AMG

This is an unexpected but very personal blog. Steve and I have been on a brief road trip for the past ten days - exploring Rocky Mountain National Park, enjoying red rock country in Moab, UT with friends with lots of hiking at Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, drinking in the beauty of Colorado and indulging in a sybaritic weekend at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. But today this road trip turned into something very different that has caused us to pause, think about and honor some important American heroes. Tonight we had the opportunity of seeing some real American heroes. The Warrior Games - http://www.teamusa.org/warriorgames/ - are an annual celebration of the spirit, tenacity and grit of America's wounded warriors. The carnage of war is no respecter of gender, ethnicity, size, education or background and ... read more

Greymouth is a feisty little town, the business base of the West Coast of the South Island. When the Tranz Alpine train arrives once a day, it springs to life with queues for rental cars, hungry tourists clambering for a cold beer at the station hotel, and then slowly sinks back into its usual torpor. This is big coal mining country and on the train over the mountains we pass a long train, its cars loaded with coal. At the rental car counter we are "upgraded" to a behemoth white SUV - a Toyota Highlander - I'm sure they figured that as Californians we had to drive this type of gas guzzler. Well, think about negotiating these little two lane roads, with the one lane bridges, with GW (we've named it Great White) and wish us ... read more

After one of those long, useless travel days - night at an airport hotel in Hobart to catch an early flight from Hobart to Melbourne, arrive at the domestic concourse and stumble our way to the international concourse, goodbye Australia, on our way to New Zealand, Melbourne to Auckland, and then...another shout out for our Global Entry card, which works here also...nice to have allies who figure that if we're not a threat in the USA we're not a threat here too. We've been treating ourselves to airport pickups when we first arrive in new cities/countries and so we are met by a jolly, white-haired older woman from the Langham, where we are staying, and whisked away to Auckland, accompanied by her funny running commentary on the lack of highways into downtown, politics, sports, etc. - ... read more

In our next lives we want to live in Melbourne. What a great city - a sense of urbanity, verdant green spaces, walkable, fabulous restaurants, sports culture... I could go on and on. We thoroughly enjoyed our all too short time there. I would rarely give a shout out to a credit card but... We switched to the United Mileage Plus Card before this trip, primarily to get no foreign exchange fees and the extra miles, but the card has truly shown its worth this trip through its premium hotel reservation services. We fall in love with the Park Hyatt Melbourne, with our upgraded spa suite looking out over the city, a gracious staff, and a lovely location close to the CBD but in a small, leafy nitch by itself, with breakfast and a nice meal ... read more

We seem to be on the track for smaller planes as when we board the plane at the Hamilton Island airport for Cairns, we notice these big long spokes hanging off the engine - it's a Bombadier prop jet. The flight up the Queensland coast is gorgeous and the benefit of the plane is that it flies at a lower altitude so we can see the reefs poking up through the aquamarine sea below us. We had chatted with a Qantas flight attendant aboard the hop on hop off bus in Singapore and he recommended window seats on the left side of the plane so, taking his advice, we had a breathtaking flight. All this in preparation for our next breathtaking experience - driving on the other side of the road. The very nice Aussie at ... read more