Farewell and thanks for all the fish

From cable cars to boats to trams to snowmobiles, we really knew how to travel.
From indoor rainforests to prison cells to extreme juggling we saw some great displays.
From albino alligators to bears to elk, we saw some amazing wildlife.
From high class stores to taxidermists to WAL-MART (!!!) we saw lots of shops.
From steep winding urban streets to the bases of amazing waterfalls to awesome ski runs, we covered some great terrain.
All in all, it was a great trip. I loved reporting it but most of all I loved experiencing it. I hope you loved reading about it.

And these little piggy's flew all the way home...

God bless us, everyone.
That's right tiny-Tim, it's a belated Christmas Miracle! All our flights home left on time!
Other than the typical and unavoidable boringness and stiffness of flying form the US to Australia, it was a pretty good run.
Kudos to Jackson Hole airport for having some very helpful staff at the check in desks.
No kudos to Denver who weren't bad but weren't great either.
And a big awww to the selection available at the San Fran Museum of Modern Art store (located in the airport) where dad got the cutest ceramic bird for his bookshelves.
But definitely no kudos to San Fran airport because the Japan Airlines Lounge that Qantas Club members can use has no showers. We were expecting showers like in the American Airlines Lounge in LAX but noooo, no siree.
Which meant that we felt even more uncomfortable on the nice long 14 hour flight. I swear on that plane we had less leg room than on other flights and that the row in front of us was closer than usual. Dad says it's just me. I pouted and ignored him for a full 10 seconds as punishment.
It wasn't an all together great 14 hours.
When we arrived in Sydney it was 35 degrees... Celsius. Welcome home! We had gone from 35 degrees Fahrenheit (cold) to 35 degrees Celsius (NOT cold). Gee Whiz!
Ten flights had come in at the same time so it was chaos in the baggage claim areas, particularly around the quarantine queues.
Finally we got out- dad was starting to get grumpy, so we had to get some food into both us. Then after some more fuss and bussle (the kind you can only get when travelling with a ski box) we finally got to the car.
Shower time! More importantly... SHORTS TIME!!!
As I pulled on those shorts (sigh of blissful relief) it finally really it me; we were back in Australia and we weren't on holiday anymore. Nostalgia moment people. Excuse me.
Back. To really prove to ourselves that we were home, we went to a real supermarket (the kind without mortgage banks inside) and got food for an Aussie lunch. If we were going to fight jetlag, we were going to need energy. Australian energy.

Is it really too much to ask?

Here's my little rant of the day;
Is it really too much to ask for a nice fresh dump of snow for our last day skiing in Jackson Hole? Obviously it is because today we were treated to crust, ice, hard stuff and ridiculously large and randomly placed bumps. YAY! My favourite... In some parts it was so icy that I probably could have got a better run if you'd tipped Acacia Ridge Ice-Rink at an angle for me. Oh well, in some parts it was still pretty good. And guess who managed to bag herself some virgin corduroy at 3:30 in the afternoon on a day where it didn't seem like there was any virgin corduroy anywhere at 8am? That's right, me. I somehow managed to work a miracle. Ok, no not really, I just ducked off into this bit that isn't obviously a bit. On a cat-track. So not as much of a miracle as I made it out to be. Oh well... it still felt good!
Today was weird for temperatures. In the morning it was freezing. Zero degrees- farenheit. Which is like negative twenty celcius. Then it warmed up a bit. Then it cooled down again. Then it warmed up again. I think you're getting the pattern here.
Oooh ooh you know how I said the runs were bad. Yeah that ain't nothing compared to Pepi's Run. And no don't say "But isn't that a run?" because I refuse to accept that fact. That little strip of hell does not deserve the title of 'Run'. It is an icy, crusty, over heated, mega-bumpy, unpredictable, rocky, tree-y strip of "I hate this, get me out of here!". But, as always, the only way to get out was to stay on it. Joy! Pepi Must Die.
So after the skiing day was over we had to take all out stuff from the locker back to the apartment ready to pack (tear).
Then we got ready to go to dinner. We were going to finally try out the italian place but nooo it was closed for 'a private function'. Well miyeeeah (that's my whingy noise), fine then, be that way, we'll just go to the Moose! Huh, take that!
Anyway, not the point, on the way to discovering that the italian-place-that-we-didn't-even-want-to-go-to-anyway thought it was too good for us, we passed a gear shop and decided to see if there were any ski pants. See, my old ones went to my ankles (too short) and we'd been checking stores to see if we could find some new ones. We hadn't checked this store yet and thought, why not? And guess what, on the last night we're here, and after we'd finished skiing, we found some perfect ones! Creepy huh? Oh well, they'll be good for NZ and other future skiing trips. Wait, you know how I just said it was creepy? Nothing compared to this little tid-bit. They're Roxy brand. Which now means that I have Roxy skis, boots and pants and the really creepy part? None of that is because I deliberately sought out Roxy stuff- it all happened by complete coincidence! The boots were the best fit. The skis worked best compared to the others that I demoed. The pants I liked best and fit best but I didn't even notice that they were Roxy until after the money had been paid!
So that is pretty much the lay-out of our last full day in Jackson. It's been fun and exciting but I guess you've gotta return to reality some time right? The end of the booking seems as good a time as any.

