views of Mt Rainier in the distance.

After the cruise we made our way back to the hotel in the middle of nowhere for the last time 🙂
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, page just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, psychotherapist and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, ask just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, public health and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbeliveable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carosel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back insie to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, read more
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand. 

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, read more
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand. 

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, implant
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand.   We would show you a photo

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
Today was a relaxing day were we got to explore around our Casino and lounge by the pool.

We woke up pretty late and headed across to the Bellagio to enjoy the highly recommended buffet over there.  After about 25 minutes in line (it is that popular!) we headed in.  It was great and we would recommend it to others as well.

After lunch we hit the shops looking for a few good deals.  Planet Hollywood is right beside the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre.  It is one giant loop that would have somewhere between 200 and 300 shops, here from your cheap tourist stuff right through to your expensive jewellery.  They even have indoor rain storms every 30 minutes which are pretty cool.

We then went to lounge by the pool in the sun.  There were a few VIP tents across the pool from us.  At first we didn’t think there were many celebrities around – there were a few black guys that looked like NFL players but that was it.  But as the afternoon went on a few that we recognised showed up.

drug on Flickr”>

There was the daughter out of Gilmore Girls – can’t remember her name, ophthalmologist but she was there with here entourage of similarly skinny and nuclear white friends.

But just as we were about to leave you will never guess who showed up… MINI-ME!  Verne Troyer, the guy that played mini-me in Austin Powers was beside the pool with his posse.  We were both surprised by just how small he is – he really is about the size of a baby.  He looked even smaller when one of the suspected NFL players went to shake his hand.

After dinner we went to the show we booked a few days ago – a magic show by Steve Wywick.  It was pretty good, however we had seats in the second row which meant you could kinda see how he was doing the illusions.  The icing on the cake was being able to hear the chains they used to drag in a lear jet when it was supposed to “appear out of thin air”. 

We then headed back into the casino.  Kerrina had a punt on Roulette and did pretty well, pretty much tripling her money.  Paul sucked and lost it all (all $20 bucks).
Today was a relaxing day were we got to explore around our Casino and lounge by the pool.

We woke up pretty late and headed across to the Bellagio to enjoy the highly recommended buffet over there.  After about 25 minutes in line (it is that popular!) we headed in.  It was great and we would recommend it to others as well.

After lunch we hit the shops looking for a few good deals.  Planet Hollywood is right beside the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre.  It is one giant loop that would have somewhere between 200 and 300 shops, order from your cheap tourist stuff right through to your expensive jewellery.  They even have indoor rain storms every 30 minutes which are pretty cool.

We then went to lounge by the pool in the sun.  There were a few VIP tents across the pool from us.  At first we didn’t think there were many celebrities around – there were a few black guys that looked like NFL players but that was it.  But as the afternoon went on a few that we recognised showed up.

There was the daughter out of Gilmore Girls – can’t remember her name, but she was there with here entourage of similarly skinny and nuclear white friends.

But just as we were about to leave you will never guess who showed up… MINI-ME!  Verne Troyer, the guy that played mini-me in Austin Powers was beside the pool with his posse.  We were both surprised by just how small he is – he really is about the size of a baby.  He looked even smaller when one of the suspected NFL players went to shake his hand.

After dinner we went to the show we booked a few days ago – a magic show by Steve Wywick.  It was pretty good, however we had seats in the second row which meant you could kinda see how he was doing the illusions.  The icing on the cake was being able to hear the chains they used to drag in a lear jet when it was supposed to “appear out of thin air”. 

We then headed back into the casino.  Kerrina had a punt on Roulette and did pretty well, pretty much tripling her money.  Paul sucked and lost it all (all $20 bucks).
Today was pretty much a day lost to travel.

Our first leg was Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Las Vegas airport had been shut down earlier in the morning so there was a bit of a back log when we went to check in. Again we both got “randomly selected” for special treatment for going through security.

The flight from LV to LA is about 35 minutes, link however we spent about an hour and a half sitting in the plane on the ground between the two gates. So all up it would have been almost faster to drive.

We had to change terminals in LA because we were switching airlines. That unfortunately meant we had to go through security again. Suprise suprise, thumb when we pick up our boarding passes for the LA to Honolulu leg… guess what – SSSS – we are selected again for special treatment “at random!” We must be blacklisted or something!

The line for security was absolutely huge – people were complaining that they had been in line for over 90 minutes and were no where near the x-ray machines. We kept walking looking for the end of the line.

We thought we found it, pharm and walked down the roped aisle, but as we got closer we realised that we had walked down the First Class express security line. We both played dumb (which we were because we still can’t figure out where the end of the line really was), and the nice TSA man let us through.

Once inside the terminal we still had another 5 hours to wait because our flight was delayed an hour – which meant we made it to Honolulu late in the evening.

Kerrina’s family decided to fly out for a week in Hawaii when we booked our trip, so when we arrived they were already at the hotel waiting to greet us.

Today we headed to downtown Seattle.

In the morning we hit the Pike Place Markets for a few hours. This is where you might have seen the fish mongers throw the Salmon around. We were just in time to see them through a few around which will look great on video – but we forgot to take any stills to share with you at the moment 🙁

implant sickness on Flickr”>

Pike Place is one of the better markets we have been to. It is pretty big, discount however the quality of the goods is top notch. Kerrina could not get over how cheap and how pretty the flowers were.

Across the road from the Pike Place Market is home to the very first Starbucks store. We poked our head in for a quick look – because Pike Place has some heritage regulations they can’t change the store too much, so surprisingly it is a Starbucks that is actually a good coffee shop, instead of those cookie cutter Starbucks you get in Australia.

After spending the morning downtown we jumped onto a ferry to do a cruise on Lake Washington. They call it the “Bridges and Billionaires” cruise, because you see a couple of bridges, and the homes of Seattle’s wealthiest – including Bill Gates (house below), a heap of Microsoft executives, the guy who started Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, the guy that started Costco, Starbucks, and more. It was a pretty nice cruise, and gave spectacular views of Mt Rainier in the distance.

After the cruise we made our way back to the hotel in the middle of nowhere for the last time 🙂
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, page just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, psychotherapist and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, ask just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, public health and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbeliveable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carosel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back insie to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, read more
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand. 

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, read more
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand. 

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, implant
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand.   We would show you a photo

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.
Today was a relaxing day were we got to explore around our Casino and lounge by the pool.

We woke up pretty late and headed across to the Bellagio to enjoy the highly recommended buffet over there.  After about 25 minutes in line (it is that popular!) we headed in.  It was great and we would recommend it to others as well.

After lunch we hit the shops looking for a few good deals.  Planet Hollywood is right beside the Miracle Mile Shopping Centre.  It is one giant loop that would have somewhere between 200 and 300 shops, here from your cheap tourist stuff right through to your expensive jewellery.  They even have indoor rain storms every 30 minutes which are pretty cool.

We then went to lounge by the pool in the sun.  There were a few VIP tents across the pool from us.  At first we didn’t think there were many celebrities around – there were a few black guys that looked like NFL players but that was it.  But as the afternoon went on a few that we recognised showed up.

drug on Flickr”>

There was the daughter out of Gilmore Girls – can’t remember her name, ophthalmologist but she was there with here entourage of similarly skinny and nuclear white friends.

But just as we were about to leave you will never guess who showed up… MINI-ME!  Verne Troyer, the guy that played mini-me in Austin Powers was beside the pool with his posse.  We were both surprised by just how small he is – he really is about the size of a baby.  He looked even smaller when one of the suspected NFL players went to shake his hand.

After dinner we went to the show we booked a few days ago – a magic show by Steve Wywick.  It was pretty good, however we had seats in the second row which meant you could kinda see how he was doing the illusions.  The icing on the cake was being able to hear the chains they used to drag in a lear jet when it was supposed to “appear out of thin air”. 

We then headed back into the casino.  Kerrina had a punt on Roulette and did pretty well, pretty much tripling her money.  Paul sucked and lost it all (all $20 bucks).

Today we headed to downtown Seattle.

In the morning we hit the Pike Place Markets for a few hours. This is where you might have seen the fish mongers throw the Salmon around. We were just in time to see them through a few around which will look great on video – but we forgot to take any stills to share with you at the moment 🙁

implant sickness on Flickr”>

Pike Place is one of the better markets we have been to. It is pretty big, discount however the quality of the goods is top notch. Kerrina could not get over how cheap and how pretty the flowers were.

Across the road from the Pike Place Market is home to the very first Starbucks store. We poked our head in for a quick look – because Pike Place has some heritage regulations they can’t change the store too much, so surprisingly it is a Starbucks that is actually a good coffee shop, instead of those cookie cutter Starbucks you get in Australia.

After spending the morning downtown we jumped onto a ferry to do a cruise on Lake Washington. They call it the “Bridges and Billionaires” cruise, because you see a couple of bridges, and the homes of Seattle’s wealthiest – including Bill Gates (house below), a heap of Microsoft executives, the guy who started Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, the guy that started Costco, Starbucks, and more. It was a pretty nice cruise, and gave spectacular views of Mt Rainier in the distance.

After the cruise we made our way back to the hotel in the middle of nowhere for the last time 🙂
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, page just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, psychotherapist and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, ask just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, public health and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbeliveable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carosel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back insie to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, overweight just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, disease and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, syringe and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.
This morning we had an early start to get out to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Not much to say really about today apart from about 9 hours of sitting on a bus watching arid landscapes go past, read more
and about 2 hours at the Canyon.

That being said, we did see a few highlights along the way.

First thing we came across was just outside Las Vegas, where we saw were they filmed some of Forrest Gump – the bit where he runs across America.

The next thing we saw (a lot more impressive than a bit of straight road that Tom Hanks jogged on) was Hoover Dam.  Dissapointingly we are one of the last few that will be able to drive over the dam – next year they will have completed a bypass which means you will only see the dam from a distance.  Why?  You guessed it… 9/11

We then continued into Arizona and finally to the Grand Caynon.  Yep… its a canyon, and it is certainly grand. 

After photos and video at a few different spots, we got back on the bus towards Vegas.  A very long day but well worth it.

Today we headed to downtown Seattle.

In the morning we hit the Pike Place Markets for a few hours. This is where you might have seen the fish mongers throw the Salmon around. We were just in time to see them through a few around which will look great on video – but we forgot to take any stills to share with you at the moment 🙁

implant sickness on Flickr”>

Pike Place is one of the better markets we have been to. It is pretty big, discount however the quality of the goods is top notch. Kerrina could not get over how cheap and how pretty the flowers were.

Across the road from the Pike Place Market is home to the very first Starbucks store. We poked our head in for a quick look – because Pike Place has some heritage regulations they can’t change the store too much, so surprisingly it is a Starbucks that is actually a good coffee shop, instead of those cookie cutter Starbucks you get in Australia.

After spending the morning downtown we jumped onto a ferry to do a cruise on Lake Washington. They call it the “Bridges and Billionaires” cruise, because you see a couple of bridges, and the homes of Seattle’s wealthiest – including Bill Gates (house below), a heap of Microsoft executives, the guy who started Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, the guy that started Costco, Starbucks, and more. It was a pretty nice cruise, and gave spectacular views of Mt Rainier in the distance.

After the cruise we made our way back to the hotel in the middle of nowhere for the last time 🙂
Today we backed our bags to head to VEGAS!!!

