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| Lazy W in the travel lift |
The haulout of Lazy W
went without a hitch on Thursday, September 15th. (We were lucky to be the second haulout of
the day – we later learned that subsequent haulouts were postponed due to
mechanical issues with the travel lift.)
She is now in winter storage at Great Lakes Marina in Muskegon,
Michigan. Sensing Frank’s apprehension
at leaving the boat behind, the good folks working the yard made a point of
reassuring him that Lazy W would be
well cared for over the cold winter months.
I am a bit worried about the Captain as he has never been separated from
the boat for such a long timeframe – what will he do without a list of boat
chores to keep him occupied? I am not
positive, but I think I caught a glimpse of him giving the boat a pat on the
stern as she sat cradled in the travel lift. Maybe I should be more worried
about that!
With Lazy W in dry
storage and the rented Jeep Cherokee filled to capacity with ‘stuff’ we thought
we could not live without over the winter, it was time for us to hit the road
and make our way to New Windsor. We had
staged some luggage and other travel items for our trip to Australia at my
mother’s place when we last visited her in April. Time to collect it and prep for our next
adventure.
We found ourselves stopping overnight in Toledo, Ohio and
Clearfield, Pennsylvania. Clearfield was
clearly the more interesting stop only because it is the home of the world
famous Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub. Denny’s
is famous for two things – making the world’s largest burger (final weight -123
pounds when the specially made bun and all the toppings were added) and hosting
burger eating challenges and competitions. Single eater challenges pit one
person against 2-, 3- and 6-pound burgers.
Double eater challengers can try their luck against 15- and 25-pound
burgers. There were no challengers the
evening we visited but who wouldn’t have wanted to be here in 1966 when 19
year-year-old Kate Stelnick, weighing just 100 pounds, ate the 6-pound burger
dubbed “Ye Olde 96er” within the three hour time limit? When all the toppings were included this
whopper weighed in at 11 pounds! If you
want to give it a try, remember Denny’s requires 24-hour advance notice!
Mom was glad to see us, her gypsy daughter and once favorite son-in-law. We took her out to Octoberfest at Black Forest Restaurant and met my sister and Jim (Frank’s competitor for favorite son-in-law title) for dinner another night. We packed and were ready to roll on Wednesday, September 21st.
Mom was glad to see us, her gypsy daughter and once favorite son-in-law. We took her out to Octoberfest at Black Forest Restaurant and met my sister and Jim (Frank’s competitor for favorite son-in-law title) for dinner another night. We packed and were ready to roll on Wednesday, September 21st.
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| Mom and I with Lenny at Black Forest Restaurant Octoberfest |
After 21 hours of flying time and many more hours of waiting in airports, we finally made it Down Under on September 23rd. As we approached Sydney International Airport aboard the 787 Dreamliner, we could see the iconic Opera House where we saw The King and I and the Sydney Harbour Bridge looking less intimidating than it did when we climbed it two years ago!
Thanks to e-passport, we transited Australian Customs and
Immigration without having to speak to even one human Australian
official!?! Insert your passport into
the electronic reader at the kiosk and receive a ticket; proceed to the
turnstile where you insert your ticket; stare into the overhead camera with
face recognition technology and, if all goes well, get your ticket back; collect
your luggage and proceed through the turnstile where one agent takes the ticket
and scans your customs declaration form before pointing you towards your
exit. You are now free to roam around
Australia.
Since we had been to Australia two years ago, we planned
this trip to visit those places we had missed and, for the most part, to bypass
those places we had already seen. That
meant no time in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmania and Cairns. So we braced ourselves for yet another flight
and headed off to Canberra, the capital of Australia. Thankfully, it was less than an hour of
flying time.
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| Marion Mahoney Griffin and Walter Burley Griffin as depicted in the National Museum of Australia |
Prior to 1901 when the six states that comprised Australia
proclaimed themselves to be one nation, Canberra was a large sheep station known
as Canberry and far from anywhere. A
bitter rivalry erupted between Sydney and Melbourne to become the new seat of
government. In 1908 the Parliament
decided to choose a location between the two cities and named it Canberra, an
Aborigine word meaning ‘meeting place.’
In 1911 a worldwide competition to design the new capital city was
launched and the winning entry was submitted by American architects Walter
Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin.
He is the one whose name has been given to the lake dividing the
Parliament district form the Central Business District (CBD). The garden city vision of the Griffins included
leafy streets radiating out form Capital Hill in a wheel-and-spoke design. (No grids here and no numbered streets or
avenues make it very easy to lose your way.)
