Sorry I didn't get this here as early a promised but Judy got sick again and I've spent the last 6 days over on the Mainland with her at the hospital. Bummer
Congrats to all the latest trip winners!
SO....
(Some of this I have touched on previously)
Day One: (Thursday, 9/6) Left the island on the afternoon ferry (2 hrs). Of course it was filled to the gills with "friendly" tourists all heading back to their nice comfy homes. Of course, all tourists look friendlier as you are looking at their north ends heading south. Our first stop was at Lopez Island where the ferry dumped off the normal crowd of "Island Hoppers", we call it 'Slo-pez' since there are more sheep than people there usually. We then unloaded in the metropolis of Anacortes to begin our drive south toward Seattle. This usually takes about 2 hours if one times it right to miss 'rush-hour' north of Seattle. Arrived in Seattle with time to spare and spent the night at Judy's kid's house north of downtown. Yes, there was cold beer waiting!
General Friday Harbor info. Live Cams of FH, more cam links on bottom of page.Just general C of C info on Lopez Island. Ferries. Check out the "About WSF" links, bottom left, for pics.Day 2: (Friday, 9/7) Woke up with a hang-over.
Opps. But what's a vacation except a series of hang-overs
arranged in a semi-organized daily fashion???? I stuck my head out the door to greet the morning by viewing the scenic vista of Mt. Rainier off in the distance. (Got up early enough to miss the smog!) I then realized that I had forgot my suit hanging on the laundry room door back home! How can I get bumped to business class without my suit???? So, off to Target to by a pair of slacks, at least. Soon, I'm back with proper attire and 2 yummy cinnamon rolls to start the day. I also grabbed 3 bags of individual-sized candy for the trip. (more on that later). Since the flight to San Francisco leaves at 3:30pm we get rolling off to the airport at about 12:30. Judy's son-in-law was nice enough to give us a ride there ... but he decides to take the "scenic" route through the "industrial area" instead of the freeway. What's up with that???
Arrive at the airport, check the luggage, start to head through Security ... I go through just fine ... yep, you guessed it! Judy lights up metal detector, the x-ray guys grab her luggage and run with it into the "bullet-proof" glass cubicle, and she gets hauled off!! No kidding!! She gets patted down, her carry-on gets emptied. Guess who decided to bring a 16 oz bottle of nail polish remover with her?? Remover = acetone = highly flammable liquid = boom. I was just rolling on the floor laughing at the whole thing/her. (I had asked her before we left if she wanted me to check her bag ... but no!)
Guess who's now on the "Watch List" ??!! What a hoot! and she's grumpy now! Go figure?
Despite the security delay we still had time to hit the airport bar and purchase a couple of over-priced drinks before loading.
Plane leaves almost on time, flies 2 hrs, lands on time at San Fransisco. The first bag a chocolates are opened and passed around to the crew. I score 3 glasses of champagne out of the deal!
Judy got the middle seat and had to sit next to a big fat guy in the window seat who decided he was gonna sleep the whole time while drooling on her shoulder. I laugh more, she's now even more grumpy! Go figure?
It is now 6:30 pm in SF and we can't check-in until 7:40 for the 10:40 flight to Sydney. Yet, I really want to be upgraded on this flight, so I go to the counter anyways. The Qantas lady in L.A. had told me to go straight to the Business Class counter, so that where I went. I got lucky, the counter opened early, had the ticket gal convinced to upgrade us, and then her rotten supervisor told her no! Shoot~! Where does he get off? Da Bum! Now I just have to wait at the gate to find out if we get upgraded. We have to clear security again. Since Judy is now a known terrorist, she gets frisked again! More grumpy. Time for a couple more over-priced airport drinks!
Well, it turned out that we got the "good seats"! Yippie, skippy! The 747 winds up it's engines and rolls down the runway! We're on our way to "OZ"
Seattle Tourist guide.Official Seattle city website.Mt. Rainier site, some good pics.Day ?: (Saturday, the amazing disappearing day) On the plane, whizzing over the Pacific Ocean at 550 mph. Up seated with the rich folk! Dang! Life is good! Champagne and single-malt scotch are flowing like water!
And REAL food! Hmmm...time to relax... The heated moist towels take away the travel grime...good! The self-service bar is stocked...good!
