The Reunion - Part 2 - San Diego

Following San Fransisco, I got to spend the week living with Tristan.  

Flashbacks to Bruce Hall ensued: small little rooms where you got to eat, sleep, cook and study, in close proximity to many others; fellow "in-mates" getting home at 5am and stomping through the hallway (the difference obviously being that their 5am home coming was from work - not the pub); and seemingly people have no laundry etiquette in any joint living facility anywhere in the world.  It was like going home :-)

The next weekend, we drove through the chaotic traffic of LA to get to San Diego.  I loved this city! We stayed in a lovely hotel in the heart of the gas lamp district, about 4 streets away from "the" main street.  After getting in late, we had dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant that understood that one plate of food doesn't need to feed a family of four for a week.  Tristan bought me a lovely long stemmed rose from a street vendor and we got to listen to the sounds of the city as people hit the town, as we nursed some lovely food. 

As an observation, there are very few unattractive people in San Diego. Tristan's roving eyes confirmed my suspicions. There are at least 4 hot girls to every guy, no one wears flats or jeans, and everyone is always smiling. This is most definitely a city you can have a lot of fun in. Despite feeling like a lump surrounded by so much beauty, I couldn't help but enjoy being around so many happy, energetic people who were looking to have a good time. 

We had an early night and headed to SeaWorld the next morning.  It was great!  We saw dolphins and whales shows, aerobatic displays, and so many animals I lost count.  Tristan took some amazing photos at the show (check out FB).  The crowds weren't too bad, so we leisurely wondered from show to show to see the sights and delights of the world under the sea.There were a few rides that Tristan went on with friends while I sat in the stands mumbling about how in the animal world the male seahorse had to sit on the bench while the girls got to go and play.  However, when I saw how wet he got after the white water rapids, I didn't mind sitting and watching so much.

That evening we went to the Top Gun Bar. Tristan was like a kid at Christmas as we walked there.  From the movie, you think you know what to expect...well, the movie didn't have it quiet right... It's actually a BBQ restaurant - the type you would never eat at.  It was dark and dingy and had people's left over "clothing" on the fans. The walls and benching were all plastered with photos, number plates, stickers you don't want your kids to ever read, and hats from every navy ship that had ever docked in the bay (San Diego is a big Navy city).  It was quaint in a peculiar type of way, just not what I expected.  We sat at the bar while Tristan ordered a beer and bought a t-shirt, but to be honest, I couldn't get out of there fast enough! But for Tristan, the memorabilia, including Mavrick's flight helmet, the piano Goose played Great Balls of Fire on and the many photos from the filming of the movie made the place unforgettable.  One for the boys I think - ladies only go if you have hand sanitizer in your bag or plan to drink so much that it won't matter.

The next day, in the spirit of the naval history of the city, we went aboard the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier from WWII.  I think it is safe to say that both Tristan and I would have been too tall for the US Navy back in the day.  While roaming the (I really want to say "boat") ship, we ducked and weaved our way around, doing our best to not knock our heads.  On the flight deck, Tristan's favourite plane of all time the SkyHawk A3 was on display.  Unfortunately, he had left the memory card for the camera in the computer, so he couldn't get any good photos.  But I think the opportunity to touch such a machine made up for it.  While we could have spent hours wondering the decks of the "smallish" carrier, I had to cut the trip short, as I was flying out that afternoon. 

There were no tearful goodbyes, as Tristan would be home in a week, but I couldn't help but feel a bit melancholy to return back to our house in Denver alone.

San Diego is a great city - I think that all family and friends that come to visit should make a side trip there.  It's family friendly city with Seaworld and the Zoo, even the carrier would be great to show to the kids.  It's easy to walk everywhere, and people are lovely.  However, it's also a city that you could have a great time with a group of mates, all out to have a good time. 

Definitely on my to-go-back-to list.

xox

The Reunion Part 1- San Franscio

After weeks apart, Tristan and I finally reunited this weekend!!!

