Last Few Days

Friday, January 29. Finally time to catch up. Keith and I have been home for just over a week and things are getting back to normal. To pick up where I last left off, on Sunday, January 17 we spent the day taking in the sights of Christchurch. It was (once again) a drizzly and cold day. We started off the morning by heading to a big flea market. There was lots and lots of stuff, but nothing too impressive. Next we headed to the much needed car wash. It looked like our “little engine that could” had hit everything but the lottery and it was in much need of a little TLC before we had to return it to the car rental company. We then headed into Centre City where we checked out Cathedral Square – the main square in Christchurch and the Cathedral. I did a bit of souvenir shopping in town and picked up a couple of trinkets at the Arts Market. We then wandered through the botanical gardens – the gardens were beautiful though we wished the weather was better. We then hopped in the car to check out the beach. There was a long pier at the beach and we watched the surfers trying to catch the perfect wave. It was getting late in the day so Keith and I headed back to our motel to pack things up. We called it an early night as we had to be up at 3:30 am. The next day started early – so early it was still dark out. We had a 6:15 am flight from Christchurch back to Melbourne so we were up in the wee hours of the morning. We returned the car, caught our flight, went through the usual rounds of customs and immigration and finally arrived at our apartment in Melbourne around 9:30 am or so in the rain – it seemed as if the bad weather was just following us. Unfortunately we were too early to check into our apartment, so we dumped our luggage and headed to McDonald's for breakfast – we were back in the land of free wi-fi. We spent some time wandering around Melbourne and decided to kill some time by heading to the movies. We saw Up in the Air in a ginormous cinema. By the time the movie was over we were able to check into our apartment. The rest of the afternoon was pretty lazy. We did some repacking, had some sushi for dinner and called it a night. The next day we were once again up bright and early. We headed out to Queen Victoria's Market to grab a few late minute souvenirs and grabbed a bite to eat. Before we knew it it was time to head to the airport to catch our flight to L.A. The security was very tight in Melbourne as we had to go through an additional round of security at the gate where we were all patted down and everyone's carry-on luggage was gone through by hand. It made me sad that this is what things have come to. Despite our best efforts, neither Keith nor I were able to sleep on the plane The flight itself seemed to go by pretty quickly and we arrived in L.A. four hours earlier than when we had left Melbourne (kind of weird, but given the time change, that's how things went). We cleared customs in the U.S. - yeah. It was nice to be back on home soil. We had a layover in L.A. and caught our 22nd flight from L.A. to Boston. The flight from L.A. to Boston is one I would just as soon forget. It was by far the worst flight Keith and I had ever taken and to be honest I wasn't sure we were going to make it. The turbulence was the worst I have ever encountered and we hit it several times during the flight. At one point in time the plane dropped so severely that people were screaming. Even the flight attendants said it was the worst they had ever encountered. We FINALLY arrived in Boston – tired, glad to be safe and happy to be home.

So our traveling adventures have come to an end for the moment while we try to spend a few months regrouping. Tentative plan is to head out again in March/April for either Central America or South America or both and then maybe Africa in June/July. Until then – bon voyage!!