Travelog for: Kalli

Today would have been Bec's dad's 60th Birthday, so the family went out to do one of his favourite things - fish & chips at Brighton, watching the planes take off. It wasn't the greatest day to be at the beach (just a little cold & windy)!!


-Bec's mum couldn't resist feeding the seagulls. Suddenly we had a whole flock gathered around us!


- Looking towards Sydney Airport


- Some people decided it was a good afternoon to play beach volleyball. We decided it was too cold to sit around and watch them!


- The First Fleet Memorial (the first British 'settlers' who were mainly convicts and soldiers). Barclay has a much better photo in his Travelog.

We've been busy with hosting detail, so I haven't had the chance to  keep myself updated!

Here are the chick's Bec's had in her classroom. They're between 10-14 days old.

Today when we went to go grocery shopping we noticed that it was the day for the Revesby Craft Fair, which Bec and her family hadn't been to for a while, so we decided to check it out first.



I was a very lucky little koala. Knowing that the weather will still be very cold when we go to the USA and Canada early next year, Bec bought me some travelling clothes.

What do you think?

I went to visit the farm one day
I saw a koalaacross the way
And what do you think I heard it say?
(You can hear the music here)

I'm another step closer to completing my first mission! We saw this Koala at the farm!


So, that's
1 at the Easter Show
1 at Taronga Zoo
1 at the Koala Hospital
1 at the Farm

so only 1 more to see before the mission is complete!

We've just realised that one of my missions has been completed!

Mission - To meet 6 ToyVoyagers

Method of completion - Only foreign ToyVoyagers were counted, and I have met Cassiopeia, Elisabeth, JamaBanaDukLuv, HoppyVanderHare, Boone Racoon, Twinette Kani and Mei, which actually makes 7 Toyvoyagers in all!

Photos (Evidence) -
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Yay!!!
My first ever mission to be completed!

Today is the first Tuesday in November, which means that it is Melbourne Cup Day!
Melbourne Cup Day is Australia's most famous Tuesday. At 3.00 pm AEST, on the first Tuesday in November, Australians everywhere stop for one of the world's most famous horse races - the Melbourne Cup.

It is called "The Race That Stops a Nation" and even those who don't usually bet try their luck with a small wager or entry into a 'sweep' - a lottery in which each ticket-holder is matched with a randomly drawn horse. (Bec had a small win in the $1 sweep at work, but doesn't know how much she's won yet!)

Us ToyVoyagers decided to get in on the action - one problem though, we had no money  so we just had to pick a horse to barrack for. I chose Master O'Reilly(#11) I put on my hat (hats and fascinators are very important for ladies at the Melbourne Cup) and prepared to watch the race.



Then it was time for the race to start. It was so exciting!


And, guess what! 
My horse my horse didn't win or place. I was a little disappointed , but still it was a fun afternoon.

Wow.
I'm very honoured to have been window #1 on the advent calendar. In case anyone's been wondering what I've been doing since the last time I wrote I've been:
Making holiday plans (my haul from the Backpackers & Travel Expo)


Keeping Bec on task with her school reports and preventing her from procrastinating too much by adding music to iTunes! I had to be really strict as she'll look for any excuse to avoid doing them!


I've spent some time communing with nature


And of course playing host!


Sadly, my little sun hat went missing at school. I hope I can find a new one soon!

I woke up on Christmas morning to find a present in the stocking Taro had made for me.


Next I got to open the present that had been put under our little TV tree for me.


It is very difficult to get wrapping paper open without opposable thumbs and not rip it, but I tried my hardest.


And look, I wonder what it is?


Ah-ha a Koala sized banadana to replace my missing sun hat (It never even turned up in lost property. My little friend at school was devastated!)


At lunch Taro and I popped the Christmas bon-bons


before we all enjoyed Christmas pudding and custard.


In the afternoon I took on the job of guarding the presents that hadn't been given out yet.
Like my head band?

We were on our way up the coast to Port Macquarie when we passed this sign on on the side of the road, so we stopped and waved 'hello' to Nikki (Prowl_Worshipper) & co.




The Pacific Highway is the main road north from Sydney heading to Brisbane. It is a very busy road and was once very dangerous but there has been lots of work done on it. Of course, this means delays

It's important to keep hydrated when travelling by car in the summer....


We played tourist and went to check out the sights.

This is Town Beach. Port Macquarie has a LOT of beaches!


We followed the road along the coast. What a great view!


Look at this road sign! It tells passing motorists to look out for koalas near and on the roads. How thoughtful!


I kept my eyes peeled for koalas in the trees as we walked to our next stop at Harry's Lookout, but unfortunately didn't spot any. 


