Warrnambool - Tuesday 20th March 2012

On Tuesday Damo had a professional development day in Warrnambool, so I decided to give him company on his travels to Warrnambool and back, and decided that I would have a bit of a look around at the sites of Warrnambool.

After breakfast, I headed to Thunder Point, which is a lookout point and a starting point for the Mahogany Trail walking track. Should have put my walking shoes in, anyway I walked a little of the trail maybe a couple of minutes and I came across some cool rock pools. Would be a
neat place to relax with a book.

Once I had a walk around and good old swing on the swing, I headed to the Fletcher Jones Gardens, and right them is one of my favourite places to go to, The Mill Markets. Had so much fun poking around, only ended up buying a couple of early comics of the Phantom for Damo. But will have to go back.

So feeling a little a hungry I headed into the town centre, and had lunch at Brocky's on Liebig Street, had a yummy chicken pesto focaccia and a freshly squeezed orange juice. Had a quick look around a couple of shops on the main street which I saw a cool vintage style bike, then I headed into Provincial Home Living, one of my favourite homewares shop. But I resisted today and didn't buy anything.

Thinking that I needed some more fresh sea air, I headed down to the mouth of the Hopkins river and also went to the whale viewing platform at Logans Beach, unfortunately I didn't see any whales, but I might just have to go back between June & September because that is when the
female Southern Right whales return to calve.
It wasn't the best weather for the beach today, got rather sand blasted, which takes away the enjoyment out of walking on the beach. It looks like it would be a better surf beach than a swimming beach. Also good exercise walking up and down the steps to the beach. :o)

After being sandblasted, I thought I would head inland, mainly to waste a bit of time before picking up Damo. So looking at my tourist map of Warrnambool I headed to the Wollaston Bridge which is a old suspension bridge. Its quite a cool old bridge as you will see.

So since I had a bit more time to spend before picking Damo up, I headed to the Botanical Gardens, which has lovely trees, and a very neat pond.
Has been a great day, got a little sunburnt around the neck, and have seen quite a bit of Warrnambool, but there is still a bit to see. So I picked up Damo, we headed to the Adventure Playground, so Damo could have a go on the flying fox, which I will have to have a turn on another time, when I wearing more practical clothes..

Married!

Haven't updated this since my trip to the states! Well in July 2011 I married my best friend Damo.
Below is a link to our awesome photographers blog, where you can view some of wedding photos.

http://melanielinklater.com/blog/?p=1525

A few photos

Just a quick few words, these photos are from Iowa (went to John Deere in Milan) through to St Paul in Minneapolis, where we stayed for 4 nights, we some of Rach's friends, we went to a Nerd Party, also on the Saturday we carved pumpkins, which was a lot of fun.

Then from there we went to Mt Rushmore, and yesterday the Yellowstone National Park, which was awesome!! Saw bison, elk, a bear, some coyotes, and of course alot of deer. Anyway gotta hit the road again..

5500 miles later...

So we have traveled over 5000 miles now.. which I think is a pretty good effort.

So from NYC, we went to Boston, which wasn't really our original plan, but we had time, so we thought why not.. which turned out good, since Boston is a really pretty town, maybe a little more upper-class too.

On our travels to Boston, we got a bit distracted by a premium outlet stores.. which were fantastic! but anyway we had fun.

After Boston we headed towards the Niagara Falls. We got to the Niagara falls on Saturday. bit of a miserable day.. anyway we got to see the Niagara Falls which was cool. We parked our van, and walked over the border into Canada, which has a far better view of the falls. Then on our way back, it started raining.. so lucky us got to stand out in the rain, waiting to get back through border control into the US... then we drove across the border into Canada.. which we should have done at the beginning ah well..

So stayed in Ontario, Canada for a couple of days.

We are now back in US. Got a oil changed yesterday, and the mechanic was rather happy to met some people from Australia, since he hadn't before.. So I'm glad that we made his day. hahaha

So below are some pics from Boston to Canada..

On the road again..