Seattle was a bit of a pain in the behind with regard to what our Travel Agent booked for us.  They were thoughtful enough to book a transfer for us, page just forgot to book one that actually would pick us up from our hotel (slight technicality!).  After a phone call back to Australia, psychotherapist and some rather strong negotiation (Paul told them what was going to happen)… we hoped into our Corporate/Town Car and headed for the airport.

Only Kerrina got randomly selected to get the special treatment by the TSA… however waiting in “the Pen” is something we have got used to on this trip.

The flight from Seattle to Vegas was pretty uneventful.  There were some great views out the left side of the plane when we flew over the top of Mt Rainier.  Pity we didn’t have easy access to a camera because it was spectacular.

We landed in Vegas around lunch time, and then spent about 40 minutes taxiing to our gate.  It was unbelievable how busy the airport was when we arrived – there were 11 aircraft lined up to take off, and a constant stream coming in to land.

We found our bags after our baggage carousel was changed without telling anyone, and headed straight to the strip!  We stayed at Planet Hollywood which has to be one of the better located casinos in Vegas – directly across the road from the Bellagio.

We arrived, dropped our bags and then started to explore.  One of the first places we came across was the Fat Tuesday Dacquiri Bar.  Now these are not your standard Treasury or Jupiters Casino dacquiris – these were strong and about 5 or 6 times the size. 

Once we had a few drinks we went to book our tour to the grand canyon and a show, before heading into the casino proper and checking out the scene.  Did you know that there is an eBay pokie now!  We tried it – it was pretty stupid (maybe because we didn’t win anything…)

That night we dressed up and headed out to check out the Bellagio Fountain at night – it was a pretty impressive show, however a lot shorter than we thought it would be. 

After the fountain we went back inside to the fancy resturant at Planet Holywood – KOI.  Kerrina reliably informs me that a lot of the hollywood celebrities hang out there.  There were none this night, but we still had a great Japanese meal.

Finally to end the night we hired a stretch limo for an hour to drive us up and down the strip.  We highly recommend it – it was only $45 bucks, and a lot cheaper than the night tours you can do.  We saw all the sights, like the Las Vegas sign, the wedding chapels, all the casinos (and even the dodgy ones down the end of the strip).

Once we were back at the hotel we pretty much collapsed after a huge day of travel and sightseeing.

Today we made our way back towards Montreal for the finish of our first bus tour of Ontario and French Canada.

This morning we were told not to have breakfast… so about an hour out of Montreal, ed prescription  we stopped at a place called “Trois Riveries” (translates to “Three Rivers”, diagnosis however there are actually only 2 there.  The French Canadians are a bit strange).  There we went to a Maple Syrup farm and had pancakes, ham, and plenty of maple syrup for breakfast.

After a big feed (during which Paul was asked at least 14 times if he wanted more coffee) we headed outside to learn how Maple Syrup is made.  Is actually pretty interesting how they drain the sap from the trees and turn it into sugary goodness.

We continued to Montreal – stopping at the Olympic Stadium – home of the 1976 summer games – for a few shots.  Apparently Montreal only just paid of the stadium last year, which is scary considering that it doesn’t even work as designed (one of a few lemons in Montreal… another being Mirabel – the brand new airport they built that was too far away from town and no one wanted to use!)

We then drove into the centre of Montreal for another city tour.  Generally both of us were not that impressed with Montreal.  Compared to Quebec City it is pretty bland when it comes to the tourist stakes.

That being said we did stop at the big cathedral in the old part of town – which is where Celine Dion was married (do you get the feeling that they are obsessed with her over here?  We do!)  Inside it was pretty spectacular though – we can understand why she wanted to get married there!

Finally we pulled up stumps on our first tour at the bar with the rest of the group.  We went to dinner with one of the other couples on the tour that we have become friends with in the restaurant strip of Montreal – it reminded us of Park Road at Milton in Brisbane just on steroids.  We ate at a great place, which was across the road from the restaurant that Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve (I am sure that is not how you spell it!) owns.
Today we made our way back towards Montreal for the finish of our first bus tour of Ontario and French Canada.

This morning we were told not to have breakfast… so about an hour out of Montreal, find  we stopped at a place called “Trois Riveries” (translates to “Three Rivers”, however there are actually only 2 there.  The French Canadians are a bit strange).  There we went to a Maple Syrup farm and had pancakes, ham, and plenty of maple syrup for breakfast.

After a big feed (during which Paul was asked at least 14 times if he wanted more coffee) we headed outside to learn how Maple Syrup is made.  Is actually pretty interesting how they drain the sap from the trees and turn it into sugary goodness.

We continued to Montreal – stopping at the Olympic Stadium – home of the 1976 summer games – for a few shots.  Apparently Montreal only just paid of the stadium last year, which is scary considering that it doesn’t even work as designed (one of a few lemons in Montreal… another being Mirabel – the brand new airport they built that was too far away from town and no one wanted to use!)

We then drove into the centre of Montreal for another city tour.  Generally both of us were not that impressed with Montreal.  Compared to Quebec City it is pretty bland when it comes to the tourist stakes.

That being said we did stop at the big cathederal in the old part of town – which is where Celine Dion was married (do you get the feeling that they are obsessed with her over here?  We do!)  Inside it was pretty spectacular though – we can understand why she wanted to get married there!

Finally we pulled up stumps on our first tour at the bar with the rest of the group.  We went to dinner with one of the other couples on the tour that we have become friends with in the restaurant strip of Montreal – it reminded us of Park Road at Milton in Brisbane just on steroids.  We ate at a great place, which was across the road from the restaurant that Formula 1 driver Jaques Villenereurve (I am sure that is not how you spell it!) owns.
Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, prescription and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straight to the hotel, phthisiatrician and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the Rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina
Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina
Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

Today was the official first day of our second tour which takes us across the Rockies towards Vancouver.

order
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2811308557/”>

It started out with a bus tour of Calgary, which took us to places such as “The Saddle Dome” and Stampede Park – both of which feature heavily in the annual Calgary Stampede, and in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Speaking of the Calgary Olympics, on the way out of Calgary we stopped at the Canada Olympic Park – where some of the more important events at the games took place – like the Ski Jumping, Luge and most important of all… the track where the Jamaican Bobsled team shot to fame.

We then continued on along the Trans-Canadian highway towards the Banff National Park.  The landscape very quickly changed from rolling plains to the jagged heights of the Rocky Mountains.  Absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived in Banff about midday for lunch – then went up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola.  Back in Calgary it was 12 degrees… and at 7500 ft on the top of Sulphur Mountain in the rain and wind it would have been close to freezing.  But the view was well and truly worth the climb.

Later that evening we took the bus out of Banff about 20 minutes to a town called Canmore – home of the “Oh Canada Eh!” dinner show.  Was a great night – not exactly Broadway (the cast also serve you dinner), but definitely was good fun.

And most importantly, Kerrina got to see/hug/touch/have a photo with her first Mountie.

 

Tomorrow we have a full day in Banff to explore – hopefully the weather gets a bit better because it is raining pretty heavily tonight.

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

Today was the official first day of our second tour which takes us across the Rockies towards Vancouver.

order
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2811308557/”>

It started out with a bus tour of Calgary, which took us to places such as “The Saddle Dome” and Stampede Park – both of which feature heavily in the annual Calgary Stampede, and in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Speaking of the Calgary Olympics, on the way out of Calgary we stopped at the Canada Olympic Park – where some of the more important events at the games took place – like the Ski Jumping, Luge and most important of all… the track where the Jamaican Bobsled team shot to fame.

We then continued on along the Trans-Canadian highway towards the Banff National Park.  The landscape very quickly changed from rolling plains to the jagged heights of the Rocky Mountains.  Absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived in Banff about midday for lunch – then went up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola.  Back in Calgary it was 12 degrees… and at 7500 ft on the top of Sulphur Mountain in the rain and wind it would have been close to freezing.  But the view was well and truly worth the climb.

Later that evening we took the bus out of Banff about 20 minutes to a town called Canmore – home of the “Oh Canada Eh!” dinner show.  Was a great night – not exactly Broadway (the cast also serve you dinner), but definitely was good fun.

And most importantly, Kerrina got to see/hug/touch/have a photo with her first Mountie.

 

Tomorrow we have a full day in Banff to explore – hopefully the weather gets a bit better because it is raining pretty heavily tonight.
Today was the official first day of our second tour which takes us across the Rockies towards Vancouver.

illness
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2811308557/”>

It started out with a bus tour of Calgary, story
which took us to places such as “The Saddle Dome” and Stampede Park – both of which feature heavily in the annual Calgary Stampede, and in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Speaking of the Calgary Olympics, on the way out of Calgary we stopped at the Canada Olympic Park – where some of the more important events at the games took place – like the Ski Jumping, Luge and most important of all… the track where the Jamacian Bobsled team shot to fame.

We then continued on along the Trans-Canadian highway towards the Banff National Park.  The landscape very quickly changed from rolling plains to the jagged heights of the Rocky Mountains.  Absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived in Banff about midday for lunch – then went up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola.  Back in Calgary it was 12 degrees… and at 7500 ft on the top of Sulphur Mountain in the rain and wind it would have been close to freezing.  But the view was well and truely worth the climb.

Later that evening we took the bus out of Banff about 20 minutes to a town called Canmore – home of the “Oh Canada Eh!” dinner show.  Was a great night – not exactly broadway (the cast also serve you dinner), but definitely was good fun.

And most importantly, Kerrina got to see/hug/touch/have a photo with her first Mountie.

 

Tomorrow we have a full day in Banff to explore – hopefully the weather gets a bit better because it is raining pretty heavily tonight.
Well our prayers came true – we woke up to a beautiful blue sky day in Banff.

Today is pretty much a rest day on our tour, sickness and therefore up to us to explore the town.  Kerrina has one word…  SHOPPING!

There are plenty of little boutique stores here, as well as your fair share of souvenir shops.  Prices are pretty reasonable too.

Our hotel here in Banff is right beside the Bow River.  There is a canoe hire place next door so tonight we are going to hire a canoe for a couple of hours and explore some of the wildlife and scenery.  Hopefully we don’t fall in because as the tour guide jokingly said yesterday – “you can’t drown in our rivers… because you will freeze to death first”. 

We will keep you posted, but if you don’t hear from us any more, you know where to look for the icicles!
Well our prayers came true – we woke up to a beautiful blue sky day in Banff.

Today is pretty much a rest day on our tour, discount and therefore up to us to explore the town.  Kerrina has one word…  SHOPPING!

 

There are plenty of little boutique stores here, as well as your fair share of souvenir shops.  Prices are pretty reasonable too.

Our hotel here in Banff is right beside the Bow River.  There is a canoe hire place next door so tonight we are going to hire a canoe for a couple of hours and explore some of the wildlife and scenery.  Hopefully we don’t fall in because as the tour guide jokingly said yesterday – “you can’t drown in our rivers… because you will freeze to death first”. 

We will keep you posted, but if you don’t hear from us any more, you know where to look for the icicles!
Well last night we didn’t end up going on our canoe trip… Kerrina was feeling a little under the weather.

But this morning Banff was under the weather… in fact we woke up to SNOW 🙂

We walked down the block under the falling snow flakes to a diner for breakfast… then we hoped on the bus for our journey to Jasper.

Along the way we stopped off at two of the main tourist attractions in between the two towns – Lake Louise, pilule and the Columbia Ice Field.

Lake Louise looked beautiful, recipe but not like in the postcards.  Fog and falling snow gave her a whole new look which was unexpected but great none the less.