Grand Groomers

This morning we woke up ready for some fresh tracks. And no, disappointingly I don't mean there was a huge dump overnight. I mean we were going to ski some runs we hadn't skied yet because we were going to ski in a whole new resort.
Today we were bused over to Grand Targhee Resort on the other side of the Tetons just for a bit of variety. Like Jackson, it hadn't had much fresh so the groomers were the best bet for a smooth run but they were still some pretty sweet groomers. Besides, it was cool to see a new resort. It was much cruisier too so my status as one of the best on the mountain was returned to me (if only for a day).
There was this one chair and it was really creepy because there wasn't a bar on the chair. You had to grip the pole in the middle of the chair... for dear life, dear, sweet, grounded life. IT WAS SO CREEEEPY! Thank God for modern chairlift technology.
I taught dad how to say Sacajawea, you know, the Indian from the Lewis and Clarke Expedition? because one of the chairlifts was named after her (but I have a funny feeling he didn't teach me how to spell it...).
And we had all kinds of other fun there!
Tonight we ate our second last meal at Jackson (cue tears) at the Mangy Moose. We finally got seated on the second floor so we could get a closer look at those movie posters...
And that's about it. I probably would write more, but it's late. Maybe I'll add it later? Night Night!

Hehe... it's sparkly air!

Yesterday there was this weather phenomenon known as an inversion. I'm not going to go into the nitty gritty science of it but basically it means that it's cold and foggy at the bottom of the mountain and then suddenly, about half of the way up, it becomes clearer and warmer. And it was so cold down the bottom, the fog was freezing mid-air and do you know what effect this gave? A sparkly one! Hehe... it was so cool. The air was glittery!!!!
Some of the views from above the inversion were incredible! It was like there was a white blanket across the whole valley!
We skied mostly up high so we could actually see.
After we skied we had to take our skis and boots back to the apartment (in case you don't remember, we'd been leaving them at the locker) because the next day we were going to Grand Targhee ski resort for a day.
Then, after a little relaxing, we got ready to hit the buses to head over to the Snow King Recreation Centre Ice Rink. See, dad and I had been missing the ice hockey experience so we had decided to go cheer on the Jackson Hole Moose. The Moose were a couple of levels below the Kamloops Blazers so the rink, food and general experience quality was a little lower but a game's a game, right? However, it wasn't quite as exciting and there were a lot more penalties to each quarter so each quarter seemed to move a whole lot slower. We ended up only staying for one quarter because in that one quarter we got all we needed- some smashes, a major fight (layers were stripped off), some goals and some organ music. Plus- it was really really cold. Once we got back we pretty much went straight to sleep.
Hehe... the air was still sparkly.

OMFG THEY HAVE ELVIS WINE????????????????