Surrounded by bush and farmland, Canberra looks less like a capital city
and more like a park with low-lying government buildings scattered about!
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| New Parliament House |
The site of Parliament House was conceived by Walter Burley
Griffin in 1912 but the Australians were obviously in no hurry to construct their
permanent seat of government. Instead
the government met in the temporary Old Parliament House from 1927 to 1988. The New Parliament House is a sleek modern
structure built into a hillside and topped by a 332-foot high four-legged flag mast,
one of the world’s largest stainless steel structures. It houses the Lower House of Representatives
(a large room done in the colors of the gum tree leaf), the Upper Senate House (a
large room done in the colors of the setting sun over Uluru), numerous huge
tapestries and thousands of works of Australian art. Prominently displayed throughout the building
is the Australian coat of arms featuring a kangaroo and an emu holding a shield
with the symbols of the six Australian states.
The kangaroo and emu are closely associated with Australia and were
chosen for the coat of arms by the forward thinking country because neither of
them can walk backwards.
While fall has just arrived in the U.S., spring has sprung
Down Under. The dogwoods are in bloom
and the other trees around Canberra have just begun to bud - quite a contrast
from the first tinge of fall color that we had left behind in New York. On the third official day of spring, we
attended Floriade 2016, the thirty-day floral event that transforms the grounds
of Commonwealth Park into a carpet of brightly colored tulips, irises, and
pansies.
The 640-foot communication tower, Telstra Tower, provides a
panoramic view of Canberra and the Brindabella Mountain Range. Unfortunately, the information posted at the viewing
windows was minimal and we had no idea what we were looking at. And if your guidebook tells you there is a
great revolving restaurant located in the tower, it must be outdated since the
restaurant closed three years ago!
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| Fluoride 2016 display in Commonwealth Park |
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| Telstra Tower |
At the National Museum of Australia we took in the traveling
exhibit from the British Museum – A History of the World in 100 Objects. 2 Million Years of Human History in One
Room! It is a beautiful and eclectic
collection of artifacts collected from across the globe – early stone tools, a
5,000-year-old clay writing tablet from Iraq, a 4th century pepper
pot, the chronograph from Darwin’s Beagle,
a sculpture made of decommissioned firearms from the Mozambique civil war,
United States presidential campaign buttons, a British tea set, a counterfeit
Chelsea FC (soccer) jersey, and a Saudi-issued credit card. We left feeling baffled by the selection
criteria! And dismayed that the cradle
of civilization which produced such beautiful and brilliant works of art is in
such upheaval today…
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| Bust of King O'Malley at the pub bearing his name |
A flamboyant figure in the history of Canberra is one King
O’Malley. Born in the U.S., he claimed
his birthplace was Canada in order to run for a seat in Australia’s Parliament. He is widely known for his role in the
selection of Canberra as the national capital and for the highly unpopular ban
on alcohol during Canberra’s early years.
He was known to refer to alcohol as ‘stagger juice’ and hotels as
‘drunkeries.’ So it is only fitting that one of the most popular bars in
Canberra’s CBD is the King O’Malley Pub!
Of course, we had to stop in for a look and a drink. Quotes from O’Malley are stenciled on the
walls along with highlights from his illustrious life.
Why are we hounded by credit card issues whenever we leave
the U.S.?? Just one day before our last
trip to Australia one of our credit cards was compromised, cancelled and then
reissued by USAA. This just happened to
be the credit card that handled all our automatic bill payments so we spent our
last night in San Diego scrambling to transfer all those auto-pays to another
card. Well, this year USAA decided to
upgrade our ATM access card two days before our departure, sending out both our
new cards and signaling their intention to cancel the ones in our possession
within 30 days! Frank hastily made
arrangements to have his card rerouted to the Brassey Hotel in Canberra and was
assured that the card would arrive in a timely fashion. NOT!
Our card has been sent to the Parliament House and is due to arrive
there the day after we depart Canberra!!! #%#%#
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| Aboriginal Memorial |
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| Looking down at Aboriginal Memorial |
We were so lucky that every day in Canberra was a gorgeous
spring day. On our last day we took full
advantage of the weather and walked along Lake Burley Griffin to the Kingston Foreshore
neighborhood to enjoy a great late lunch at Cinnabar, one of the many Chinese
restaurants along the lakefront. Tomorrow we fly to Ayres Rock!
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