Marci and Steve Go Back to Europe

Now, maybe my initial impression is all wrong. And I should say, right away, that we love Australia and Canada. And before I even go into comparing countries, I should probably start with the airport game. In all fairness, I admit Steve does not play or enjoy this game but it is one of my favorites when we travel to a foreign county. As soon as we arrive in the airport, I can't help but trying to guess who is a 'native' and who is perhaps another American or French or German visitor, without cheating and listening to their language. I try to zero in on the 'look'. It might be height, or color hair, or clothing. Sometimes it is a style, or lack of it. Once I get a feel for the local look, I guess and then try to listen to see if I was right.  Perhaps it's the common British background....and here is where the comparison with Canadians starts. Lots of blondes, kind of tall, casual dress ( no, real casual dress) lots of skin showing regardless of size or shap...

   Nothing quite like traveling for 30 hours, landing and immediately getting in an unfamiliar car, sitting on the wrong side and navigating your first roundabout within two minutes!  Luckily Steve had already thought about his philosophy of driving on the left called 'Follow another car that's not a rental', assuming that driving on the left was native for them. And it worked fairly well since it was only two roads from Cairns to Port Douglas. Never mind that every time you go to put on your turn signal, the windshield wipers go on and once you realize and turn them off, you put on the wrong turn signal anyway.                                            The good thing about the first drive was there were virtually no turns because as it turns out, the roundabouts, of which there are a considerable number, are easier. You do have to get used t...

With  118 years, tens of thousands of miles and hundreds of flights between us, we have finally arrived to First Class travel. It sure took us long enough and if we had to wait this long, we wisely picked the trip that took us the longest to plan and the farthest to get to.  We awoke Monday in Philly at the usual 6AM, headed to the airport by 3PM and arrived in Port Douglas, North Queensland Australia on Wednesday at 2PM, thats 62 hours, minus the time difference (14 hours), minus the sleeping in flight (6 hours) and minus the dateline crossing....which is the totally confounding part of the equation. Any way you do the math, it is quite a long journey but doing it first class made all the difference! We boarded our first flight to LAX on American Airlines and immediately it was apparent, as I had forecasted to Steve, that it was American in name only, that the plane, the service, was really still our old nemesis, USAir.  Sure the seats were wi...

Follow The Yellow Brick Road!!!!!  OR  We're Off to See the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz It's early morning, November 9th, Philadelphia. The sun is shining, Fall is crisp in the air. The house is clean, the linens freshly washed, the dishwasher unloaded, the fridge empty. The weekend had Shelby and David here, and  Sunday  dinner with Spencer for the last pre-trip kids 'fix'. It has to last a while. The car is sleeping soundly in the suburbs, there's no milk left for coffee, the bills are paid for months ahead. Itineraries are given out both for and to prevent emergencies, goodbye calls, emails and texts are sent and received. And we are packed! Again, each with precision in the same orange 24" suitcase from our last big adventure. Black and white color palette will reign, a repeat performance (let's hope it never goes out of style or good taste), shoes are always challenging and this time, along with rain gear and hiking boots for t...