Today we had a relaxed morning. We weren't skiing, instead we were going into town so we could visit the Elk Refuge.
It was nice to wear a pretty top for a change...
So anyway, we went over to the visitor centre because that's where you go to get a sleigh ride tour of the Elk Refuge which is the only way to see it. I'm not just saying that in a "a limo is the only way to arrive at the Oscars" because the sleigh IS literally the only option. You can't walk into the Refuge because it spooks the elk. And yet somehow the big red box on skis they call a sled pulled by two mega whopping horse doesn't... weird, huh?
The deal is you arrive at the visitor centre and they put you on a bus to the Refuge where they transfer you to the sled. You should have seen our bus driver! He was wearing full on chaps but they were totally fluffy. They looked like he was wearing inside out uggs on his legs!!!
Our sled driver's chaps weren't quite so extreme, they were a tad more traditional (if it's possible to have traditional chaps). He knew heaps about elk. And the Refuge. I'm surprised he has room in his brain for other stuff. Maybe he doesn't? Poor guy. Imagine not being able to do 5x7 because all you know is the gestation period for an elk (which happens to be 9 months). But luckily for him I don't think that was the case. He seemed to be able to adequately join in the conversation when it went off topic.
Oops... speaking of off topic, I did it again didn't I? Must be more focussed, must be more focussed...
As well as elk we saw a coyote and a bald eagle in the Refuge. Don't worry though- the coyotes don't bother the elk until they've already died of other causes. They only hunt mice and stuff. In terms of elk, all they do is clear away the garbage. My god that sounds horrible! How could I have written that? Well it is true and it is certainly much better than them killing the elk themselves. Only the wolves do that. But apparently there's only a 5% death rate within the Refuge (that's what the guide said anyway) and much of that is of natural causes.
See, I DID listen! Who said I couldn't focus! Oh wait... that was me.
Afterwards dad and I ate a very late lunch at the Cadillac, home of the awesome waffle fries. And this time we actually took a picture! But it's on my camera and I haven't uploaded that yet but patience children, I'll get there.
Then we did our souvenir shopping. Dad bought some navy blue stuff- he seems very excited about the colour. He gave a whole little speech just about how pleased he was that he had more navy blue stuff. Now he has two navy blue t-shirts and a navy blue jumper! Is it bath time yet Mr Bluey? (I just got a hard pillow whack for writing that so I hope you enjoyed that little line because I had to suffer for it). (But that's ok because I just whacked him back).
We went to the super mega supermarket again too. Turns out they also have a dvd rental atm machine thing outside. I'm telling you this country just gets weirder and weirder. Weird and a little annoying how THEY DON'T INCLUDE TAX IN THEIR PRICE TAG-Y THINGIES!!! At the beginning of the holiday it's kind of just little quirk but near the end the whole plus tax thing really gets on you nerves, ok well mine anyway.
Oops, off track again! And I have a story too!
So, you know how back home they have bottle shops next to Woolworths and Coles sometimes? Yeah, well they have that here too (well you'd expect that considering that they have a mortgage bank in there!). But guess what they have in here that we don't have back home? Wait for it, wait for it...

Elvis Presley Brand Wine!!!!!!!! That's freaking right people! The King has his own line of grape. There was a special edition version in a velveteen box but there was also the normal one. If you call a wine with a label that has a picture of Elvis in a blue version of one his signature suits "normal".

I made dad buy it. He says it has a bouquet of deep fried peanut butter and banana sandwich and a finish that makes you sure it has left the building.
Actually he says it's quite nice. But people, that there was some real comedy.
Afterwards we returned to the apartment and it's been a pretty normal night since. I mean, it is pretty hard to beat seeing Elvis wine in a store.

It's a sunshine-y day...

Well, it was pretty similar to the day before. Sunny, windy, no new snow. We even did similar runs in a similar pattern. New additions; Moran Faces and the top section of Amphitheatre. Both weren't made with superior judgement. Let's just say they weren't so pretty. Luckily there were two mistakes made by two people. Mistake score; 1 for dad, 1 for Ellie. So no one could pay anyone else out.
Oh and we didn't eat out.
:)

It was totally nuking up there and other hardcore trammie slang...

Today we joined the league of Hardcore Trammies.
Ava-lungs, shovels- oh yeah they had it all.
We didn't but we stood next to them.
And pretended like they were just holding it for us because we're just too cool to carry our own stuff.
There was this one guy who we talked to who said he just did Rendezvous Bowl in 6 turns on teles. I nodded knowingly in an attempt to look like I thought was totally average.
"Oh right... I guess that's ok..."
When we finally got to the top of the tram it was "totally nuking" (yeah I can talk trammie) which is hardcore 6-turns-on-rendezvous-dude-language for oh my freaking god it is so scarily windy!!!!!!!! I couldn't walk the wind was blowing so hard. I kept thinking I would be blown off the edge of the unloading terminal. And that is totally something that I would NOT have wanted to happen because the edge of the terminal is the edge of a mega cliff or as dad suggested- the edge of the world.
So once I finally managed to move we got ourselves over to Rendezvous Bowl I took back my words. I changed them to;
"Oh right... 6 turns... which vat of radiovactive waste did you fall into?"
Because six turns to get down that thing? I think I did 6 in the first ten metres. And trust me- the bowl is well over 10m long. The freak covered 300m in 6 turns!!!!!!!!
Afterwards dad introduced me to Laramie Bowl- a slightly less daunting bowl that won big points from me before I even made a turn because it blocked out the wind. And I introduced dad to Paintbrush (the avalanche run). We ended up doing both twice.
So that was all the skiing action.
Then afterwards it was a normal afternoon, we ate at the Moose and yeah...

Note: We aren't actually part of the Hardcore Trammies because the Hardcore Trammies would never call themselves the Hardcore Trammies. They also would think nothing of 6-turns-dude.

1, 2, 3... Zazoooooom

Guess what time I woke up yesterday? 5:30. Joy joy.
My only consolation lay in the reason; we were going to go snow-mobiling in Yellowstone National Park! So at 6am we got picked up and taken into town where we were fed and turned into black marshmallows. Well, what I mean is, we were put into big puffy suits. Then we were bused out to the park and put on the snowmobiles. Alright...


















