Foreign Frolics Friday

joe6pack Uncategorized

 

Hello Pubsters. I have arrived home safely and well after a little jaunt around some of the Western part of the USA. Travelling was fun be it is good to be home. We where greeted with uncontrollable howling for about 1 minute from Ned and Syd then they had a bit of a sniff at the luggage then walked of for a snooze. Seems as though we aren’t as important to them as we thought. Ungrateful sods. The cats turned up a couple of hours later demanding food , No hello ,welcome home or anything from them. More ungrateful sods. The fish did what fish do, swam around wanting food.

WE started in Honolulu for a few days as the OH isn’t fond of flying that much and a non stop trip to the Continental USA would have seen the plane meet by security for here and a hearse for me. As it was she just made the journey to Hawaii in a more or less stable condition. We didn’t get of the Main island and just relaxed and did the tourist things. Pearl Harbour National Park was good. Honolulu in my opinion is just a bigger version of the Gold Coast but was good for a stop over and to prepare for Main Attraction. A bonus is that we had cleared immigration in Honolulu so avoided the long queues and apparently not very nice officials at LAX. The persons we dealt with in Honolulu were friendly and helpful.

We flew direct to San Francisco. arriving rather late at night but our flight path gave us a excellent view of the city at night.

San Fran. is a great city  with plenty to see and do. I won,t go into minute details of what we did but as well as the usual Fisherman’s wharf , Cable cars  Golden gate etc. we had a great time just walking around stopping at a shop/eatery/bar here and there and jumping on a bus to see where we end up.The wave Organ is pretty amazing. Made up of pipes that change sounds when the water rushes in .

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After nearly a week in SF. It was time to move north to Seattle, home of the Space Needle, Pike Place Markets among other thing, and more importantly for me Boeing aircraft .

4736605-Enjoyable_tour_of_the_Boeing_Factory_Seattle

After a while there and discussion we decided to bite the bullet and do a little road trip Seattle to Salt lake city. Not something most people do but what the heck we thought. Hired a car and off we went through Washington,Oregon,Idaho and Utah. Now I have driven most of Australia and we have a great country but nothing we have can match the scenery over there,Little towns, Farms ,

Seattle Salt Lake03-loc-kennewick-Naegeli-Court-Reporting-Firm-Kennewick

And much better roads

Arrived in the capitol of Mormons and was surprised to find that not every male wears a white shirt and tie and asks me if I  wanted to preached to.

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After a few days here and again with much discussion we hopped over to Sin City Las Vegas.The excuse for this was that Grand canyon tours are better from there,but in all truth people told us we had to go at least once while we here and I must admit I was interested to have a look. I actually liked Vegas, It was loud.bright.noisy and non-stop but the people were friendly, we saw a show called ” Absinthe ” at Caesars palace. it was pretty good sort of a circus,vaudeville show for Adults only. Caesars Palace is huge but in my opinion looking a bit dated. Lost a bit of cash on the tables but OH won some on roulette so we broke about even.

tropicana view

The Grand Canyon tour was amazing. We did a chopper tour, leaving vegas flying out to the canyon, Over Lake Mead and Hoover dam and the into the canyon itself. It really is huge. Landed and had some lunch and scenic walk along the edge with views then took off back to Vegas .Expensive but close to the highlight of the trip. ON our flight where a couple from LA. celebrating there 25th wedding anniversary . Apparently he proposed when the were hiking there years ago so returned on a bit of a nostalgic trip. Terrific couple and we hit it off really well. OH and his wife got on well,both joggers and fit ,and with a handbag addiction. They own a landscaping company in LA, and is pretty successful. We met up for dinner that night and had a great time. Our plans were to go to San Diego then back to San Fran before the flight home,but they convinced us to go to LA and they would show us around ,so being foot loose and fancy free that is where we ended up.

You don’t really realise how big LA is until you fly over it. It is massive. We flew into Burbank Airport  and got good views. Our New Friends live in a suburb called Alhambra about 20ks from the CBD.

