After about 36+ hours of being awake and many hours and airport layovers yesterday we are home! Laundry done, suitcase ready to hit the road again, and slept 10 hours last night which is remarkable for me!
Last stop Auckland (pronounced Oakland) New Zealand, and Ross and I went for a walk around the harbour and city and it was another beautiful day.
This is the Sky Tower which was near our hotel and you could pay to get to the top and even dine there but by the end of 3 weeks we were done with towers, dining out and all the tourist stuff. So we had pop and corn chips for lunch to use up our leftover New Zealand coins.
The harbour (not a typo) was full of beautiful yachts and very very few small fishing boats until you got near the fish market and then maybe 2 small ones and several big netfishing boats. This one was for sale and I would love to know how much it cost...not because I want it but just out of curiosity.
Flights: We got up at 3am for pickup at 4am (driver's name was Chris Jones which was even funny at that time of the day), 7am flight to Brisbane, Australia (air view below), 4 hour layover, 13+ hour flight from there to Los Angeles, 4 hour layover, 3.5 hour flight to Minneapolis. Since the Paris bombings had just happened the security deal was horrible at LAX. An agent in the security area hollered at me for stepping one toe over the yellow mark in the wait line. To me it would have been a time to be nice and sympathetic instead of incredibly rude but not at this airport. It was an abrupt welcome back to my home country and not nice. Since everything was a mess and we had to get our luggage and recheck (which was not working) we had to walk from Terminal 2 to Terminal 5 to check it there. Have never seen such a mess!
So this is my view of the Eiffel tower in 2008 from the Montparnasse tower which has a viewing deck. I have quite a few pictures of the Eiffel and I remember the first time the lights came on one night when we were walking to dinner. I was amazed! Now I am sad that the lights have to be out to remember what happened and honor the victims.
And this is the 2nd night (October 27) of our "Down Under" trip after we had met Bill and Linda (couple on the left) and hung out every day with them and our friends we met in South America, Chris and Joan. That is, until the 10th of November when Bill suddenly died of a massive heart attack in the room just before they were to meet us for dinner. Linda is still in NZ but hopes to return home in a couple days with Bill's body on the plane. An autopsy was required and all the paperwork takes a long time but even though the whole tour group left they set her up with a great and much appreciated support system. He was 65 with a long history of heart disease and did take good care of himself but as she said "we knew something could happen at any time". Joan has invited the girls on a girl trip to their place in Florida when things can be worked out.
I of course still have the stories and the "signs" I saw in New Zealand which always strike me as funny in any country. Hope to be back on the correct track by tomorrow - not bad for my age!
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