Photography

While we were in Maui we came across a gallery of work by Australian photographer Peter Lik - his work is amazing, the colours that he captures are stunning and I was totally sold on his work, a very impressive gallery.

When we were in Oahu we came across another one of his galleries in Waikikki and had to go in and have another look at his work - some of his pics were the same and some different - I can't begin to tell you how good this man is with a camera -

We were in Las Vegas at Ceasars Palace and came across more of his galleries - actually there are three that we found in Vegas - we sat on one of the leather couches he has in his galleries and looked thru his coffee table books of Australia and other parts of the world, he has this amazing way of displaying his photography to the max, these galleries have to be seen to believe but really makes you want to grab your camera and go shoot some shots, we will definately be going to his gallery in Noosa next time we are in Qld.

Do yourself a favour and check out the link

http://www.peterlik.com/

I am sure you won't be disappointed.

Coffee Table Book 2

I have just received my second book and I am very very pleased with how both of them have come out - have a couple of pics in first book that are a bit dark but not to worry they are all ok and I have a beautiful reminder of our holiday and now we can share it with everyone.

I know how special that holiday was for us and never take any of it for granted - when ever I am feeling a bit flat all I have to do is pick up one of the books and let the memories take me back !!!!!

My 1st Coffee Table Book

Well with the trip well and truely behind me I didn't want my pictures to just stay on the computer or on a disc so I decided to put together my first coffee table book titled - Rhapsody of the seas - Sydney to Hawaii with lots of pictures of our cruise and time in Hawaii

I am soooooo please at how it has turned out that I have now just finished book no 2 - Colour your imagination - showing pics from Las Vegas - Florida and Anaheim.  It is going to be so colourful that I can't wait for it to be printed.  I have enjoyed putting these two books together and hope that maybe I can do some more at a later date.

Home

Well now we are finally home after our last stop for 3 nights in Anaheim - it was great to get back to Disneyland and have that special feeling that I think Disneyworld lacks, not that I am saying it wasn't good in Florida it's just that Anaheim has the feeling and the magic of Disneyland.

The weather there was reasonably cooler than we have had on our other visits and it sent us to the bottom of our bags for jumpers to put on.

We flew home with V Alantic and they were great - no complaints, the flight was as could as it could get but still 15 1/2 hours is a long time.  We landed on Thursday last week at 5.30am and was out thru customs by 6.15am, and Courtney was there to greet us.   It was sooooooooo good to see her again and get back home.

Saturday we had a catch up dinner with the family and it was great to be able to talk about the time away and have a laugh or two.

Well now my next job is to go thru my photo's and pick the ones that I really like and I am going to put them into a coffee table book for everyone to see - because we had such a great holiday it seems a shame to leave them on the computer and only look at them once in a while, so will work on doing the book.

I hope you have enjoyed our journey and the pics that I have posted and hope you will follow our next one next year to ??????? gotta think about that one.

Love Linda

Going from Las Vegas via Phoenix to Orange County

Today we are on the move once again - this time we are  flying from Las Vegas to Phoenix, then we catch a allflight to Orange County Anaheim.

Our luggage has started to grow - as now we have more bags and harder to get from one place to another with all these bags thru airports.  Doesn't really matter because we have only one more flight after these and then we are home.

The V Atlantic flights is 15 hours 35 minutes long - which is quite a stretch - but each hour I will be counting down until we land at Melbourne at 5.30am Thursday morning.

It's strange looking around this airport at the different types of people catching flights.

Just across from me is a woman with 2 little girls with their hair all braided and all wrapped in rags - it looks cute but I thought that sort of thing went out years ago.  Then there were the two ladies who sat opposite me and had their lunches - one woman was so big she nearly took up two seats and she had these huge dark sunglasses on and her hair was so enormous it stood out like anything - when they had enough of their food they just got up and walked away leaving the remains of their lunches on the seats - what pigs.  There are people like me who are just trying to pass the time on their laptops and others going to sleep.

We will be glad to get to Anaheim and into our room.  We think that we might go to Disneyland tomorrow as they have the fireworks on tomorrow night and that is  always good - then we can just walk across the road to our hotel - don't have to worry about buses anymore.

Grand Canyon

Our bus picked us up at 6.40 am today for our journey out to the west rim of the Grand Canyon - it was the perfect day weather wise for the trip - we passed the Hoover dam and saw the new bridge they are building to cross over the Hoover dam to ease the traffic that it has - its an amazing sight and should be open in November this year - they say it is going to make a huge difference to the traffic flow.

We stopped miles away from the canyon and had to change busses to go into the canyon - 10 miles of dirt road - but well worth the bus trip - when you start to see it you just can't believe the length and beauty of it all.

Mick and I did our walk out onto the skywalk - 4000 ft above the canyon floor - the skywalk has a glass floor so as you are walking you see the canyon below - a sight that will stay with me for a very long time.  We had pictures taken out there and just stood and took it all in,

Once we had finished there we could walk around for a while and take our own pics - only Mick nearly gave me a heart attack as he went right to the very edge to look over - no way would I go anywhere close to the edge to see what was down below - I kinda know - a 4000ft drop, but he loved it so I took some photos of him on the edge from the safety of a few feet back from the edge.

