Giving Thanks for the Thanksgiving Posts

Thanks to everyone for the T-giving posts! It was nice to see them and think about where everybody is scattered around the globe. We made it to Durango and back safely thanks to a couple of windows of nice weather. Thank god for the internet to help you get reliable local weather information for trip planning! The kids had a great dose of cousin time and we all relaxed and hiked and ate did some geocaching (look it up- it's fun! It's basically a worldwide game of hide-and-seek played with the internet and GPS units. It's a great way to get kids hiking around!) We're back at the grind for three more weeks before winter break- there was a little melancholy all around about heading off to school today.

Important Question: Do people want me to organize and notify about a Secret Santa? I'd be happy to if it would ease the holiday pressure, but let me know soon!

Happy Thanksgiving from Block Island

Happy Thanksgiving! Sarah surfed - BRRR! We played ninja, football, and cricket. Reconnected with our newly forming BI "family".

Last weekend downunder

After a nice Thanksgiving with turkey on trhe barbie we enjoyed the usual Friday morning at the pool followed by coffee at the library. This is Elli's routine and she regularly meets friends for coffee and one swims with her while others walk. I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAS HAPPENED BUT I FIND I CAN'T MAKE CORRECTIONS FROM MHERE ON SO TRY AND TRANSLATE THE MEANING. SORRY.

Today Mom and I got a ride to town and with Elli and Ken. We all strolled through the open markets - mainly clothes, a few books, and lots of suglasses - in Fortitude Valley. The Blackwells then dropped us off at the Botanic Gardens and we had lunch and walked around a bit. In places it was as lovely as I recall - great variety of trees with palms interspersed with deciduerous trees whose leaves vary greatly in their basic green color. There were a few flowers but the great flower ddisplay I was looking forward to was disappointlky - about half the beds were covered wtih black plastic to control fungus and weeds - hopefully it is a short term matter. We walked thru the Garden Point campus of Queensland University of Technology. It is attractive with open areas with large trees and tables with umbrellas. The buildings vary from 100 years old brick to very modern glass and concretre. It is not one that Rachael has applied for. However, she has applies for the Kelvin Grove campus of QUT. The campuses vary as to subject areas taught and a shuttle bus connects them.

We got the city cat down river to a conveninet pick up location and so received a ride home. We mwent out to dinner at the Returned Servicemen's Club. Iwas admitted as a guest on the basis of a USA address and a card I had showing I had seved in the US Army. Elli is a member and can take us a a guest but this was fun having my service recognized.

A big cricket match started Thursday. We watched some yesterday and have today's game on tape. I plan to wqtch it now. I understand just enough to enjoy it, particularly on a lovely sunny day which we have had the last two days after very heqvy showers early in the morning. I mhave a very fond memory of a cricket match in England in 1948 in a town near Oxford sitting on the grass with a member of Parliament and several of has friends mand a mclassmate from Princeton with whom I was traveling. It was a wonderful introductin to them game.

Hope everyone is homew safe from Thanksgiving rtravels. We'll be home on Wednesday.Christmas comes in four weeks - the Mall is fully decorated, carol;s sing out constantly, and I saw a Christmas tree in a home on the drive back from the club tonight. The season is upon mus.

Missing photos

Here are two a photos I had planned to include and found they were upside down. Mom was awake! She didn't swim as it was windy and cloudy but I had to get in the Pacific surf at least once if I was down here. I'm holding a bottle of Hemp - a caffeine loaded drink made in NZ and Australia - I wonder if the customs would let me bring a bottle back. We haven't drunk it yet! Mom is holding a finger lime - an unusual citrus that grows in the caldera and is very rare. They use it on raw oysters and in some special dishes - referred to as the cavier of citrus.

Happy Thanksgiving Morning

Our Thanksgiving started with beautiful sun which got Mom and Elli all excited about laundry - there is no dryer here. By the time the first load was done the clouds had arrived and we again have a day of mixed clouds and sun - mainly clouds. The temperature is so much cooler than what we expected we will not complain - nor will we after we read the Rockies Storm article on the web. We trust the stateside travelers are all safe - hopefully at their desired destinations. Rico's report of the coming storm seems to have been fulfilled. The number of accidents reported in Washington seemed very high and the winds everywhere rather strong. We're thinking of you all wherever you are.

