April 2008

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April 1 , Tuesday - Gosnells

Like many former British colonies, the car steering wheels are on the right and people drive on the left.  The turn signal and windshield wiper levers are also reversed.  We found ourselves turning on the wipers to change lanes.

Black swans.

Meet the bird we named Toe Biter.  Inside the bird enclosure, this bird thought Betsi's painted toenails were food and gave her a peck hard enough to draw blood.  He kept following Jeff and his open toed sandals as he tried to take more photos.

Our main purpose for visiting the Cohuna Wildlife Park was to hold a koala.  We missed seeing a page on their website mentioning there was a 150cm height restriction to hold a koala and the kids were too short.  Annoying.  We would not have driven the 45 minutes to see koalas and kangaroos a second time, but I did get the best koala photos here.

All of the stores close by 5:30pm on weekdays and are only open on Saturdays on the weekends.  Stores at tourist destinations stay open longer.

April 2, Wednesday - Kings Park

Perth as viewed from atop of Kings Park.  I used a 16mm lens and cropped off the top and bottom parts of the photo.

A World War I and World War II war memorial are at the top of Kings Park.  Watch the video of sound traveling along the semicircular bench behind us (0:33, 2.5MB).

Ainsley poses for a picture after walking down and up Jacob's Ladder two times.  Ryan went three times and was FINALLY out of breath at the end.  Mr. Energy.

Ryan took this picture and Jeff cropped it.  The camera is too big and heavy for kids' hands, but he does a good job with it.

A picnic lunch at Kings Park.

The kids loved climbing to the top at one of the playgrounds near Kings Park.

The DNA Tower offers a view at about treetop level, but the views are better elsewhere.

The Old Swan Brewery on the Swan River as viewed from Kings Park (left) and inside (right).

Dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Villa Da Vinci.  The food was good and the company was great.

April 3, Thursday - Greg Baker, Mullaloo Beach

We purchased the three beautiful paintings of the Basin Over Longreach {Bay on Rottnest Island} from Greg Baker at his studio home in the Gooseberry Hill, about an hour southeast of where Andy and Tracey live. Andy and Tracey commissioned a painting of a sailboat from him for Betsi's Dad a few years ago.  Betsi's Mom has a painting of his of Rottnest Island.  The paintings are featured on his website below.

Greg is such a nice person.  He made time for us even though he is busy working on his next exhibition.  It didn't help when we purchased the three paintings which will officially be released in July.  There is such a demand for the three paintings that this is the fourth one he sold prior to its release.

Mullaloo Beach on the Indian Ocean a few minutes north of Hillarys.  The white sand beach and turquoise water is so beautiful.

Our last chance for ice cream before leaving Perth.

A neighbor's truck has a roo bar (kangaroo bar) on the front bumper and a snorkel for crossing deep creeks without cutting off the air to the engine.  All of the pickup trucks have short sides that fold down.

Constellation Orion (left) and the Southern Cross (right).  I've taken photos of Orion in Virginia (bottom of page) and Costa Rica and now Australia.  The Southern Cross makes up the 5 stars on the Australian flag.

April 4, Friday - Sydney

Our 5 duffle bags and 4 backpacks just fit inside our rental car.  All of our luggage was carry-on size approved even though we wanted to check as much of it as possible at each airport.  It forced us to pack light.  We traveled lighter than we've ever traveled despite being away from home the longest we've ever been away from home.  It was a drastic change for us and it worked.  For 30 days, all we had were 4-5 days of clothes and two swim suits.

Seconds after turning in our rental car at the Perth airport, the rental car driver backed into another car.  I took photos and had a note added to our contract at the rental car counter.  We were running behind schedule and were within 10 minutes of missing our flight to Sydney.  It takes a long time to get a few hundred people on several 747s through check-in and security.

Our next adventure was to take the double decker train from the Sydney airport to Circular Quay near the Opera House and walk half a mile (1km) to our hotel.  Because of the 3 hour time zone difference, the 4 hour flight took 7 hours on the clock.  We landed at 5:45pm and missed some great sunset photos.

Our friend, Brian, used his membership card to book a room for us at half price at the Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay.  Wow!

Our hotel room on the 28th floor (left) and a view of the Opera House (white area on the left) from the 30th floor Executive Lounge where we ate some appetizers before heading out to dinner.

Leaving (left) and entering (right) Circular Quay on the ferry.

The top two photos turned out much better than my August 2000 photo (left) of the Opera House.

On the ferry.

