Disney!

My feet are so sore!

This is a result of 4 days of traipsing around the many parks of Disney. They are all very scenic, and there are cool free shows (we saw an awesome Lion King show!), but a lot of the rides are more designed for kids. It is still tons of fun. Tomorrow we have our last day at Disney, and the next day we head to Cape Canaveral.

Here is a wicked video of me and Cara that we made at EPCOT:
The Future!

Universal, Cam the NBA Star, and Magic!

Yesterday we went to Universal Theme Park in Orlando. Last time I came here we just went to the Islands of Adventure half of the park (which has the bigger and newer rides), but this time me and Cara got a pass for the whole place, including the far more Old School Universal Studios. At Islands of Adventure we rode The Hulk Coaster, The Dueling Dragons, The Spider-man Ride, Doctor Doom's Fear Tower, and three water rides; Popeye's Lazy River, Dudley Do-Right's River Ride and The Jurrasic Park Log Ride. We did most of these wet rides earlier in the day, and we got soaked. There was not one part of us that was left dry. Luckily there was some Orlando sun out, and we dried relatively quickly(2 or 3 hours). We were able to get around the park pretty easily because I had been there before, so we sped through it.

We then went to Universal Studios, which was exciting for me, because I had not been there before. The Revenge of The Mummy Ride was sweet, basically an underground, pitch black roller-coaster, pretty scary! The streets were designed as a 1950's America, with old school cars and buildings. I tried to high five an evil egyptian Pharoah on Stilts, but he shunned me! We then did the Disaster Movie Experience, and Cara was chosen as a member of the movies cast as a "Young Athletic person with closed toed shoes on". Cara's role was to scream as she was washed down a river. The disaster was happening on a mock-up of San Francisco's BART subway system. WE can't leave that place, or its overly complicated public transport system! After this we went on the Jaws ride (which was in a boat, and we were afraid of getting wet again), the ET Ride, the MiB Ride and the Simpson's Ride. It was a lot of fun. We then had linner at some cafe in Universal, and it was terrible. Then it was time to take a bus for 1.5 hours into the city center of Orlando to watch our game!

It was a match-up between the 2nd place Boston Celtics, and the 3rd place Orlando Magic. I am a fan of both teams, who are both awesomely good, however when we went to the merch desk I saw that they had a $10 Orlando Magic t-shirt. So Cheap! So I got that along with a headband. I put both items on.

Before the game they chose "big Orlando Magic Fans" from the stands to come out on court and pass, dribble, lay-in and shoot the basketball. They chose me because of my Orlando Magic fan disguise. So I got to step on an NBA court! I was so excited! There was a guy in a Magic jersey on stilts, and he gave me a high five! At last! Then it was me and a bunch of tiny kids dribbling and passing. They set-up a lay-up line and I did a reverse lay-up which the courtside commentator commented on. Then we shot a free throw, a 3-pointer and a pull-up jumper and I misssed them all. 18,000 people watching you shoot kinda makes you rush your shot a little, and my form wasn't too good. Those are my excuses anyway.

The game was awesome! The Magic were winning by around 10 points, and up to 13 at one point. But by the end of the game the Celtics had come back and there were only 2 points between them. Paul Pierce of the Celtics got the ball with 1.6 seconds left and lofted a three pointer. It flew, it flew, and it missed. Magic won! Magic won! And as a result they overtook the Celtics as the 2 seed in the East by 6 1000's of a percent.

Today we go to Disney! We may not have free internet there, so the updates may be less frequent for a week or so. Woo!

We're in Orlando!

We have made it to Orlando! Woo!

We had an awesome dinner tonight, I had Babyback ribs, and Cara had a Rattlesnake Pasta. I washed it down with some coke and an icecream choc brownie sundae. Oh Yeah!

Tomorrow we go to Universal Studios and watch an Orlando Magic game! Yeehaw!

Also I forgot to mention it, but I saw the main guy from TV show Psych at the MGM Grand when we were in Vegas. I didn't say hello because it looked like it had taken him ages to grow out his beard to use as a disguise.

San Francisco Addendum

Today me and Cara went to Alcatraz while Hourann went to work. We also got a prepaid phone so that we can call cabs and the like when we need it. And we bought Hourann a wicked San Jose Sharks T-Shirt to thank him for hosting us so awesomely.

Tonight we have relaxed and planned the Orlando leg of the trip somewhat. While doing laundry, eating ice-cream, watching cable Tv and drinking wine. So civilised.

