Hervey Bay...

We left on our long-planned trip to visit with Andy and Linda Mason and their daughters on Monday, April 12th.
 
We flew from SFO to LAX on American Airlines.  We got on that flight just fine, and even got to sit together.  When we got to the Delta gates in LAX, we both had such strong, not good, memories of our attempted trip in October.  However, this time was different!  We not only got on the 15 hour flight to Sydney, but we got Business Elite seats!  How lucky were we??  Let me tell you - this is the way to go!  The seats were at a slight angle, and were kinda like pods!  The seats reclined to the absolutely flat position, so you could sleep (and we did!).  The pods had their own screens for entertainment and announcements, the service and food was fabulous!  We were very happy campers!

Here's Lee in his "pod".  Notice the glass of champagne that we were given while waiting for the hordes of people to get seated/settled in "and others", which is usually us!  We had real pillows and down comfortors, too.  We also had a little amenities kit that included fuzzy socks, toothbrush and toothpaste, eye mask, hand lotion, etc.  Very cool!

This is the other end of the "pod".  You can see the foot rest, and the screen that is in it's stowed position.  The silver handle there releases a large tray.  All meals were served on linen table covers, and with real china and silverware.  The food was very good, and the wine was, as well.

We left LAX at 10:30 pm.  As soon as the flight attendants could get up, they were serving wine and drinks.  Then we had hor' dourves, salad, soup and choice of entree.  I had the crab cakes, Lee had the pasta.  Then came the dessert choices, we both had the cheese and fruit platter.  After all that food, and several glasses of wine, it seemed appropriate to recline our seats to flat and SLEEP!

 

We both slept for at least 6 hours.  I was aware that during the night, the "mid-flight snack" was being served to those who were still awake - couldn't imagine being able to eat anything else!  We had breakfast about an hour before we landed in Sydney, which was great as well. 

We were late getting in, as we'd had head winds all the way across the Pacific and we departed Los Angeles late as they had to remove a checked bag for a passenger that failed to board the aircraft.  Lee had allowed a two hour window to catch our flight to Brisbane, so he was a little worried as the flight got later and later.  But, we landed, got through Immigration and Customs without a hitch, then hustled over to Quantas, where we got checked in.  We were fortunate that there were seats all the way through, so our luggage was checked through, and we headed out to the gate to catch our flight.  We got into Brisbane just after 10:00 am, where we had a 4 hour layover.  We left Brisbane at 2:00 pm, and got to Hervey Bay at 2:50.  At that point, we had been flying for over 24 hours.  I can't imagine how tired we would have been had we traveled in coach, and not slept, as we were both pretty exhausted at that point.!

Andy, Linda and Brittany's smiling faces greeted us in Hervey Bay (Sam was in school) and it was so great to see them!  We had a great drive through Hervey Bay, then out to their house.  They have a beautiful home, right on a lagoon.  It's a real holiday house!

The entrance to the Mason mansion!  Note the double doors to the left - that's the guest house!  We had all the comforts of home, including a 50 inch plasma TV!!  We told Andy and Linda that we were never leaving!

Another shot of the front of their home.

This is inside the dining area, looking out to the back.  The entire back of the house opens up, to bring the outside in.  It's amazing!  And of course, they have the weather to suit bringing the outside in!

Their outdoor kitchen!!  How cool is that??

The pool - isn't this a beautiful space?

The pool and the lagoon.  And the beautiful clouds in the sky, reflected in the lagoon.

Some of the gardens, and Jesse the cat.

Linda and Jesse - as you can see, he's a big boy!

There are a pair of swans that live in the lagoon, and swim by frequently.  I really liked the reflection in the lagoon.

Here's the pair of them, on the lawn.  I think that they were contemplating coming in the house!  Australia has an amazing array of birds - many of which we'd never seen before.  Ibis were everywhere, there were a pair of nesting eagles and every morning we were greeted with the "dawn chorus" of bird song, most notable of all were the kukaburras!  We loved it!

Jesse the cat on his favorite sleeping place on the patio.

This is Charlie - he's a rescue cat, and probably can't believe his good fortune!

This is Coco.  She's a beautiful cat, a little shy, but very loving.

On Thursday, we went into Hervey Bay and had a great walk along the Esplanade.  There were great sculptures and the sea is out beyond the greenery.  It was a beautiful, warm day.

There was an amazing exercise circuit there.  Here are Brittany and Sam, joining forces to make the eliptical machine go!

The beach!  Andy and Linda live about 5 minutes from this beautiful beach!

Another great beach/cloud shot.  We took a nice long walk along the beach, and yes, I found sea glass!  Brittany found a great piece of sea glass as well. 

Andy and Linda took us to the Bamboo Land!  It's a nursery that sells many, many varieties of bamboo and ginger plants.  The fabulous thing about it is that they have all of the varieties they sell planted, with the dates they were planted, so you can see how big they will get!  And that's a good thing, as some of these bamboos were HUGE.