Some good pictures are accidents.  This was shot as a note to myself as to where the ferry landed for dinner.  I didn't intend for it to be more than that.  When I saw the photo several days later, I was surprised.

In August 2000, we took the ferry to Manly, walked to the end of a pedestrian area and ate dinner at a ribs place.  It took about 20 minutes of walking around and asking people to find out we were looking for a restaurant called Ribs and Rumps and we were supposed to go to the end of the pedestrian walk, turn right, and walk half a block.  Betsi is ready to pig out and the food was worth the wait.  The kids didn't mind that we had a 9:30pm dinner because it was 6:30pm in Perth.

The kids are having a good time on the ferry back from Manly.

April 5, Saturday - Sydney, Los Angeles

The overseas passenger terminal for cruise ships at Circular Quay 14 minutes before sunrise.  I wasn't too happy to have only 5 hours sleep, but the photos below were well worth it.

A cruise ship passed the Opera House and traveled under the Sydney Harbor Bridge a few minutes before sunrise.  There were a lot of camera flashes on the ship as it passed the Opera House.  I needed ISO 3200 and f/1.4 to get non-blurry shots of the cruise ship at 1/30 second.  Oh, well.

Sunrise at 7:07am.

The Sydney Harbor Bridge had bridge climbers ascending and descending before and after sunrise. Do you see the dots on top of the bridge in the photo on the right?  Ryan and I tried to walk the bridge climb, but it's a 3.5 hour event and we didn't have time before leaving at noon for the airport for our 2:20pm flight to Los Angeles.  Betsi wanted to shop at the Rocks Market and I wanted to take a photo of us in front of the Opera House too.  We would have done it if we had a second day in Sydney.  See our August 2000 photos of the Bridge Climb.

The Waterfront Restaurant (left) includes sailing masts.  Circular Quay in Sydney is between the Opera House (left of the buildings, not shown) and the Harbor Bridge (behind me to the right, not shown).

I wasn't the only photographer awake that morning.

Self portrait.

I came back to our hotel room 2.5 hours later.  The black roofed building by the water is the overseas passenger terminal.  The grassy area between the overseas passenger terminal and the bridge is the Park Hyatt Sydney where I took most of the sunrise photos.

Ken Duncan is a world famous Australian photographer.  Ryan and I later spent over an hour buying some posters and get quotes for two of his framed, limited edition photos.  They are beautiful, but expensive.  We have one of his photos hanging over our mantle already.  Ryan and I joined Betsi and Ainsley at the Rocks Market (right).  It's an open air market underneath permanent tent awnings.  The market is one block behind the sailing ship restaurant above near the base of the Harbor Bridge.  Ken Duncan's gallery is on the street leading up to the market as you walk from Circular Quay.  It's actually about a block from the market.

I wanted a photo of us in front of the Opera House.  Unfortunately, there was so much haze than any angle at any location would yield a substandard photo.  We were in a taxi headed for the airport 15 minutes after this photo was taken.

Our colorfully painted Qantas 747-400 on a cloudy day in Los Angeles.  The 12.5 hour flight was long, but two meals, ice cream, snacks, and individual monitors on the seats made the flight seem shorter.  I watched the movies No Country for Old Men and I Am Legend.  Betsi watched 27 Dresses, P.S. I Love You, Bee Movie and a part of Atonement.

We arrived in L.A. to find out our flight had been cancelled and were reassigned seats the following day to go from L.A. to San Diego to Dallas to Washington Dulles.  I don't think so.  We managed to get a 6:00am flight with another airline and spent the day and night at the Hilton.  We were so tired that the kids fell asleep in the hotel restaurant after lunch.

After a nap, a dip in the pool and hot tub, a pizza dinner in our hotel room, and watching the first part of the first Harry Potter movie, the kids were reluctantly ready for bed.  Watch the video of Jeff and the kids getting the giggles (1:27, 6.4MB). Jeff was up at 2:00am, as expected, and took the laptop downstairs to the 24 hour cafe in the lobby while everyone else slept.  He wasn't the only hotel guest awake.  It was nice to have a table, an electrical outlet, a muffin, and some drinks while editing the photos.

April 6, Sunday - Home, 3600 Photos

Getting up at 4:00am for a 6:00am flight was easy thanks to the jet lag.  We flew nonstop without any issues and were glad to be home and see Shadow again.  We need some groceries in the worst way.

Between the two cameras, we took about 3,600 photos during this vacation.

April 7, Monday

We all woke up at 2:00am, ate breakfast at 4:00am, and went back to bed at 5:00am.  We slept until 10:30am.  The kids had the day off for a teacher workday, Betsi worked from home, and Jeff went in late.

