Rainbow Beach

Friday, August 23, 2013

Rainbow Beach

 I thought you would enjoy seeing some photos of this gorgeous place, Rainbow Beach, where we recently attended a wedding. It is about a three hour drive north of Brisbane and I had never been there!! From where we stayed it was about 2 kilometres to what they call the 'coloured sands' which you can see in the distance. I didn't walk there as I needed to conserve my energy for the wedding and as I was still dancing at 12:30 am I'd say it was a good decision. lol
A lot of people travel on this beach by 4 wheel drive to see the sands.
I couldn't believe it when I saw this Pandanus tree growing horizontally. They are a tough tree, but this one is the toughest I'd say!!
Lesley

 

Carlos Blow

Friday, August 23, 2013

Carlos Blow

 

 

It's me again!! On the day after the wedding, despite my late night fancy dance moves and consequently, sore feet, I was determined to see this place at sunset. It is a natural sand dune named by Captain Cook. The last photo was taken from a wooden platform, but there was no way I was just going to stand there and look. Nope, off came my shoes and I raced along the sand to the front overlooking the ocean and then realized the sun was setting faster than I anticipated so had to take off towards the west and this is one mighty big sand dune. Well you should have seen me racing well, OK ,plodding, off along the sand in my good pants and top, but oh well.....

The sunset was certainly worth it. I couldn't believe the colours. Just magic.

(Oh son number 1 said the sunset photos were alright except for the sunflare and I should have done something about that!! ) I thought I did well just to make it across the sand. lol

 

IndiAnapolis part two

We caught the shuttle bus over to our hotel then after a couple of paracetamol for me we caught a taxi to the Metropolis shopping centre looking for sheets , Donna etc for Catherine. Nothing there so rang our same taxi driver who took is into the citymtomthe circle centre. Still didn't buy sheets Donna etc but Catherine added to her luggage seeing as her suitcase won't be weighed again. We didn't have the correct money to pay the taxi driver so he told us not to worry and just pay him whe we rang him to take us back to the hotel. Very trusting but them I remembered he had our hotel and even our room number. Downtown was quite vibrant is I am sure Catherine will have some interesting outings there.

Ps it is a little like Charters towers here!!
Lol

Off to Lafayette today. There is a Walmart there so will buy the sheets, Donna. Towels..........

Indianapolis

After our departure from Washington yesterday we have made it to Indianapolis. I have come down with cold so spent Friday in bed sleeping all day. Gee, did I ever feel sick. It honestly is years since I have a cold. I could feel my body starting to breakdown when my energy levels were lowering rather dramatically.

Anyway, enough of that.

We were picked up by our trusty super shuttle bus yesterday and after nearly an hours drive arrived at Washington DC airport. When we checked in at another airport forget which one we were told if we checked in curbside we had to pay for our luggage but if we checked in inside we didn't so I asked at curbside and inside and was told we would have to pay except if we had privileges , so imagine my delight when we checked in curbside so skipping the inside cue and discovered our luggage was in fact free again!! Catherine's suitcase weighed just under the 50lbs and mine was 44lbs but she informed me she had some of my gear. Anyway, we were lucky
It then took us one and a half hours to,get through security, catch the shuttle train to our gate etc.
Still had time for some breakfast and it was into our plane. It was an express plane with one row of seats on the left and two on the right. A bit bigger than the one we fly on Townsville to cairns.

Washington DC

Really enjoyed the train trip here from New York. Very comfortable as we perched there in our seats using the wifi. The trip was about two and a half hours but flew by quickly.

As soon as we arrived at our hotel Catherine had me marching out the door quick smart. We started at the Capitol Building, checked out the Supreme Court, Congress library and we then walked for six hours. We went from there right up to the Lincoln Memorial checking out all the various monuments along the way. There is quite a bit of maintenance occurring so the mall wasn't the usual expanse of green but is cluttered with mounds of dirt , equipment etc. It is quite spectacular to see it all even for me who has seen it all before. The heat and humidity is knocking us around somewhat but we persevered. Enjoyed a wonderful meal last night.
 I had prepurchased tickets for the hop on hop off bus so today we joined the yellow line and went up into the Georgetown area. Love the homes in that area. Catherine wanted to checkout the uni there so we marched up there. I found a restroom in the library. Finding restrooms being something I am becoming particularly good at.

After a wander around there we rejoined the bus and continued over to the mall area to start on the museums. They are so huge that there is just too much to take in.

We were both happy to hop back onto the air conditioned bus after a long hot day to bring us closer to the hotel from where we would have a fairly short walk back BUT the bus broke down. Overheated just like us. Well I soon found a coffee shop, Catherine found H and M, Zara, Forever21and had a bit of a shop and we walked back to the hotel.

I told catherine that I was done for the day.  I love the gardens around here. Especially love the planter boxes with the tiered planting. So lush and colorful. There was one planter that had the most spectacular hibiscus growing. Absolutely enormous. The trees are beautiful.

It is a  pretty city and easy to navigate . Love the streets that are named after letter. E.g. K street, c street. Discovered when navigating our way home last night that there isn't a j street.

Of course we checked in at the white house on our walk back to the hotel. Not sure if Obama is home. I would say he is holidaying somewhere lovely and cool.

9/11

As I had booked our visit to the 9/11 for Monday at 10:30am we caught the metro downtown, had a wander around the financial district, had a coffee in a very pleasant cafe that most importantly had a restroom, became slightly disorientated after leaving the cafe, but did then make it to the memorial site on time. Bags were checked and we were through security and into the site. I actually found it very emotional. The tv images of that day are so vividly imprinted on my mind and to think that so many lost their lives at this spot. I took photos of the place but didn't think it appropriate to do what a lot of visitors wre doing and that is take photos with us in the photo. It is a beautiful area with trees and grass areas. Most amazingly there is the survivor tree still standing strong with support ropes but still standing defiantly there. The new towers are being constructed and to see trinity church still there havingmsurvived that day was a message of hope and strength. Yes I am pleased that I went as that day needs to be remembered by the whole world. Having been to the photographer, Sassans exhibition provided the images so that I could see beyond what is now there to what was there. His exhibition so worth seeing. So many artifacts that he collected, including dolls, phones, shoes tickets, not it wasn't macabre but well done. Seeing a piece the only found piece of the plane was eerie. Seeing glass from the buildings windows was eerie. Apparently only enough glass to fill the boot of a car was recovered. The rest returned to sand.
I feel sassan, and I am going to have to check the spelling of his name, was the only photographer allowed into the site. He found it tough . What an understatement!
We didn't linger at the memorial.
But left th visit of course, the court houses. We meandered to what was the civil court, checked my camera in, went through security and wandered around admiring the beauty od the entrance ceiling, peeking into a few courtrooms and oh! Most importantly discovering a restroom.
I loved the architecture of these buildings .
It was then time to walk to Soho where I must admit I did get cranky with Catherine who managed to spend an hour inTopshop while I sat in the shoe section and waited. When we eventually left I then discovered another Bloomingdales was just down the street. Not that I was going to be buying anything else though.

More shopping

Aha!  Bloomingdales helped us recover from the heat, read previous entry. It was Air conditioned, there were great clothes. Oh , happy happy was me!!!!!! We Checked out some surrounding shops an the walked back to our hotel via 5th avenue. ll the jewels had been taken out of the shop windows so we will have to return to see them.    
Oh yes food. One of the shop assistants told us Bout the yoghurt on the seventh floor so off we trekked. Yes worth the trip. Oh and of. Ourse getting the visitors ten percent off our purchases is a great incentive. Think of All the money I M saving!!!!!!!!