Holy crap, I can't believe it's been this long since my last post. Uh, whoops? ^^; Plenty has happened and more has stayed the same. Frankly, I can't believe I never posted about the cat saga from last year. I think I'll save that for a separate post. I'm still working for the same company that has been dying a very slow death. I'm sticking with the company to the end because, honestly, I love the people I work with, I get to work remote from home, my paychecks are still clearing the bank, and I continue to get good experience to add to the resume. So no reason to quit, but I do keep an eye on the job market and there is plenty available for when the company finally goes belly-up.
I'm sorry to say I haven't been writing much, just a few hundred words here and there. I wish I could find my focus, but that is long gone. I blame my phone and the shear volume of media available these days. Oh, and my Crunchyroll subscription. :D
But the real reason I decided to post today: I visited
gardensgnome in Australia along with
trespassor!!!! I've never left the main continent before, let alone going that kind of distance, but it was worth it for visiting Gnome and for the adventures we all had.
For photos, you can look
HERE.
So the trip. Terri came up with the brilliant plan to do a day layover in Hawaii on our way to Australia. We did Waikiki, and man, it was like have a long bath and soothing white noise to reduce stress. I never thought of myself as a Hawaii person. I've only done beaches in California and Florida, so I didn't realize just how wonderful a beach can really be. I loved how everything pretty much had a beach view from lunch, dinner, and breakfast to walking to the hotel. The ocean was the perfect to wash away job stresses and get into vacation mode.
We then flew to Brisbane and got a shuttle to Gnome's place in Cooroy. We stayed with her for about a week, which was about 25 minutes from Noosa and the beach. Driving on the left side of the road was stressful and involved a lot of windshield wiper action instead of the turn signal, but Terri and I survived. :) Terri and I did horseback rides on the beach and went swimming in the ocean. We did a day trip to Brisbane and met Sin, who SO kindly drove us around the city. She introduced us to such yummy Japanese food for lunch, and then we were off to the Lone Pine Sanctuary. I got to hold a koala!! And feed kangaroos and wallabies! It was so amazing. We then caught X-men Apocalypse and got ice cream. :) In the following days, we did the Eumundi markets and did a lot souvenir shopping, had a pig spit roast lunch, visited Gnome's parents, had a horseback ride in the hills, and a couple last visits to the beach.
Terri sadly had to leave us for other priorities; meanwhile, Gnome and I traveled to Sydney. We had an amazing view of the Opera House from the hotel room, even though the hotel was on a steep hill that was killer when coming back. We did tourist things of visiting the Opera House and Botanical Gardens (alas, not really the season for that), we did our own version of a chocolate tour since the real one happened on Saturday and we were off to the Blue Mountains then, and we did a walk of the Vivid Light Festival that night. The Opera House show was lovely! The Blue Mountains tour was amazing with a view of the "mountains" (sorry, but when the highest point is still below the elevation for Denver, I have to chuckle), a walk through the rain forest, a visit to another Sanctuary (I liked Lone Pine better), and a ferry ride back to Sydney. It was then more Vivid that night in Darling Harbor. The last day in Sydney was spent in the Aquarium and at the Powerhouse Museum for the DC Lego exhibit. We had one last hit of chocolate and then I had to make my long trek back home so I could get back to work before month-end.
So hey, I guess I'm a world traveler now. *laugh* I still hate traveling, but I think I'm getting slightly better at it. Plans for England and Japan now don't feel so impossible, and we've started talks about a New Zealand (Lord of the Rings tour!) and Australia trip for another time. We'll see what actually happens, but anything feels possible now. :D
excited
grateful
aggravated