Yeah, I wish. Nope sadly I am not in possession of a drivers license. Still, it was fun flying along in the back seat. Flying along at 60 miles per hour that is! Can anyone say ZaZoooom?
We saw bison, mud pools and Old Faithful. Old Faithful is this old geyser that goes off nearly exactly every 70minutes. It's crazy! I got a video which I would love to put up for y'all but it's on one of dad's cameras but he forgot to put the memory card in so the vid is in the camera's own memory drive and we don't have the tools to retrieve it from there right now.
Anyway it was really cool. I got to walk on a frozen lake but it was covered in like, 3 feet of snow so it was really funny, one of the people on the tour (she was 26 going on 12 :D) and I tried to run as far as we could in the snow before we tripped/fell/collapsed. We also stopped by a waterfall and there was this part you could either choose to walk down to (snore...) or bum-slide your way down the snow. No prize for guessing which option I chose! Hehe I went down four times. It was really tiring walking up again but it was soooo worth it! Hehe...
But our guide really went for it. He didn't choose either of the aforementioned choices. No, instead he decided to jump the line... literally! See, there's this one part where there isn't steps down or a smooth winding path for sliding, instead it kind of just drops, like a mini cliff. And our guide jumped, no, correction, he flipped off it!
So after all this excitement you can understand that we were both very tired! So we didn't really feel like cooking right? But going out to dinner takes so much effort! So take-out seems perfect right? And what's the most obvious take-out? Ok, no not chinese food. Second most obvious take-out? Pizza! Grat, because everywhere has somewhere that delivers pizza right?
Apparently not.
So poor daddy had to cook. And that is pretty much our day. Sounds pretty cool right? Except for the no pizza part though...

And what did YOU do for the sake of comedy today?

Like how about Huey (snow god) sending us 12 inches of fresh fluffy powdery good stuff (free of chocolatey charge) so we could watch dumb try-hards fall mega mega crash and burn from the chairlifts (skiing wasn't too bad either)?
Or dad giving me ammunition for a new section in my post: Dad's Really Weird Quotes of the Day. Today's quotes include classics like:
"It looks like possum poo!" and...
"Oooh! Marinated possum poo, yummo!" and...
"Go the possum poo!"
And then ladies and gentlemen, there is my contribution. I was sitting on a pole waiting for the bus when... oh why tell you when I can show you! Pay special attention to my delightful scream- or should I say retarded squeakish screech?



I should probably mention that today wasn't all laughs. It was also a little wild. A little wildlife that is! Damn, I am the funniest lame corny person ever! That's right, we saw a moose on the way up the Apres Vous chairlift! But it was a girl so we didn't see any cool antlers... bummer. Seriously.
Another wild thing. Adventures that is! See the snow on the main drags was either getting heavy/choppy or hard-packed waaaay too fast. So instead dad and I sought out some fluffy untracked wide trees for ourselves. So it took a little more energy butit was a lot more fun and there were a lot more first tracks made by none other than me, myself and I (and dad).
But now after reporting all the major events to you, I must sleep because tomorrow dad and I have to not only be up by 6AM but ready to go snowmobiling by 6AM.

P.S: I was serious- what did YOU do for the sake of comedy today? Let me know, it'd be nice to have some more comments on here.

A lesson in oh damn that hurts my ego....

Today I actually woke up in time for the first lift! Because I was taking a lesson- an all day lesson.
So I turned up at the meeting place... outside the kids ranch, wrestled my way through the five year olds (it wasn't that hard seeing as they reached my knees in height) and walked up the hill to the top level section. They're called the Eagles! (hearing animal names for the ski groups made me so nostalgic, my, is that a tear in my eye?)
There was only one other person in my class. Guess how old she was? I'll give you a clue. Take my age and halve it. Yep, here's some maths for you. Take the number of countries I've skied in (4) and double that; number of countries she's skied in. Now take the ski class level I was in (9), add 0 and that's the level she was in. My salvation lay in the fact that I was taller than her and I still beat her down the hill every time... by about 15 seconds. Joy, my ego felt great!
In the lesson I got to do some pretty fun runs. Like you know how there was that guy who kind of... ceased to exist on this earth let's call it... when there was this, well, some people like to call it an avalanche...? Well you know that run that it was on? I kinda skied it... TEEHEE :D It was fuuuun!
Oh, something else that I learnt; I can own a 7 year old in a snowball fight. Yeah. That's something to be proud of.

They have chocolate what now?

