Pippin helping with the packing.
Here we go again!
This time to the Australian island/state of Tasmania. I’m writing this entry aboard the LAX-MEL flight an hour shy of the the halfway point of the 15h20m flight. We selected Tasmania as our destination due to the presence of a temperate rain forest on the island - one of three in the world. We had already visited the ones in the Lakes District of Chile and the Pacific Northwest. Country Walkers did not offer a tour, so I got on the internet and googled; “walking tours Tasmania” and began to cobble together an adventure. The Freycinet Experience and the Tarkine Trails Rainforest Photo Workshop form the bookends to our time on the island, both tours being Friday to Monday affairs, while a series of three day tours with Discover Tasmania Tours fill the gap between (and gets us from Hobart to Launceston). Our time in “Tassie” as the locals call it will be followed by our annual visit to Mom for a week around Thanksgiving, and has been preceded by several days in the Pasadena area so we could visit friends in the area and out in Ventura.
I started packing a couple weeks before our Friday 02 November departure. Having been laid off recently from my job, I had plenty of time to assemble all of the items on my packing list. Given that we don’t wear our trail togs on a routine basis, these can be packed well in advance. So with Pippin’s assistance, the gear was collected from storage and packed into my roll-on bag. The remaining items were accumulated in a leisurely fashion. One difference in packing for this trip was for the one-week stay in Blacksburg. Rather than schlep those items halfway around the world and back, we packed them in a couple of boxes and sent them to Mom before we left. Once we get to Blacksburg we will exchange the contents of our suitcases for those in the boxes, and ship our trail clothes back to ourselves in Saint Paul.
Our flight got into LAX just after noontime, and with time to collect the rental car it took about 2+ hours to get to Clarli’s house in Eagle Rock, where she hosted us for the weekend. That evening she took us to Stoney Point Bar and Grill.
The next day we had brunch with Jeff and Amelia at Julienne’s; visited with Carol and Wes in the afternoon; dined with Ghassan and Kathryn at the Raymond. We spent Saturday afternoon on Clarli’s shaded patio - I had the time to browse my camera’s owners’ manual to remind myself of a number of its capabilities.
Sunday morning we returned to Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena - both services - to visit with as many of our church-based friends as possible. That afternoon we drove out to Dar and Sue’s beach house in Oxnard for dinner, general catching up, and advice about going into consulting and setting up a business entity necessary to do so. Monday we mostly hung out with Clarli, taking advantage of the laundry and time for conversation, but got to have lunch with Carol and Wes at Green Street Restaurant. That evening, we dined with Clarli who had prepared a home cooked meal for us, before sending us off to the airport to catch our flight.
Pippin helping with the packing.
Clarli and Jonathan at Stoney Point Bar and Grill.
Selfie with Jonathan and Jeff at Julienne's in San Marino.
Taking advantage of Clarli's patio.
Visiting with Carol and Wes.
Another selfie with Ghassan and Kathryn, just after dinner at the Raymond.
On the beach at Oxnard with Sue and Dar to appreciate the evening's sunset.
The sunset.
I took this shot shortly after takeoff from LAX to capture the time/distance parameters.
This shot was about halfway through the flight.
Hotel room in Melbourne.
In Melbourne, another selfie, this time with Alyce, who we know from Neighborhood UU Church in Pasadena.
It took the expected hour to get to the rental car depot to drop off the car. It took an unexpected hour for the shuttle bus to get us from the rental depot to Terminal 7. The traffic around the terminals was exceptionally bad. We made it to the gate with ample time and boarded the plane for an on-time departure.
The trans-Pacific flight was uneventful. I lucked out and had an empty seat beside me and the occupied window seat, so I was able to put my rather stuffed backpack under the middle seat and used the under seat storage in front of me for storing our hiking boots. We both wore our hiking boots to save space in the luggage, and take advantage of our TSA PreCheck status - no more removing shoes at security. On the plane, a 787 Dreamliner, we quickly shucked our boots until shortly before landing.
Upon the recommendation of the nurses in in the family (Howie & Linda) and other-family (Mary), we wore compression socks on this leg of the journey. They were quite comfortable and did appear to prevent lower leg swelling during the long sit across the Pacific.
After navigating our way through customs and immigration, we caught the hotel shuttle for what turned out to be the short ride around the parking structure. The Holiday Inn Airport had a room for us immediately so we were able to drop our bags there before arranging a taxi into the city center. I had been IM’ing our friend Alyce to coordinate a rendezvous at the Flinders Street Railway Station, so after a couple of tries, we were able to locate each other. We had a very convivial lunch at a bar across the street from the station.
After returning to the hotel by taxi, we returned to the room for a nap. I was a bit dubious about the wisdom of this and its impact on our recovery from jet lag. We slept from 1500 - 1900 when I awoke and roused Jonathan to go to dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. After a rather good meal (I thought) we returned to our room and hit the sack again.