http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Kattya/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Kattya en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:10:34 +0000 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:10:34 +0000 NOTE this part of the blog is about our ongoing kitchen renovation... if you want to know start reading on July 18th....4 pm I haven't written anything today because nothing too interesting has happened we're just plugging along trying to finish up with the belt sander before 7. Rhea's room got done around 2 and now we're finishing most of the kitchen and breezeway. We'll have the edger f http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Maryland/Silver-Spring/blog-420795.html 12 noon Moving moving moving. Art and Jershon got the stove and sink onto the porch and the tool bench and tool boards into the living room cause we know what our priorities are Meanwhile I organized the our stuff in the housemate kitchen and labelled the cabinets.1pm Erin and Kiimara get back from Mayorga and Erin and Art remove the dishwasher. It seems to be a simple process. 330pm Mi http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Maryland/Silver-Spring/blog-420370.html 1115 am Today we're starting on the linoleum under the plywood. Sort of forgot about that.1145 am Wow its really stuck coming off in chunks the size of my hand. Arrrgh.315 am Erin and I spent the morning on linoleum now its finally up. Suspense... should we rent the equipment Erin is making long lists of sanding belts and disks. She is disgusted that the people at Home Depot have neve http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Maryland/Silver-Spring/blog-420362.html 8 am biked to Home Depot with Art for new scraper blades but they don't have any so I bought a new scraper. And knee pads. Now I've joined the big boys930 The new scraper works pretty well but the knee pads hurt on bare skin. No more shorts. Sadly my painting pants are all ripped at the knees1045 So for those keeping score at home ... so far we tore up the selfstick linoleum in the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Maryland/Silver-Spring/blog-420347.html We went on two reef trips very different. The first was a small boat a refurbished pearllugger built in 1954 with 13 passengers and a crew of 6. The second was a larger faster boat built for reef trips with 120 passengers and a crew of 6.The first trip was on the 28th. The boat goes to the inner reef where both coral and fish are not as impressive. Jershon and I signed up for the introd http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/open-water/blog-414437.html We went up to Kuranda for the first time on the Skyrail. You get to ride above the rainforest and watch the canopy including the occasional bright blue butterfly or bird. In a couple of places you get off and there's even a rangerled walk. He pointed out several rainforest trees to us. The most important to remember is the wait a while also called lawyer vine for reasons which will sho http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Kuranda/blog-414430.html Just a quick note to those who are trying to keep track of where we are the best way to reach us is through Cairns City Backpacker Hostel in Cairns. Tomorrow we are going on a one and a half day tour to Cape Tribulation and we'll be staying at a beach house there. However after that we'll be back in Cairns for the duration... http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/blog-414421.html We have been staying at the hostel in Kuranda for 2 days about to head back to our original hostel in Cairns. This hostel was built in 1906 by the owner of the local sawmill chain for his daughter and it is amazing though in a somewhat faded and moldy way.Like most homes around here the main living area is on the second floor. The basement is at ground level and consists of a concrete sla http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Kuranda/blog-412645.html Today we went back to the same busstop but instead of Tjapukai we went on the Skyrail to Kuranda. Its a cable car that goes up over a mountain a few meters above the rainforest canopy. Its quite beautiful and once in a while you can see butterflies or cockatoos. There is a stop with a rainforest boardwalk and a guided tour which was great. We learned that one plant called the lawyer vin http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/Cairns-City/blog-411091.html Hi y'allOr G'day I guess. Sounds kinda corny to me although I might start saying no worries which is the translation for everything from you're welcome to no problem.So yesterday we went Tjapukai which is a educationalinteractionoriented park on aboriginalcontrolled land. You can throw a boomerang see a dance performance and buy lots of souvenirs among other things. Throwing a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/Cairns-City/blog-411088.html Hi everybodyWe made it The jetlag was not as bad as we thought but the lines plural in the Sydney Airport were worse. Also watch out for those fruitandveggie police in customs. They took away our carrots one bruised apple a bag of sunflower seeds some melted cheese and a half a raw zucchini and threatened us with 220 in fines. Luckily that was 220 Aussie so really only about 175 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/Cairns-City/blog-410373.html Hi everybody This isn't really part of the travel blog I'm just posting it so that you know where to find us since so many people have asked. So ... hopefully we'll be able to post every couple of days and you should get an email when there's something new.Love Karen. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-409150.html Beginning as we ended the airport bathroom this time in Amsterdam doors done with details from a Rembrandt. We got up at 3am found that the power on our block had gone out collected our luckily completely packed luggage in the dark and got into a car driven by the father of the hotel owner whose only English seemed to be OK he did however use his cell phone to light up the stairs http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-312839.html We got up today feeling like old hands at the transportation thing and headed almost straight for the ferry to Princes' Islands arriving 30 minutes in advance to get good seats on the outside which had a nice breeze. The ferry trip was about an hour and a half but biking through pine forests on an island with no cars sounded so alluring...Hmm. By now we should have been skeptical of the gui http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-312834.html Today turned out to be museum day. First we went to the Archeological Museum which Art wanted to see. Silmarien enjoyed the seals small ceramic cylinders that are rolled in warm wax to provide a signature guaranteeing a trade good especially used over the opening of a bag or chest as a sort of tamperproof indicator which I thought was pretty smart and the sarcophagi and the reconstucti http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-312826.html After we left the gulet we spent about a day and a half at a beach resort called Sugar Beach Club. As resorts go it was pretty low tech small cabins an openair barrestaraunt beach chairs and beach. The water was shallow and We were hopeful about some fun activities like a beginner scuba course or a jeep safari but for one reason or another everything got cancelled so we saved a lot http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-312859.html We left Sugar Beach Club and the tour at 230 in the morning for a one hour ride to the airport and a one hour flight to Istanbul. We got in around 6 left our luggage at the guesthouse and then had about 6 hours to walk around until the rooms were ready. We walked through the cisterns a huge underground complex with pillars and walkways and a few fish. Its quite interesting to walk th http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-311852.html So then we got on the gulet which is apparently the name of the type of boat in the picture. It has two masts but nowadays it is pretty much exclusively sailed under diesel power. We slept on the gulet for three nights. On the first night we slept on the highest deck and had a really good view of the Milky Way. The next night the captain said we'd be going over open sea from 5 to 9 in the mo http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Mediterranean/Kas/blog-310063.html After more driving we stopped at a National Park with a waterfall. Jershon climbed a few trees and Silmarien did some more playing in the sand. We attempted to follow directions as given by the signs but we're not really sure if we strinked to the border or not... The water there is a fairly bright green from some sort of mineral. I snapped several pictures of the fish because I was struck http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Mediterranean/Kas/blog-310061.html Today we mostly drove. And drove. I snapped a picture of an old building sandwiched between two newer ones at a stoplight. Drove some more. Got to an old Roman Amphitheatre. Apparently it was well preserved because after the Romans it was used as a caravanserai. It was really hot like being in an oven steam bath. However we dutifully climbed to the top to admire the view Jershon and S http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/blog-310057.html