After braving the cold, both of us headed inside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for what has to be the best hot chocolate on the planet!

Next we were on the bus again, heading towards the Columbia Ice Field – and in particular the Athabasca Glacier.  On the highway the bus slowed down due to some traffic up ahead – turned out there was a Black Bear on the side of the road.

Once at the Ice Field we hopped on board one of the custom built Ice Explorers which took us up onto the glacier.  We had seen glaciers before in New Zealand, but this was the first time we got to stand on one which was pretty cool (get it… cool!)

We then crept closer to Jasper… with one more stop along the way – a rafting trip down the Athabasca River.  Even though the brochure said we wouldn’t get wet, somehow everyone on the boat did… and the water was freezing cold – straight off the glacier.  But the landscapes were amazing.

About 2 hours later we were off the rafts and back on the bus for the final few minutes into Jasper.  To cap off a beautiful day before we arrived at the hotel we saw a group of Elk crossing the road.
Well last night we didn’t end up going on our canoe trip… Kerrina was feeling a little under the weather.

But this morning Banff was under the weather… in fact we woke up to SNOW 🙂

We walked down the block under the falling snow flakes to a diner for breakfast… then we hoped on the bus for our journey to Jasper.

Along the way we stopped off at two of the main tourist attractions in between the two towns – Lake Louise, this site and the Columbia Ice Field.

Lake Louise looked beautiful, prostate but not like in the postcards.  Fog and falling snow gave her a whole new look which was unexpected but great none the less.

After braving the cold, both of us headed inside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for what has to be the best hot chocolate on the planet!

Next we were on the bus again, heading towards the Columbia Ice Field – and in particular the Athabasca Glacier.  On the highway the bus slowed down due to some traffic up ahead – turned out there was a Black Bear on the side of the road.

Once at the Ice Field we hopped on board one of the custom built Ice Explorers which took us up onto the glacier.  We had seen glaciers before in New Zealand, but this was the first time we got to stand on one which was pretty cool (get it… cool!)

We then crept closer to Jasper… with one more stop along the way – a rafting trip down the Athabasca River.  Even though the brochure said we wouldn’t get wet, somehow everyone on the boat did… and the water was freezing cold – straight off the glacier.  But the landscapes were amazing.

About 2 hours later we were off the rafts and back on the bus for the final few minutes into Jasper.  To cap off a beautiful day before we arrived at the hotel we saw a group of Elk crossing the road.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, cialis sale and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

capsule on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, advice and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

disinfection on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, advice and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

disinfection on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was the day that Kerrina had dreamed of since she was in Grade 12 – we were finally hopping on board the (really) world famous Rocky Mountaineer train.  Gold Leaf class of course!

health on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833869853/”>

Two words – Spectacular.  Food.

In fact they are about the only words that can describe it – you really need to experience it yourself to understand just how breathtaking Western Canada can be!

prothesis
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833922225/”>

We have plenty more photos and video of these great two days – we might save them until we get back though.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, advice and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

disinfection on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was the day that Kerrina had dreamed of since she was in Grade 12 – we were finally hopping on board the (really) world famous Rocky Mountaineer train.  Gold Leaf class of course!

health on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833869853/”>

Two words – Spectacular.  Food.

In fact they are about the only words that can describe it – you really need to experience it yourself to understand just how breathtaking Western Canada can be!

prothesis
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833922225/”>

We have plenty more photos and video of these great two days – we might save them until we get back though.
Today was the day that Kerrina had dreamt of since she was in Grade 12 – we were finally hopping on board the (really) world famous Rocky Mountaineer train.  Gold Leaf class of course!

Glaucoma
on Flickr”>

Two words – Spectacular.  Food.

In fact they are about the only words that can describe it – you really need to experience it yourself to understand just how breathtaking Western Canada can be!

treatment on Flickr”>

We have plenty more photos and video of these great two days – we might sa
Today we lost our train legs after two days rocking side to side on the Rocky Mountaineer.

For the first half of the day we had a tour around Vancouver… which is a pretty nice place.  Stanley Park, ambulance which is just by the harbour and the Lions Gate bridge is a nice city garden – about 20 times better than the dodgy botanical gardens that Brisbane has to offer.  Stanley park also gave us great views back towards the Vancouver skyline.

Then we drove south towards the US border – but just before we got there we went towards the coast to the ferry terminal.  We caught the BC ferry across from Vancouver to Vancouver Island.  This was about a 90 minute crossing… very smooth and very picturesque as you weave through the San Jaun Islands.

Once at Vancouver Island the bus took us straight to the world famous Butchart Gardens.  Originally this was an old disused quarry but a woman transformed it into yet another amazing garden full of plants from around the world.  Butchart is another one of those places where words can’t really describe it, you just have to see it to believe it.

After the afternoon at Butchart we drove about 30 minutes down the road to the capital of British Columbia and the home of the 1994 Commonwealth Games – Victoria.

After checking into the Royal Scot Suites, where we were welcomed with and old guy playing a bagpipe… we took a night-time walk through the streets of Victoria.

In search of food we came across this great restaurant called The Old Spaghetti House – which was exactly what we were looking for – salad, pasta, garlic bread, dessert… all for $12 – great price and great tasting food.

On the way back from the restaurant to the hotel we walked behind the Houses of Parliament and ran across a family of Raccoons that were hanging around a tree.  They are a lot bigger than we thought – either that or we just came across some mutant ones.

Today we lost our train legs after two days rocking side to side on the Rocky Mountaineer.

For the first half of the day we had a tour around Vancouver… which is a pretty nice place.  Stanley Park, this site which is just by the harbour and the Lions Gate bridge is a nice city garden – about 20 times better than the dodgy botanical gardens that Brisbane has to offer.  Stanley park also gave us great views back towards the Vancouver skyline.

Then we drove south towards the US border – but just before we got there we went towards the coast to the ferry terminal.  We caught the BC ferry across from Vancouver to Vancouver Island.  This was about a 90 minute crossing… very smooth and very picturesque as you weave through the San Jaun Islands.

Once at Vancouver Island the bus took us straight to the world famous Butchart Gardens.  Originally this was an old disused quarry but a woman transformed it into yet another amazing garden full of plants from around the world.  Butchart is another one of those places where words can’t really describe it, you just have to see it to believe it.

After the afternoon at Butchart we drove about 30 minutes down the road to the capital of British Columbia and the home of the 1994 Commonwealth Games – Victoria.

After checking into the Royal Scot Suites, where we were welcomed with and old guy playing a bagpipe… we took a night-time walk through the streets of Victoria.

In search of food we came across this great restaurant called The Old Spaghetti House – which was exactly what we were looking for – salad, pasta, garlic bread, dessert… all for $12 – great price and great tasting food.

On the way back from the restaurant to the hotel we walked behind the Houses of Parliament and ran across a family of Raccoons that were hanging around a tree.  They are a lot bigger than we thought – either that or we just came across some mutant ones.

Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, gerontologist it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, otolaryngologist we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, medicine it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, medicine it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another transit day more or less. We hopped onto the bus to head back to the ferry terminal, denture
and did the reverse crossing we had taken a couple of days earlier.

Once we were back in Vancouver we said goodbye to most of our tour group. They were all hopping on ships to cruise the Inside Passage up to Alaska. Instead of spending 7 days in retirement home luxury on a cruise ship like everyone else, advice we decided to spend some more time in British Columbia, and take in some of the United States as well.

The afternoon was pretty lazy – nothing to exciting to report – apart from the fact that TV is pretty crap here in the summer! However the good news is that no matter what night of the week we have been able to find at least two episodes of Family Guy to keep us going!
Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, medicine it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another transit day more or less. We hopped onto the bus to head back to the ferry terminal, denture
and did the reverse crossing we had taken a couple of days earlier.

Once we were back in Vancouver we said goodbye to most of our tour group. They were all hopping on ships to cruise the Inside Passage up to Alaska. Instead of spending 7 days in retirement home luxury on a cruise ship like everyone else, advice we decided to spend some more time in British Columbia, and take in some of the United States as well.

The afternoon was pretty lazy – nothing to exciting to report – apart from the fact that TV is pretty crap here in the summer! However the good news is that no matter what night of the week we have been able to find at least two episodes of Family Guy to keep us going!
Today was another transit day more or less. We hopped onto the bus to head back to the ferry terminal, buy cialis and did the reverse crossing we had taken a couple of days earlier.

Once we were back in Vancouver we said goodbye to most of our tour group. They were all hopping on ships to cruise the Inside Passage up to Alaska. Instead of spending 7 days in retirement home luxury on a cruise ship like everyone else, site we decided to spend some more time in British Columbia, and take in some of the United States as well.

The afternoon was pretty lazy – nothing to exciting to report – apart from the fact that TV is pretty crap here in the summer! However the good
Today was really our last full day in Canada – so we decided to take a day trip a few hours up the road to Whistler. Whistler is a great little town – however they should probably call it “Little Sydney” because all you could hear was Australian accents.

more info on Flickr”>

Obviously as it was summer there wasn’t much snow around. The mountains and ski lifts had been taken over by at least 500 mountain bikers taking advantage of the perfect weather.

We both agree that Whistler would be a great place to come back to in the winter. They are going to host a lot of the alpine events of the 2010 Winter Olympics there… so we made sure we checked out the ridiculously overpriced merchandise, and the visitor centre.

In hindsight, I would have looked much more aerodynamic if I took my camera bag off!

Today was really our last full day in Canada – so we decided to take a day trip a few hours up the road to Whistler. Whistler is a great little town – however they should probably call it “Little Sydney” because all you could hear was Australian accents.

Obviously as it was summer there wasn’t much snow around. The mountains and ski lifts had been taken over by at least 500 mountain bikers taking advantage of the perfect weather.

We both agree that Whistler would be a great place to come back to in the winter. They are going to host a lot of the alpine events of the 2010 Winter Olympics there… so we made sure we checked out the ridiculously overpriced merchandise, human enhancement and the visitor centre.

sovaldi sale on Flickr”>

In hindsight, I would have looked much more aerodynamic if I took my camera bag off!

Today was the earliest start of our trip! Checkout at 5am to get on the 5:30am bus from Vancouver to Seattle.

The only saving grace of this trip was that the bus had wi-fi – so we could catch up on all the news at home using Paul’s iPod!

On our Journey to Seattle we were lucky enough to enjoy a land based border crossing into the United States. Being of other than US or Canadian citizenship – they let us go first. Not that it really made a difference, purchase because our bus was held up by two suspicious looking folk on our bus. Actually they weren’t that suspicious, just that something in the computer meant that they border protection guy had to do a 60 minute interview with them. Bummer.

The good news was that the bus drive told them to get the next bus – so we continued on towards Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle mid morning. It was then we realised that our travel agent had booked us into a hotel no where near any of the good stuff. In fact our hotel was right beside the University, about 6 miles out of downtown.

And to top it off, the main reason why we came to Seattle was to do a tour of the Boeing Factory. But our good friends at Boeing decided to strike 3 days before we arrived – which meant ALL TOURS CANCELED! Talk about a bad start to a city!

That being said, the weather was really nice, so we sat on the grass at the bottom of the Space Needle for a while before going to the Experience Music Project.

The EMP was one of the best museums we have ever been into. Plenty on the Seattle music scene that has brought us folks like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and The Presidents of the United States of America, as well as feature on Jimi Hendrix, and a room full of guitars which documents the evolution of the instrument through the ages. Highly recommended for anyone! The highlight was the guitar “sculpture” in the middle of the museum. They had a few guitars rigged up to play automatically in the piece, which you could listen to with headphones at the bottom – was really amazing!

