Day 17 of our Round The World Trip

Well the last time I left you we were going to the Ice Hockey the next night...

Day 10

Edmonton the place where we can catch up on all our sleeping.....zzzz.....Ok so we woke up pretty late again (Did almost every day in Edmonton) today was going to be pretty relax with Me going to jam across town at a cousins place and everyone else going to West Ed Mall for the day. Now google maps are great don’t get me wrong cause I got across town fine. The only problem is when I was coming back to pick the girls and Phil up I missed a turn......So here I am driving in Edmonton by myself with no map (as the car company didn’t have any at the local place where we picked up the car) and now directions that are useless. Oh yeah I was meant to pick them up at 4:30 so now I’m lost, driving in conditions that I’m not use to and in peak hour traffic. Well I eventually worked out that I’m heading to West Edmonton mall so if I keep on going west I should hit it right? Well I did at 5:45pm. So instead of going home to pick up our jackets etc for the game we had to meet Rick and Jeff at Denny’s up the road and then we would go in.

It was great to finally see my Edmonton Oilers in person and even better that they were playing the New Jersey Devils (which only happens every 4 years due to the schedules). This was so cool as the goalie for the Devils is a hall of fame goalie....Martin Brodeur. Well the Oilers lost 3-1 which was sort of expected as they were playing the 2^nd best team from the East.

Day 9

We are off to Calgary today!!!! So we pack up the car with only our little bags (still filled the boot – think we are going to upgrade our car in Quebec to a van) and we were on the road. Not that much of a drive only about 3.5 hours and the road was dry, little bit of wind and sitting just on -1, great conditions for driving except..........this is the most BORING road in the world. 3 hours of just driving straight with maybe 2 or 3 curves in the road and there is nothing around as we are in prairie country. Phil and I would get excited about going over a hill that is how BORING it was......The girls were fine they just slept in the back but we had to try and keep each other awake as we shared the driving. We arrive in Calgary and that night went to a cousins house for a dinner with the family down there. They have an awesome house it is huge!!! They are so lovely their sons gave Phil and I 2 game pucks from the Flames matches they went to last year. The cool thing about this house is they are installing a trampoline room!!!! That is cool!!!

Day 10

Ok so it was Phil’s birthday in Australia so we figured that we would try and see the Flames at practice, unfortunately when we arrived it was a closed practice. So next stop we were off the Calgary Olympic Park where the 1988 Winter Olympic Games were held. It was really cool and if we had some more time and money I would have loved to go down the Bobsled track. Then we did some shopping and later that night on to see the Calgary Flames play the New Jersey Devils. The Flames did a lot better than the Oilers did and it was a double shut-out at the end of regulation. However 35 secs into OT the devils scored on a breakaway to win 1-0.

Day 11 – Christmas Eve

Well it was an early rise as we were back on the boring road to Edmonton and this time we were staying in the country side with different cousins. It was a lovely day we went back grabbed or other bags and got some Tim Bits (mmmmm so yummy I’ll let you look them up, hint: you get them at Tim Hortons) and went to our new home. Later that evening we went to church which was great as we hadn’t been in such a long time and met some new people. After that we went back home and get ready for bed..... hopefully Santa would find us.

Day 12 – Christmas Day

Well we were up sort of early and you wouldn’t believe it but our stockings were full! We must have been very good boys and girls. We had a great breakfast with pancakes, berries and bacon with real Canadian maple syrup. We opened gifts and had a early dinner with some cousins. We went for a walk in the paddocks and saw a wonderful sunset. We tried to make a snowman but the snow in Alberta is just too dry. Hard to believe but you can’t even make a snow ball.

Day 13

Well today it was off to another cousins place for boxing day except Meaghann wasn’t feeling to well so Phil and her didn’t come. It would have been hell for her as one of the girls for Christmas got a karaoke machine, it was fun but can get very annoying if your not feeling too well.

Day 14

I’m still tired from this day. We were up at 4:45am and on the road by 5:30 as we had to catch a plane to Ottawa....more queues except the Canadian airports mustn’t be built right as there were no poles in the middle of the queues. With all the lines we had no time to do anything except line up to check our bags in, go through security and then straight on the plane. We arrived and Ottawa is amazing! So beautiful! We had a quite dinner and went to bed early to try and get over the flu which was going around. Ok Phil and I stayed up to 1am to watch hockey....I’ll admit it.

Day 15

We really wanted to go skating on the Rideau Canal (the main reason why we came) but we found out that it was still closed as a few days earlier it was 8 degrees and it rained which unfroze the canal. So we walked around the beautiful city full of really old buildings and wonderful architecture, had a beavers tail, went to the Canadian mint and then went and toured around parliament hill. That night we had dinner at a Australian themed pub called Swagman Jacks which was actually really nice.

