Home Again and Gone Again



Goodbye Australia!



Sunset



Hello USA!



Everyone told me that coming home is a little harder to adjust to and I agree. It didn’t help that I had a cold prior to returning home and once you leave you just want to be home. But we made it home safe and sound.  As much as I loved being in Australia it was so nice to be welcomed home at customs and to see the American flag displayed. When we arrived in Detroit we saw a soldier and I asked him if he was coming home or heading out.  When he smiled his great big smile and said coming home it was a pleasure to shake his hand and congratulate him and welcome him home. I’m sure the feeling of arriving home was much greater for him than for me.

We had Sammy the cat greet us when we arrived home, although he wasn’t yet ready to warm up to us at first and acted  like we had abandoned him. He eventually warmed up and slept with us that night and many nights since and the first week he was my shadow and sought out our laps whenever we sat down. Now he is back to normal and he seeks us out only for food, play time or the occasional cuddle.



Sammy says, "I missed you!"



We were anxious to see all our mail that was placed on our dining room table and I had planned on taking a picture of it for the blog. But when our pet sitter brought Sammy home before our return, she kindly put it in a box to keep him from bothering it. In this electronic age it was mostly junk mail, the weekly town paper and magazines and Bob spent that evening putting it into piles of shred, recycle and read. It took one evening of shredding and just a few days to read all but one magazine.



Box of mail
(Sorry it's blurry, jet lag!!!!)



It has taken almost two full weeks to feel that I’m on U.S. time.  I now know why Bob said he would wake up in the middle of the night and be wide awake and unable to go back to sleep and why it wouldn’t take long once he sat down for him to doze off to sleep. Your body clock sure does get used to the time change after three months and needs to readjust.

We have had one 80⁰ Sunday where we were able to get back in our shorts and take a nice long walk. I’m still cold a lot of the time, but hopefully that will change quickly! It was hard to see how brown everything still is after experiencing summertime but it was good to see the robins and now the forsythia is blooming and I have seen a flock of geese heading north.

Although I miss the beautiful weather and would love to be on the plane with Bob now as he heads back it is good to be home and now he is gone I’m even more anxious to visit all my kids! 

Goodbye Australia!

I will miss….

           

The friendly Australian way

The Queensland spirit which persevered through floods, cyclones and more rains

The Salvation Army church and its’ people

Barbara and Graeme, the couple who first met us at church and showed us around

Barbara and Gordon, their good friends who became our good friends

mainly music with morning tea and those I worked with  

Watching the river, the people climbing the Story Bridge or enjoying the boardwalk below

Walking around the city
Sitting on the balcony

Watching Bob walk to work while praying for him and his day, rain…

            

or shine then watching for him to come home from work

Opening the curtains each morning and seeing the beautiful blue sky  
        

Watching the weather                                          

The names of places:  Woolloongaba, Toowoomba, Indooroopilly, Maroochydore

Venturing out with no particular destination in mind

The gym

and the pool downstairs

Walking to Woolies for groceries with my trolley

Eating at outside cafés

Walking down to Queen Street with Bob for an ice cream

                                                                                                                          

The beautiful sandstone buildings       
                                                                         

Riding the ferry  
                                                                                                                                     

The city lights and warm evenings                                                                                

The beautiful gardens

The Australian accent

Brisbane

Queensland (I did enjoy my stay!)

The Land of Oz

....Australia!!!!

I have loved living upside down and sharing all my adventures with you. After all this time I will have to get used to living on the other side of the world again, so I guess I may feel like I’m living upside down again. I definitely won’t be posting on a daily basis, although it was fun sharing and I have lots of material, it is a big job to do it so often. So stayed tuned, there may be more adventures coming…….

Counting My Blessings!

I can’t believe my time here in this beautiful country is quickly coming to an end. I have to confess I wasn’t sure I wanted to come at first and be away from home for so long and to take that long flight. If I was asked again, I wouldn’t hesitate to come back. The experience has been awesome. Despite the floods, cyclones and rains it has been the best time.  

                           
Blessing #1 – The blessing of being able to travel to Australia

First and foremost I was able to be here with my husband and to see first hand what he goes through on a business trip. I knew it was never easy. It may sound so glamorous to travel the world, but you can’t imagine how hard he works having to do one job while still keeping track of another job back in the States. Which is not easy with the time difference, it makes for late nights and early mornings and not a lot of time to relax. But we managed to squeeze in as much as we could on the weekends even though he had a weekly early Saturday morning call and reports that had to be submitted by Sunday evening.

Blessing #2 – The blessing of sharing new experiences with my husband

                                               

We bring back wonderful memories along with thousands of pictures of this land down under. The people are so friendly and welcoming and we made wonderful friends through a warm and inviting church.

Blessing #3 – The blessing of new, life-long friends



Diane, Barbara K, Jill, Dean
mainly music kitchen workers

My children keep asking me if I will continue my blog when I get back home. There are still many more stories I could tell and lots more pictures I could share. I’m mulling it over! My life will certainly be a little less eventful, but with a traveling husband, two loving sons with two wonderful wives, one granddaughter and another on the way there may be a story or two to share.  

Blessing #4 – The blessing of family

                                               

                                               



Beautiful View

I will miss this view!

Kangaroo Point and Kangaroo Cliffs

We look out everyday at Kangaroo Point and we have wanted to go over and see the view back to our building and see what the park looks like. The ferry terminal at the end of the point is still not open so we walked across the Story Bridge and to the end of Kangaroo point to Captain Burke Park. We did stop on the bridge so I could get a few pictures.

At one point on the bridge I looked up and thought maybe I could do the bridge climb. It didn’t look too bad and I was about halfway there already.  After all I did walk the gorge and survive. But when we were down in the park it did look an awful lot higher. I still think if I was here long enough and Bob’s ankle was doing well, I might give it a try. We did see the building where you go to take the bridge climb and saw how they get up to climb the bridge. It is a lot of climbing!

It was nice to see the park and it was a beautiful day. I could get used to this autumn weather of high 70’s to low 80’s and little humidity. We sat and looked back across the river and looked for our apartment. It’s so interesting to see things from a different view. We had seen it from the ferry, but now we could sit and enjoy the view. The city view looked different too. It was a very peaceful community and had lovely park areas. We eventually walked back down the point to another ferry terminal to catch one of the cross ferries back across to the city.

Also on Kangaroo Point are the Kangaroo Cliffs where you can climb the cliff walls and abseil back down. There is a park along the river where you can rent kayaks to take a ride on the river. Also on the cliffs is the City Lookout. We stopped there one day when we were on the Hop On Hop Off tour and took some pictures of the city.