This is a great shot of a ginger blossom.

Photo op!  Here's Andy and Linda, and some clowning around!  There's the river in the background, too.  This is on the grounds of the Bamboo Forest.

Ok, here's a serious shot

And us, too.

After the Bamboo Land, it was time for lunch.  So we went to the Howard Hot Bread Bakery, where they make savory pies fresh every day.  They were delicious!

Here we are with our pies!  I had the curry prawn pie, and Lee had the beef and mushroom pie.  They were fantastic - light and flaky crust, delicious filling!

Lee and Andy!  Full and happy!

This is one of the old "Queenslander" homes in the area.  It was built in the late 1800's, but has been fully restored.

Here's a real Australian treat - a Pavlova!  Now, all of our Kiwi friends will disagree with that.  It seems that Australia and New Zealand both claim to have created this incredible dessert.  We don't really care who did it - it's just fabulous!  We are thankful, however, that we can't get it over here!  It can just be a "down under" treat!  The pavlova itself is made of merangue, then filled with heavy whipped cream, and topped with fresh fruit or other toppings.  Unbelievably good!

Linda had to work on Sunday afternoon, so Andy and the girls and Lee and I went out to dinner at the Boat Club, right on the water.  There's a great whale sculpture there, which was a perfect photo spot!  Here's Andy and the girls.

Here's a close-up.  Sorry that it's so dark.

This was Monday morning.  Lee got this shot of Samantha before she left for school.

And here's Brittany, all ready for school.  We drove her to school on Monday morning, so we could see where her school is.

A great shot of Brittany and Sam in the garden

Here's Sam and the girls who live on their street, out waiting for the school bus.

And here are our dear friends, who get up at 0'dark hundred, on their day off, to take us to the airport for our 6:45 am flight to Brisbane!

Andy and Linda

We had such a great time visiting with the Masons' and sharing their lives!  They are very busy, and the girls keep them hopping!  They live in such a beautiful place!  It took us years to get over to visit them, but it won't take us years to go back again.  Thanks, Andy and Linda, for a wonderful, relaxing week!  For all the wonderful meals and the pavlova and for just being you!

Fun with Sean...

Sean came for a visit over Easter!  He hadn't been here for nearly three years, and with his busy summer schedule, we decided that this was a good time.  Sean flew in on Thursday evening, arriving just after 9:00 pm.

We collected him and his luggage and came home to Moss Beach.  We fixed him a snack, and showed him the stash of junk food that we had on hand for him.  Then we played a card game, watched some TV, and headed off to bed at about 11:00 pm.

We had hoped that Sean would have great weather for his visit, but rain was predicted off and on for his entire stay.  The best day of the forecast was Saturday, so we planned on going to Santa Cruz for some quality time at the beach and boardwalk.

Friday morning everyone slept in, then we had breakfast and watched the new Sherlock Holmes, just out on video.  It rained all morning!  After the movie, we left for San Jose where we visited the tech museum and watched the new Star Trek movie on their IMAX screen!  Talk about larger than life - Amazing!!

We asked Sean what he wanted for dinner, and after some thought, he said "sushi!"  Well, that's a big hit for us, so we headed back to Half Moon Bay for dinner at Sushi Main Street.  Turns out that Sean is not a big fan of avacado, and most of the sushi contained avacado, but he found some rolls that sounded good to him, and he bravely tried the rolls that we ordered, avacado and all!  His favorite was the hot tuna roll - mine, too!!

Saturday morning was a repeat of Friday - leisurely start to the day, french toast for breakfast, watch a movie, and then off to Santa Cruz!  It was raining here when we left, but as we went south, the rain ended, and it looked like little patches of blue were appearing in the sky.  Phew!

Sean loved Santa Cruz!!  Our first stop at the boardwalk was for some shopping!  Sean found a great jacket, shorts, and Billabong t-shirt, which he immediately changed into.  Next was some quality time at their amazing arcade!  Grandpa and I relaxed on a bench.  Sean got TONS of tickets, that he was able to turn into some gifts for his younger siblings!  By the way, Nathan, remember the tickets you left in the car the last time we went to the boardwalk?  Well, they were a "starter set" for Sean, so they aren't there anymore.

Next on the agenda was a picnic lunch on the beach.  At this point the sky was mostly clear, and while I wouldn't say it was warm, the weather was pleasant and sunny.

After lunch - rides!  We got Sean an wrist band for unlimited rides, and Grandpa got tickets for a couple of rides - we must be getting old! : )  Sean and Grandpa rode the pirate ship and the Giant Dipper roller coaster together, and Sean went on a bunch of rides - some of them more than once, climbed the rock wall, experienced "dippin' dots", had a churro, and just generally had a great boardwalk experience!