WE saw a lot of LA and met some fantastic people. Too much to go into here but am proud to say avoided the Universal studio tours and the red bus homes of the famous tours though our guides did point out a few places. Mrs 6 pac went shopping  with her new friend and returned with a handbag from rodeo drive which she refuses to tell me how much it cost, so I am guessing it was over $100.

After LA we flew back to San Francisco for 2 nights then back to Honolulu for another 2 days then home again.
So there it is a very brief quick overview of our us adventure.I have left out heaps but that is the general gist of things.
We originally planned to go to the East coast as well but decided after being in SF for 3 days that in order not to rush through we would stick to the west and do the east next time.
The yanks in general are lot like us in many ways. Most people are very friendly and helpful. We made many new friends and swapped email address and such. Australians still seem to be very popular and well liked over there.
It’s great to be home though. With all our faults and troubles we really don’t have it that bad here. Especially now that the idiot is no longer in the top job.I would have loved to have seen him defeated in a general election and see him sulk giving a concession speech.
Maybe he wouldn’t have given one going on what I’ve read on his dumping

5421bf00e88b04cddb27c9b5692433b0Frog
Thanks to Fiona for keeping the pub running as she always has.I will try and help out more and give her a well deserved break
Have a good time.

693 thoughts on “Foreign Frolics Friday”

  18. More DDers for QT

    A statement just now from the manager of government business Christopher Pyne and the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

    The Australian House of Representatives will trial a new constituency Question Time that will give members an opportunity to ask specific questions relating to their electorates and the matters raised with them by their constituents.

    From the next sitting week until the end of the year the government will trial ‘Constituency Question Time’ to run every sitting day as part of Questions Without Notice.

    Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull MP said the change to the running of Question Time will present greater opportunities for Government MPs, and if they choose Opposition MPs, to bring local issues in their electorate to the attention of relevant Ministers.

    …

    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2015/oct/20/turnbull-to-unveil-new-banking-regulations-politics-live#comments

    I would have thought ministers should be available to backbenchers as a normal part of their job. Silly me!

  26. Haper has an early lead in Calgary Heritage
    Mulcair trailing in Outremont
    Trudeau leading in Papineau

  27. There is this universe and there is

    Hockey apparently told colleagues the following: it was important to leave parliament with dignity, he wanted the Turnbull government to be the best in Australian history, but the revolving door had to stop.

    His former boss, Tony Abbott, paid tribute. Hockey had triumphed at the G20, and he’d produced budgets too brave for this parliament. Abbott also apparently referenced Teddy Roosevelt.

    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2015/oct/20/turnbull-to-unveil-new-banking-regulations-politics-live#comments

  28. Constituents Question time – just a ploy to allow government MPs to spruik about all the things they have allegedly done for their electorates and have it all recorded in Hansard. Just advertising.

    I don’t expect to hear from the member for Lyne. He has done ab-so-blooming nothing for this electorate in the two years he has been an MP.

  38. Cut ’em out, ride ’em in. Ride ’em in, cut ’em out. Cut ’em out,

    Liberal Yes 39 134 173
    Conservative Party No 19 75 94
    New Democrat No 3 21 24
    Bloc Quebecois No 0 9 9
    Green Party No 0 0 0

  40. Leone..: ” Michael Lawler could face big fines and even prison …”…..not if the AFP or the LNP. has anything to say on the matter!…Could you see Brandis authorising anything?…or the AFP. opening a file except one marked ; “To be continued” ?

  42. David Herle on CBC just said that this victory for Justin Trudeau surpassed Pierre Trudeau’s win in 1968. That’s pretty clear. In 1968, Pierre Trudeau increased the Liberal seat total by 26 seats. Tonight, Justin Trudeau looks like he will increase the Liberal total by about 140 seats.

  43. As a twist, perhaps now is the time for voluntary voting…since all the bogans now vote LNP. because they are shitty with Labor for stopping their racist/ bigotry behaviour and we all know most of them are to slack and lazy or drugged-up to get out of bed on voting day save it’s compulsory…

  44. This is actually the largest number of seats that a single party has gained in Canadian history

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