What I had forgotten to mention:
- Hourann was very welcoming, in fact he must have said "Welcome to San Francisco" at least 55 times. We appreciated it.
- We are being stalked by Britney Spears. As part of her comeback series of concerts she is performing at the MGM Grand in Vegas (where we stayed), and the HP Pavillion in San Jose (where we saw the hockey). Will we escape her in Florida? Who knows?

Nighty night.

San Fran with Hourann

After returning successfully from our Vegas trip, it was time for us to explore San Fran with Hourann (see how that rhymes).

On Friday night (after returning from Vegas), we met Hourann in the airport. He asked us if we would like to go out with him that night, but we were tired from our travels, and declined. We made it home to Palo Alto, all chipped in and cooked a stir fry, before chatting with one of Hourann's housemates. His name was Brian and he works on electric cars at a company called Tesla. So cool.

All the housemates seem to be people who are either currently doing, or have recently completed, pHD's at Stanford. They talk about traveling to Africa to basically save ghuman lives and do ground-breaking research. Very interesting, but a little difficult to relate to? But they are all super friendly and fun to converse with.

On Saturday we went into San Jose (Do you know the way to San Jose? I've been away so long, I may go wrong and lose my way.) to watch an ice hockey game between the San Jose Sharks and the visiting Dallas Stars. We were going for the Sharks. The beginning of the game was very exciting with shark shaped Zambonies, and a shark shaped entrance archway for the players. Dallas scored the first goal, which put us on edge, but San Jose scored the net couple of goals to take the lead. In the final period the sharks were up 4-2 with a few minutes to go, and the Stars pulled their goalie to put an extra player on the ice (to increase their chances of catching up). This of course led to San Jose scoring an easy goal, and they we ended up winning 5 goals to 2. It was definitely a highlight of the trip.



We were accompanied to the game by Hourann and his workmate Brad, who drove us to the game and gave us a short driving tour of San Jose. He was pretty funny, but pulled fun at the buildings and stuff in San Jose as they are a little underwhelming. He then dropped us off in a park (which may have been called Alamo Square?). This park is the park that the Full House cast run around in during the opening credits of the show! And we could see the Full House house just across the street. Me and Cara got a photo outside of it.


Then we went on a bus to see the golden gate bridge. We took touristy photos of us in front of it, and we walked up to the first tower before turning back. It is quite an awesome sight to behold.


Following our bridge experience we walked some of the steeper streets of San Francisco, saw a statue of Yoda at a LucasFilm workplace, explored a swanky suburb, explored The Mission (Hourann's favourite nightlife spot), had Mexican food while being quite close to Mexico(relatively), and had a drink at a trendy bar called Elbow Room. We then took the train back to Palo Alto, where we walked in the rain for 15 minutes back to Hourann's place. We were pretty soaked.


Today we woke up and traveled into the city again. We attempted to go on a boat to Alcatraz (but it was booked out until tomorrow, and so we booked it in for tomorrow), we explored Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 (where there were a bunch of Sea-Lions, just hanging out), and I got In-n-Out Burger. It was delicious. We then had some appetizers at the hard rock cafe for lunch and rocked out to the cool music videos. We explored Golden Gate Park and Haight-Ashbury (the old 60's hippy district). We rode on the trams and the cable cars (which broke down), before heading home to have some Chinese food in Palo Alto and sit on the internet for a few minutes.

And that is you basically all caught up.

VEGAS BABY!

As I expected, I have been doing so much stuff that I haven't had a lot of time to blog about it. But rest assured that Cara and myself are still happy, safe and having a wonderful time.

I may go light on the details here, cause a lot has happened, and I wanna have some stories to tell you when I return.

Since you last left us we have spent a day exploring San Francisco, getting confused by the public transit system, and marveling at the bay. We took a train to Oakland and watched the Golden State Warriors take on the LA Clippers. The Warriors won, and it was good to be part of a home winning crowd. We flew to Vegas and checked in at the MGM Grand on the strip. We went and saw Penn & Teller's magic show on the first night, I played in a poker tournament this morning, and we saw two Cirque Du Soleil shows today.

Now, some pictures:
The view from our hotel room:


The lion enclosure(you heard right!) at our hotel:


Me and Cara with Teller:


Cara and I with Penn:


Cara and Julius Caesar:


Cara and I at The Bellagio:


The Fountains at The Bellagio:


I have enjoyed Vegas sooo much!

America!

We got let into the USA, and have spent a day in San Fran with Hourann. Today we fly to Vegas!

