Beginning of our Australian Adventure

Duke and I are on a four week Australian road trip. Wednesday we left Reno and flew to LA then connected to a flight for Brisbane,  Australia. I went to High school in Brisbane and next weekend I'll be attending a reunion there. From Brisbane we caught a flight 1100 miles north to Cairns.

Cairns is tropical, warm, green, humid and on the coast. It  is a jumping off point to visit the Great Barrier Reef.

We are staying at The Travelers Oasis. It is a backpackers hotel with dorms, a kitchen and a pool. But they also have private rooms. We have a wonderful double bed room with a shared bath just down the hall. We have our own veranda with two chairs to enjoy the tropical air.

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Lonely Planet says that staying at Travelers Oasis will "make you feel like you have your own timber Queenslander.". That is exactly what Travelers Oasis does.  A timber Queenslander is a traditional old Queensland house. It is a wood house set on stilts to catch the breeze with verandas and slatted glass windows. I spent one term in boarding school in Brisbane. The boarding school was in an old Queenslland house. Our room at Travelers Oasis reminds me of that – wood floors, ceiling fans, no screens on the windows, slatted glass windows.Here is a view of our veranda and the view from the veranda.

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Staying here is absolutely perfect. The only thing missing is the mosquito nets. My boarding school had them but you don't really need them here. There have been almost no bugs. Maybe that is because of the flying foxes. We were out walking last night and saw hundreds in one of the trees downtown.  You can see the flying foxes hanging upside down in the tree below.

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Today we went out with Reef Experience to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef. It was a bit windy and rough and I sure was glad I had taken some sea sick medicine. We went snorkeling and two different spots and saw a lot of amazing coral and colorful fish. The crew was wonderful and it was a great day. I was even able to rent a prescription mask so I could really see since you can't wear a mask and glasses. I am worn out tonight. You can see me getting  a nap on the boat.

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I am going to include some pictures of me in Australia as a kid in my posts. Here we are walking on the reef in 1964. In those days you were allowed to actually walk on the reef. It is a bit shocking. Now there are thousands of dollars in fines for taking anything or damaging the reef in any way.

On the reef

I'll be uploading all my pictures of the trip on Flickr here. I'll add more pictures as we go along.

 

Quick trip to Portland and Crater Lake

Last weekend Duke and I took a four day vacation. On Friday we drove from Reno to Portland. On Saturday we enjoyed the Elder Blogger meet up I described in my last post. The get together was hosted by Ronni Bennett of Time Goes By Blog.

From Ronni's house Duke and I headed into Portland to explore. I have always wanted to visit Powell's Books. It was packed with people and really lived up to its City of Books name. I bought several paperbacks.

Powells-Books

We then strolled around and enjoyed the Portland vibe. It reminded me of Berkeley. We discovered a wonderful spice store Penzeys Spices. Each spice display had a jar of that spice that you could open and smell. It was olfactory heaven! We bought a few and I picked up a free curry recipe to try.

Monday we headed south down interstate 5 and stopped to see my friends HD and Una. I interviewed HD for episode 4 of my podcast. HD and I worked together at Spectra Medical Systems many years ago. Coincidentally Una was our pediatrician's nurse when my girls were little. We had tea and scones and a great visit.

From Roseburg we drove east along the Umpqua River to Crater Lake National Park. It rained continuously. When we got to Crater Lake we could hardly see the lake because the fog was so thick.

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We stayed at Crater Lake Lodge and played cribbage and read until our dinner reservation in the Lodge dining room. The meal was wonderful. One of the best steaks I have had in months and the sweet potato fries were awesome.

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The lodge was built between 1910 and 1915 but in the 1990s it had to be completely rebuilt to make it structurally sound. It reopened in 1995. It was the fourth national park lodge I have stayed in and it made me want to make a point of visiting others. So far each one has been special.

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Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States. It is 1949 feet deep. When the sun shines on it it is an amazing wonderful shade of blue truly breath taking.

I got up during the night Sunday night and peaked out our window. The rain had stopped and the sky was clear. At the more than 7000 foot altitude of Crater Lake and with very little ambient light the bigger dipper looked like it was bright enough to reach up and touch.