Given our differing schedules, we hadn't had all that much time to talk on the phone over the past few weeks, so we were both looking forward to some quality time together. I was looking forward to/terrified to show him my expanding waistline and growing belly.  On the flipside, Tristan was looking forward to showing me his finely turned physical form, honed by hours of running.

 

We met in San Francisco. A city I knew from movies and bad tv shows as home to the cable car, golden gate bridge, and many, many sleep hills.  What tv failed to mention was that even in summer, it barely got over 23C, it was windy and foggy, and what looks like a rolling hill isn't - it's a disguised mountain (probably not, but it sure felt that way when I was walking up and down them!!)

We stayed in this lovely little hotel in the heart of the city, within walking (mountain climbing) distance of Chinatown, the wharf, and all the other tourist traps.  It was great!  On that first night, we wondered into Chinatown to get our fill of Asian food - something I had been craving! We chatted and talked: I finally got all the details of how Tristan's phone went missing; he learnt about all the "fun" parts of pregnancy he had been missing; and we discussed the important things in life - the upcoming NRL grand finals.

The next (foggy) day we went on a bus tour of the city.  We went to the gold gate bridge - you could really see too much of it - but it was definitely a highlight! We saw the lovely public parks, the wharf, all the Victorian and Edwardian houses that make San Fran famous, Nob Hill (where all the snobs apparently lived in the early 1900s) and the city centre.  The city is so irregular - with no real flat landscape the cityscape flows up and down with residential buildings seemingly standing at the same height as city sky scrappers.  It was crazy, but the uniqueness of the city added to its charm. 

We had a late lunch/early dinner at a waterside seafood restaurant, and devoured a feast! Living so far away from the coast in Denver, seafood has become a new delicacy! Who would have ever thought! 

After wondering around the tourist district, we waited in line for 45 minutes and caught a cable car home - or at least we tried.  It broke down on a hill (mountain) and we had to sit (slide up and down the seat) for 15 minutes while the mechanics fixed the problem.  200 meters up the road, the track came to an end, and we walked (hiked) the last mile home.  I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow that night.  Given it was barely 8pm, Tristan went and wondered Chinatown, looking for a bargain on a new camera lens.

Between baby RJ and the "rolling hills"of San Fran, I was exhausted! So the next day, we took a gentler option and caught a bus out of town and explored one of the old red wood forests of California. It was bliss to be surrounded by trees and fresh air.  We also got to cross the golden gate bridge!  That afternoon, the bus dropped us off at a little tourist town full of antique shops, art galleries and salt water taffy stores.  We slowly meandered our way along the main road, then caught a ferry back to the city.  It was great to walk around, hand-in-hand, and just hang out.

We caught a ferry back to the city, and walked up the crookedest street in the world - Lombard street - back to the hotel.  My lovely husband gave me a hand to climb up the street.  It felt like a marathon, and I was just as proud as if it were when I finished it.

That night we had Indian.  Another food I had REALLY been craving! Although our favourite butter chicken wasn't on the menu, we still managed to order enough food for a family of four, and clean off our plates.  I think RJ may now come out tandoori orange, but it was so worth it.  I can't remember being so satisfied by food,
!0@
!0AOn)jur)final)`ay*ij)San*Braj!2@*Prhqtaj*`ratad(uha(aodipkc)`is|"qrfackd/sl"avesd/sd(ukg(qbfsc/si$kw/ultkb�!caubct/sg�t home at the end of the day.  Given all the one way streets, up and downs, back and forths, I really admired the way he was able to make it to our destination.  Once we parked the car, we went to collect our golden tickets - tickets to Alcatraz.  Most people had to book theirs weeks in advance, but somehow our concierge finagled a couple of tickets, and we were off to the Rock!

This was the highlight of Tristan's trip, and he could barely contain his glee!  As per our tickets, we arrived at the wharf 30 minutes early, and lined up with 200 other excited visitors to catch the ferry across the Bay.  That day the sun had melted the fog and we could finally see the entire bridge all at once as well as the city scape.  It made for some fantastic photos!