After that we grabbed a late lunch before finding our way to the hotel in the middle of nowhere.
Today was the earliest start of our trip! Checkout at 5am to get on the 5:30am bus from Vancouver to Seattle.

The only saving grace of this trip was that the bus had wi-fi – so we could catch up on all the news at home using Paul’s iPod!

On our Journey to Seattle we were lucky enough to enjoy a land based border crossing into the United States. Being of other than US or Canadian citizenship – they let us go first. Not that it really made a difference, link because our bus was held up by two suspicious looking folk on our bus. Actually they weren’t that suspicious, drug just that something in the computer meant that they border protection guy had to do a 60 minute interview with them. Bummer.

The good news was that the bus drive told them to get the next bus – so we continued on towards Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle mid morning. It was then we realised that our travel agent had booked us into a hotel no where near any of the good stuff. In fact our hotel was right beside the University, more about about 6 miles out of downtown.

And to top it off, the main reason why we came to Seattle was to do a tour of the Boeing Factory. But our good friends at Boeing decided to strike 3 days before we arrived – which meant ALL TOURS CANCELLED! Talk about a bad start to a city!

That being said, the weather was really nice, so we sat on the grass at the bottom of the Space Needle for a while before going to the Experience Music Project.

The EMP was one of the best museums we have ever been into. Plenty on the Seattle music scene that has brought us folks like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and The Presidents of the United States of America, as well as feature on Jimi Hendrix, and a room full of guitars which documents the evolution of the instrument through the ages. Highly recommended for anyone! The highlight was the guitar “sculpture” in the middle of the museum. They had a few guitars rigged up to play automatically in the piece, which you could listen to with headphones at the bottom – was really amazing!

After that we grabbed a late lunch before finding our way to the hotel in the middle of nowhere.
Today was the earliest start of our trip! Checkout at 5am to get on the 5:30am bus from Vancouver to Seattle.

The only saving grace of this trip was that the bus had wi-fi – so we could catch up on all the news at home using Paul’s iPod!

On our Journey to Seattle we were lucky enough to enjoy a land based border crossing into the United States. Being of other than US or Canadian citizenship – they let us go first. Not that it really made a difference, link because our bus was held up by two suspicious looking folk on our bus. Actually they weren’t that suspicious, drug just that something in the computer meant that they border protection guy had to do a 60 minute interview with them. Bummer.

The good news was that the bus drive told them to get the next bus – so we continued on towards Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle mid morning. It was then we realised that our travel agent had booked us into a hotel no where near any of the good stuff. In fact our hotel was right beside the University, more about about 6 miles out of downtown.

And to top it off, the main reason why we came to Seattle was to do a tour of the Boeing Factory. But our good friends at Boeing decided to strike 3 days before we arrived – which meant ALL TOURS CANCELLED! Talk about a bad start to a city!

That being said, the weather was really nice, so we sat on the grass at the bottom of the Space Needle for a while before going to the Experience Music Project.

The EMP was one of the best museums we have ever been into. Plenty on the Seattle music scene that has brought us folks like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and The Presidents of the United States of America, as well as feature on Jimi Hendrix, and a room full of guitars which documents the evolution of the instrument through the ages. Highly recommended for anyone! The highlight was the guitar “sculpture” in the middle of the museum. They had a few guitars rigged up to play automatically in the piece, which you could listen to with headphones at the bottom – was really amazing!

After that we grabbed a late lunch before finding our way to the hotel in the middle of nowhere.
Today we had planned to head north up to Everett to take the Boeing Factory Tour. Instead we traveled south to Boeing Field to take a look at the Museum of Flight.

In hindsight the strike at Boeing was a good thing, sovaldi sale because we would have otherwise missed out on a great museum.

We took an hour long tour through the main gallery. The tour showed the rapid evolution of flight, from the Wright Flyer, through Air Mail to the first passenger services… the military and to the fastest plane in the world… a variant of the SR-71 Blackbird. Whilst Kerrina tried to stay interested, Paul absolutely loved it.

Then we jumped across the road to the Air Park. Here they have the last Concorde ever to fly, and the Boeing 707 that used to be Air Force One – the one that JFK and presidents of that time used. Kerrina was quite excited to walk on Air Force One.

Unfortunately the Concorde was closed to visitors for two days for cleaning, so we missed out on taking a look inside that one.

Today was the earliest start of our trip! Checkout at 5am to get on the 5:30am bus from Vancouver to Seattle.

The only saving grace of this trip was that the bus had wi-fi – so we could catch up on all the news at home using Paul’s iPod!

On our Journey to Seattle we were lucky enough to enjoy a land based border crossing into the United States. Being of other than US or Canadian citizenship – they let us go first. Not that it really made a difference, link because our bus was held up by two suspicious looking folk on our bus. Actually they weren’t that suspicious, drug just that something in the computer meant that they border protection guy had to do a 60 minute interview with them. Bummer.

The good news was that the bus drive told them to get the next bus – so we continued on towards Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle mid morning. It was then we realised that our travel agent had booked us into a hotel no where near any of the good stuff. In fact our hotel was right beside the University, more about about 6 miles out of downtown.

And to top it off, the main reason why we came to Seattle was to do a tour of the Boeing Factory. But our good friends at Boeing decided to strike 3 days before we arrived – which meant ALL TOURS CANCELLED! Talk about a bad start to a city!

That being said, the weather was really nice, so we sat on the grass at the bottom of the Space Needle for a while before going to the Experience Music Project.

The EMP was one of the best museums we have ever been into. Plenty on the Seattle music scene that has brought us folks like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and The Presidents of the United States of America, as well as feature on Jimi Hendrix, and a room full of guitars which documents the evolution of the instrument through the ages. Highly recommended for anyone! The highlight was the guitar “sculpture” in the middle of the museum. They had a few guitars rigged up to play automatically in the piece, which you could listen to with headphones at the bottom – was really amazing!

After that we grabbed a late lunch before finding our way to the hotel in the middle of nowhere.
Today we had planned to head north up to Everett to take the Boeing Factory Tour. Instead we traveled south to Boeing Field to take a look at the Museum of Flight.

In hindsight the strike at Boeing was a good thing, sovaldi sale because we would have otherwise missed out on a great museum.

We took an hour long tour through the main gallery. The tour showed the rapid evolution of flight, from the Wright Flyer, through Air Mail to the first passenger services… the military and to the fastest plane in the world… a variant of the SR-71 Blackbird. Whilst Kerrina tried to stay interested, Paul absolutely loved it.

Then we jumped across the road to the Air Park. Here they have the last Concorde ever to fly, and the Boeing 707 that used to be Air Force One – the one that JFK and presidents of that time used. Kerrina was quite excited to walk on Air Force One.

Unfortunately the Concorde was closed to visitors for two days for cleaning, so we missed out on taking a look inside that one.

Today we had planned to head north up to Everett to take the Boeing Factory Tour. Instead we traveled south to Boeing Field to take a look at the Museum of Flight.

In hindsight the strike at Boeing was a good thing, viagra 60mg
because we would have otherwise missed out on a great museum.

We took an hour long tour through the main gallery. The tour showed the rapid evolution of flight, click from the Wright Flyer, through Air Mail to the first passenger services… the military and to the fastest plane in the world… a variant of the SR-71 Blackbird. Whilst Kerrina tried to stay interested, Paul absolutely loved it.

Then we jumped across the road to the Air Park. Here they have the last Concorde ever to fly, and the Boeing 707 that used to be Air Force One – the one that JFK and presidents of that time used. Kerrina was quite excited to walk on Air Force One.

Unfortunately the Concorde was closed to visitors for two days for cleaning, so we missed out on taking a look inside that one.

Today we headed to downtown Seattle.

In the morning we hit the Pike Place Markets for a few hours. This is where you might have seen the fish mongers throw the Salmon around. We were just in time to see them through a few around which will look great on video – but we forgot to take any stills to share with you at the moment 🙁

this site on Flickr”>

Pike Place is one of the better markets we have been to. It is pretty big, recipe however the quality of the goods is top notch. Kerrina could not get over how cheap and how pretty the flowers were.

Across the road from the Pike Place Market is home to the very first Starbucks store. We poked our head in for a quick look – because Pike Place has some heritage regulations they can’t change the store too much, erectile so surprisingly it is a Starbucks that is actually a good coffee shop, instead of those cookie cutter Starbucks you get in Australia.

After spending the morning downtown we jumped onto a ferry to do a cruise on Lake Washington. They call it the “Bridges and Billionaires” cruise, because you see a couple of bridges, and the homes of Seattle’s wealthiest – including Bill Gates (picture of just a bit of his house below), a heap of Microsoft executives, the guy who started Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, the guy that started Costco, Starbucks, and more. It was a pretty nice cruise, and gave spectacular views of Mt Rainier in the distance.

After the cruise we made our way back to the hotel in the middle of nowhere for the last time 🙂

Today we made our way back towards Montreal for the finish of our first bus tour of Ontario and French Canada.

This morning we were told not to have breakfast… so about an hour out of Montreal, ed prescription  we stopped at a place called “Trois Riveries” (translates to “Three Rivers”, diagnosis however there are actually only 2 there.  The French Canadians are a bit strange).  There we went to a Maple Syrup farm and had pancakes, ham, and plenty of maple syrup for breakfast.

After a big feed (during which Paul was asked at least 14 times if he wanted more coffee) we headed outside to learn how Maple Syrup is made.  Is actually pretty interesting how they drain the sap from the trees and turn it into sugary goodness.

We continued to Montreal – stopping at the Olympic Stadium – home of the 1976 summer games – for a few shots.  Apparently Montreal only just paid of the stadium last year, which is scary considering that it doesn’t even work as designed (one of a few lemons in Montreal… another being Mirabel – the brand new airport they built that was too far away from town and no one wanted to use!)

We then drove into the centre of Montreal for another city tour.  Generally both of us were not that impressed with Montreal.  Compared to Quebec City it is pretty bland when it comes to the tourist stakes.

That being said we did stop at the big cathedral in the old part of town – which is where Celine Dion was married (do you get the feeling that they are obsessed with her over here?  We do!)  Inside it was pretty spectacular though – we can understand why she wanted to get married there!

Finally we pulled up stumps on our first tour at the bar with the rest of the group.  We went to dinner with one of the other couples on the tour that we have become friends with in the restaurant strip of Montreal – it reminded us of Park Road at Milton in Brisbane just on steroids.  We ate at a great place, which was across the road from the restaurant that Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve (I am sure that is not how you spell it!) owns.
Today we made our way back towards Montreal for the finish of our first bus tour of Ontario and French Canada.

This morning we were told not to have breakfast… so about an hour out of Montreal, find  we stopped at a place called “Trois Riveries” (translates to “Three Rivers”, however there are actually only 2 there.  The French Canadians are a bit strange).  There we went to a Maple Syrup farm and had pancakes, ham, and plenty of maple syrup for breakfast.

After a big feed (during which Paul was asked at least 14 times if he wanted more coffee) we headed outside to learn how Maple Syrup is made.  Is actually pretty interesting how they drain the sap from the trees and turn it into sugary goodness.

