Annieg319

I'm really not in Tasmania yet....but have been challenged by posting on this blog site. Anyway, I am currently in Falls Church, VA and busily packing for my trip to Australia. I'm leaving Wednesday, Jan. 30 and because of crossing the International dateline, I'll be spending the night of Feb. 1 at a Melbourne airport hotel and flying to Hobart, Tasmania on Feb. 2nd. I'm traveling with OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel)) for 3+ weeks and then spending 5 days with friends in the Mornington Peninsula.....I'm looking forward to meeting many of my friend's relatives and getting a real local experience. I'm not looking forward to the long trip from DC to LA and then to Melbourne I'm sure I'll be ready to relax by the hotel pool!... read more

I can't believe the self guided portion of our trip is about over. We've had a fabulous 10 days with 3 nights in Juneau, 3 nights in Sitka, 3 nights in Ketchikan and one night on the Alaska State Ferry. We thought we might be ready for a guided trip figuring we would encounter some hassles along the way doing it ourselves, but it has been perfect and we have said many times how happy we are that circumstances pushed us to do the Inside Passage on our own. Today we fly to Anchorage (via Seattle) and tomorrow begin our Multi-sport adventure with World Outdoors. We are looking forward to meeting our group but feel fortunate to have had so many opportunities in the past 10 days to talk with Alaskans as well as many other ... read more

i left Eugene, Oregon yesterday morning after celebrating the 4th of July attending my last day of the Olympic Trials and then going to one of the many wonderful brew pubs with my brother, sister-in-law and niece (who had arrived from Denver that afternoon in time to attend the Olympic trial events that afternoon). The last day in Eugene we had one final walk along the many trails and then a final lunch in a brew pub--s record number of beers on tap! I arrived in Juneau yesterday afternoon....as expected the weather was cloudy with off and on sprinkles and one real rain shower. My friend, Mary Jean arrived a couple of hours after I did and we enjoyed walking around Juneau and then headed back to our hotel fairly early....we packed our backpacks prepared for ... read more

Even though this is my third blog on this site, I'm not sure I've really figured it out. I'm not in Oregon yet so I probably should have put in Falls Church, VA since that's where I'm writing this, but I'm not writing about Falls Church so I thought I should put in the first place I'm visiting on my next trip....which is Eugene, Oregon. I leave tomorrow morning for Eugene where I will spend a week visiting my brother and his wife and going to the Olympic Track and Field Trials (as well as hiking and hopefully visiting breweries and wineries) before heading to Alaska on July 6th. I will meet a friend in Juneau for a 3+ week adventure in Alaska. We booked this trip last September....two months before I booked my "last minute" ... read more

I had an hour free yesterday afternoon and wrote a detailed description of activities from Thursday morning to Friday afternoon. I clicked Save just as the Internet shut down and my entire blog disappeared! VERY FRUSTRATING! The Internet then didn't work last night so I'll have to do an abbreviated version while waiting in the lobby for breakfast to open. Thursday morning we began the day at the temples of Khajuraho, built by the Chandelas in the 10th century. Many temples were destroyed when the Mughais invaded (and ruled much of India until the British), but these apparently were missed because of their relatively remote location. They were discovered by British archeologists in the 1800's who were likely rather shocked by the erotic sculptures. There are thousands of scenes depicted on just the 9 temples we ... read more