The clam-shell "SkyBed" seems to glide back/forth up/down like butter...good! The Attendants are cute...good! The second bag of chocolates are opened and liberally dispensed to the Flight Attendants, insuring prompt superior service and liberal amounts of Scotch in return.
It must be time to watch a movie or two, so I reach to the remote control and pull it out.
Hey no cord ... must be wireless. Punch, poke, punch ... nada, nothing, squat! It's BROKEN! Somebody on the previous flight had pulled it's little cord right out of it's guts! 15 HOURS! NO MOVIES. NO GAMES! NO READING LAMP EVEN! Eeeeeeek!
What is it?? Bad Karma? Bad Juju? Oh well, it is a full flight so I am stuck there for the next 14 hours staring at the seat in front of me. Another double Scotch please....make that two...
(Actually the Attendants were very apologetic and did give me $100.00 credit to use with the in-flight duty-free.)
Qantas, Look for yourself! Day 3: (Sunday, 9/9) Woke up with a hang-over.
It is now 6:20am and we are descending into Sydney. Looking out of the window I can see the Sydney Opera House by the bridge. Gosh, it looks smaller in person! That is about all I get to see of Sydney though, besides the inside of the airport. Sydney is the capital of New South Wales (NSW) and Cairns is 1000 miles north in Queensland (QLD). Got to clear Security again...you guessed it...enough said! Time to head to the transfer desk and beg for the good seats, but I know that all seats in Business Class are already sold, so Judy says "phooey" on it (being grumpy). But I make the excuse that I'm going to the john and sneak back to the desk and return bearing 2 upgraded tickets!
The next hop leaves at 8:00 am to take us to Cairns. My TV works this time! Good thing...it's a 3 hour flight. Time for "breaky" and a Bloody Mary.
The plane comes sliding to a stop in Cairns 15 minutes early. Cleared Security and Customs, so now I am officially in Oz. There is supposed to be somebody waiting with transportation. Of course, the first official business I have to do, after seeing that nobody is waiting for us, is to dash outside for a nice refreshing cigarette! The bags can wait. One more cigarette...
There is a big ol' limo sitting outside. Maybe that's for me. After all, I'm the big contest winner! Nope ... Just a minivan to the Hotel. Bummer. The Hotel is clean, but a little flaky. Next time I'm staying at the Hilton!
So on to unpacking a little bit of stuff until tomorrow when we leave on the boat. After unpacking we head out to check out Cairns. Yep, a normal tourist trap. Rows and rows of cheesy shops filled with cheesy Chinese merchandise. Already have figured out that there really isn't anything in Cairns worth seeing, so Judy goes back to the hotel and I procede down to the Tusa Dive shop to let them know that we are in town. As I talk to one of the girls working there, the basic impression I get is "So what?" Wait! I'm the big contest winner! But I just get that blank "deer in the headlights" look and the "So what?" again. I am confused by this time ... must be time for a Fosters.
Back at the hotel, Judy has proceeded to flatten herself out on one of the beds at about 4:00 in the afternoon. That doesn't look good ... once horizontal she doesn't tend to move again! Soooo, off to find that cold can of Fosters all by myself!
Staying away from the tourist bars, I walk for about an hour before I find a local hangout. It is sort of like an American sports bar. The 'Rugger' is on the telly, I can't understand a word the barmaid is saying, and all the customers are locals! Eureka!! I found it! They have Fosters in the bottle so I manage to slug down a couple just to say, "been there, done that."
About 6:30 I start to feel guilty and head back to the hotel. Yep, Judy's still on the bed sawing logs.
So much for feeling guilty... What to do now?
Just a short aside: If you have vices: DON'T go to Australia! Beer is $4.00 a pop ($21.00 a six-pack), rum & coke is $6.50 a glass ($32.00 a bottle for the cheap aussie stuff), and cigarettes are $11.00 a pack! EEEEEK! .....
.... but, back at the hotel with Judy snoring.
What do I do now? Of course! I trot down to the liqueur store and buy some rum.
There is always 'rugger' on the telly....
Sydney Opera HouseQueenslandCairnsanother Cairns site Day 4: (Monday, 9/10) 6:00 AM: Woke up with a hang-over.
Judy is still snoring.
Stand by ... The epic journey will continue tomorrow!