Today we woke up, ate and went onto the mountain to ski.
Some runs were marginal but most were really nice runs. it wasn't too choppy, foggy, hot, cold or heavy in many parts so we got some really good runs in. Because of this we got to look around the mountain a little more which included finding a good place for lunch. That was good because we were worried we wouldn't have a "place" for lunch. Ok, well I was anyway. I like having a "place". You know, so you can give it a nickname and have a favourite order and tell people you haven't been to other places because you only go to the one place. Get it? Nooo, you wouldn't, it's really more of a Ellie-is-weird kind of thing.
Anywho, that was all a bit pointless, I know, but not much super exciting happened today so I was trying to fill space.
So after we put our skis in the locker we went to the little mini-mini-mini-insy-winsy-teensy-squeensy-mini-mart to get some extra milk etc (thrilling lives we lead) and I decided to get a snack. I saw chocolate flavoured skittles and thought "ooh that would be fun to try". Yeah, turns out teenagers aren't always right. Those chocolate skittles are just like fathers- weird and always wrong. Heehee, love you daddy! Speak of the devil, he wants me to tell you that the bus driver wouldn't even eat them.
Ok,so that's all the reportable stuff reported. We're going to have dinner soon and tonight we're eating out so I've gotta go!

Gee... there's a mountain under there!

My goodness... did you realise that at Jackson Hole there's a mountain? Because I'd never seen it until yesterday. But no, there it was rising out of the ground like some kind of majestic being. So we thought, well, since it was kind enough to make an appearance for us, perhaps we should go out and say hello.
And do you know what that non-foggy air also allowed us to see? Another St Peters person! Now come on, this is just getting ridiculous. Who's going to believe that storyline? Three different students from the same grade from Brisbane from St Peters in snowy areas at the same time? Naaaaah. Wait... if anyone has to believe this it should be me seeing as I actually saw it happen because, yes people, it's true. And yes, that also possibly could have been one of the longest ways of explaining something... ever.
So dad and I skied and that was about it... until we were at the bottom of Casper Chair and were hit with one of the biggest gusts of winds ever. Wow... there's a lot of superlatives in this post.
It was crazy, I went into the foetal position and dad well... I don't know but somehow he moved 10m... uphill.
So we turned in early. Then it was a pretty plain night. Oooh except we watched this really creepy movie about this alive house that tried to be this family's mum.

Towning around in some pretty un-ski-able weather

Today I woke up at half past 11, a good 13 and a half hours sleep. I have been instructed to say that this is because my daddy is just sooo nice (and good at falling over on flat surfaces). Anyway, the real reason he let me sleep in is because it was warm, practically blizzarding and the snow falling in that blizzard was of no great quality. In other words- no fun for skiing. Instead we decided to spend the day checking out town.
We caught the bus in and our first step was to get some food (we hadn't eaten yet). We went to this diner/restaurant place and dad got a burger and I got fries. The fries came and they were the weirdest fries I have ever seen. They were like lattice circles with holes and cross-overs... a miracle of cutting. I guess I should have taken a picture... maybe we'll go back and order some to take a picture of...
We looked at nearly every shop in the area and saw a variety of things etc. We also looked at the really cool antler arches. Elk drop their antlers and grow new ones, see? And in the town square they've collected these (dad says the boy scouts do it, awwww how cute!) and made them into arches!!! But they look even better at night because they have pretty fairy-lights wrapped around them (I know this because we saw them when we were being driven from the airport to our apartment).
Something kind of scary was the number of stores selling furs and stuffed dead animals. Sadly, a very successful man here would be a taxidermist.
We also went to the Tom Mengelson gallery. He's a photographer and his gallery is astounding. There are some truly incredible images there, it's beautiful. I was awestruck so many times in there! He has managed to catch some moments that would take incredible patience to capture.
Finally we went to the supermarket here. Holy Beep. It was freaking HUGE. And there was orange cheese... and cheese in a can... and cheese that looked like shredded carrot (or carrot that looked like shredded cheese, I'm still not sure which). I'm sorry if I seem to be focussing on the cheese but it really freaked me out. And there was bank giving out mortgages within the supermarket! While you buy the milk, why not get a $300,000 loan? It's crazy! And all the other weird products you could get... you know how we have vanilla extract/essence/flavouring (whatever you want to call it)? How about some root beer extract/essence etc? It's crazy! Or watermelon essence? Or avocado flavoured pringles (they were green)? And our measley packs of 14 pads? Ah screw it, lets sell mega jumbo sized 100 packs! You the size of nappy packs we sell at home? The packs were the same size. Subtle... Actually I saw similar packs in a mini-mart we went in, in fact they were hard to miss- they took up half the store! The product size/ store size ratio was terrifying.
Afterwards we returned to the apartment where we pretty much lazed about watching tv. Actually, right now we're watching comedy central and the ads are almost as entertaining for us as the shows. The type of ads they show here are so different to the ones they show at home. You know how you get spam emails about "male enhancement products" and new drugs and birth control stuff and all that (women often receiving more male enhancement emails than men)? Well welcome to the next generation of spam, spam tv! Yep, now your tv ads show the same content as those emails we all "love" so much!
Anyway, so goodnight for now and hopefully in my next report I will be able to tell of incredible skiing experiences.

