A Few Comments About The Blog or "Where Did All the Info Go?"

Just a quick note about the blog itself. All of the information about me and the blog that usually appears at the right hand side of the photos has now disappeared to the very end of these photos. Only the gods of blogs know why. I do want to thank everyone who has visited my blog over the years. I wrote the first one in May 2005 and over the years it has had 13,900 hits. I am humbled by this. Whether you read my blog to help you sleep or travel along with me, I am grateful. In our travels together I have written 1405 blogs as I travelled to 65 countries and there is a big world out there just waiting to be explored.
Finally, the photo above is a last look at the Sydney Harbor Bridge as the Carnival Spirit began its cruise.

Cruise Dress Up Time

A couple of nights during the 12 day cruise everyone dressed to the nines. I was worried about it beforehand, but I think we did just fine. The real challenge was the combination of Spanx and a tiny ship's bathroom (only a woman will understand this).

The Heartstopping Fiji Zip Line Experience

This is an after- shot - after we completed a zipline course through a lush Fiji jungle. We did have a camera but we were too busy screaming and holding on for dear life to take any photos. The zipline consisted of 10 platforms over 100 ft high that connected the different lines. You get off at each pltform and reconnect your gear to the next platform for the next trip. We both wanted to do it again but the ship would have left without us.

Farewell Sydney - Let the "Fun" Cruise Begin

Around 6 pm of the day we arrived the ship slowly made its way out of the Sydney Harbor and the adventure began. This photo was taken from our balcony.

The unexpected highlight of the trip was that it started in the Sydney Harbor. Our room was on the 4th level at the rear of the ship with unparalled views of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. To me the Opera House is one of the greatest architectural achievements and we lucked out with this amazing vantage point.

Carnival Spirit 12 hour Turn Around - a Miracle of Organization

In 12 hours Carnival Spirit managed to unload 2100 people and their luggage and load our crowd of 2100 people and our luggage plus all the food and supplies needed to take care of us for 12 days of nonstop eating. It was a miracle of organization.

Sydney Harbor - Perfect Place to Start a Cruise

Sydney Harbor is one of the most beautiful Harbors in the world, especially with the presence of the Sydney Opera House (in background) and the Harbor Bridge in the same harbor, If you have seen the first new Year;s Eve celebration each year, you have seen this harbor.

Carnival Spirit Cruise to Paradises (Fiji,Vanuatu, and New Caledonia)

Rogue's Point, Australia and the Perfect Host - With Thanks

Ardrossan Australia

The closest town to Doug's beach house in Rogue's Point is Ardrossan (population about 2,000). The 10+ stores and cafes are on this main street ending at the Gulf of St Vincent. The house I photographed in Ardrossan is typical of classic Australian archeitecture. The last photo is of me feeding the gulls behind Doug's beach house. They ate my first and second attempt to make scones (the Aussie/British biscuit).

Warm Fall Days in Oz

Adelaide is currently experiencing the warmest May it has had in decades - and I'm lovin it. It is the perfect time to visit. It continues to be difficult for me to get the US-Aussie opposites. Morning here is evening there, fall here is spring there, water going down the drain goes counter clockwise here and clockwise there. I find it interesting that we do have the same growing seasons. Farmers here are planting their crops for the winter which is their wet season. Summers are too dry to plant.

Tacker and Joey

Tacker is the Aussie word for a small  child and Joey is the name for a baby kangaroo.

Adelaide Points of Interest

1. Doug's backyard where I have coffee every morning 2. Water tanks needed for every house in this very dry country 3. The Adelaide hills with grapes for wine, cherries and apple trees, 4. more fall colors 5. A pair of Kookabarras named after the very loud cry they produce.

Home in Australia

This is Doug's house in Athelstone, a suburb of Adelaide Australia. It sits at the base of a mountainous conservation area and he has actually seen koalas and kangaroos near his house. From the upstairs deck you can see sunsets over the downtown Adelaide area.

How to Hold a Koala

1. Feed it eucalyptus leaves nonstop. 2. let it climb on you until it has a good grip on your shoulder 3. put you left handy under its soft furry butt 4. bring you left arm across 5. grin like an idiot because it feels so amazing.

Meeting the Neighbors

Cleland animal park near Adelaide gives everyone the chance to feed and pet the kangaroos. They are as soft as they look. The park has almost 1,00 kangaroos.

It's Fall in Australia

The Charm of Old Vegas Oddities

If the Vegas Strip is a world unto its self, old Vegas is a separate solar system. Along with the vintage hotels and casinos from the Vegas early years, it contains hundreds of quickie wedding chapels, each with its own theme, history, and raft of characters. You will find the Mob Museum, the Museum of Atomic Testing, the Heart Attack Grill (where anyone over 350 pounds eats free), the pawn store where the TV series "Pawn Stars" is filmed, and, of course, local characters, like the one in the photo, just driving down the street.

The Nostalgia of "Old Vegas"

The Glitzy Hotels/Casinos on the Vegas Strip owe a huge debt to the section of town known as "old Vegas," about a $25 cab ride from the Strip. It is vintage Casinos like Circus Circus and the Cortez Hotel where the original mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky stayed while they started the Vegas gambling empire. It is also the site of all the quickie wedding chapels like this one where Brittany Spears started her famous 7 hour marriage.

