Happy Birthday Veronica!

New Year's Day is also Veronica's Birthday! One must leave some 'party' in reserve to 'back up' again on New Year's Day to celebrate another milestone year with Ronnie. We congratulated ourselves on being able to get 'frocked up' and ready to go out to the Kirribilli Club for more drinks and dinner. Ended up with a group of about 15 people and had a ball! Finished off with ice-creams back at the unit and then had to walk it off with a trip over the Harbour Bridge at midnight.... (still not sure why we did this... but it was fun!).

Happy New Year!!!

The weather was perfect for New Year's Eve. We sat with seven others on Ronnie & Paul's balcony overlooking Lavender Bay in Sydney. Went down to our 'possie' behind Luna Park, under the northern end of the Harbour Bridge. Witnessed two fireworks displays, the 'family' fireworks at 9pm and then the BIG event at midnight. Spectacular! Welcome 2011!

Goodbye 2010!

We're in Sydney, staying with Ronnie & Paul.... it's New Year's Eve and we're ready to party!!!

Home again and so the story ends...... for now!

These are the last photos taken, last Wednesday morning in LA. Went to Uncle Bill's for a last brekky of pancakes and Dave had a 'Denver Omelette'. He was most impressed as it was topped with a slice of fresh pineapple, grilled. We walked along the pier looking again for the dolphins - but they were hiding. It was a beautiful sunny morning!

Checked out of our hotel at 7pm (late check-out) and waited for the shuttle. We were the only ones on it. Our driver was friendly, turned out he was from Costa Rica and so we had a little chat with him in spanish. Lined up at VAustralia to deposit bags and then off to gate 34 to wait until 11.15pm to board. Felt like we were on the 'Disney' flight home - lots of families with small children who were all on some sort of 'sugar high' - racing around the terminal.

13 hr flight home - wasn't too bad, not a lot of turbulence. We landed in Brisbane at 6.30am on Friday morning - it was overcast and a bit showery.

So that concludes our wonderful holiday for 2010 - planning for our next trip will begin immediately!!!

Tuesday

Had a big sleep in today! Not much to tell - just hung out at Manhattan Beach for the morning. (Uncle Bill's Pancake House!) ;-)

Decided to walk around and have a little bo peep at what the locals were up to. Walking down to the beach, Dave spotted some dolphins in the waves - it was just too hard to get a pic - and they refused to pose for us, said they were 'too busy fishing'! Not as hot today, overcast for part of it, but no rain. It was 'Taco Tuesday' at Whole Foods so we participated and ordered soft tacos and a glass of red for lunch! Bonita!

Took a photo of our hotel - with its spanish style bell tower at the roof! Courtyard Marriott LAX.

Jetset Scarlet

We rose early and were at Orlando International Airport by 5am. Returned the hire car and checked in for our flights to LA: 5 hrs to San Francisco with about a 1hr lay-over, then 1.5hr flight to LA. Arrived about midday - had to turn our watches back 3 hrs for the coast-to-coast time difference. So we gained 3 hours!

Collected baggage, waited for shuttle, took hotel shuttle and checked in to our hotel. Very hot weather - but dry heat. Heard tonight on the tv that downtown LA set a new record temp. today for this time of year: 113℉ (45℃) and the same is forecast again tomorrow..... Whilst the east coast is now experiencing heavy rainfall - weren't we lucky to dodge that?

Dave and I jumped aboard the red trolley (pictured) and went down to the plaza to eat lunch and pick up a few things... Dave ordered a beer for lunch (24oz) and then realised that his "drinkin' buddy" was nowhere to be seen.......

Don't really have any plans for tomorrow - we need to catch up on some zzzz's first.....

Super Sunday

This morning we went for our last breakfast together for this visit - of course we went to our favourite place, 'IHOP' (International House of Pancakes).... Here's evidence of the 'feast' - Chocolate Chip pancakes on the left, New York Cheescake pancakes on the right..... Of course, Lesley and I are just 'looking at them'......!

On the walk back to the house, I noticed that Jim was wearing another of his 'colourful' t-shirts (I just don't know WHERE he finds them.... he must be a good shopper!).

He tells me that the '3 Twisted Sisters' are actually three state roads in Texas, which are good motorcycle riding because of the twists and turns.... That'll have to be another trip - we want to check 'em out for ourselves! Sounds like FUN!

Tomorrow we say farewell to the east coast and travel back to the west....