We've hit Jackson...

So we woke up after that day in transit and we were still pretty tired. We got into our ski gear and used the shuttle to get from our apartment to the village ready to give the mountain a try.
We decided to hit the easier side of the mountain so we could get our "legs" back. Visibility was pretty bad (stick to the trees people) and it was kind of heavy and chopped up for most of the runs. In these situations I felt incredibly messy but dad says I still looked good (I doubt this) however once we hit the hard packed groomed stuff... damn that felt good! It felt right and good and indescribably incredible!!! To be carving again! (Cue wistful sigh) Dad's first run wasn't quite so smooth... he fell getting on the chairlift. That's right, he fell standing still and then (ooh this part is tricky) sitting down. His balance is looking great isn't it? Then he fell again going down. I guess it must be said that I fell too but let's compare and contrast; I fell doing a jump in my first run in a year, in the fog and heavy chopped stuff. Dad fell standing still and then moving slowly on a relatively flat slope.
Then on the next run, dad discover that he hadn't adjusted his boots well. They were hurting. So we took a lunch stop to readjust and set out again. Well, the boots were feeling better but the previous day's late night was starting to take it's toll, we were tired. So we turned in early and headed back to the apartment. At this point we reviewed our TV options- pretty good with an excellent mix of crap,crap, crap and some reasonable stuff. 60 channels of crap (including a redneck reality tv channel which is kind of entertaining in a I'm-laughing-at-you-because-I-am-so-totally-superior-to-you-in-every-way-possible kind of way) and 5 ok ones. On the aforementioned redneck channel I watched a home renovation show with a difference. Welcome to "Mobile Home Disasters". You know those homes in trailer parks that look like those rentable cabins but people live in them permanently? Yep, this is a whole show dedicated to renovating those and those only. 'Turning trailer trash into trailer class' is the tagline. I wish I was making this up, I really do. The renovators and the recipients had such 'special' personalities. Yeah, 'special' that's a good word for it. Hahaha... I think the worst person was the host. He kept trying to crack these really dreadful jokes and he seemed to really and truly support one of the home-owners hopes to store their motorbike inside. He never seemed to do any work and was constantly insulting his fellow renovators. Because of this, they all hated him. The second worst was the male home-owner who wanted the motorbike inside. He seemed to think this was a totally reasonable request. Yeah, lets keep the fuming, smoking, disgusting, metal, roaring monster in the sun room, great idea! I guess it is the redneck channel... Oh and in the ad-breaks they kept advertising this show called 'My Big Redneck Wedding' and my, my it looked 'spectacular'. The advertised bride to be described her wedding as perfect but from the snippets I saw I think I'd say something more along the lines of... horrific, scary, traumatic, scarring... a joke?
For dinner we went to the Mangy Moose. The collection of movie posters, nick nacks, artefacts and general stuff was astounding and kinda cool. I spent half the time scanning the movie posters plastered across the roof in the hopes of finding one that I recognised. I think I found 2 and both of them weren't actual ones that I recognised but just earlier versions of movies that I do know...of. The service was great and the people were really friendly.
That is about it for yesterday... I don't think we have pics... I'll check.

A Day In Transit

This is two days late but I have a very good reason for not having posted two days ago.
We woke up in San Fran and quickly packed. We had breakfast and went out in search of some Ghiradelli's chocolate (of course). Last year we had got a bag of Ghiradelli's thins for the plane etc and it was really yummy so this year we decided to do that again.
Then we got the taxi to the airport at San Fran and discovered yet another opposite. You know how at home the international airports are normally soooo much better than the domestics? Nope, not in San Fran. The domestic is soo good! There's even a Boudin's!
Then when we got to Denver without any issue we find out the same would not apply to our 6:30 flight to Jackson!
It was delayed because of weather in Jackson, apparently the runway was too slippery. At one point it even looked like we might have to stay the night in Denver! After eating at a truly disgusting place in Denver airport we found out that we were the third flight to have been delayed because of these conditions. We were the luckiest of the 3 because the other two had flown all the way to Jackson... and turned around and gone all the way back. When our flight finally lifted off at 8 we found out that some people on our flight had been on all thee, that's right, this was their third attempt! Well, third time lucky because we finally got in to Jackson at 9:30. We finally got to our apartment at 11pm. Zonk and Zzzzzzz. It was nighty night after a very long day in transit. No pics from that day.

On the road again...