We continued to Montreal – stopping at the Olympic Stadium – home of the 1976 summer games – for a few shots.  Apparently Montreal only just paid of the stadium last year, which is scary considering that it doesn’t even work as designed (one of a few lemons in Montreal… another being Mirabel – the brand new airport they built that was too far away from town and no one wanted to use!)

We then drove into the centre of Montreal for another city tour.  Generally both of us were not that impressed with Montreal.  Compared to Quebec City it is pretty bland when it comes to the tourist stakes.

That being said we did stop at the big cathederal in the old part of town – which is where Celine Dion was married (do you get the feeling that they are obsessed with her over here?  We do!)  Inside it was pretty spectacular though – we can understand why she wanted to get married there!

Finally we pulled up stumps on our first tour at the bar with the rest of the group.  We went to dinner with one of the other couples on the tour that we have become friends with in the restaurant strip of Montreal – it reminded us of Park Road at Milton in Brisbane just on steroids.  We ate at a great place, which was across the road from the restaurant that Formula 1 driver Jaques Villenereurve (I am sure that is not how you spell it!) owns.
Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, prescription and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straight to the hotel, phthisiatrician and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the Rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina
Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina
Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

Today was the official first day of our second tour which takes us across the Rockies towards Vancouver.

order
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2811308557/”>

It started out with a bus tour of Calgary, which took us to places such as “The Saddle Dome” and Stampede Park – both of which feature heavily in the annual Calgary Stampede, and in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Speaking of the Calgary Olympics, on the way out of Calgary we stopped at the Canada Olympic Park – where some of the more important events at the games took place – like the Ski Jumping, Luge and most important of all… the track where the Jamaican Bobsled team shot to fame.

We then continued on along the Trans-Canadian highway towards the Banff National Park.  The landscape very quickly changed from rolling plains to the jagged heights of the Rocky Mountains.  Absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived in Banff about midday for lunch – then went up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola.  Back in Calgary it was 12 degrees… and at 7500 ft on the top of Sulphur Mountain in the rain and wind it would have been close to freezing.  But the view was well and truly worth the climb.

Later that evening we took the bus out of Banff about 20 minutes to a town called Canmore – home of the “Oh Canada Eh!” dinner show.  Was a great night – not exactly Broadway (the cast also serve you dinner), but definitely was good fun.

And most importantly, Kerrina got to see/hug/touch/have a photo with her first Mountie.

 

Tomorrow we have a full day in Banff to explore – hopefully the weather gets a bit better because it is raining pretty heavily tonight.

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

Today was the official first day of our second tour which takes us across the Rockies towards Vancouver.

order
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2811308557/”>

It started out with a bus tour of Calgary, which took us to places such as “The Saddle Dome” and Stampede Park – both of which feature heavily in the annual Calgary Stampede, and in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Speaking of the Calgary Olympics, on the way out of Calgary we stopped at the Canada Olympic Park – where some of the more important events at the games took place – like the Ski Jumping, Luge and most important of all… the track where the Jamaican Bobsled team shot to fame.

We then continued on along the Trans-Canadian highway towards the Banff National Park.  The landscape very quickly changed from rolling plains to the jagged heights of the Rocky Mountains.  Absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived in Banff about midday for lunch – then went up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola.  Back in Calgary it was 12 degrees… and at 7500 ft on the top of Sulphur Mountain in the rain and wind it would have been close to freezing.  But the view was well and truly worth the climb.

Later that evening we took the bus out of Banff about 20 minutes to a town called Canmore – home of the “Oh Canada Eh!” dinner show.  Was a great night – not exactly Broadway (the cast also serve you dinner), but definitely was good fun.

And most importantly, Kerrina got to see/hug/touch/have a photo with her first Mountie.

 

Tomorrow we have a full day in Banff to explore – hopefully the weather gets a bit better because it is raining pretty heavily tonight.
Today was the official first day of our second tour which takes us across the Rockies towards Vancouver.

illness
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2811308557/”>

It started out with a bus tour of Calgary, story
which took us to places such as “The Saddle Dome” and Stampede Park – both of which feature heavily in the annual Calgary Stampede, and in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Speaking of the Calgary Olympics, on the way out of Calgary we stopped at the Canada Olympic Park – where some of the more important events at the games took place – like the Ski Jumping, Luge and most important of all… the track where the Jamacian Bobsled team shot to fame.

We then continued on along the Trans-Canadian highway towards the Banff National Park.  The landscape very quickly changed from rolling plains to the jagged heights of the Rocky Mountains.  Absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived in Banff about midday for lunch – then went up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola.  Back in Calgary it was 12 degrees… and at 7500 ft on the top of Sulphur Mountain in the rain and wind it would have been close to freezing.  But the view was well and truely worth the climb.

Later that evening we took the bus out of Banff about 20 minutes to a town called Canmore – home of the “Oh Canada Eh!” dinner show.  Was a great night – not exactly broadway (the cast also serve you dinner), but definitely was good fun.

And most importantly, Kerrina got to see/hug/touch/have a photo with her first Mountie.

 

Tomorrow we have a full day in Banff to explore – hopefully the weather gets a bit better because it is raining pretty heavily tonight.
Well our prayers came true – we woke up to a beautiful blue sky day in Banff.

Today is pretty much a rest day on our tour, sickness and therefore up to us to explore the town.  Kerrina has one word…  SHOPPING!

There are plenty of little boutique stores here, as well as your fair share of souvenir shops.  Prices are pretty reasonable too.

Our hotel here in Banff is right beside the Bow River.  There is a canoe hire place next door so tonight we are going to hire a canoe for a couple of hours and explore some of the wildlife and scenery.  Hopefully we don’t fall in because as the tour guide jokingly said yesterday – “you can’t drown in our rivers… because you will freeze to death first”. 

We will keep you posted, but if you don’t hear from us any more, you know where to look for the icicles!
Well our prayers came true – we woke up to a beautiful blue sky day in Banff.

Today is pretty much a rest day on our tour, discount and therefore up to us to explore the town.  Kerrina has one word…  SHOPPING!

 

There are plenty of little boutique stores here, as well as your fair share of souvenir shops.  Prices are pretty reasonable too.

Our hotel here in Banff is right beside the Bow River.  There is a canoe hire place next door so tonight we are going to hire a canoe for a couple of hours and explore some of the wildlife and scenery.  Hopefully we don’t fall in because as the tour guide jokingly said yesterday – “you can’t drown in our rivers… because you will freeze to death first”. 

We will keep you posted, but if you don’t hear from us any more, you know where to look for the icicles!
Well last night we didn’t end up going on our canoe trip… Kerrina was feeling a little under the weather.

But this morning Banff was under the weather… in fact we woke up to SNOW 🙂

We walked down the block under the falling snow flakes to a diner for breakfast… then we hoped on the bus for our journey to Jasper.

Along the way we stopped off at two of the main tourist attractions in between the two towns – Lake Louise, pilule and the Columbia Ice Field.

Lake Louise looked beautiful, recipe but not like in the postcards.  Fog and falling snow gave her a whole new look which was unexpected but great none the less.

After braving the cold, both of us headed inside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for what has to be the best hot chocolate on the planet!

Next we were on the bus again, heading towards the Columbia Ice Field – and in particular the Athabasca Glacier.  On the highway the bus slowed down due to some traffic up ahead – turned out there was a Black Bear on the side of the road.

Once at the Ice Field we hopped on board one of the custom built Ice Explorers which took us up onto the glacier.  We had seen glaciers before in New Zealand, but this was the first time we got to stand on one which was pretty cool (get it… cool!)

We then crept closer to Jasper… with one more stop along the way – a rafting trip down the Athabasca River.  Even though the brochure said we wouldn’t get wet, somehow everyone on the boat did… and the water was freezing cold – straight off the glacier.  But the landscapes were amazing.

About 2 hours later we were off the rafts and back on the bus for the final few minutes into Jasper.  To cap off a beautiful day before we arrived at the hotel we saw a group of Elk crossing the road.
Well last night we didn’t end up going on our canoe trip… Kerrina was feeling a little under the weather.

But this morning Banff was under the weather… in fact we woke up to SNOW 🙂

We walked down the block under the falling snow flakes to a diner for breakfast… then we hoped on the bus for our journey to Jasper.

Along the way we stopped off at two of the main tourist attractions in between the two towns – Lake Louise, this site and the Columbia Ice Field.

Lake Louise looked beautiful, prostate but not like in the postcards.  Fog and falling snow gave her a whole new look which was unexpected but great none the less.

After braving the cold, both of us headed inside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for what has to be the best hot chocolate on the planet!

Next we were on the bus again, heading towards the Columbia Ice Field – and in particular the Athabasca Glacier.  On the highway the bus slowed down due to some traffic up ahead – turned out there was a Black Bear on the side of the road.

Once at the Ice Field we hopped on board one of the custom built Ice Explorers which took us up onto the glacier.  We had seen glaciers before in New Zealand, but this was the first time we got to stand on one which was pretty cool (get it… cool!)

We then crept closer to Jasper… with one more stop along the way – a rafting trip down the Athabasca River.  Even though the brochure said we wouldn’t get wet, somehow everyone on the boat did… and the water was freezing cold – straight off the glacier.  But the landscapes were amazing.

About 2 hours later we were off the rafts and back on the bus for the final few minutes into Jasper.  To cap off a beautiful day before we arrived at the hotel we saw a group of Elk crossing the road.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, cialis sale and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

capsule on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, advice and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

disinfection on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, advice and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

disinfection on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was the day that Kerrina had dreamed of since she was in Grade 12 – we were finally hopping on board the (really) world famous Rocky Mountaineer train.  Gold Leaf class of course!

health on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833869853/”>

Two words – Spectacular.  Food.

In fact they are about the only words that can describe it – you really need to experience it yourself to understand just how breathtaking Western Canada can be!

prothesis
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833922225/”>

We have plenty more photos and video of these great two days – we might save them until we get back though.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, advice and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

disinfection on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was the day that Kerrina had dreamed of since she was in Grade 12 – we were finally hopping on board the (really) world famous Rocky Mountaineer train.  Gold Leaf class of course!

health on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833869853/”>

Two words – Spectacular.  Food.

In fact they are about the only words that can describe it – you really need to experience it yourself to understand just how breathtaking Western Canada can be!

prothesis
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833922225/”>

We have plenty more photos and video of these great two days – we might save them until we get back though.
Today was the day that Kerrina had dreamt of since she was in Grade 12 – we were finally hopping on board the (really) world famous Rocky Mountaineer train.  Gold Leaf class of course!

Glaucoma
on Flickr”>

Two words – Spectacular.  Food.

In fact they are about the only words that can describe it – you really need to experience it yourself to understand just how breathtaking Western Canada can be!

treatment on Flickr”>

We have plenty more photos and video of these great two days – we might sa
Today we lost our train legs after two days rocking side to side on the Rocky Mountaineer.

For the first half of the day we had a tour around Vancouver… which is a pretty nice place.  Stanley Park, ambulance which is just by the harbour and the Lions Gate bridge is a nice city garden – about 20 times better than the dodgy botanical gardens that Brisbane has to offer.  Stanley park also gave us great views back towards the Vancouver skyline.

Then we drove south towards the US border – but just before we got there we went towards the coast to the ferry terminal.  We caught the BC ferry across from Vancouver to Vancouver Island.  This was about a 90 minute crossing… very smooth and very picturesque as you weave through the San Jaun Islands.

Once at Vancouver Island the bus took us straight to the world famous Butchart Gardens.  Originally this was an old disused quarry but a woman transformed it into yet another amazing garden full of plants from around the world.  Butchart is another one of those places where words can’t really describe it, you just have to see it to believe it.