Photos from NYC. - Thanks to Margaret, who let us stay a couple of nights.. :)




So have spent three days in NYC. Has been a blast. Stayed with Margaret Amos, for those who don't know her, she came over to NZ for a year or so, and we went to school together. :) so has been awesome to catch up with her. Sunday night she took us to the restaurant that she works at, and we had a fabulous meal, would go there again! mmmmm

We also saw the Brooklyn bridge, and the statue of liberty from a far off..

On Monday we went down wall street, which was amazing, and went to Century 21, which is a big department shop, with designer clothes discounted, also everything else.. was pretty cool, but there was sooo much stuff, you didn't really know where to start.... Then we headed to Times Square.. and went and saw Chicago! Was great!! what a blast.

Yesterday we went to Central Park, and sat on a rock and saw a couple of weddings.. tiny weddings but they were cool, a day of relaxing, wander down the street from there for some lunch, into Borders.. stock up on our book supply... wandered the streets some more, and then ended up in Times Square again.. hmmmed and ahhhed whether we would go to another broadway show, and thought why not.. since its something we really do any other time.. so we went and saw West Side Story.. we were hoping to see Mary Poppins.. but it wasn't on... but West Side Story was good, but I like Chicago better.

Today we are on the road again.. heading to Boston..

Texas to Georgia

So rather long days of driving. Been trying a different fast food places as we go, not too impressed with any at the moment.

On saturday drove from Lubbock to Texarkana. Tried Sonic "America's favourite drive thru" so all their car parks are drive in, you place ur order, via normal drive-thru speaker. Pretty greasy food, more than normal fast food. So we won't be going there again.

Sunday we drove from Texarkana to Crossett. Stayed at a RV park near a little lake. We went into wal-mart to stock up on our food supplies, decided that we would make our tea and use our little gas cooker. So got bagels, ham and salad, and toasted bagels and had ham and salad in them with cream cheese, which tasted rather healthy. :)

Monday, we drove from Crossett (Arkansas) to Lake Lowndes State Park (Mississippi). Drove over the Mississippi River, which was cool to see. Also saw the town where Kermit the frog originated from. Tried our next fast food, called Popeyes. I tried a chicken wrap, it had a mexican beans and a sauce. All I can say about it, is I didn't eat it all, because I didn't like it, so won't be going back there either.
Camped at the campgrounds in the state park, which had a nice lake beside it. Saw some Canadian geese. Nice and relaxing. And cheap accommodation :)

Seeing some real pretty trees, mixture of colours, yellow, orange and greens. I love autumn time, or should I say fall. :) so I hope ya'll doin fine.. And no I haven't picked up the american accent at the moment..

Today we headed to Atlanta. We went to the Coca Cola World... which was a whole lot of fun. Fast food for today was Arby's best so far.. just had a BLT which curly chips :) Thinking of giving fast food a miss for the next couple of days.... well thats all for now.

Monument Valley to Texas

In the correct order this time...






So sleeping in a carpark next to Macas drive thru isn't something I would recommend.. Not much sleep and no shower... meh! Anyway early start for Thursday, headed to see the Monument Valley, which was awesome, probably enjoyed this more than the Grand Canyon, since we were just driving around seeing random rocks sticking out here, there and everywhere! Then we made our way to Albuquerque, New Mexico, the trip after the monument valley was pretty dull, and long since we were feeling rather blah, from no shower, so we were looking forward to stopping at our first RV park for a shower!! Free breakfast here, so cream cheese on bagels, which is rather enjoyable.

So today we drove to Amarillo, Texas and saw the random Cadillacs sticking in the ground, that was rather cool, then drove south to a town called Canyon, and went out to the second biggest canyon - Palo Duro Canyon.. which was different to the Grand Canyon, there were alot of trees in this canyon.. but it was cool as well, since we got to drive down into it, but no where as big as the Grand Canyon. Have stopped in Lubbock tonight, hope to drive to Texarkana tomorrow. So these last days have been rather long days, but its ok, since we are seeing new things... well thats all for now.