Just like Willie Nelson, today we were on the road again (I really should try and get that on the blog playlist shouldn't I?).
We left beautiful Yosemite behind us at about 9:30.On the road we saw many signs for vista points but nothing seemed quite good enough to pull over for after having spent 3 nights in incredible Yosemite Valley so on we drove.
We found an A&W for lunch (an American fast food chain famous for it's root beer, although dad thinks it's root beer isn't that great, it's their fries that we like) and then after that our next stop was an American institution: Wal-Mart. Referenced in Gilmore Girls, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, South Park and so many more dad and I shared a fixation with the idea of visiting a real life one. And so we did, in the reasonably ugly city/town of Manteca. It's not that great really, like a large K-mart, maybe not even all that much bigger. How disappointing. Although what was not disappointing was that I finally found a pair of good boot-cut jeans there! So people, I am the "proud" owner of a pair of Wal-mart jeans. They aren't actually Wal-Mart brand but they're from Wal-Mart anyway,so it's what I'll nickname them. My Wal-Mart jeans. Maybe sometime in the near future I'll shorten that to my Wally's. That's a cool jeans nickname, don't you think? I have my Lucky's, my cords, my skinnies, my Kohl's and finally, my Wally's.
Afterwards we drove back to San Fran, well and truly in time for our Alcatraz tour at 5. Which was pretty cool by the way although dad and I think it would be better to go in daylight because then more sections would have been open and we could have stayed longer, rather than having to rush to the last ferry back. Will add photos later but dad's already sleeping and I should probably go to bed, it's been a long day. Remind me about the photos, 'kay?

Let the sunshine in (and so the clear views)...

Howdy y'all (don't quite know why I said that, I just did), sorry this is late.
This is for our second full day in Yosemite. We woke up and ate waffles while we planned our day. We were excited because the previous day's fog had disappeared and we had sun. This meant Mirror Lake would have great reflections and it would be easy to drive up to a look out that dad wanted to show me. We were going to go to Mariposa to see the mega-trees but the guest services desk said that cars couldn't drive within 2 miles of the grove because of the snow and ice. So we would have had to walk 2 miles in the cold on conditions that were obviously quite difficult- and uphill.
We walked to Mirror Lake and found out that having our legs go numb from cold on the walk was worth it because the reflections and views were incredible.
Afterwards, on our way to the lodge for lunch, we decided to go do our souvenir shopping. I got a toy bear (as a reminder of our only major animal sighting so far apart from squirrels which they didn't have toys of) and a mug. We were walking to the bus to go to the lodge and you would not believe it- I saw someone from school!
Then, at lunch in the crazy cafeteria, I saw another person from school. What are the chances? Two people from St Peters in the one place on the one day within 2 hours of each other. I would never have expected one person in the whole trip, let alone 2 in the one place!
We drove up to the incredible look-out dad had wanted to see and on the way saw a coyote! Oh and the view was pretty damn good too.
Then we returned to the lodge before dinner and then we slept. So yeah...

There's a bear out there... + lots of ice and rain

The weather today was cold and drizzly at best and pouring and miserable at worst but that aside it must be said that Yosemite is truly amazing.
Dad let me sleep in today (yay) so I don't know what happened before 9 this morning but I'm sure it was pretty. Dad would like me to make sure you all understand that he is not mean and would happily let me sleep in every day but on the other days we have had to get to places. He is happy now... I think.
After breakfast at the still crazy cafeteria we headed off in search of the Yosemite Falls. They were very easy to find. Directions: follow the bus-loads of Japanese/Chinese tourists. Everybody say "PEEEAAACE!!!"
On the hilly path to the base of the falls it was extremely icy and it was a challenge to hold your foot in one place long enough to move the next foot. I was totally planning to boot ski my way down but it turns out the path was a loop and the path that took us back was not nearly as steep or as icy. Instead it was a nice long, slow descent. Bummer. Well at least it was pretty! And we saw a squirrel! Dad was very excited because he is holding out for any "shy forest creature". He is very disappointed that we haven't seen heaps. I tell him it's because they're shy (boom boom), I think he should hold out for more outgoing forest creatures, not "shy forest creatures". We're so funny.
Then we decided to wait for the free village shuttle bus to take us to the visitor centre, the "village" (mega cough cough) and more walks.
At the visitor centre there's heaps of information on the history of Yosemite and some good displays. It also had a display Indian Village nearby which was really interesting.
The "village" consists of two closed restaurants, a sandwich bar, a gift shop, a supermarket and a sport store. I was afraid I'd get lost- not!
From there we decided to catch the bus back to the lodge for some lunch in a shockingly not-crazy cafeteria but before we actually ate, the bus ride took an hour! It went all the way around Yosemite valley! At least the driver was funny.
After lunch we took another round-about bus trip to a place where we were hoping to get a good view of half-dome but it was foggy and raining so we returned to the hotel.
When we were walking back to the room there were lots of people standing outside of the building. When we asked what was going on, we found out that there was a bear cub!!! It was really hard to get a photo though! I gave up but was persistent; he followed it! And he saw it head towards our hire car... hmmm fingers crossed it kept walking!
I am now watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" on some TV channel. We'll probably go to the crazy cafeteria for dinner when it's over. Various pictures from today are in this post, probably at the top. There are so many more I would love to add but the connection timed out again. I'll try again another time.

