Posts tagged travel
Australia!
 
 

In April, I went on a once in a lifetime trip to Australia!

I attended the Romance Author and Reader Event in Melbourne. The event was fantastic. I appreciated all the organization and planning that went into it, everything went smoothly (for me, at least; there were some Amazon glitches for some authors). I had my daughter as an assistant, and she was also organized and took a gazillion photographs, handled the payments, and multiple other tasks. I loved talking to readers! It’s such a special joy to talk face to face and I want to thank everyone who came by my table. I even got gifts!

 

Look at my beautiful banner!

 

There was also some sightseeing/research, because OF COURSE I now have to write an Australian hero! We spent one week in Melbourne. I love this city! The skyscrapers are beautiful. We stayed on the wharf and were able to walk along the Yarra River and have a drink and meals. We explored the business district with beautiful older buildings, the tiny lanes with graffiti, churches, and parks. We did some tours outside the city as well, including the Great Ocean Road, a walk through the rainforest, and Shipwreck Coast where the Twelve Apostles. The walk down to the beach where Tom and Eva were shipwrecked was magical. It had just rained so we were there alone and it was quiet and tranquil—almost spiritual.

I have to mention the coffee! At first we were surprised at how expensive it was, and how you don’t get refills. Then we tasted it and realized it’s all freshly made espresso. I ordered a long black each time, and OMG so delicious. I’ll never get used to a pot of drip coffee again!

 
 

There was also a lot of wine… that is orange wine I was drinking…

We saw the Brighton Bathing Boxes, then went to see kangaroos and koalas and wallabies, then the magical little penguins who come out of the ocean at dusk.

Then it was on to Sydney for a week. We visited the Blue Mountains and rode a cable car over the valley. Incredible. We took a ferry to Manly Beach, went to Bondi beach, Darling Harbour, and on our last day we shopped!

Things that did not impress me about Austraila:

I ate a beautiful shiny mandarin orange expecting it to be amazing, and it was tasteless.

We tried a Violet Crumble chocolate bar. It’ls like a Crunchie bar, which I LOVE but it had a funny taste.

Things that impressed me in Australia (Besides the friendly, polite people and gorgeous landscape and ocean)

Ordering your drink and/or meal from the QR code on the table. And I mean, you order your meal on the app and pay for it. In a few minutes someone brings you your wine, then your meal, and when you’re done you just walk out.

The coffee (as above)

The tap on/tap off on public transportation. We took the ferry, trains, and buses. We just had to use our credit card to tap on, then tap off when we got off. SO EASY

Free wifi everywhere (even on the beach)

No tipping (because I’m happy to know that people make enough money that tipping isn’t necessary)

The commitment to reconciliation—the tour guides were very open about Australia’s history of colonization and even used the term genocide to refer to how indigenous people were treated, which is very brave and honest and admirable.

 
 
What I'm Reading Wednesday
Greyound Summer by Nara Malone is keeping me reading as things heat up for Arie. Good thing I brought my laptop on my holiday!

I finished Strong Silent Type and went right on to Branded as Trouble, both by Lorelei James. Branded as Trouble had a couple both with interesting pasts. I really liked the way they understand each other's struggles.

Now I'm reading Bound by Love by TA Chase...

Will post more later about Vacation Day 5....

10:15 PM
This day was like a dream. I know it would be a better story if everything went wrong, but it was so good. So perfect.

This trip was to be our 25th anniversary celebration. Our kids insisted on coming with us (they're teenagers, 16 and 19) and even though we wanted this to be our trip, we let them come because, hey, we actually like our kids, and strangely enough, our kids like us. I don't know how many teenagers like to spend time with their parents, but ours do and we feel lucky - although sometimes we say "could we just have a couple of hours alone???" Well, today we got it - we left Santa Barbara around noon - left the kids there on their own. We drove through San Marcos pass, through ear-popping ups and downs, into the valley. We passed areas that were burnt during the recent fires. We drove through golden hills, dotted with curly green trees, and spotted at least three eagles soaring above.

We first went to a winery near Santa Ynez, so beautiful, (pix tomorrow - my official photog didn't bring his laptop to convert from raw to JPEG). Then we checked into our stunning boutique hotel in Solvang - French country furniture, dark walls, a fireplace - and the bed was very nice, too. :-) We wandered around town, bought a few Christmas ornaments ( we collect those from everywhere we travel), bought strawberries at the farmers market, then went back to the hotel for dinner.

Included in our hotel package was dinner and it was fabulous - and we got a free bottle of wine! So nice. After dinner we put on our robes from the room and went down to the hot tub. Met a nice couple whose kids were too young to leave alone, but they were getting pretty frisky in the hot tub anyway and ...well, it was hard not to, also. Two fireplaces lit up the hot tub area, so nice, and we had the lovely wine we'd bought earlier, with nice stemless wine glasses from the room.

I'd had an idea for a story kicking around in my head, but I've found I need to combine ideas - and today I got another idea, so I combined the two while I was floating in the hot tub - yes! Great story beginning...I haven't written at all while on this trip, but I'm still thinking about it....