We had some indians do a dance for us and they were in there native costumes - very beautiful

We never got home till 7pm that night so we were exhaused but glad that being this close to the canyon we actually visited it

Vegas by night

Tonight we took a stroll along the Vegas strip and the camera loved it all - we went and watched the fountain at Bellagio dance to music -

Because it was so windy and some of the shows were cancelled we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and looked out over Vegas.

 

It was absolutley amazing - it only goes up half as high as the real tower but the views were stunning, hope you enjoy Vegas thru my eyes.  I have had the absolute best time taking photos everywhere, Mick is probably sick of the camera all the time but the memories we will bring back to share with everyone will be well worth it, everywhere you look its another photo opportunity, hope you enjoy them as much as I do taking them.

Florida to Las Vegas

Today we said goodbye to Orlando and headed for the airport for our flights to Houston  and then onto Vegas.

It took us 2 1/2 hours from Orlando to Houston flying Continental Airlines - they gave us lunch and we had free access to the latest movies and sit coms while we were flying, which helped pass the time - we had to set our clock backwards

 

We had 90 minute stop over so went and had a quick bite to eat and then back on the plane - this time for 3 hrs to Las Vegas.  W.e flew over the Grand Canyon and it is such an amazing sight - you look down and see the Colorado river flowing thru the canyon and it simply looks awesome, and seeing the Hoover dam from the plane is pretty spectactular

When we finally got off and came into the main terminal building you will never guess what greated us !!!!!!!!

All these slot machines all neatly in rows just as you walked off the plane - then we had to go and take a shuttle to the baggage pickup and there were more slot machines all neatly lined up as you waited for your luggage to come.   Only in Vegas could you see anything like that.

We got a shuttle to our hotel and we were really pleased when we checked in and they told us that we were on the 35th floor looking out over Vegas.  The hotel is really nice - its the Grande Chateau Marriott and has everything that we need - it even has a roof top pool & spa & bar and the view from the top is fantastic.  Hopefully tomorrow night I will take the camera up there and do some shots to show you all how pretty it is.

Well I am going to go to bed now as I have put my clock back so many times today - the clock is telling me one time but my body is telling me another, goodnite

Friday - just a lazy day

Today we made a lazy day as we have been on the go all week going all over the place so today we just went to a shopping outlet and did a bit of shopping - not too much - but they did have a GAP store and I just had to get my boys something from there for them to wear when we go out on our friday trips to the park or over to K Mart - they are going to look just toooooooooooo cute

We havent got that much stuff this time as its all about us being able to see everything and bring home pictures for everyone to look at and enjoy - well maybe some of you may enjoy them and some of you will be bored sick but thats life - bad luck

Tomorrow we have booked a car to take us to the airport early so we can get checked in and then have a coffee and wait for our flight - rather be early than rushing for time.

Spent some time by the pool this arvo and Mick went for a swim - it was so nice just to sit and enjoy the surroundings for a while.

Animal Kingdom

Well today was an early start as we had to catch the one and only bus at 8am and we had to stay at the park all day as there was only one pick up at 6.20 to our hotel - mind you the park closed at 5 - can't work out there bus system to only have one drop off and one pick up to the park - if we had got a taxi it would have cost a fortune so we had to bide our time at the park till the bus came.

It was better than I thohught it would be  - the animal kingdom show was absolutely amazing - its like something you would expect to see in Vegas - unbelievable

There was plenty to do all day walking around looking at the animals - you should have seen the baby gorilla - its only 9 weeks old - cute cute cute

I have taken plenty of pics but havent downloaded anything yet - you might have to wait till tomorrow to see some pics as its been quite a long day and all I want is a shower and bed -

Magic Kingdom

Today we went to Magic Kingdom which is based on Disneyland - it was sooooo good to walk down Main St and see the castle. 

We had a great day exploring the park and going on different rides and doing a bit of shopping - we are not buying much as there is really nothing new that we already haven't seen or done but its great just the same

We spent the day there but left before the fireworks because we had to catch the mono rail back to the car park and then get the bus back to the hotel but there wasn't much time at all - so if we had missed the bus we would have had to get a taxi which would have cost us a fortune and we didn't want that to happen - also we will be in anaheim and we can do the fireworks there and its just a walk across the road to our hotel and we are home - we dont have to rely on any transport.  Also we did see the fireworks at Epcot - that was absolutely amazing to see and we are more than happy with that.  Very tired after the day at the park so having an early night as we have animal kingdom tomorrow

Epcot

Yesterday we went to Epcot - I am sure all of Disneyland would fit into Epcto - it is soooooo big, we spent the full day there and waited till night time for the fireworks to happen.

We wnt to an are called Land and its around this massive lake and there are countries from all over the world that you can go and see the high lights of that country - of course they only have the main ones and you guessed it - we were not one of them, but there was Mexico - Norway - England - Canada - China etc, very interesting to see.

We went on a few rides - the weather was in the high 90's and apparently their weather for this time of year is generally around 65 - 75 so it is way hotter than normal.

The fireworks were unbelievable - only in Disney can they do fireworks like these - should send Robert Doyle over here to show him how it is really done,

I was amazed to see how many people with really young children there today first of all considering how hot it was and secondly these were really small kids, some were only a couple of months old - why on earth would you take a child there - and some of the sights you see - ?????? that's for when I come home.