We are going into the West End - an area we rarely visit as it is not convenient by bus or train - but an attractive area of shops and restaurants on the south side all with a 'hippie/yuppie' aspect. We'll have turkey on the barbie along with fresh corn and pecan pie for dinner tonight. Elli thought the corn and turkey were representative of the first event at Plymouth. (Incidentally, we saw a flock of bush turkeys along the beach in heavily built up Coolangatta last weekend - they look very much like the U.S. bird - I don't recall having seen them before. The Wakefields said they are becoming a nuisance. Also, the coirn was picked fresh down there.)

Rachael, thankfully, due to pneumonia, did not go to schoolies. She has spent some time with friends who did not go. Two of the girls she was going to be with came back yesterday - original plan was to stay all week returning Saturday. Will be interested to hear why. Elli heard a stroy yesterday of one girl from Rachael's class at Hillbrook who wanted to come back Tuesday after a boy in her group was rushed to the hospital choking on his own vomit and a girl in the group had wandered off to"walk" home - about 35 miles. The paper reports the time is going well except for riots between schoolies and locals at Byron Bay. You can tell I don't think much of the event. I guess I have never known what Spring Breaks in Florida have been like - very similar I guess. However, one good side of schoolies is they try to confine it to one age group - this year's high school grads. Of course. there are always some older gate crashers.

I think Rico's photos have been spectacular. The latest scenes amazing and the family group a real coup. We just worked on some photos. They show why we like it down here. Mt Warning is the remaining core of a huge volcano that exploded centuries ago leaving a massive caldera, maybe 35 miles across. Terrnorra sits on one edge. Sugar cane is growing in the foreground, some has just been harvested. The beach is one we have often gone to. The fence is blocking access since last year's storms washed some of the shore including the road away. The missing area had been built up by humans and as Bo said,"Nature is reclaiming its own." Certainly confirms the power of water.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Terranorra continued

(hit a wrong key but here we go again) worked and is still working at 75 in air freight in Brisbane. We met them first 17 years ago and enjoy them. He is brusque, interrupts conversations with his own agenda, is very opinionated, but very thoughtful and kind at heart. (Right after we arrived he came by with a bouquet of gardenisa for Mom.) He reminds me of a puppy and we have some great conversations. When Kathereine is talking, I have learned to tune him out til she finishes, and he shuts up. She is a delightful person, excellent cook, sharp, with her own ideas, and gives Bo some line but keeps him from hanging himself with his very open, frank, approach to relationships. I always enjoy the visits; they are so different from other friends.

We didn't have beach weather so we spent alot of time in the car touring around to local tropical farms, tea plantation, winery, beaches for viewing, and finally, a short swim late in the day on Monday - we went down by train late Saturday and Bo drove us home after a pizza supper Monday. (He has a small townhouse near the airport where he stays four nights a week.) The water was delightful, the surf moderate where I swam sheltered by some large rocks, the sun came out to dry me off. All day we had alternating rain showers and bright sun with lots of wind - sound like Colorado?

The tea plantation was very interesting thanks to Aussie engineering. They had designed a tea leaf picker that is amazing to me. It is like a lawn mower raised 3 feet off the ground by large rubber tires. The photo shows it better than I can describe it. It reminded me of the cartoon Fred Brodaq sent about cutting heges - hold a riding lawn mower up in the air by a construction crane! It replaces hand picking of the new leaves which has been done for centuries - very efficient, but destroying employment for many. One of the machines was in use while we were there. Neither Bo nor Katherine had ever seen it operate before so we were lucky.

This week is schoolies week on the Gold Coast. We thought we might be overwhelmed but found they are heavily concentrated in several places - Surfer's Paradise and Byron Bay - Terranorra is in between the two locations. Schoolies is like the SPS/Andover party week after graduation but the kids go without parents to rented houses and hotels, drink alot, have lots of concerts, etc provided, and try to avoid the police and the older crashers who try to join in the fun. Rachael had been hot and cold about going, finally planned to go with a few friends for half the week - she didn't want to miss Thanksgiving. Pneumonia slowed her down so she cancelled, but has been to several parties in the city after which she can get some sleep.

Mom and Elli are walking Chai while Ken is preparing steak and kidney pie - one of our favorites. Emily's school ends Friday so she has been taking tests and doing last minute studying. She just came in from school and said she'd gotten an A- on a 500 work English comp she wrote last night until 10:30. Rachael is at a party. Such is life in Australia.

Weekend in Terranorra

Mom and I had a nice visit with friends down oin the New South Wales border. He is Lee Protor's first cousin, served in the US marines in interesting places like Kabul in the 1960s and has w