more living in the past

well, apologies for the lack of broadcasts for all you folk who are interested in what we are up to down under...or (more likely) who are just bored/procrastinating. i know, there should be alot to post about - new place, new town, engagement, wedding news??...but i have put myself under a self imposed cone of no-good-news silence. not that there is any bad news, i should point out, just no real good news - nothing to brag about ; ). no progress on the wedding front, no job for me (hopefully soon), no sofa, no ring!! i have been in a bit of a post-return to oz depression i think... i have stuck a happiness manifesto to our fridge (i know-desperate times). one of the things it suggests is being grateful for 5 things at the end of each day. 5 is quite alot - i think oprah only requires 3...at the moment i am having to use the fact that i have 4 limbs in relatively good working order to reach the target (the other one is rohan putting up with me, of course)... but it will pass, as everything does.

i thought i would post the last of those america pics...because i too am procrastinating. big time. i should be doing the selection criteria for a job with lake macquarie council but i am a bit stuck because one of the essential criteria is 'demonstrated emotional and spiritual intelligence...in dealing with groups'...i am struggling with just plain intelligence at the moment...& i have already cleaned all our chairs.

here we go



the approach to zion national park was like driving through another planet! i loved these rock formations - slick rock its called. i am such a nerd i know. you go through a ridicuously narrow, bendy, dark tunnel (built for 1940's vehicles) & when you come out on the other side, the scenery has changed dramatically-more like the picture below.


the incredible sandstone cliffs of zion national park. The bottom of the valley is flat because it used to be a lake that built up behind a landslide that blocked the river. you're not allowed to drive your car into the park - they have a good system of regular shuttle buses (good for the enviroment, good for tourists - apparently it used to be like a carpark) & every bus driver doubles as a comedian, so its very win-win ;)

here we are walking under a waterfall in zion national park

another + for this place was that it was warm for the first time. also more tourists meant that there were more decent places to eat. we sat outside in a lovely garden, under the stars and below the cliffs for dinner that night & rohan had one of the best burgers he's ever eaten. bliss.



next stop, no marks for guessing where this is, the grand canyon! (actually we stopped at Page before this (y'all remember the glen canyon dam??; ) - but i've blogged about that before).
as grand as the name suggests. unfortunately it was extremely windy = hazy...but still, well, grand. a testament to the power of water i guess.

rohan tempting fate. i couldnt resist a book in the giftstore called 'death in the canyon' which discusses all the recorded deaths in the canyon. me? morbid? lots of people (men, suprisingly ; ) die fooling around in spots like this.



beautiful. actually there is a bit of a sad story behind this - no, no-one died (well, not yet) but i thought from looking at the map that there was a better spot from which to watch the sunset. it was further than i thought and we, well, we kinda missed it...needless to say, i wasnt very popular with mr hudson - a complete relationship meltdown was only avoided by me promising to be up at 5am to get to the canyon for sunrise (didnt happen). but this is a nice shot isnt it. we did catch dusk from a great lookout...there were a couple who had been camping out since 4pm to get the best spot for the sunset- in style though - with food and wine.

rohan and i are keen to do a rafting trip down the canyon for his 40th birthday. well, maybe not in january. interested? put it in your diaries for 2018 (the chance of dying from a rafting accident has reduced drastically in the last few decades, i promise).


the dodge on route 66 - much nicer than the main highway...although perhaps not at its best in this shot.

us in laughlin (the poor mans vegas- that is our hotel behind us $29/night!) and where the 'laughlin river run' is held - a biker festival - would you guess, on the very weekend that we were in town. what luck. actually it was fascinating. i didnt realise that the average biker was a middle class retiree. there were lots of nude girls promised, but we didnt see any.

nice bikesafter getting used to the whole idea of civilisation (well, some form of it anyway) in laughlin - we thought we were ready for vegas, where we met up with matt and jenai...but sadly no, it was too much of a shock to the system and i dont think we really got into it like you're meant to. i always knew i would struggle with the excess but i really wanted to let that go and enjoy it, but it just didnt happen. we did have the all-u-can-eat buffet for dinner though.

we loved the real venice and this has to be the next best thing!

stunning displays in the bellagio foyer

& i did genuinly love the fountain show out the front of the bellagio (sp?).

seevegas did give us the opportunity to catch up on a few of the sites we missed in europe

after the bright lights, we settled for the slightly more modest Bakersfield enroute to the californian national parks. the boys went for a swim.

a coyote who came up to the car to say 'hello' and 'give me your food, now.' isnt he pretty? jenai took this photo.

aw look, our very inconsiderate neighbours have the slowest internet connection ON EARTH. so that is going to have to be for now, otherwise how will i ever get all the ironing/vacuuming/etc done? and you should probably get back to work too;-) i saw a show on tv last night about a lady who married into a rich family who have now fallen on hard times but they still have their big house. it takes her 4 hours to vacuum! she has to unplug and replug the cleaner around 40 times! that is the craziest thing i have ever heard.

ains
xxx

we still have sequoia, yosemite, san fran, california coastline, LA and fiji to go folks so stay tuned.

i should be doing something more productive than this

but here are some photos from when the hudsons treated us to dinner at tetsuyas (http://www.tetsuyas.com/index.html) - 10 delicious little courses with wine to match!

lee - the instigator

some of the food - this was a fillet of barramundi with braised baby fennel

and ravioli of queensland spanner crab with tomato and basil vinaigrette

one of the desserts - this is tetsuyas version of tarte tartin

YUM!