Once on the Rock, we had an opportunity to watch a documentary on the history of the island, and take an audio tour of the old jail house.  It was really interesting.  However, after a few hours, we caught the ferry back to the city, and drove the 5 hours home.

Despite the weather being a lot cooler than I expected, it was a great weekend.  Tristan and I will spend the next few days hanging out, and then next weekend we will go on our next big adventure together to San Diego - we can't wait!

Missing you all at home

Tristan and Penni (together - at last!)

My failed adventure

My adventures this week prove that  even the best laid plans can go wrong...

One of the other wives (Zoe), a friend of hers from home (Marika) and I all planned to go for a two night get away down towards the southern Colorado to explore some of the bigger tourist traps in the state.

Zoe drove for this adventure in her great big Jeep. Once we finally woke up and got on the road, it was lunch time when we checked into our hotel in Publeo.  We then set out for our first destination: Royal Gorge (http://royalgorgebridge.com/). It is this spectacular bridge over a 1000 ft gorge, with a mini wild west park around it.  We walked across the bridge, visited old town Cannon City, saw a long horned cow that made a Clydesdale look like a pony, caught the cable car back across the gorge and then a vertical train down to the bottom of the gorge to see the stream.  It was a great afternoon, despite the thunder and lighting. 

We left fairly late in the afternoon, to go back to town for dinner.  When we got into the car, we could hear a knocking sound from the engine.  It's possible the car had been making that noise on the way to the gorge, but due to the quality conversation and fantastic music, we never heard anything.  We rang Zoe's husband to inform him the car was making a bit of noise, and he said not to worry about it. So we got into the car and drove back to the hotel.

At the hotel, ignoring all husband's comments to not worry about it, we all piled out of the car and looked at the engine.  It wasn't any of the fan belts, and the water, oil and other mechanical type liquids were adequately full, and nothing seemed particularly hinky (technical term).  Acknowledging that Zoe's husband could have been right, we chose not to pay any attention to the constant knocking and went to tea.

The next morning, after a lay in (Marika and I) and some uni study (Zoe), we set out to drive to the San Luis Valley about and hour and half south east.  The car was still making that god-awful sound, but we were so excited to go to the alpine sand dunes, that we didn't pay too much attention....

About 40 minutes in the journey the car jolted - it kind of felt like it lost a gear/power. but it picked back up and we continued on.  Carefully.  What ever it was, it didn't like it when the driver tried to get a little power out of the car to over take... 10 minutes later, it happened again, but this time we pulled over.  

We were on one of the main state highways, however the road was a bit narrow.  Climbing carefully out of the car, once again, we all knowledgeably moved to the front and examined the engine.  It seemed fine...but now the car wouldn't start...

So an hour later, the tow truck picked us up and drove us to the small town of Trinidad (with some quality country music on the radio).  The mechanic tried to start the car there... but the pistons and whatever they were attached to exploded and sent shrapnel flying.  We figured at this point our adventures were done.  Trying to think practically, we rang around for a hire car, but we arrived a 5:05pm.  Everything was closed, so we were stuck there for the night. 

We booked into another hotel, and sent an SOS to Denver for one of the other families to come save us.  The next day, we checked out of two hotels, collected our belongings from the car (that is still sitting in the garage down there) and one of the boys drove us the 4 hours home.  You can't imagine how grateful we were to him.

It wasn't quiet the adventure we had planed on but we did learn a few things.  

1) always have a phone charger in your bag - you'll never know when you need it

2)  if you have nothing to your name but the clothes on your back, you can buy everything else at Walmart

3) pizza and a margaretta will always cheer your friends up

4) and ignore your husband when he says the noises from your engine "will be right". He's wrong! 

Tristan's adventure at 6 flags also went sour this week with his phone going overboard while he was on a rollar coaster... not sure what lesson he learnt, but I'm sure that the result will be a new iPhone! 

All in all, we are safe and healthy, and have had a good laugh at ourselves.

Missing you all

Our little stowaway

Dear All,

As you should all be aware by now, Tristan and I had a little stowaway with us when we left Australia a few months a go - we were in the very early stages of our first pregnancy. 

This made our departure from close friends and family interesting....