After the afternoon at Butchart we drove about 30 minutes down the road to the capital of British Columbia and the home of the 1994 Commonwealth Games – Victoria.

After checking into the Royal Scot Suites, where we were welcomed with and old guy playing a bagpipe… we took a night-time walk through the streets of Victoria.

In search of food we came across this great restaurant called The Old Spaghetti House – which was exactly what we were looking for – salad, pasta, garlic bread, dessert… all for $12 – great price and great tasting food.

On the way back from the restaurant to the hotel we walked behind the Houses of Parliament and ran across a family of Raccoons that were hanging around a tree.  They are a lot bigger than we thought – either that or we just came across some mutant ones.

Today we lost our train legs after two days rocking side to side on the Rocky Mountaineer.

For the first half of the day we had a tour around Vancouver… which is a pretty nice place.  Stanley Park, this site which is just by the harbour and the Lions Gate bridge is a nice city garden – about 20 times better than the dodgy botanical gardens that Brisbane has to offer.  Stanley park also gave us great views back towards the Vancouver skyline.

Then we drove south towards the US border – but just before we got there we went towards the coast to the ferry terminal.  We caught the BC ferry across from Vancouver to Vancouver Island.  This was about a 90 minute crossing… very smooth and very picturesque as you weave through the San Jaun Islands.

Once at Vancouver Island the bus took us straight to the world famous Butchart Gardens.  Originally this was an old disused quarry but a woman transformed it into yet another amazing garden full of plants from around the world.  Butchart is another one of those places where words can’t really describe it, you just have to see it to believe it.

After the afternoon at Butchart we drove about 30 minutes down the road to the capital of British Columbia and the home of the 1994 Commonwealth Games – Victoria.

After checking into the Royal Scot Suites, where we were welcomed with and old guy playing a bagpipe… we took a night-time walk through the streets of Victoria.

In search of food we came across this great restaurant called The Old Spaghetti House – which was exactly what we were looking for – salad, pasta, garlic bread, dessert… all for $12 – great price and great tasting food.

On the way back from the restaurant to the hotel we walked behind the Houses of Parliament and ran across a family of Raccoons that were hanging around a tree.  They are a lot bigger than we thought – either that or we just came across some mutant ones.

Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, gerontologist it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, otolaryngologist we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, medicine it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, medicine it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another transit day more or less. We hopped onto the bus to head back to the ferry terminal, denture
and did the reverse crossing we had taken a couple of days earlier.

Once we were back in Vancouver we said goodbye to most of our tour group. They were all hopping on ships to cruise the Inside Passage up to Alaska. Instead of spending 7 days in retirement home luxury on a cruise ship like everyone else, advice we decided to spend some more time in British Columbia, and take in some of the United States as well.

The afternoon was pretty lazy – nothing to exciting to report – apart from the fact that TV is pretty crap here in the summer! However the good news is that no matter what night of the week we have been able to find at least two episodes of Family Guy to keep us going!
Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, medicine it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another transit day more or less. We hopped onto the bus to head back to the ferry terminal, denture
and did the reverse crossing we had taken a couple of days earlier.

Once we were back in Vancouver we said goodbye to most of our tour group. They were all hopping on ships to cruise the Inside Passage up to Alaska. Instead of spending 7 days in retirement home luxury on a cruise ship like everyone else, advice we decided to spend some more time in British Columbia, and take in some of the United States as well.

The afternoon was pretty lazy – nothing to exciting to report – apart from the fact that TV is pretty crap here in the summer! However the good news is that no matter what night of the week we have been able to find at least two episodes of Family Guy to keep us going!
Today was another transit day more or less. We hopped onto the bus to head back to the ferry terminal, buy cialis and did the reverse crossing we had taken a couple of days earlier.

Once we were back in Vancouver we said goodbye to most of our tour group. They were all hopping on ships to cruise the Inside Passage up to Alaska. Instead of spending 7 days in retirement home luxury on a cruise ship like everyone else, site we decided to spend some more time in British Columbia, and take in some of the United States as well.

The afternoon was pretty lazy – nothing to exciting to report – apart from the fact that TV is pretty crap here in the summer! However the good
Today was really our last full day in Canada – so we decided to take a day trip a few hours up the road to Whistler. Whistler is a great little town – however they should probably call it “Little Sydney” because all you could hear was Australian accents.

more info on Flickr”>

Obviously as it was summer there wasn’t much snow around. The mountains and ski lifts had been taken over by at least 500 mountain bikers taking advantage of the perfect weather.

We both agree that Whistler would be a great place to come back to in the winter. They are going to host a lot of the alpine events of the 2010 Winter Olympics there… so we made sure we checked out the ridiculously overpriced merchandise, and the visitor centre.

In hindsight, I would have looked much more aerodynamic if I took my camera bag off!

Today was really our last full day in Canada – so we decided to take a day trip a few hours up the road to Whistler. Whistler is a great little town – however they should probably call it “Little Sydney” because all you could hear was Australian accents.

Obviously as it was summer there wasn’t much snow around. The mountains and ski lifts had been taken over by at least 500 mountain bikers taking advantage of the perfect weather.

We both agree that Whistler would be a great place to come back to in the winter. They are going to host a lot of the alpine events of the 2010 Winter Olympics there… so we made sure we checked out the ridiculously overpriced merchandise, human enhancement and the visitor centre.

sovaldi sale on Flickr”>

In hindsight, I would have looked much more aerodynamic if I took my camera bag off!

Today was the earliest start of our trip! Checkout at 5am to get on the 5:30am bus from Vancouver to Seattle.

The only saving grace of this trip was that the bus had wi-fi – so we could catch up on all the news at home using Paul’s iPod!

On our Journey to Seattle we were lucky enough to enjoy a land based border crossing into the United States. Being of other than US or Canadian citizenship – they let us go first. Not that it really made a difference, purchase because our bus was held up by two suspicious looking folk on our bus. Actually they weren’t that suspicious, just that something in the computer meant that they border protection guy had to do a 60 minute interview with them. Bummer.

The good news was that the bus drive told them to get the next bus – so we continued on towards Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle mid morning. It was then we realised that our travel agent had booked us into a hotel no where near any of the good stuff. In fact our hotel was right beside the University, about 6 miles out of downtown.

And to top it off, the main reason why we came to Seattle was to do a tour of the Boeing Factory. But our good friends at Boeing decided to strike 3 days before we arrived – which meant ALL TOURS CANCELED! Talk about a bad start to a city!

That being said, the weather was really nice, so we sat on the grass at the bottom of the Space Needle for a while before going to the Experience Music Project.

The EMP was one of the best museums we have ever been into. Plenty on the Seattle music scene that has brought us folks like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and The Presidents of the United States of America, as well as feature on Jimi Hendrix, and a room full of guitars which documents the evolution of the instrument through the ages. Highly recommended for anyone! The highlight was the guitar “sculpture” in the middle of the museum. They had a few guitars rigged up to play automatically in the piece, which you could listen to with headphones at the bottom – was really amazing!

After that we grabbed a late lunch before finding our way to the hotel in the middle of nowhere.
Today was the earliest start of our trip! Checkout at 5am to get on the 5:30am bus from Vancouver to Seattle.

The only saving grace of this trip was that the bus had wi-fi – so we could catch up on all the news at home using Paul’s iPod!

On our Journey to Seattle we were lucky enough to enjoy a land based border crossing into the United States. Being of other than US or Canadian citizenship – they let us go first. Not that it really made a difference, link because our bus was held up by two suspicious looking folk on our bus. Actually they weren’t that suspicious, drug just that something in the computer meant that they border protection guy had to do a 60 minute interview with them. Bummer.

The good news was that the bus drive told them to get the next bus – so we continued on towards Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle mid morning. It was then we realised that our travel agent had booked us into a hotel no where near any of the good stuff. In fact our hotel was right beside the University, more about about 6 miles out of downtown.

And to top it off, the main reason why we came to Seattle was to do a tour of the Boeing Factory. But our good friends at Boeing decided to strike 3 days before we arrived – which meant ALL TOURS CANCELLED! Talk about a bad start to a city!

That being said, the weather was really nice, so we sat on the grass at the bottom of the Space Needle for a while before going to the Experience Music Project.

The EMP was one of the best museums we have ever been into. Plenty on the Seattle music scene that has brought us folks like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and The Presidents of the United States of America, as well as feature on Jimi Hendrix, and a room full of guitars which documents the evolution of the instrument through the ages. Highly recommended for anyone! The highlight was the guitar “sculpture” in the middle of the museum. They had a few guitars rigged up to play automatically in the piece, which you could listen to with headphones at the bottom – was really amazing!

After that we grabbed a late lunch before finding our way to the hotel in the middle of nowhere.
Today was the earliest start of our trip! Checkout at 5am to get on the 5:30am bus from Vancouver to Seattle.

The only saving grace of this trip was that the bus had wi-fi – so we could catch up on all the news at home using Paul’s iPod!

On our Journey to Seattle we were lucky enough to enjoy a land based border crossing into the United States. Being of other than US or Canadian citizenship – they let us go first. Not that it really made a difference, link because our bus was held up by two suspicious looking folk on our bus. Actually they weren’t that suspicious, drug just that something in the computer meant that they border protection guy had to do a 60 minute interview with them. Bummer.

The good news was that the bus drive told them to get the next bus – so we continued on towards Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle mid morning. It was then we realised that our travel agent had booked us into a hotel no where near any of the good stuff. In fact our hotel was right beside the University, more about about 6 miles out of downtown.

And to top it off, the main reason why we came to Seattle was to do a tour of the Boeing Factory. But our good friends at Boeing decided to strike 3 days before we arrived – which meant ALL TOURS CANCELLED! Talk about a bad start to a city!

That being said, the weather was really nice, so we sat on the grass at the bottom of the Space Needle for a while before going to the Experience Music Project.

The EMP was one of the best museums we have ever been into. Plenty on the Seattle music scene that has brought us folks like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and The Presidents of the United States of America, as well as feature on Jimi Hendrix, and a room full of guitars which documents the evolution of the instrument through the ages. Highly recommended for anyone! The highlight was the guitar “sculpture” in the middle of the museum. They had a few guitars rigged up to play automatically in the piece, which you could listen to with headphones at the bottom – was really amazing!

After that we grabbed a late lunch before finding our way to the hotel in the middle of nowhere.
Today we had planned to head north up to Everett to take the Boeing Factory Tour. Instead we traveled south to Boeing Field to take a look at the Museum of Flight.

In hindsight the strike at Boeing was a good thing, sovaldi sale because we would have otherwise missed out on a great museum.

We took an hour long tour through the main gallery. The tour showed the rapid evolution of flight, from the Wright Flyer, through Air Mail to the first passenger services… the military and to the fastest plane in the world… a variant of the SR-71 Blackbird. Whilst Kerrina tried to stay interested, Paul absolutely loved it.

Then we jumped across the road to the Air Park. Here they have the last Concorde ever to fly, and the Boeing 707 that used to be Air Force One – the one that JFK and presidents of that time used. Kerrina was quite excited to walk on Air Force One.

Unfortunately the Concorde was closed to visitors for two days for cleaning, so we missed out on taking a look inside that one.

Today we made our way back towards Montreal for the finish of our first bus tour of Ontario and French Canada.