Snow

For the first time - that I remember - I got to play in the Snow today!

Cara and I got up this morning and trekked through Vancouver to the north-side to catch the Sea-bus across the water. We then took a bus up the mountain, and a suspended gondola up to the peak.

There was a lot of snow! It was super deep in places, and as I walked in it, I would sink down to my knees.

We went snowshoeing, which is basically hiking through snow with tennis racquets attached to your feet. It was pretty tough going, way harder than walking on sand. After about an hour, we were knackered. So we headed back to the Chalet, but not before I dove headfirst into the snow. It was cold, but I have no regrets.

We had nachos in the warmth of the Chalet, and I had a giant beer. It was probably about 1.5 pints worth, and it was Granville Island Honey Lager. Or Canadian BeezNeez.

We then headed back out into the cold and went for a sleigh-ride. There was also ice-skating on a frozen pond, but it looked pretty poxy. The pond was about the size of a 50 cent bit. So we resolved to not do it, but say we did.

Back in the awesome warmth there was an audio-visual presentation on Bears and Eagles. The combination of warmth, and the beer kicking in made me sleepy. I nearly fell asleep.

Then we made our way back down the mountain and checked out the Gastown district. It seemed pretty cool, but a little run down. Kinda like Freo.

We got some food from an IGA and went back to our hotel room to cook it. Now we are packing our stuff and getting ready to get up tomorrow later tonight at 2:15AM to get on a plane to San Francisco. Get ready to see us Hourann! We coming!

From Cam.

Propping Up The Economy

Hello again, from Canada.

I have a little more time now, so its time to give you another update.

While we were in Singapore airport, me and Cara had Burger King, I believe I told you about it last time. Well here we are eating and playing up:


We then got on the plane to fly to Vancouver, via South Korea. The plane left at around 3:30PM. We were far more tired than we thought we would be. There was an annoying little girl behind us who was sneezing, couging and snorting the whole time. We hoped she wouldn't be on the next flight - cause neither of us wants a cold before our big trip. I watched parts of Madagasgar 2 - Escape to Africa and Burn After Reading. But then I was really tired. I was thinking that I would maybe fall asleep. Then as I was talking to Cara we noticed a big lit up piece of ground outside the plane. It turned out to be a little town. We realised that we must be over land, was it Hong Kong? Maybe mainland China? Then we went over a giant city. There were so many lights, and it was truly awe-inspiring. The first great sight of our trip. We had a look at the little plane graphic on our screens, and saw that we were over Taiwan. We flew the length of Taiwan, and it was basically all cities. We stared out the window from Hsinchu up to Taipei.

We got to South Korea, and they took us off the plane, gave us tokens, and got us to queue up to go through security and board the plane again. I think they were just giving us something to do while they refuled. We got back on board. The annoying little sneezy girl with the cold was still seated behind us! Dammit! I watched Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and it was a pretty sweet movie. It got me a bt more excited about going to NYC. I fell asleep a few times on this leg of the trip, and I started to get stabbing neck pain and headaches. Yay for plane trips!

(But I did get some awesome bread rolls!)

We finally made it to Canada, and in the airport there seemed to be wood carvings of platypi everywhere. I said to Cara "Is that a platypus?", she agreed and noted it was weird to see in Canada. Just then a little kid behind us yelled "Beeeeee vurrrrrr", and we realised our mistake.

We caught a taxi to the hotel, and fell asleep. (In fact Cara has just fallen asleep as I type this, I think she is gonna take a little longer to adjust.)

Then this morning we got up, had our complimentary continental breakfast (Croissants!!!) and headed out (after about 15 minutes spent trying to figure out how to work the shower.)

We then did our best to battle the global financial crisis. We walked the - freezing - streets of Vancouver, and found a Roots store. I bought a jumper (which was so much warmer than my Australian one), and Cara bought two.

We then proceeded to look at a bunch of Hockey gear, some souvenirs, get Starbucks, get KFC for lunch (which was also labelled PFK - cause everything here is in English and French), look at more Hockey gear, buy me some new basketball shoes and get some t-shirts. We took the skytrain and looked at some more of the city. Then we returned home and watched Curling on TV! Also we have a little kitchen here, so I cooked up a pasta with boiled potatoes and pepper steak. So tasty, and it didn't cost too much: $9.64 Canadian for all the ingredients. Some stuff seems way cheaper (like pre-made pasta), and some stuff is way more expensive (like Juice).