While it was lovely to be able to tell so many of our loved ones to their faces that there were expecting their first great grandchild, grandchild, niece/nephew, there were many more people who we weren't able to tell as it was so early.  This was made even more interesting when, in our excitement, we would blab to a room full of people, and then had to remember which if our friends knew and didn't know.  However, I am quietly confident that of those people who came to our farewell party in Canberra, no one left with our some firm suspicions.

While the theory of having an Aussie made baby made complete sense to me when we left, it has curbed some of the fun that  I could be having in my first few months in a foreign land.  Morning sickness has made mornings unbearable and a required bedtime of 9pm.  Poor Tristan had to make the most of the first few weeks together to get our house and cars set, as I was laying in bed feeling sorry for myself. All my welcome drinks have all been virgin and I've been a picky eater to say the least (God bless breakfast cereals !!!). Most of this has passed now, though I still need a strict bedtime - I feel like I'm 10 again!!

Luckily, we have had plenty of support of this side of the Pacific to help me through those tougher days while Tristan is away. 

Doctors tell us that little RJ (Rueben Jnr) is growing well and has an enormous head - I wonder who he gets that off! He has a strong heart beat, and spends plenty of time playing acrobatics on the ultrasounds.

In a couple of months we'll find out if it is a he or she so I can occupy myself decorating the nursery.  As a part of our furniture package we were given some beautiful white baby furniture. However, the white room, with white blinds and white furniture needs some colour!!

It will be fun to catch up with Tristan in a few weeks so he can see my ever growing belly! 

We'll keep you in the loop as both RJ and I grow bigger. 

soon to be proud parents 
Tristan and Penni 
xox

Penni's first adventure in Colorado

Fellow adventures, 

Today I set forth on my very first adventure in Colorado! 

Tired of being home alone, Zoe (another Aussie wife) and I set out on a grand adventure.  

First we needed to venture on to the Interstate 25 hwy - the scary 6 lane highway in which going at 70 miles an hour (the speed limit) will see you being run off the road for going too slow!  Deciding that we wanted to avoid any peak hour complications, we left home at the more reasonable hour of 9:30 am.  This also enabled us to sleep in ;-) 

After fighting off the trucks, RVs and speeding cars, we safety made our way down the 45 miles of freeway to Colorado Springs.  While the freeway avoids all the little towns, we still got to see the spectacular mountain scenery.  The mountains are like nothing you can describe - they jump out of the seemingly flat paddock, in to red, roaring peaks that you need to crane your neck to see the top of.  And then, to completely confuse you, many of them have flat tops - like a giant has come along and cut the top off - it is really incredible.  Then there are others that tower into the sky forever. 


Once we made it to Colorado Springs, we avoided the town - other than to pick up a smoothie - and headed for the mountains.  


Pikes Peak is 14,115 foot above sea level.   Also known as "America's Mountain", this monster is the most visited mountain in the USA.  You can take the 13 mile hike to the top, that apparently takes more days than there miles.  You can take the old cog train to the top: a 4.5 hour return trip. Or you can drive up the Pikes Peak Highway, through forests, past reservoirs, and on some truly twisty steep roads.  We chose to drive. 

And WOW!!! what a drive!!  It is 19 miles from the toll gate at the bottom of the mountain (7,600 ft) to the summit.  To get to the summit you drive through four major "life" zones: the foothills (6,000 -8,000 ft), montane (8,000-9,500 ft), sub-alpine (9,500 - 11,000 ft) and alpine (>11,500 ft).  

At the toll gate at the start of the park available oxygen is 74.9%.  As you can imagine, us poor Aussie girls were more than a little shocked by this statistic, so we decided to take it slowly. 

Supposedly, the foothills are scattered with wildlife, but all we saw was a squirrel.  As we drove up the mountain we stopped at various photo points to ohh and aww - and of course I forgot my camera. There were mile markers along the road so we knew how far we had come, and there were funny signs such as "bigfoot crossing" along the way.  