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Monday morning we got up and hike to the top of Garfield peak. It a a short1.8 mile hike to the top. The temperature was in the 40s while we were hiking. It had rained all day the day before and then frozen over night. The path was covered with the strangest ice I have ever seen. The ice was like millions of 1-2 inch blades of grass that had pushed up the dirt on the tail so that we crunched when we walked. Here are a couple of pictures of the ice crystals. Does anyone know what they are called?

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When we finished our hike we headed home to Reno with a short stop at Lava Beds National Monument and then Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. On the way home across the outback of northern Nevada we collected some more obsidian for our back yard.

I love exploring and meeting friends. This trip had wonderful opportunities for both.

Linda Curry – Retired Software Executive, Gardener, Breast Cancer Survivor, Wife , Mother, Grandmother and Friend – Episode 13 Marion Vermazen Podcast

Linda Curry -  Retired Software Executive, Gardener,  Breast Cancer Survivor, Wife , Mother, Grandmother and Friend – Episode 13 Marion Vermazen Podcast

Creating this podcast has reminded me of what amazing and interesting friends I have. A few months ago I interviewed my friend Pat Black. Today's episode of the podcast is a conversation with my friend Linda Curry.

Here is a picture of Linda, Pat and I at my wedding.

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Linda and I have been friends for 35 years. Linda recently retired from a career as an executive in the high tech software industry. Most recently she was a Senior Manager for QuickBooks Quality Assurance at Intuit. Prior to working at Intuit Linda’s career included postions as VP of Engineering Services at WebGain, Director of Quality assurance at Remedy, Director of Database quality assurance at Borland, and Senior Manager of Mac System software at Apple. Last year she moved to Reno and lives right around the corner from me. She describes herself as Happily retired from the software world and enjoying relaxation with family, friends, books, gardening, remodeling and all the other things that we like to do in our free time. She is a wife, mother and grandmother and I am honored to call her my friend.

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To listen to the show you can click below. You can also subscribe to the show and listen to it in iTunes.

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Links

Renown Institute for Cancer

Army of Women

National Cancer institute

 

 

My Daughter’s Wedding

On September 5 my youngest daughter got married. I'd like to share some of the pictures and memories from the wonderful day.

Shannon did a awesome job of of planning and putting together the wedding. In addition to helping raise a very active little boy who turned four the weekend before the wedding Shannon is starting law school and she worked full time up to two weeks before the wedding.  I am in awe of all that she accomplished. It was truly perfect.

Here are Shannon, My Dad, and and me before we left the hotel for Lover's Point in Pacific Grove where the wedding was held.


Shan Dad Me standing

And here are Shannon and her attendants.

Bride and attendants 

The ring bearer and flower girl waiting for the wedding to start. I always worry a bit when kids are in a wedding but they each took the job very seriously and did an excellent job.

Aidan and Juliana before the wedding

My oldest daughter Allison escorted me to my seat.

Allie and Me 

My grandson Aidan was the ring bearer

Aidan

And here is the wedding party waiting for the bride.

Aidan and party

The ceremony was beautiful. The minister read letters that Shan and Bill wrote to each other specially for the wedding about why they love each other. He talked about all it takes to make a marriage. I was so happy to have it all be so special.

The ceremony

The wedding included a sand ceremony. Aidan, Bill, and Shan poured sand together symbolizing their family. 

The sand ceremony 

The recessional music was the theme from Rocky. It was great! Everyone cheered including the casual spectators who happened to be spending Sunday afternoon in the park.

Bride and groom 

Aidan and Juliana 

I don't think they could have picked a more perfect place for a wedding.

Lovers Point

When we got to the reception Aidan took a nap in Lauren's lap. Notice that he has his favorite stuffed dog under his arm.

 

Aidans nap 

Then at the reception Aidan was ready to party. He said the grace before the meal and even gave a toast. The party was fun I think everyone including the kids had a great time.

Dancing 

Aidan toast

I'd especially like to thank Rose, Sylvia, and Roger for all these great pictures!