Also today we saw it Snow. I think. Or maybe we saw it sleet. It looked like snow when it was in the air, but it turned to water the instant it touched the ground, or your hand. I think it was just snowing, but it was a little "warm".

Tomorrow we go to Grouse mountain, to snow-shoe, see the sights, toboggan, do a sleigh-ride and ice skate. Pretty exciting. If we have time we might go shop for more hockey gear in the afternoon, and go to GasTown at night to get our groove on!

Cam Out!

O Canada

We made it!

Right now Cara and I are sitting in our hotel room in Vancouver watching Ice Hockey on TV. And we are very tired. Everything went pretty smoothly, but I did not manage to stay awake for the whole trip as I had planned. We are just going to head out and maybe grab a snack before collapsing in our beds.

I will update you with more details tomorrow, but luckily for you I typed up some details of our Perth-Singapore leg while waiting in Changi airport. Here it is:

*****

Cara and I are sitting at gate A17 at Changi Airport in Singapore. We have just flown from Perth, and finished our lunch. Now we wait for our next plane, which will take us through to Vancouver via Incheon at Seoul, South Korea.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

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I went to bed at half past midnight last night, after working late , eating late and then packing late. For the past two weeks I don't think I have slept for more than 5 hours in one night. We got up at 4:15AM, re-checked everything and headed to the airport.

Mum, Dad, Auntie Moira, Nicola and Adam were all there to see us off. It was good of them to give us a wee sendoff at the Airport. Mum held it together surprisingly well, but got a little teary when Cara and I went through to be processed.

I had an aisle seat, with Cara next to me, and a lady called Maggie had the Window seat. We asked her where she was going, and she said (in a very hippy voice), that she was going to spend 2 weeks at a commune (Cara thought it was a wellness retreat) in India. She didn't seem like she wanted to talk to us overly much, so we tried to ignore her. This was hard as she pushed past us to get to the toilet about 5 times during the flight. I think that if you have a weak bladder like that, then maybe you should check-in early and make sure you get an aisle seat!

We landed at Singapore after 5 hours in the air, which was positive, because it was supposed to take 5.5 hours. However, because I had packed so many awesome distractions in my hand luggage, I was a little bummed that the flight came to an end so soon. I guess I will have a chance to read my novel/magazine/comic books on the next flight.

Cara and I explored a couple of Terminals of Changi airport, and it is truly a cool building. It feels like some kind of spaceport. It is so surreal to think that at this time yesterday I was having a coffee at work, and now I am on the other side of the equator in a shiny expansive building. The fact that I don't have to work for 8 weeks has started to hit me, and I am excited about it.

We were both feeling a little bit hungry, and so we went and had a look at the local food stores. At Burger King they had a burger with Turkey Bacon, and a rendang sauce burger. We decided that some Singapore-centric mutations of our regular fast food was worth it, so we went for it. The sauce on my Turkey Bacon burger was incredible, and by all accounts the diminuitive redhead enoyed her Rendang burger too.

Damn, I think our next flight might be boarding. I will update you guys soon. See you on the flipside of the Pacific.

Excitement

I am getting pretty damned excited about my impending world trip. I am starting to get some little butterflies in my stomach, and I am sure by Saturday morning they will be gigantic pteranodons.

In order to share my excitement with you, and to let you follow my amazing exploits, I have started this blog to chronicle my journey.

The first dilemma was simple: What do I call my new blog? I considered calling it The Hodliday, after an early invention of mine which me and my sister designed years ago. We basically drew the shape of a van from the side on view, and then drew a floor plan inside. It was a giant mobile home, albeit one with some gravitational problems. We called it the Hodliday. However I figured that this title would only be fitting if I was driving around in a Winnebago.

The next choice was to take the easy way out and choose some lyrics. I decided to go with the first sentence of the song Holiday by Weezer; "Let's Go Away For A While", but someone had already grabbed letsgoawayforawhile.blogspot.com. I tried letsgoaway and awayforawhile but they were taken too. Goawayforawhile was not taken, but seemed kinda rude.

So I had to resort to tired old gags. You know the oft-repeated comedy bit where the comedian says something along the lines of: "I just flew in from New Jersey last night", pauses for effect and then delivers, "Gee! My arms are tired!". It seemed just Fozzy Bear enough.

So my new blog is titled "Let's Go Away For A While", and can be found at the url: http://GeeMyArmsAreTired.blogspot.com

And I am so excited about my trip that I just wasted about half an hour thinking of a name for this blog. Now to start preliminary packing.