This morning we were told not to have breakfast… so about an hour out of Montreal, ed prescription  we stopped at a place called “Trois Riveries” (translates to “Three Rivers”, diagnosis however there are actually only 2 there.  The French Canadians are a bit strange).  There we went to a Maple Syrup farm and had pancakes, ham, and plenty of maple syrup for breakfast.

After a big feed (during which Paul was asked at least 14 times if he wanted more coffee) we headed outside to learn how Maple Syrup is made.  Is actually pretty interesting how they drain the sap from the trees and turn it into sugary goodness.

We continued to Montreal – stopping at the Olympic Stadium – home of the 1976 summer games – for a few shots.  Apparently Montreal only just paid of the stadium last year, which is scary considering that it doesn’t even work as designed (one of a few lemons in Montreal… another being Mirabel – the brand new airport they built that was too far away from town and no one wanted to use!)

We then drove into the centre of Montreal for another city tour.  Generally both of us were not that impressed with Montreal.  Compared to Quebec City it is pretty bland when it comes to the tourist stakes.

That being said we did stop at the big cathedral in the old part of town – which is where Celine Dion was married (do you get the feeling that they are obsessed with her over here?  We do!)  Inside it was pretty spectacular though – we can understand why she wanted to get married there!

Finally we pulled up stumps on our first tour at the bar with the rest of the group.  We went to dinner with one of the other couples on the tour that we have become friends with in the restaurant strip of Montreal – it reminded us of Park Road at Milton in Brisbane just on steroids.  We ate at a great place, which was across the road from the restaurant that Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve (I am sure that is not how you spell it!) owns.
Today we made our way back towards Montreal for the finish of our first bus tour of Ontario and French Canada.

This morning we were told not to have breakfast… so about an hour out of Montreal, find  we stopped at a place called “Trois Riveries” (translates to “Three Rivers”, however there are actually only 2 there.  The French Canadians are a bit strange).  There we went to a Maple Syrup farm and had pancakes, ham, and plenty of maple syrup for breakfast.

After a big feed (during which Paul was asked at least 14 times if he wanted more coffee) we headed outside to learn how Maple Syrup is made.  Is actually pretty interesting how they drain the sap from the trees and turn it into sugary goodness.

We continued to Montreal – stopping at the Olympic Stadium – home of the 1976 summer games – for a few shots.  Apparently Montreal only just paid of the stadium last year, which is scary considering that it doesn’t even work as designed (one of a few lemons in Montreal… another being Mirabel – the brand new airport they built that was too far away from town and no one wanted to use!)

We then drove into the centre of Montreal for another city tour.  Generally both of us were not that impressed with Montreal.  Compared to Quebec City it is pretty bland when it comes to the tourist stakes.

That being said we did stop at the big cathederal in the old part of town – which is where Celine Dion was married (do you get the feeling that they are obsessed with her over here?  We do!)  Inside it was pretty spectacular though – we can understand why she wanted to get married there!

Finally we pulled up stumps on our first tour at the bar with the rest of the group.  We went to dinner with one of the other couples on the tour that we have become friends with in the restaurant strip of Montreal – it reminded us of Park Road at Milton in Brisbane just on steroids.  We ate at a great place, which was across the road from the restaurant that Formula 1 driver Jaques Villenereurve (I am sure that is not how you spell it!) owns.
Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, prescription and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straight to the hotel, phthisiatrician and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the Rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina
Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina
Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

Today is a pretty light on day.

Early start to catch a 9am flight from Montreal to Calgary.  We got to the airport and were told that Kerrina’s back was too heavy for the flight – we had to loose 3 kg or pay 100 dollars.

After some “creative” baggage movements, discount and carrying as much as we could as carry on – we managed to just scrape in.

Flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4hrs 30 mintes.  Was pretty nice – we were in the back row of a new Embareer 190 aircraft – which has had the most leg room in economy of any flight so far.

We arrived in Calgary around lunch time – headed straigt to the hotel, treat and then finally found somewhere to upload some photos – which you will start to see now 🙂

Tomorrow we start our second tour which takes us up through the rockies – will share more with you then

Hope all is well back home

Paul and Kerrina

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

Today was the official first day of our second tour which takes us across the Rockies towards Vancouver.

order
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2811308557/”>

It started out with a bus tour of Calgary, which took us to places such as “The Saddle Dome” and Stampede Park – both of which feature heavily in the annual Calgary Stampede, and in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Speaking of the Calgary Olympics, on the way out of Calgary we stopped at the Canada Olympic Park – where some of the more important events at the games took place – like the Ski Jumping, Luge and most important of all… the track where the Jamaican Bobsled team shot to fame.

We then continued on along the Trans-Canadian highway towards the Banff National Park.  The landscape very quickly changed from rolling plains to the jagged heights of the Rocky Mountains.  Absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived in Banff about midday for lunch – then went up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola.  Back in Calgary it was 12 degrees… and at 7500 ft on the top of Sulphur Mountain in the rain and wind it would have been close to freezing.  But the view was well and truly worth the climb.

Later that evening we took the bus out of Banff about 20 minutes to a town called Canmore – home of the “Oh Canada Eh!” dinner show.  Was a great night – not exactly Broadway (the cast also serve you dinner), but definitely was good fun.

And most importantly, Kerrina got to see/hug/touch/have a photo with her first Mountie.

 

Tomorrow we have a full day in Banff to explore – hopefully the weather gets a bit better because it is raining pretty heavily tonight.

The big Island is the USA, the Small Island is Canada (or is it the other way around, I can’t remember)

Today was the official first day of our second tour which takes us across the Rockies towards Vancouver.

order
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2811308557/”>

It started out with a bus tour of Calgary, which took us to places such as “The Saddle Dome” and Stampede Park – both of which feature heavily in the annual Calgary Stampede, and in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Speaking of the Calgary Olympics, on the way out of Calgary we stopped at the Canada Olympic Park – where some of the more important events at the games took place – like the Ski Jumping, Luge and most important of all… the track where the Jamaican Bobsled team shot to fame.

We then continued on along the Trans-Canadian highway towards the Banff National Park.  The landscape very quickly changed from rolling plains to the jagged heights of the Rocky Mountains.  Absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived in Banff about midday for lunch – then went up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola.  Back in Calgary it was 12 degrees… and at 7500 ft on the top of Sulphur Mountain in the rain and wind it would have been close to freezing.  But the view was well and truly worth the climb.

Later that evening we took the bus out of Banff about 20 minutes to a town called Canmore – home of the “Oh Canada Eh!” dinner show.  Was a great night – not exactly Broadway (the cast also serve you dinner), but definitely was good fun.

And most importantly, Kerrina got to see/hug/touch/have a photo with her first Mountie.

 

Tomorrow we have a full day in Banff to explore – hopefully the weather gets a bit better because it is raining pretty heavily tonight.
Today was the official first day of our second tour which takes us across the Rockies towards Vancouver.

illness
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2811308557/”>

It started out with a bus tour of Calgary, story
which took us to places such as “The Saddle Dome” and Stampede Park – both of which feature heavily in the annual Calgary Stampede, and in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Speaking of the Calgary Olympics, on the way out of Calgary we stopped at the Canada Olympic Park – where some of the more important events at the games took place – like the Ski Jumping, Luge and most important of all… the track where the Jamacian Bobsled team shot to fame.

We then continued on along the Trans-Canadian highway towards the Banff National Park.  The landscape very quickly changed from rolling plains to the jagged heights of the Rocky Mountains.  Absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived in Banff about midday for lunch – then went up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola.  Back in Calgary it was 12 degrees… and at 7500 ft on the top of Sulphur Mountain in the rain and wind it would have been close to freezing.  But the view was well and truely worth the climb.

Later that evening we took the bus out of Banff about 20 minutes to a town called Canmore – home of the “Oh Canada Eh!” dinner show.  Was a great night – not exactly broadway (the cast also serve you dinner), but definitely was good fun.

And most importantly, Kerrina got to see/hug/touch/have a photo with her first Mountie.

 

Tomorrow we have a full day in Banff to explore – hopefully the weather gets a bit better because it is raining pretty heavily tonight.
Well our prayers came true – we woke up to a beautiful blue sky day in Banff.

Today is pretty much a rest day on our tour, sickness and therefore up to us to explore the town.  Kerrina has one word…  SHOPPING!

There are plenty of little boutique stores here, as well as your fair share of souvenir shops.  Prices are pretty reasonable too.

Our hotel here in Banff is right beside the Bow River.  There is a canoe hire place next door so tonight we are going to hire a canoe for a couple of hours and explore some of the wildlife and scenery.  Hopefully we don’t fall in because as the tour guide jokingly said yesterday – “you can’t drown in our rivers… because you will freeze to death first”. 

We will keep you posted, but if you don’t hear from us any more, you know where to look for the icicles!
Well our prayers came true – we woke up to a beautiful blue sky day in Banff.

Today is pretty much a rest day on our tour, discount and therefore up to us to explore the town.  Kerrina has one word…  SHOPPING!

 

There are plenty of little boutique stores here, as well as your fair share of souvenir shops.  Prices are pretty reasonable too.

Our hotel here in Banff is right beside the Bow River.  There is a canoe hire place next door so tonight we are going to hire a canoe for a couple of hours and explore some of the wildlife and scenery.  Hopefully we don’t fall in because as the tour guide jokingly said yesterday – “you can’t drown in our rivers… because you will freeze to death first”. 

We will keep you posted, but if you don’t hear from us any more, you know where to look for the icicles!
Well last night we didn’t end up going on our canoe trip… Kerrina was feeling a little under the weather.

But this morning Banff was under the weather… in fact we woke up to SNOW 🙂

We walked down the block under the falling snow flakes to a diner for breakfast… then we hoped on the bus for our journey to Jasper.

Along the way we stopped off at two of the main tourist attractions in between the two towns – Lake Louise, pilule and the Columbia Ice Field.

Lake Louise looked beautiful, recipe but not like in the postcards.  Fog and falling snow gave her a whole new look which was unexpected but great none the less.

After braving the cold, both of us headed inside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for what has to be the best hot chocolate on the planet!

Next we were on the bus again, heading towards the Columbia Ice Field – and in particular the Athabasca Glacier.  On the highway the bus slowed down due to some traffic up ahead – turned out there was a Black Bear on the side of the road.

Once at the Ice Field we hopped on board one of the custom built Ice Explorers which took us up onto the glacier.  We had seen glaciers before in New Zealand, but this was the first time we got to stand on one which was pretty cool (get it… cool!)

We then crept closer to Jasper… with one more stop along the way – a rafting trip down the Athabasca River.  Even though the brochure said we wouldn’t get wet, somehow everyone on the boat did… and the water was freezing cold – straight off the glacier.  But the landscapes were amazing.

About 2 hours later we were off the rafts and back on the bus for the final few minutes into Jasper.  To cap off a beautiful day before we arrived at the hotel we saw a group of Elk crossing the road.
Well last night we didn’t end up going on our canoe trip… Kerrina was feeling a little under the weather.

But this morning Banff was under the weather… in fact we woke up to SNOW 🙂

We walked down the block under the falling snow flakes to a diner for breakfast… then we hoped on the bus for our journey to Jasper.

Along the way we stopped off at two of the main tourist attractions in between the two towns – Lake Louise, this site and the Columbia Ice Field.

Lake Louise looked beautiful, prostate but not like in the postcards.  Fog and falling snow gave her a whole new look which was unexpected but great none the less.