Day 16

Ok so this is today, well we are currently travelling to Quebec City on the train which was been quite nice however we have had a couple of problems on the way. On our first train from Ottawa to Montreal the back carriage (one behind us) had a fire in it so we had to stop a couple of times as the engineers had to look at why it was happening. Needless to say we arrive a little bit late only 10 mins. So we had breakfast in Ottawa, lunch in Montreal (mmmmm Montreal smoken meat sandwich which was literally 2 inches think of meat) and we will have diner in Quebec. Ok so the train we are currently on very very nice seats are great and they have power for laptops. We are about 1 hour late was we hit a Ski-doo! Luckily no-one was injured however we did have to wait for the police to arrive to take a deposition. Well I better go as we are just arriving into Quebec. I will attempt to update this in the next few days if not I will tell you all about it once we get to New York.

Cheers,

Dan

Day 9 of our Round The World Adventure!

Day 6

Well this was a massive day and a very amazing day. We did not expect the Boeing factory and Museum of flight well and truly surpassed our expectations! First stop was the Boeing factory were I got to drive the Hummer H3 too. It was awesome and so much fun to drive. Anyway back to Boeing, it was amazing!!! Words can’t really explain it you just have to visit it. The day that we went we visited the 747 production line. It was so awesome to see how the plane we flew over to the states in was made, and a bit scary how thin the aluminium is between you and 40,000 ft. Well after that we went and visited the Future of Flight at the Boeing factory and got to sit in an old 727 -200 cockpit. One of the best things was seeing and reading all about the new 787. The interior is so cool and looks so nice. The windows are great and have a touch slide on it that adjusts the brightness on the window.....electronic shades.....soooo cool. Alright so after I spent ages in the gift shop it was onto the Museum of Flight. This totally blew our minds away.

They have a British Airways Concorde there that you can walk all through. They also have the first Boeing 707 Air Force One, that’s right we were walking where presidents had walked. It was a surreal experience. Here they had a WWI and WWII section, they had the original “Red Barn” also know as the original Boeing factory. They had a space section and also heaps of other aircraft. The best thing for me was they had the only remaining M-21 Blackbird stealth fight that flew in the 60’s and still holds the fastest speed and highest ceiling for an aircraft. Another really cool thing was we all got to sit in the cockpit of a SR-71 blackbird cockpit. This was a dream come true for me....well the closest I’ll get. It has always been a dream of mine to fly a SR-71 and to sit in the cockpit of one was awesome!!!!!!!!! OK so after that we went to the Space Needle and then out for dinner and had the coolest bar tender/waiter/cook his name was Ollie and he was to put it in his words......awesome! Seattle was a real cool and we absolutely loved it. OK so everything was closed by 9pm (a little bit different to Vegas) but it was great and we would go back in a heart-beat.

Day 7

This was a bit of a nothing day which was great as all we did was check out of our awesome and cheap hotel (Comfort Suites – Downtown) and flew into Edmonton on a Canadian Regional Jet. What a great international airport to arrive into. We had no wait for customs or immigration and we were waiting for our bags which was a bit of a change. After Jordie picked us up we had some dinner and a nice relaxing night.

Day 8

Snow Time!!!!! What a great day! We all dressed up in our snow gear and went playing in the snow. One of my cousins had to take a photo of us making snow angels in the snow.....it was so childish and so much fun. We also ran through the forest climbing over snow covered logs and throwing snow at each-other. It was a balmy -9C. After this we decided to brave the pond and slide all over it much to the enjoyment of some people walking by. We then walking back home along a small creek which Phil and I happened to break through the ice.....oops. After this exhausting running around we had dinner and then went and saw Enchanted at the movies. What a great movie!!!

Day 9

Today! Well it was off to the West Edmonton Mall today to do some shopping for each other for Christmas. We spent about 6 hours running around shopping and Phil and I had so much fun with all of the shops that had Ice Hockey gear! It was so cool to be in a country where they love hockey just as much as us!!!! Well this evening we had some dinner (Mona is a great cook) and then went out to Spruce Grove Central Park where they flood the footpath with water to make an ice skating surface. Well as we didn’t have any skates we slide along the path which was really good as it SNOWED today and the path was covered. Every tree in the pack is covered with lights and look so pretty, oh yeah the temp was -14C with a wind chill that made it -27C......now that is cold!!!!!

Anyway it is time for me to sign off for another time. I will update you in the next few days hopefully. If not I hope you all have a great Christmas and for the Ice hockey match tomorrow GO OILERS GO!

Dan

Day 5 or our Round The World Adventure.

WOW what a whirlwind it has been!!! We are now sitting in Seattle after going through the city of sin, Las Vegas.