We made it half way and into the Alpine zone and decided to stop for lunch at mile 13.  At this altitude you could defiantly feel the difference in temperature, so I got out my cardigan and wondered into a log cabin full of souvenirs and a cafe.  We had a terrible lunch of coloured cardboard (cheeseburger) and glue (hot dog). At 11,400 ft the available oxygen was down to 62.6%, so the walk from the car to the loo with a view left me huffing and puffing, so we decided to proceed with caution up a little bit further so we could see the view from above the tree line.  


I inched forward, passed the compulsory brake stop on the other side of the road, and up through the most twisty turny road I have ever been on. Hairpin would be an understatement!  Further and further we drove, until, seeing a drop straight down to the bottom of the world, I pulled over.  I kid you not, the drop off was enough to make your stomach drop and your knees weak. But it was 360 degrees of beautiful spectacular scenery.  It felt like we were sitting on the edge of the world, looking down on the world unspoiled by people. 

It was at this point we realized that we made it to mile 16 - 12,780 ft (58% available oxygen!!).  That was enough! So we decided to slowly descend back into the real world.  I made it down safely - with the perfect brake temperature according to the brake stop man.  It was funny how I could feel myself picking up energy and endorphins as we went down. It was a very strange sensation. 

Next time, we want to take the old cog train to the top. The drive was magnificent, but as a driver I didn't get to see as much as I would like... next time


stay tuned for the next great adventure :-) 


wishing you could all share these adventures with me


love Penni 


p.s. Tristan is well too - only a few weeks I go visit him for some more California adventures!

They Crazy month of July

Hi Everyone,

July was the CRAZIEST month of our lives! 

We arrived in Denver on 5 July and the crazy began! While we were lucky enough to have a rental car and a serviced apartment, we only had 3 weeks together to buy a couple of cars, find a house to live in, furnish it, and get prepared for a few months apart. 

We looked at about 12 houses. They all looked like cookie cutter homes out of a Plesentville film: some were breathtakingly beautiful, but out of our budget; some were so filthy you would have thought that gorilla's moved out the day before; and some you could happily live out your life completely content in.  They all had similar features: double story + basement, backyards with polite hip high fences so you can chat to your neighbours with ease, double ovens, and 3 garages.

In the end, we found two houses (across the road from one another) that we REALLY wanted. One was a 5 bedroom house with a lovely kitchen, great living areas, and small deck. The other had 3 bedrooms, smaller living areas, 3 outdoor areas and the most spectacular views of a lake.  Following the flip of a coin, we moved into the 3 bedroom house - the other Aussie family that moved over at the same time as us took the other house. So we are neighbours! 

Next we needed to furnish the house.  The catch: it was so enormous that we could have easily fit our old house into it.  Luckily, the other families help set us up with a furniture rental company, and after several hours scrolling through pages and pages (and pages and pages) of options, we selected everything we needed - and more! 

Tristan took care of finding us suitable cars to own.  He selected two Fords: and Expedition and and Explorer (the fact that he owns 2 Fords should bring mirth to many).  The smaller Explorer is the car that I will drive until the snow flies.  The Expedition is currently owned by one of the Aussie families that will go home in a few months, so we won't collect it until October.  It will be the "family" car (read: gas guzzler), so I think it will be my car in the end, as I will do less driving ;-) 

Lucky for us we are surrounded by many lovely Aussie families that spolied us during these few weeks with dinner invitations, and trips to the baseball and the mountains.  I can't even tell you how many times we ate out or at other peoples houses!  We really got to experience the good life.  We saw the Rockies win (baseball), experienced the boutique nature of the local breweries at a beer festival at Breckenridge (a lovely snow village that is at a higher altitude than Mt Kosciusko), learned about the gold rush days under a mountain, went to the outlet mall at a place called Castlerock (very strange looking rocks surround this shopping village), and ate and ate and ate EVERYWHERE. 

We conquered driving on the right side of the road. However, I'm still learning to drive on the interstate corridors that are 5+ lanes, speeding at 120kms/per hour +,with 1000's of cars swiving in and out to the various exits.  The most difficult thing about it all is that it can be difficult to see the lines on the road... so staying in your own lane... well....when it's raining and dark... ekkkk!