After braving the cold, both of us headed inside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for what has to be the best hot chocolate on the planet!

Next we were on the bus again, heading towards the Columbia Ice Field – and in particular the Athabasca Glacier.  On the highway the bus slowed down due to some traffic up ahead – turned out there was a Black Bear on the side of the road.

Once at the Ice Field we hopped on board one of the custom built Ice Explorers which took us up onto the glacier.  We had seen glaciers before in New Zealand, but this was the first time we got to stand on one which was pretty cool (get it… cool!)

We then crept closer to Jasper… with one more stop along the way – a rafting trip down the Athabasca River.  Even though the brochure said we wouldn’t get wet, somehow everyone on the boat did… and the water was freezing cold – straight off the glacier.  But the landscapes were amazing.

About 2 hours later we were off the rafts and back on the bus for the final few minutes into Jasper.  To cap off a beautiful day before we arrived at the hotel we saw a group of Elk crossing the road.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, cialis sale and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

capsule on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, advice and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

disinfection on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, advice and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

disinfection on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was the day that Kerrina had dreamed of since she was in Grade 12 – we were finally hopping on board the (really) world famous Rocky Mountaineer train.  Gold Leaf class of course!

health on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833869853/”>

Two words – Spectacular.  Food.

In fact they are about the only words that can describe it – you really need to experience it yourself to understand just how breathtaking Western Canada can be!

prothesis
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833922225/”>

We have plenty more photos and video of these great two days – we might save them until we get back though.
Today was another “do your own thing” day on the tour… so we slept in before some of the mandatory souvenir shopping before lunch.

In the afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a drive out to Maligne Lake, advice and the (apparently) world famous Spirit Island.  Half the bus hadn’t heard of it… and when we got there it was just an peninsula (not even an island!) with a few trees on it.  Those Spirit Island marketers are pretty good.

disinfection on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2834705148/”>

We then headed home back to Jasper on the lookout for more wildlife… but didn’t see much.
Today was the day that Kerrina had dreamed of since she was in Grade 12 – we were finally hopping on board the (really) world famous Rocky Mountaineer train.  Gold Leaf class of course!

health on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833869853/”>

Two words – Spectacular.  Food.

In fact they are about the only words that can describe it – you really need to experience it yourself to understand just how breathtaking Western Canada can be!

prothesis
on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-woods/2833922225/”>

We have plenty more photos and video of these great two days – we might save them until we get back though.
Today was the day that Kerrina had dreamt of since she was in Grade 12 – we were finally hopping on board the (really) world famous Rocky Mountaineer train.  Gold Leaf class of course!

Glaucoma
on Flickr”>

Two words – Spectacular.  Food.

In fact they are about the only words that can describe it – you really need to experience it yourself to understand just how breathtaking Western Canada can be!

treatment on Flickr”>

We have plenty more photos and video of these great two days – we might sa
Today we lost our train legs after two days rocking side to side on the Rocky Mountaineer.

For the first half of the day we had a tour around Vancouver… which is a pretty nice place.  Stanley Park, ambulance which is just by the harbour and the Lions Gate bridge is a nice city garden – about 20 times better than the dodgy botanical gardens that Brisbane has to offer.  Stanley park also gave us great views back towards the Vancouver skyline.

Then we drove south towards the US border – but just before we got there we went towards the coast to the ferry terminal.  We caught the BC ferry across from Vancouver to Vancouver Island.  This was about a 90 minute crossing… very smooth and very picturesque as you weave through the San Jaun Islands.

Once at Vancouver Island the bus took us straight to the world famous Butchart Gardens.  Originally this was an old disused quarry but a woman transformed it into yet another amazing garden full of plants from around the world.  Butchart is another one of those places where words can’t really describe it, you just have to see it to believe it.

After the afternoon at Butchart we drove about 30 minutes down the road to the capital of British Columbia and the home of the 1994 Commonwealth Games – Victoria.

After checking into the Royal Scot Suites, where we were welcomed with and old guy playing a bagpipe… we took a night-time walk through the streets of Victoria.

In search of food we came across this great restaurant called The Old Spaghetti House – which was exactly what we were looking for – salad, pasta, garlic bread, dessert… all for $12 – great price and great tasting food.

On the way back from the restaurant to the hotel we walked behind the Houses of Parliament and ran across a family of Raccoons that were hanging around a tree.  They are a lot bigger than we thought – either that or we just came across some mutant ones.

Today we lost our train legs after two days rocking side to side on the Rocky Mountaineer.

For the first half of the day we had a tour around Vancouver… which is a pretty nice place.  Stanley Park, this site which is just by the harbour and the Lions Gate bridge is a nice city garden – about 20 times better than the dodgy botanical gardens that Brisbane has to offer.  Stanley park also gave us great views back towards the Vancouver skyline.

Then we drove south towards the US border – but just before we got there we went towards the coast to the ferry terminal.  We caught the BC ferry across from Vancouver to Vancouver Island.  This was about a 90 minute crossing… very smooth and very picturesque as you weave through the San Jaun Islands.

Once at Vancouver Island the bus took us straight to the world famous Butchart Gardens.  Originally this was an old disused quarry but a woman transformed it into yet another amazing garden full of plants from around the world.  Butchart is another one of those places where words can’t really describe it, you just have to see it to believe it.

After the afternoon at Butchart we drove about 30 minutes down the road to the capital of British Columbia and the home of the 1994 Commonwealth Games – Victoria.

After checking into the Royal Scot Suites, where we were welcomed with and old guy playing a bagpipe… we took a night-time walk through the streets of Victoria.

In search of food we came across this great restaurant called The Old Spaghetti House – which was exactly what we were looking for – salad, pasta, garlic bread, dessert… all for $12 – great price and great tasting food.

On the way back from the restaurant to the hotel we walked behind the Houses of Parliament and ran across a family of Raccoons that were hanging around a tree.  They are a lot bigger than we thought – either that or we just came across some mutant ones.

Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, gerontologist it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, otolaryngologist we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, medicine it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, medicine it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another transit day more or less. We hopped onto the bus to head back to the ferry terminal, denture
and did the reverse crossing we had taken a couple of days earlier.

Once we were back in Vancouver we said goodbye to most of our tour group. They were all hopping on ships to cruise the Inside Passage up to Alaska. Instead of spending 7 days in retirement home luxury on a cruise ship like everyone else, advice we decided to spend some more time in British Columbia, and take in some of the United States as well.

The afternoon was pretty lazy – nothing to exciting to report – apart from the fact that TV is pretty crap here in the summer! However the good news is that no matter what night of the week we have been able to find at least two episodes of Family Guy to keep us going!
Today was another sleep in day on the tour where we could do our own thing. After we woke up we went for a stroll around Victoria – and came into contact with one of the colourful locals – a guy dressed up as Darth Vader playing the violin! Although it was up there, medicine it wasn’t quite the highlight of Victoria!

In the afternoon, we hoped on one of these little water taxi’s and took a tour around Victoria Harbour. Paul loved this as the harbour is one of the busiest airports in the world (take off and landing wise, not passenger wise) as all the sea plans from Vancouver and Seattle come in regularly.

Once we jumped off the water taxi we were back on the bus towards dinner about 20 minutes down the road by the water. Lets just say the view from the table was amazing!

After dinner we headed up to Victoria’s equivalent of Mt Coot-tha for a view of the city lights… before heading back to the hotel

Today was another transit day more or less. We hopped onto the bus to head back to the ferry terminal, denture
and did the reverse crossing we had taken a couple of days earlier.

Once we were back in Vancouver we said goodbye to most of our tour group. They were all hopping on ships to cruise the Inside Passage up to Alaska. Instead of spending 7 days in retirement home luxury on a cruise ship like everyone else, advice we decided to spend some more time in British Columbia, and take in some of the United States as well.

The afternoon was pretty lazy – nothing to exciting to report – apart from the fact that TV is pretty crap here in the summer! However the good news is that no matter what night of the week we have been able to find at least two episodes of Family Guy to keep us going!
Today was another transit day more or less. We hopped onto the bus to head back to the ferry terminal, buy cialis and did the reverse crossing we had taken a couple of days earlier.

Once we were back in Vancouver we said goodbye to most of our tour group. They were all hopping on ships to cruise the Inside Passage up to Alaska. Instead of spending 7 days in retirement home luxury on a cruise ship like everyone else, site we decided to spend some more time in British Columbia, and take in some of the United States as well.

The afternoon was pretty lazy – nothing to exciting to report – apart from the fact that TV is pretty crap here in the summer! However the good
Today was really our last full day in Canada – so we decided to take a day trip a few hours up the road to Whistler. Whistler is a great little town – however they should probably call it “Little Sydney” because all you could hear was Australian accents.

more info on Flickr”>

Obviously as it was summer there wasn’t much snow around. The mountains and ski lifts had been taken over by at least 500 mountain bikers taking advantage of the perfect weather.

We both agree that Whistler would be a great place to come back to in the winter. They are going to host a lot of the alpine events of the 2010 Winter Olympics there… so we made sure we checked out the ridiculously overpriced merchandise, and the visitor centre.

In hindsight, I would have looked much more aerodynamic if I took my camera bag off!

Today was really our last full day in Canada – so we decided to take a day trip a few hours up the road to Whistler. Whistler is a great little town – however they should probably call it “Little Sydney” because all you could hear was Australian accents.

Obviously as it was summer there wasn’t much snow around. The mountains and ski lifts had been taken over by at least 500 mountain bikers taking advantage of the perfect weather.

We both agree that Whistler would be a great place to come back to in the winter. They are going to host a lot of the alpine events of the 2010 Winter Olympics there… so we made sure we checked out the ridiculously overpriced merchandise, human enhancement and the visitor centre.

sovaldi sale on Flickr”>

In hindsight, I would have looked much more aerodynamic if I took my camera bag off!

Today was the earliest start of our trip! Checkout at 5am to get on the 5:30am bus from Vancouver to Seattle.

The only saving grace of this trip was that the bus had wi-fi – so we could catch up on all the news at home using Paul’s iPod!

On our Journey to Seattle we were lucky enough to enjoy a land based border crossing into the United States. Being of other than US or Canadian citizenship – they let us go first. Not that it really made a difference, purchase because our bus was held up by two suspicious looking folk on our bus. Actually they weren’t that suspicious, just that something in the computer meant that they border protection guy had to do a 60 minute interview with them. Bummer.

The good news was that the bus drive told them to get the next bus – so we continued on towards Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle mid morning. It was then we realised that our travel agent had booked us into a hotel no where near any of the good stuff. In fact our hotel was right beside the University, about 6 miles out of downtown.

And to top it off, the main reason why we came to Seattle was to do a tour of the Boeing Factory. But our good friends at Boeing decided to strike 3 days before we arrived – which meant ALL TOURS CANCELED! Talk about a bad start to a city!

That being said, the weather was really nice, so we sat on the grass at the bottom of the Space Needle for a while before going to the Experience Music Project.

The EMP was one of the best museums we have ever been into. Plenty on the Seattle music scene that has brought us folks like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and The Presidents of the United States of America, as well as feature on Jimi Hendrix, and a room full of guitars which documents the evolution of the instrument through the ages. Highly recommended for anyone! The highlight was the guitar “sculpture” in the middle of the museum. They had a few guitars rigged up to play automatically in the piece, which you could listen to with headphones at the bottom – was really amazing!

After that we grabbed a late lunch before finding our way to the hotel in the middle of nowhere.