The last 7 days have been a blur, a blur i want to forget. After finishing up our trip to the US, Ruth and I arrived home sick with a stomach virus, barely being able to move from the couch for the last 4 days of my holiday before i returned back to work.

We are both ok now and i’m actually glad to be back at work, but let me quickly sum up the rest of the trip before i talk about other things.

Tombstone

After leaving Tuscon we traveled 3hrs south down to Tombstone, wild west town. It was a fun place, the roads aren’t paved in the town, stage coaches travel up and down (no cars in the main area) and you kinda got a feel for how things were back then. I almost bought a cowboy hat!
Sedona

If you go to Arizona, sure, go see the Grand Canyon, but also check out Sedona, which is about half way between Phoenix and the canyon. Its hard to put in words but i found it to be almost a cross between the GC, Monument Valley and Bryce Canyon. Beautiful towering rock formation with splashed of red rock and other colours make it a very scenic place.
New Years Eve

Ruth & I spent New Year’s Eve at a beautiful resort in Phoenix called “The Wigwam“. For dinner we found a PF Changs and when we left we found our car “parked in” by 5 huge coaches full of the Oklahoma University school band. Band Camp jokes aside, we had to wait for half an hour while they unloaded, but since everyone was in a festive mood the time passed quick and we didn’t mind.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. We drove back to LA (total trip mileage approx 2000 miles), unfortunately too late to go into Disneyland as planned, but we still had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney. The next day we hopped on the plane to get home.. sick.

Highlights

• Native American storytelling at the Wild Horse Pass hotel
• Tuscon Plane Graveyard
• Shopping
• Spending a week offline without a computer

How freaking cool is it to see over 4000 planes sitting around in rows in the middle of nowhere? Ruth & I just visited the Pima Air Museum in Tuscon, Arizona and I did a tour around the Air Force base next door which holds rows and rows of unused planes sitting around in case a) someone needs one, b) someone needs a part or c)they need more metal to make cans of soup!

Pictures describe it better than words, so i’ll upload to Flickr when i get a chance (don’t have my laptop) but basically any US made plane has some sort of cousin stored here, F111, Boeings, B52, and all the other letters of the alphabet

Stupid fricken Guitar Centre.. sold me a Midi Controller.. told me it was new… turned out to be second hand and without disks . Anyway, instead of getting up and out early down to Tuscon, we ended up driving around Phoenix to get a replacement. Due to the delay we only JUST made the bus tour around the Plane Boneyard..

On the road.. this post comes via a hotel business centre. It has been 4 days since i’ve been online and i’m a little shaky

Ruth & I are having fun, we’ve driven from LA to Las Vegas, spent a couple of nights there before driving yesterday down here to Phoenix, Arizona. Its nice to be cold for once at christmas!

I also managed to pick up one final christmas present from Ruth, a new Sony Playstation Portable.. man that thing is great for killing time on the plane!

Anyway – more holiday awaits…. Happy Holidays!

It’s Christmas morning in Australia (the rest of the world has to wait for the sun) and instead of the usual family tradition of kicking back and watching DVD’s all day, Ruth & I are headed off to the US for a quick holiday.

Interestingly, due to the time difference, we will arrive in Los Angeles on Christmas morning! Therefore this will most likely be the longest Christmas day ever

This hopes to truly be a holiday, no laptop shall be taken, no email shall be checked (but i’ll check my gmail account) as we drive from LA to Las Vegas then on to Phoenix.

I can’t wait!

It’s Christmas time in San Jose and i’ve just arrived to a cold and bleak day. What a huge contrast from Sydney where it is hot (although Sydney has had a few cold snaps lately).

The flight this time was tedious, i dont think i slept for more than 20 minutes and after the initial excitement of the new Qantas “On Demand” system being able to pass the time, i was dissapointed 20 minutes into “Little Miss Sunshine” that the system had overloaded due to excess use. Hello? Qantas? Did you not count the seats in the plane when designing the system? For the remainder of the flight i had to watch movies the old way.. flick through the channels and hope not to miss the beginning.

This flight’s movies: Little Miss Sunshine (Great), Devil Wears Prada (Plane movie, otherwise dont bother) & My Super Ex Girlfriend (safe to avoid at all costs unless you were as bored as i was)

Ruth & I just spent this weekend 2hrs north of Sydney in the Hunter Valley to celebrate our wedding anniversary. For those that don’t know, the Hunter Valley region is well known for its wineries, many of which Ruth and I discovered for the first time this trip. Favourite spots this trip were Lindemans and McLeish, but always open for more suggestions! This time we escaped with only half a dozen bottles, but will most likely visit on a more frequent basis.

It’s my second trip to the Hunter and also second time to the beautiful Cypress Lakes resort, where we stayed.
Definately worth travelling to if you are visiting Sydney!

Time for a little sillyness… hope the orange text on black don’t hurt the eyes. Too bad i’m travelling, although trick or treating in a hotel might be fun! 

I managed to get a hold of 2 tickets to see Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters show in Sydney in January. I went and watched Roger and his brilliant band perform about 3 years ago at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and he was fantastic, so i am really excited about this new tour. 

Still, “decent” tickets set me back $200 each, plus booking fee, which i think is way way over priced. Platinum tickets (front row area) were $350!  What is going on? Looks like i’ll be buying more live DVDs and less tickets in future.

The weekend has come and gone so quick and tonight I’m in the hotel room doing the last bit of prep work for tomorrow’s Adobe presentation.

So what to do in Perth over the weekend?

1. Ruth & I visited Fremantle, cathing the train for $3.20 each from Perth and arriving about 25 minutes later on the edge of “Freo”. Spent time walking through the town, looked at the markets, visited the old gaol and had fish and chips for dinner before catching the bus back to Perth. Nice.
2. Visited the Swan Valley winery area – Stopping at the Margaret Valley Chocolate Company store for taste testing and sipping many a wine. Stopping for lunch at the Duckstein brewery for a bit of german food. Yum
3. Driving to “The Pinnacles” 3 hours north of Perth to see fantastic limestone monuments jutting out of the sand desert. Narrowly missing snakes keeping warm on the road and reptiles trying to get across the road before we splat them, while us ourselves trying not to be splatted by 3 trailer road trains. Nature is Awesome
4. Finding the Maltida Bay Brewing Company that is responsible for a favourite brew of mine. Mmmm Beer
Anyway, off to bed so i can be fresh tomorrow for Day 1 of the Australian Adobe roadshow…