Las Vegas has the highest marriage and also highest divorce rate of any city in the US due to the ease with which either can be obtained. No license, no blood test, no waiting, no problem. Also, you can be married by any number of Elvis impersonators or have several as your attendants.

The Stratosphere: Hotel/Casino for the Xtreme Thrillseekers

A bit off of the Vegas strip is the Stratosphere; the casino/hotel with the "highest thrill rides in the world." The building is 1,149 feet tall with 900 rooms. At its' top it features 4 rides: Insanity, Sky Jump, X-Scream, and Big Shot. The names say it all. As we were riding past, one brave person was enjoying the Sky Jump; "a controlled free fall from the 108th floor in which the person falls at a scream inducing speed." In the bottom photo - top left hand corner, you can almost see the tiny person I caught in free fall. Doug talked about trying it but it is definitely not anywhere in my future.

Casino Crawling

Each Casino/Hotel has a distinctive personality and it is fun cruising though each. The "grater" looking building on the right is Planet Hollywood, an older failing hotel that was redesigned and saved by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Demi Moore, and Bruce Willis. It has a flavor of the Hard Rock Café chain.

Next door is the Paris Hotel/Casino where you can ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower and take out a mortgage to pay for a drink while enjoying a gorgeous view of the city . It also boasts a restaurant where you can be insulted in person by Chef Gordon Ramsey while enjoying one of his delicious meals.

Paris also has Mon Ami Gabi, one of the mostly highly recommended restaurants in Vegas for good food, good prices, and good location. It was always packed.

A must see is the dancing fountains of the Bellagio. Every half hour in the evening a choreographed dancing fountain show will steal your heart. The music changes with each show so you could spend an entire evening just hanging out in front of the Bellagio. You might recognize it from the Oceans Eleven film.

The Ferris wheel near the Venetian was intriguing, but we never saw it move - so we were wary about trying it. Caesar's Palace is an institution in Vegas and a must see. The entire side of Aria is a technological marvel: a massive video screen that can be seen even in the brightest sunlight. It is about 25 stories tall!

Sin City

By many, Las Vegas is known as "Sin City" and few would argue that it is the basis of this city's existence in the middle of the Nevada desert.

Except for Boulder and one other city, prostitution is legal in Nevada. You are reminded of this continuously in Vegas by the teams of people every half block forcing cards on every male who passes by. The cards have photos of women available in 20 minutes. It doesn't matter if the man has a partner with him; the cards are offered to every male. I found this terribly insulting at first and one point I had a minor hissy fit with one of the distributers, but soon just learned to ignore it. It's Vegas after all. It was interesting watching the crowds for the very mismatched couples and wondering.......


In the casinos, if you played slot machines or cards, all alcoholic beverages are free. I have never been anywhere in the last decade with more places that you can smoke. Every casino that we visited allows smoking.

Sin is very big business in Las Vegas and they average $6.1 billion a year in profits from gambling alone - and it is what makes Vegas the Disneyland for adults.

Designer Shopping

Directly across from the shopping center in the last photo is this very excusive shopping center containing all of the high end designer brands you could ever imagine seeing in one place. It's handy for when you hit that enormous jackpot and feel the need to get rid of it all in one shopping spree!

Shop Til You Drop

The strip is a major shopping mecca. The photo shows a small part of a one mile long shopping plaza complete with its own indoor sky and changing weather. There is one section of the center where the clouds overhead will darken, the thunder starts and the rain showers down. It happens every hour on the hour. PS Even the Walgreens was great - 2 giant floors of tourist stuff at reasonable prices.

Meeting Famous People in Vegas

Okay, you may not think a Gladiator is a famous person, but there is quite a collection of impersonators roaming the Vegas Strip including, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Batman, Darth Vedor, Choobakka, the Minions from Despicable Me, one of the transformers, Las Vegas showgirls, etc. You can have your photo taken with any of these famous people but they do expect a tip - even though by law, they can't ask for money. My favorite sight was Elvis having a deep conversation with Batman.

Managing the City Touring

It is confusing and difficult getting around the Vegas Strip unless you want to cab everywhere. Doug was determined to explore everything so we covered almost all of it on foot. To go across the strip itself there are overpasses like this one about every 1- 3 blocks. If you are lucky, the escalators up and down are actually working. They walkways are usually crammed with tourists, musicians asking for money, and people frankly asking for money for drugs or beer. There are various monorails but most go only to a neighboring hotel and back. On the last day we did find a longer monorail that costs $5 a ride.

New York Las Vegas Style

The New York New York Casino and Hotel is a nostalgic trip through Manhattan. Even the skyline of the hotel looks like a conglomeration of various buildings throughout the city of New York. It comes complete with the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and a cab ride, that just happens to be one of the most frightening roller coasters I have ever been on. I thought it would be a great way to get a great overview of Las Vegas but I was too busy screaming for my life to see anything. I love roller coasters and this one is the best.

The inside is a tribute to typical city streets of New York with pizza parlors and outdoor eateries along the indoor streets.