Day 1

Well the 12^th of December finally came around and as we said our see ya later to all of our families it was the beginning of the queues. First we had to queue to go through customs, then security and then a second security station because we were travelling to the USA. After that we boarded our Qantas 747-400 for our 12.5 hr flight to LA. So we left Australia on the 12^th of December at 12:50pm and arrived in LA on the 12^th of December at 7am, almost 6 hours before we began. Anyway back to our trip once we were off the plane it was another queue to go through US immigration, collect our bags then another queue for customs. Then another queue for the hotel shuttle bus to NY NY. Once we arrived at NY NY we were in another queue to check in. Ok so the first day was mostly travelling we also went to M&M world (yummm), had a few drinks and went to a Vegas dinner show. So as we travelled back into time to the medieval days of Excalibur we were part of the Tournament of Kings. There were horses and fighting and the dinner which was awesome as there was no cutlery. Then we went to sleep about 1am after a 41hr 12^th of December.

Day 2

After a bit of a sleep in (11:30am) we decided to go do for some breakfast.....well lunch. After lunch we decided to go and tour the strip and went to heaps of different hotels and casinos. We went to MGM Grand, Casers, The Bellagio and went back to M&M world where I bought some really cool M&M guitar picks. That night we went on a helicopter tour of the Las Vegas Neon lights it was awesome and one of the best experiences I have done. If you go to Vegas you definitely have to do it.

Day 3

2 days down and it is time to change hotels. So we checked out of New York New York in the morning. Got our bags stored and went shopping at the Outlet mall just outside town. We had the craziest cab driver I have ever met. I was tell us about all these stories about how he met a hooker one night and they went to a hotel (don't worry it is not a dirty story) Then all of a sudden she brings out a piece of crack that was the size of a cookie. That was it for him we was outta there. Oh yeah apparently he is trying to be a comedian also. He was very nice though and drove up over the curb in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard so we could take a pic of the famous Las Vegas sign. The mall was amazing so much stuff at such cheap prices. We didn’t buy much though as we figured that we still had heaps to go and well room is at a bit of a premium at the moment as we have Christmas gifts for people to deliver. Later that afternoon we booked into Circus Circus and the queue just to book in was huge it took us about 30mins before we got to a desk. Later that night we watched a couple of circus acts and had a flutter on the pokies with the really old skool slot machines. The 4 of us decided to share a yard long Margarita! Soooo good....but soooo big.

Day 4

Well this morning Katherine and I were up early as we flew to the Grand Canyon’s Western Rim. WOW what a sight! It was amazing! We flew out on a little 19 seater aircraft which I loved. The first thing we did once we got there was to go on the Skywalk (which is a glass walkway that goes over the edge of the canyon where you can see straight down 1.2km to the Colorado River below you). I must say it is a bit of a surreal feeling that you are walking on air with birds flying below you. We then sat in The Chair which is a crack in the rock were you can sit with your legs dangling over the edge. After that we went to Guano Point where we had lunch with the most amazing view I have ever had for lunch. We were perched on the edge of the canyon. We later flew back to Vegas and caught up with Phil and Meaghann. That night we decided to go down to Fremont Street and see the old Vegas and it was amazing with the world’s largest TV. It is on the roof that covers the length of the Fremont Street for about 3 city blocks. After that we went and say the Amazing Jonathan who as Meaghann so elegantly puts it He is a Comedian and Magician who doesn’t really do any magic.

Day 5

Well this is today and we haven’t really done that much except check out of Circus Circus and catch a flight to Seattle. Oh yeah did I mention queues? We had to queue up for about 45 mins outside on the sidewalk of the Airport to check-in. Once we checked in we had to then queue up again to go through security. It was INSANE!!! The queue was as long as a new ride that opened at Dreamworld on the opening day of holidays! It took us about 1 hour to get through the security check point and they had about 4 or 5 lines going at once. Once we arrived in Seattle we went down to Avis and got our hire car. It’s just a little run of the mill HUMMER H3!!!! It is so cool!!!

Okay now before I sign off I have to tell you about the elevators here. Now I assume you know the size of a regular hotel lift. Well we have been putting these to the test. As there are 4 of us each with big travel backpacks on, a rolling duffle bag, carry-on luggage and a guitar. It has been very funny. So far I can report that the NY NY hotels are quite tight as are the lift in Circus Circus. Seattle’s lifts seem to be a bit bigger than their southern relatives.

Anyway I have gotta sign off now as we have to get some sleep before we get up early tomorrow morning so we can go to the Boeing factory.

Hope you are all doing well and thank you for reading.

Until next time

Dan.

Round the World Trip - 9 Days 22 Hours and 08 Mins to go.

Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like on
Jupiter and Mars.

Well what a week it has been we have moved!!!!! Thats right we no longer live in our house anymore. We are currently staying with our friends who are traveling with us. Finally the pressure is off as we are all packed up and everything is in storage. So we are starting to get really excited now as we only have one more week of work!!!!!

This week we are finishing up everyone and trying to see everyone and tie up any loose ends.
So I will sign off this short one and talk to you all next week with only a few days to go.

Dan