Monthly Archives: November 2016

Holidays, USA 2016

Are you looking at my Jelly Belly …

Leave a comment
Our last morning at Newcastle and once again woken up by a cooked breakfast. 
 
We farewelled Lyn as she had to head back to work today and Dave offered me his motorbike to head out for a ride. The weather was perfect for a ride and I haven’t been on the road for about 20 years and I would be riding on the wrong side of the road – what could possibly go wrong!
 
It felt good to be back on the bike and Dave’s bike was a good one – BWW 1200. Maybe it is time to get my Honda 900 back on the road.
 
We bid Dave farewell and headed back to Benicia stopping at the Rocklin Bass Pro Shop and the In-n-Out Burger for lunch.
 
One more stop was the Jelly Belly factory at Fairfield. We took the factory tour and sampled most of the different flavours  and spent way too much. Not sure how we are going to go with weight limits on the way home.
 
Back to Joanna’s house on the water for another great home cooked meal – I could get used to this ?
Holidays, USA 2016

Thars gold in them hills …

Leave a comment
Even after the result from last night and the predictions of the end of the world, the sun still came up and it was a great day for travelling and looking around. Lyn had the day off and Dave was retired so off we headed to the American River and into the Gold Country around Coloma where gold was first discovered in California. 
 
We spent the afternoon walking around the historic town of Coloma with afternoon tea at the local cafe before heading home stopping on the way at a local microbrewery at Cool (Cool Beerwerks) for some good beers. 
 
Tonight was our last night with Dave and Lyn so it was time for some grilling and the meat of choice was salmon. It was a great night with a good meal and good company and it was a shame we would have to head off in the morning.
Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

Election Day USA …

Leave a comment
After 10 hours I decided to get up but Jenny managed 14 hours (she did go to bed a little earlier).
 
It was a little late for breakfast so some turkey sandwiches for brunch was a good idea.
 
Today we were headed to Newcastle for a couple of days and Joanna offered one of her cars for transport. The journey was supposed to take an hour and a half but after taking a couple of diversions due to taking the wrong exit we arrived to Dave and Lyn’s around an hour and three quarters later.
 
Dave and Lyn were originally in Forest Hills when we first met and last time we were over but moved to this new property 5 months ago. It was 7 acres with two homes, the smaller one for them and the larger one for Cara (their daughter) and her family.
 
After catching up with a few beers it was off to the local Italian restaurant (La Fornaretta) for a great meal. It was obviously our first time here but also Dave and Lyn’s first time here and the meal and service was well worth it.
 
Back to the house to watch the election results and even though we were staying in a Republican house, they were not all that happy with the way the result for President ended up. It was pretty interesting with the response we were seeing on Facebook from Australia.
Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

Time for another trip to the USA …

Leave a comment
The kids have been in the US now for 90 days at their respective Colleges, Bradley at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and Rachael at the University of Texas in Austin, so it was time to go visit them.
 
On top of that, I have been working up to 40 hours overtime for the last 2 months so it was time for a break.
After taking my last night shift off, we headed to the airport at 6:30 am with Jenny’s brother acting as the taxi. With a bit of time to spare, it was into the Qantas Club for some breakfast before travelling Business class to Sydney. We tried for an upgrade to the big leg to San Francisco but no luck.
 
We also had no luck getting into the Qantas Club in Sydney International but did get into the little known American Express lounge which I think is better than the Qantas Club and only need an AMEX to get in.
 
The flight to San Francisco was on a Boeing 747 (I prefer the Airbus A380), but we were lucky to have a spare seat next to us so we could spread out.
 
The flight was pretty good and only 13 hours arriving at 9:30 am (7th November) after leaving from Sydney at 3:00 pm (7th November).
 
The advantage of coming through San Francisco was that there was only one other plane so getting through Immigration and Customs was a breeze and we were in the USA.
 
Only another hour travel to go on the BART to Martinez Station where Joanna picked us up. A 3 mile journey and we were sitting on the deck overlooking the Sacramento River towards the northern Bay Area.
 
I didn’t feel too bad after getting a few hours rest on the flight across but I layer down on the bed to rest the back and two hours later I woke up to a spectacular sunset.
 
Joanna had organised a “Thanksgiving” dinner for us which was great and then it was time for a big sleep.