While I'm not sure that Tristan noticed the impact that the altitude had on a few drinks, I most definitely noticed that walking up and down stairs left me huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf. It is also incredibly dry! If you don't moisturize your skin can crack in days.  It is also very easy to get dehydrated, so everywhere we go you need a couple of water bottles on hand.  The smaller adjustments you need to make when moving to the other side of the world.

So with the lease signed, car in the drive way, and many Mexican men crawling through the house setting up the furniture, Tristan and I finally moved into our new home on
22 July.  Unfortunately, we only got to spend one night together in the house before he left for training..... Checkout my facebook if you would like to see pics of the house. It's lovely!

After a week (or two or three), the internet is connected, the cable guy has come and gone, endless tradies have come in to fix the teething problems of moving into a new house, and life and become more steady.  I have found our mail box - not in our front yard, but down the road and around the corner with the rest of the neighbour's.... I think that is the strangest thing I have come across.

I've found the local SUPERmarkets - the large bulk carriers; the slightly smaller walmart that is a Coles and K-mart in the one-stop-shop; the cute little green grocers that sell fresh vegetables and other "health food"including baking ingredients that I recognise; and the super green grocers that have everything local and organic including a lunch buffet and chocolate factory...mmmm.

Life's good, busy, and still an adventure :-)

Missing you all so much! Hope you are all safe and well

All systems go!

Dear Loved Ones,

In an effort to keep in touch with everyone, we thought we would start a blog.  In this way, we can tell you all our stories, and keep you up to date. 


As you might recall, we left Australia on 30 June.  We were lucky enough to to fly business class Sydney - LA! WOW! That was an experience.  We were wined and dined, watched a bunch of movies, played games, and were able to lay our seats right down into a bed.  Thank goodness!

It was a 13 hour flight. While we left Australia at 2pm we actually arrived in LA at 10am on the same day!  As well as gaining a day, we were able to avoid getting any serious jet lag, as we slept on the flight over, by exploring Venice Beach and Santa Monica. 

The beaches don't really compare to home.  They are very wide, with sand like you would buy when you were cementing - rough - with people EVERYWHERE, and the "super cool" wading out into the waves to catch that perfect (1-2 foot) break.  They however did have a great boardwalk to walk from one pier to the next, and the side show freak show alley to wonder through to watch the local entertainers attempt to con the tourists out of their cash. 

We did this walk a couple of times (and Penni managed to get her self some impressive blisters as a result) and it was really lovely.  As we were there for the 4 July Long weekend, we really got to see how people live and celebrate - the same as us at home: friends, family, BBQs and beer :-)

We went into Hollywood one afternoon to see the sight and delights of the rich and famous.  LA generally is a grubby city, and despite it apparently being a very affluent city, there were a lot of buildings is disrepair, with graffiti and general grim almost everywhere.  We walked along the Hollywood walk of fame, seeing some of our favourite stars, but very many more that we hadn't even heard of.  

As we had to catch a bus back to Santa Monica, we didn't get to look at any of the museums, or inside any of the famous theaters, but we did manage to have afternoon tea at Hooters. 

On 5 July we flew into Denver.  It was beautiful to watch the mountains as we flew in.  While it might be 90 in the city (around 32C) there is still snow on the mountains.  The grass is green and lush, and the city looked like a giant lego land from the sky.  In the afternoons and early evenings we get spectacular thunder and lighting shows - and while this did result in a Tornado warning in our first few days of arriving - it is spectacular to watch.   

We have been very lucky, with all the Aussie families already here providing us with help.  They did some grocery shopping for us before we arrived, have come with us to look for houses, and we have already had a couple of BBQs.  They are a lovely bunch of people and  I am sure that they will all become great friends. 

Now were are on the hunt for a new home and two new cars! 

Let the real adventure begin! 

As you all know, you can reach us on facebook and Skype - but feel free to comment on here too.

We will try and keep you all updated each week.

Miss you all very much

Love Tristan and Penni