The tooth fairy finds you everywhere...

Albuquerque zoo

Flamingoes



Which are the monkeys?



Starfish were the boys' favorite animals, voted on at the end of the day.



Polar bears are Janice's favorites.



Connor makes a new friend!



We took a train ride around the park.



They had the coolest random fountain.


Both boys were completely soaked. Luckily, it didn't take long to dry in the Albuquerque non-humidity.


At the end of a long, hot day of fun.

All across Texas

It was raining when we left Austin.

Stopped for a leg stretch in Brady and found a big gun what was uncaged.

The kids love big guns they can climb on.

Wind farms abound in West Texas.

Really.

The road goes on forever and the party never ends!

Pictures!

Ok, I've got the camera hooked up. Here are some long-overdue pictures...

UT-ID-MT

Yay, my conference is over! I was a discussant in a session on the last morning. It was weird...the exhibit booths were all torn down, about a quarter of the people that had been there the previous afternoon were there, but the session was pretty well attended. It was a nice series of talks on things like remote consulting and automating reports.

The plan had been to leave right away (10:30) and reach Butte, Montana by nightfall. Like most of our plans, this one immediately went differently. We didn't leave SLC until just before noon. We stopped at the Hill AFB Air Museum on our way out of town, since we missed it the day before by spending too much time on Antelope Island, in the Great Salt Lake. More on that later. We ended up spending 3 hours at the air museum. It was awesome. Besides a B52, B29, C47, and SR71, they had tons of other planes and lots of fun stuff for the kids, including 4 simulators. We spent most of our time in the simulators!

We got on the road about 3:30. And we almost made it to Butte. We're in Dillon, Montana and will head to sapphire country tomorrow. Pictures when I can...as usual...

Salt Lake City

After three long days on the road, and one short day at the Albuquerque zoo, we've made it to SLC. It was cold in the mountains and is hot here.

We forgot the SD card reader, so pictures will not be up today. I'll get them up as soon as I can.

West Texas is greener than we expected.

A cache we found just over the New Mexico border was blown up after we found it.

The Albuquerque zoo is cool. At the end of a hot day, we turned the kids loose on the playground and random (ish) water fountain scape.

US550 from Durango to out of the mountains is beautiful. We hope to see similar scenery in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. The countryside after the mountains isn't very pretty.

When you don't play guitar for 4 days, you start to lose callouses.

A New Adventure Begins

In a couple of weeks, we'll be off to more adventure. Stay tuned...

The Journey Home

What a holiday!!! It has gone by so quickly and also so slowly. We've seen many interesting places and met many interesting people. If any of you wants to see the entire slide show, complete with witty narration and brisket (along with vegetarian selections if you are of that bent), email me for an invitation. We're looking at a weekend in October or early November for a barbeque.

We had to buy a new suitcase (A$40=US$30!) to haul the boys home.


The flights went well, all the bags made it, and we're slowly recovering from jet lag. The kids keep asking when we'll go back and the answer is always "7 years."

Sydney

We did a bit of sightseeing around Sydney on our last day, visiting some of the places Di had been.

Clive Park is near where Di's grandparents lived. The boys had fun clambering on the rocks and looking at the boats.



You wonder what part of Sydney you're in now...

Barrington Tops

Barrington Tops is a national park with a few state parks scattered around, about 2 hours north of Sydney. We drove through on our way back down.

Here is the view from Thunderbolt's Lookout.


To the left


In the middle


To the right


Connor hitches a ride