Bondi to Coogee Beach Walk...

Yes, it was early winter when we were in Australia but one of the things I wanted to do was the Bondi to Coogee Beach walk.  It was a beautiful walk.  Soon areas had been washed out from recent storms and which meant there were detours that had to be figured out.  The walk took around 3 to 4 hours.  We were definitely not in any hurry.  Here's a few of the sights:

This is where the walk started.

Some truly magnificent waves were coming in.

It may have been winter but it wasn't keeping the surfers out of the water.

Beautiful coastline.  If you look closely, you can see the walk ahead.

One of the detours went through a cemetery.

Local wildlife and they were all saying "Mine".

More local wildlife with waddles.

This is another shot from Vivid in the evening after the walk.  It was story time.

Sydney and the Festival of Lights....

We spent a great deal of time around the Sydney Harbor while we were in Sydney.  Here's the famous opera house:

However, VIVID was going on while we were there.  What is VIVID?  It's a festival of lights, music, and ideas.  Here's a pictures of what the opera house looked like at night:

Beautiful isn't it?  There are a lot more pictures than this.  My DH did make a video that I attempted to upload but it was too big.

Happy Stitching!

Sydney and the Whales....

Our first day in Sydney was a beautiful late fall day.  My husband mentioned that he really wanted to go see the whales but knew that I might not want to go.  In general, I don't like the water much.  Oh, I'll get in it and do fun water things but sometimes there are huge panic attacks.  I stopped and talked to the captain at one of the whales tours.  I asked how the water was and explained that occasionally I would have panic attacks.  He said that water was calm for a late fall day and that he had a spot in the middle of the boat for me.  We went whale watching with no panic attacks.  The water wasn't as calm as I would have liked it but I was in the middle of the boat.  Here's some of our whale pictures:

I can't say if these young humpback whales are all in the same pod because we saw three separate pods while we were out.  The whales didn't come right up to our boat but they came fairly close.  It was wonderful to see these magnificent creatures.

Happy Stitching!

Pictures of Hawaii...

I finally have a few pics to share of Hawaii.  We were there only a couple of days on our way to Australia.  We landed at 5:30 in the morning.  First thing we did was change from our travel clothes, and find breakfast.  Then we headed over to the Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Arizona Memorial.  Here's a few pictures;

This was a very sobering experience.  I can't really describe how I felt.  We didn't spend a lot of time there as we were allowed only the amount of time it took for another boat to  arrive. I was shocked to see that fuel was still leaking.

On to a little bit of the beautiful scenery:

Taken at a park on Oahu.

Along the Kamena Highway.

At the beach.

Sunrise at the beach.

Who can resist a great rainbow shot?  This one actually looked like it ended up at the house of our hosts.

At another park, Waimea Falls.

Torch Flowers.  A type of ginger.

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of Hawaii.  I know that my husband has only started working on the photos and that there are many more. It takes a long time to get through 2500 photos.

Happy Stitching!

Spring, Fall, Winter, Summer....

What does that mean?  Those are the seasons that I have experienced in the last three weeks.  I know it sounds unbelievable but we just had the most fabulous vacation in Australia.  It was still spring when I left for Australia, fall when I arrived in Australia, then winter arrived, and I came home to summer.  Even though it was late fall and early winter, it didn't feel particularly cold in Australia until an Antarctic Blast hit and the temps fell into the 30-40F but it felt much colder.

We saw so many wonderful things while we were there - whale watching, Blue mountains, many museums, the coastal road between Melbourne and Port Author, a tiny bit of Tasmania.    Three weeks was just enough to want to come back for more.  Australia is a beautiful country.  I will share more pictures over the next few weeks but here's a peak at Sydney:

Do you recognize this?

Happy Stitching!