It's a mirror image world!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Did you know that the buttons in lifts are on the right side of the lift whereas at home they are on the left? Or that unlike at home, it's polite to stick to the right side of the footpath/stairs? Or that the up escalator is on the right side of the store unlike at home? Or that here you flick light switches up to turn them on, not down like at home? Surely you've heard that the toilet water goes the other way over here?
It's all opposite! Like the world through a mirror!
Did you know this also applies to cars and roads? The drivers seat is on the left side, not the right side. You also always drive on the right side of the road, not the left. This is scary and annoying.
Do you know how I know? Because today I experienced it.
This morning we woke up and checked out of the hotel. We then walked out to the empty street and caught the empty cable car to empty Union Square. Noticed a theme yet? Aaaah, the morning after New Years Eve, everything is closed, everyone is sleeping (or hung-over), no one is braving the outdoors. perfect for getting used to driving on the wrong side.
We picked up the car and omg it was weird. it was all... wrong. And the cars looked like they were going to hit us! And not only that but it was all in an unfamiliar city. At least the roads were, you guessed it, empty. Less people to get angry at us if we stuffed up... which we didn't!
We were driving to Yosemite National Park, an amazing smorgasbord of scenic delights.
On the way we saw many small towns which were kind of just like the movies and tv and kind of not. For one thing, they weren't nearly as pretty as in the movies! Other things that we saw that are in movies/tv/people just know about them;
Walmart (come on, you all know), Chuckie Cheese (commonly made reference to in many kids/ teen movies eg 10 Things I Hate About You), Bed Bath & Beyond (Click) +many more.
I also discovered a very important piece of information. Starbucks sucks at making hot chocolate. They are not to be trusted with your hot chocolate. They make them bitter.
Haha another weird little thing; reason why driving on the wrong side is not just scary but annoying: the passenger will keep walking to the wrong side of the car! Humph...
Here are some pics from our great drive we wanted to put more but this connection keeps timing out;

Once we arrived at the park we went to Yosemite Lodge, home sweet home for the next 3 nights. The pictures on the website did make it seem more "plush" than it actually is and the room does have a slight smell of stale beer but it's ok and it has an amazing view so we'll be right! We're not here for comfort, we're here for the scenery. When we went for dinner it was crazy how crowded the place was! It was in this sort-of-cafeteria-kind-of-place and it seemed like every single person ever was there! Wish I'd seen you, which table were you at? Haha, I'm so not funny!
The food wasn't gourmet but it was reasonable and filling so we're happy.
End of day really... see you tomorrow!

The Final Goodbye...

Well, 2008 is gone. It is of the past. We welcome 2009 with trepidation, anticipation, hope, dreams, plans, fear, enthusiasm, gung ho spirit, joy and a bunch of other stuff.
But what of my final hours in the year? The final hours I did not get to record? Well;
We stayed in the room for until 9pm in the hopes of watching the New York City Ball Drop.
During the lead-up the channel we were watching showed two crazy people. One tried to do a back-flip with a ute. He kind of landed it but then he bounced and the car landed on it's roof. The other was this guy trying to land a motorbike on this 90ft high landmark in Las Vegas and then jump off again. He made it but he broke his hand. Lesson: don't be as stupid as these guys. Even IF you land it something bad will happen. Sorry if that sounds pessimistic but... nope I'm not sorry.
Then it finally showed the ball drop... we think. The channel didn't do it so you could actually see it! :(.
Then we went to Fisherman's in the hopes of seeing some action. Other than the crowds it didn't seem like we would get any. We were about to walk away when we saw someone walk onto the stage next to the carousel. It was Bob. Yes, I'm actually serious. Bob is a juggler and he is incredible. He could juggle on a rolling cylinder, a tiered unicycle (3 wheels on top of each other), a rolling cylinder on top of another one and all kinds of other things. He also balanced on the impossible, wish I could explain or show but we didn't take a camera.
After pushing our way through the crowd, we returned to the hotel an hour before midnight. We did stop at a chocolate shop because what food could be a better last meal of '08 than chocolate?
So it seemed that we would not last to welcome the new year with open eyes. Hey, it had been a long day! Remember, we arrived at the museum at 8:30am!