We got home in time for me to put dinner in the oven to warm (I cooked it Friday night) and a walk down to the beach by our house.  Sean, ever the optomist, donned swim trunks and was ready for a swim.  Unfortunately, that area of the beach is very rocky, not to mention VERY COLD, so Sean made do with some wading and the promise of a better beach on the next "non-rain" day.

After dinner we watched Air Force One, an old but very good movie that Sean had brought with him, then it was off to bed!!

Sunday was Easter, and the Easter bunny found Sean in Moss Beach, and left him some chocolate goodies.  We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast and Sean updated his blog with his travel news.  We left for Jon and Sue's at 1:00, with a stop at Cold Stone Creamery, where Sean chose the Reeses' peanut butter ice cream cake to take for dessert.  Then we got on the road.  Traffic was terrible, but we got there about 2:30.  Sean and Jake immediately reconnected and were soon playing video games.  Then some friends of Jakes' came over with a monopoly game, the the 4 boys spent the rest of the evening playing monopoly!  Sue and I were amazed - if we had suggested monopoly, it would have never flown!  But they all enjoyed the game, and when we had to leave, the 3 remaining boys divided up Sean's real estate holdings and cash between them.

Sue fixed a wonderful chicken dinner with rice, salad and asparagas.  After dinner, Sue and I took Annie for a walk and the boys, large and small (or should I say old and young?) had dessert.

We headed home about 8, and arrived at 9:15.  We watched the Happy Gilmore movie, and got to bed about midnight!

Monday turned out to be a beautiful day.  Sean really wanted some beach time, to swim and suntan, so he got his trunks on, we packed our beach chairs and went to the beach by the harbor, just outside of the breakwater.  It really was nice, although Lee and I were dressed much differently than Sean!

The surf was pretty crashy there, so we sat in the sun, Grandpa and Sean played some frisbie, and Sean did some wading.  Then he decided that he really wanted to swim, so we went back up the beach, inside the breakwater, where I didn't have to worry about him getting swept out to sea, and told him to go for it!  Now, keep in mind that this is the northern California pacfic ocean, in April, so the water is very, very cold!  Sean, like everyone else, thinks of California as warm and sunny.  And it was sunny, and relatively warm, but needless to say, even though Sean did go in and did swim a bit, it didn't last long!  But he enjoyed the whole beach experience, and so did we!

Home and a shower, lunch, then over the hill for some shopping!  Sean found some shoes and shorts, and we found some things for him to take to his younger siblings, and then home for dinner.  After dinner, we finished the laundry and Sean packed - not an easy feat!  But he's very organized, and managed to get everything in, although he said that there was a marked increase in the weight of his luggage!

Monday night around here is Dancing With the Stars, followed by Castle.  So we were all in bed late, even though we had a 4:30 am wake-up call, to make sure that Sean was on time for his 7:00 am flight.  Morning was NOT pretty!  But I fixed coffee for us and hot chocolate for Sean to drink on the way to the airport.

We had checked him in online the night before and printed out his boarding pass, so all he had to do was to give them his bag and ID, then, off to security, which was full of people!  We had hugs all around, and then we had to let him go.  We watched him go through security and head down to the gate.  We stayed until the flight pushed back, just in case something went funny and the flight was delayed or cancelled.
 
We were back home by 7:30, and both of us had naps!  I sure hope that Sean was able to sleep on the flight to SEA, as he was one tired guy!

Thanks, Sean, for coming to visit us - we loved having you!  Next visit we'll try and make sure that you have more beach weather!

Sean, in his new outfit, complete with jacket

And, without the jacket - very Santa Cruz!

This is one of the arcade games that Sean won some of his 488 tickets on!

Feeding tickets into the machine - next stop - prize counter!!

Sean and Grandpa on the Pirate Ship

Waiting to ride the Loggers Revenge!  I had his coat, so that he would have something warm and dry to put on after the ride!

Coming back in after the ride - he actually stayed pretty dry!

This is the picture they took of him on the ride.  Lee noticed people taking pictures of their pictures, instead of buying them, so he did the same thing.  I'm sure the park HATES that!

It's Churro time!

Want a bite, Grandpa?

This is what the Easter Bunny left for Sean on Easter morning.

Getting ready to devour a peanut butter bunny!

Sean and Jake at dinner

Beach Monday!  As you can see, the sky is blue and the sun is shining!!

Sean and Grandpa play a little frisbie on the picture-perfect beach

Grandpa hasn't lost his touch at throwing frisbies!  See how differently they are dressed?

And Sean is a great catch!

Note the great leap and mid-air catch! 

And another one!

Back to reality......

And here is a very bleary-eyed Sean on Tuesday morning.  All packed, hot chocolate in hand, and notice the time on the clock behind him!  No one should be awake at THAT hour!!  He's got a lot of sleep to catch up on.

Thanks for coming to visit, Sean!  We love you!  And you got out just in time!  The yard work has begun! : )