I did however find a koala sized swing!


So, here is Harry's Lookout. Harry was a squatter who lived here in a caravan for more than 20years despite the council trying to move him on. When he died they made a memorial for him and renamed the lookout. Very strange.




You can understand why he'd want to live here. It's beautiful!


Part of the memorial is this great carved table and chairs setting. Apparently a lot of people either get married or have their wedding photos taken here.


Our next stop was Tacking Point Lighthouse.


It was VERY windy here. You can easily see why a lighthouse was necessary on this point.




On the beach below there was a junior Surf Lifesavers competition taking place. We felt a bit sorry for the competitors as the waves were really high and strong.


Then it was back in the car again, this time to drive inland.

Big Brother Mountain has nothing to do with the TV show! There are  three mountains in the range - Little, Middle and Big.
It was a long and winding drive to the top.


The view from the top was not as spectacular as usual as the weather was closing in. It was so windy all the humans looked slightly as if they'd had a shock with their hair standing up everywhere. They should have been sensible and worn a bandanna too!




Do you know what this is?
It's an environmentally friendly drop-dunny! (i.e. A public toilet!)  A regular site in bush environments.

Our last night at home for a long time.
Bags are all packed, after lots of angst of what will actually be needed and here we sit sweltering in some last minute summer humidity, following weeks of cold, wet and miserable weather.
Tomorrow night we'll be in San Francisco.
How exciting!

San Francisco is a very leg tiring place to visit. Luckily I spent a lot of time in my tour guide's bagpack. Only problem was, my tour guide was quite often so wrapped up in taking in the sights herself, she kept forgetting to take photos of Cassiopeia and myself.
These are what we do have:
On our first day we went to Coit Tower. Coit Tower is the tallest point above the city and sits on Telegraph Hill, which is San Francisco's tallest hills (and there are a lot of hills in San Francisco! Some of the streets are so steep there are stairs for the pedestrians instead of pavement)
Coit Tower was built with money donated by a woman who had been greatly impressed by the firefighters after the 1906 earthquake and she wanted a monument built to them. So, the tower is designed to look like the nozzle on a fireman's hose.
Inside Coit Tower are lots of beautiful murals that were painted in the 1930's showing life in San Francisco and rural California. Cassiopeia had her photo taken in front of one of the San Francisco city scenes.
We rode the cable cars another day, but tragically no pictures - I really have to talk to my tour guide about this situation! 
We went to the "Bendiest Street in the World" - Lombard St, which has 8 hairpin turns to cope with the steepness of the hills. When cars drive down they have to keep to less than 5miles per hour! Apparently a year or so ago a limo tried to go down (and the driver should have read the sign at the top that said no large vehicles!) and got stuck and to get it out, they had to cut it into pieces!
Monday we went to Alcatraz. That was a really interesting place to visit. It was interesting to learn about all the attempted escapes. There's never been proof of a successful escape from the island - although some bodies were never recovered from the bay, so maybe they did make it? Did you know that when Alcatraz was an operational prison, the guards and their families lived on the island? No - neither did I, until we met a historian called Jolene Babyak, who grew up on the island because her father was the associate warden there! It was very windy on the ferry out to the island, and even windier on the way back.
We took the audio tour of the cell block. It was very interesting and full of interesting facts, but the problem was that you kept being sent to the same place as everyone else to look at some photos or a decorated cell and so every where you went you were in a crowd.
One of our final destinations during our time in San Francisco was to see the famous Golden Gate Bridge. We went out here with two new friends we'd made in the Hostel from Ireland and Italy (one has offered to take me to Barcelona & Verona when I'm finished this trip - how exciting!)  It is very, very big and very, very, very busy and very, very, very windy out there! It was very lucky that while we were the there the skies were clear and there was no fog. (But it would have been just as spectacular if it had been a little foggy too!)

So, that was my time in San Francisco. It is a lovely city to visit (with the exception of the hills!)

Next stop - Oregon.

Stop 2 - Oregon
Linda (BunTraveler) picked us up from Hostel in Portland early this morning and drove us down to Eugene. It was fun to meet up with the other ToyVoyagers who are staying here too - Dilbertand Cliff. It's a regular TV party around here sometimes!
In the afternoon we went on a sightseeing trip of the town, and got to see the places we've read about here in real life.
We saw the Johnson McMurphy House and went up Skinner's Butte to see the town from above. Then we saw Skinner's Cabin. We couldn't believe that such a tiny building could house a whole family! It was interesting to read all the historical information and consider how brave the early settlers must have been to come here.
Spring is coming to Oregon and everywhere you look you can see daffodils sprouting up.