April 9, Wednesday

Jet lag sucks.  I got 5 hours of sleep Friday night in Sydney, 5 hours on the 12.5 hour flight to Los Angeles, 3 hours in our overnight in Los Angeles, 10.5 hours on Sunday night when we returned, 6 hours on Monday night, and 7 hours on Tuesday night.  In case you're counting, yes that is 6 nights in a 5 night period.  We crossed the international date line and regained a day.  I'm still waiting for my normal 7.5-8 hours of sleep a night.  After lunch is the toughest time to stay awake.  At first, we were all awake at 2:00am and ready to go for 18 hours straight.  This happened to a lesser extent in Hawaii and Australia too.  I was awake at between 2:00am and 4:00am two days in a row in Hawaii and two days in Australia.  Betsi and the kids have managed to get more sleep than I have.  I've been warned at work not to fall asleep while driving these next few days.  Recently, someone else in the company came back from South Korea and fell asleep behind the wheel in the latter part of the week.  She's lucky to be alive and recovering in the hospital with a broken body.

April 10, Thursday

My Canon 5D camera is off to Canon for cleaning after 7,500 shots (4,500 shots in the past 6 weeks).  There are some dust particles on the image sensor than the air blower can't remove.  Never touch an image sensor as there is a great chance of permanently damaging it.  I don't trust anyone but Canon to work on my camera.  Preparing a repair request was easy.  The camera was already registered online when I purchased it 5 months ago in November 2007.  I just filled out a repair request online, insured the package, and mailed it to the east coast repair facility in New Jersey.

April 11, Friday

This was the first time I hooked up the laptop to the HDTV and look at the difference!  Can you even see the laptop to the left of the TV?  The TV and laptop both have a VGA monitor connection and the photos looked better than expected at 1024x768 resolution.  It was an easy way to show our vacation photos to several people at once.  I used to set the laptop on the kitchen table and everyone would crowd around it.  Not anymore.

April 12, Saturday

I added video clips from the Hawaii and Australia vacation.  The links were also added on the appropriate day on the other web pages.

Ryan's impressions of the powered glider ride (2:08, 9.5MB).

Rob flying the Hawk (1:20, 5.9MB).

Rob after landing (3:44, 16.5MB).

Kids swim in the driving rain (0:46, 3.4MB).

Sound travels far at Kings Park (0:33, 2.5MB).

Kids get second wind at bedtime in Sydney (1:27, 6.4MB).

I used to take lots of video because it was nearly free.  Digital photos have replaced video for me.  I can get more photos on the website faster than video and photos take less hard drive space.

April 14, Monday

Our taxes are done and submitted with 24 hours left before the deadline.  Our state tax software was not ready for download before our vacation and I was too jet lagged last week to feel comfortable in submitting them.  At least we get a tiny refund rather than owing money.

April 17, Thursday

It was a warm, sunny afternoon and we were in the mood to go out for dinner.  The Otani Japanese Steakhouse close by sounded good. Jeff used Betsi's Canon PowerShot SD800 Digital Elph camera since his was sitting in FedEx.  After putting it on manual, creating a custom white balance so that all of the pictures weren't orange, and turning off the flash, the pictures came out fairly well.  It will take a little more practice to get better shots.

My camera arrived today via FedEx, the dust is gone, and it only cost me $20 in shipping.  Since the cleaning was within the one year warranty, the cleaning was free.  Yeah!  The firmware was updated, which saved me some time, but I had to change the custom settings back to the way I like them.  I realized there was a clean image sensor option that shakes the image sensor to remove dust.  I forgot about that.  Maybe that is why my camera came back with a nearly dead battery.  The camera was cleaned on the outside too.  I'm happy.

April 18, Friday

Our seasonal allergies are making us feel tired, run down, and slightly grumpy.  Medicine is helping, but it's still miserable.

April 19, Saturday

Ten of us from our neighborhood enjoyed a 6-0 win by the Orioles over the Yankees at Camden Yards.

A home run by Kevin Millar of the Orioles.  On the left is what I saw.  On the right is a 100% crop.  I highlighted the baseball yellow in Photoshop to see it better.  I think the ball hit something and is bouncing up.  The settings were 190mm, 1/250s, f/5.6, ISO 1600.

April 26, Saturday

The Hawaii, Australia and RAAF air show photo albums have been added.  They are larger versions than the ones above and total almost 900 photos out of the 3,600 that were taken.

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