Oct 18th:Wags & Whines

Well, we survived the crappy hotel.

We got up early, showered and Ubered to the airport for the less money and hassle than the shuttle bus. Don’t get me started.

We checked in and hung out in the Qantas lounge. I went down and bought some stuff for the office. They had pretty good coffee. Susanne was feeling a bit under the weather.

Finally, it was time to board. This also was a 787 Dreamliner, but clearly older than the American one. The set up was nice, but not as good as the American pods we had coming over. That said, can’t complain, we were in business class.

We settled in and they gave us some spiffy pajamas.

I asked Susanne where she had put the Ambian. Doh. We couldn’t find it. Seems like we left on the American flight. Dang. She had some night time cold medicine. Hopefully that would do the trick.

My plan was to watch some movies, have lunch and then try and get some sleep after about 4 hrs. The first movie I watched was called “Adrift” about a woman lost at sea for 43 days. It was based on a true story and was pretty good. The second movie I watched was “American Animals” which was also based on a true story. It was about some college kids in Kentucky that decided to go about stealing some very rare books from the library. It also was pretty interesting. I started watching “Selma” but the cold meds kicked in and I laid down to sleep.

I woke up with 3 hrs to go in the flight. Yea. I think I slept about 4 or so hours. Not too bad.

I finished Selma, had breakfast and impatiently waited to land in LA.

We have a 4 hr layover. Bummer.

We trundled up to Flagship Lounge and plopped down in some chairs. I went and took a shower. It was very nice. I suggested Susanne should do that too. She did.

It was a boring 4 hrs, but we finally got on the Phoenix flight. We landed, got our bags, snagged an Uber and headed home. I was definitely ready. We got home and Sadie was besides herself when she saw us. Wagging and whining and running around be Ms. Squiggley. I was very happy to see her and she seemed to weather are absence just fine.

I took Sadie for a hike, unpacked some cloths, did a load of laundry. We had dinner and watched TV until 8 pm and then called it a night. The trip was officially complete.

Summary:

Overall it was a great trip with very few things that went wrong. It seemed to last for a very long time, so I think that would declare it a success.

Best things:

1.  Hanging out at the wonderful house in Cairns
2. The morning dive on the second day
3. The wildlife cruise on the Daintree
4. The salt water pool in Cow Bay and just the remoteness of the place
5. Seeing a Cassowary
6. Dinner on the river in Brisbane

Worst things:

1.  The crappy hotel at the Brisbane airport
2. Midge bites in the mangrove swamps
3. The people that insisted on smoking on the common deck on the dive boat
4. Losing our Ambien. Doh!
5. The lady who wrote a crappy blog about me.

Other thoughts:

1. I love Aussies. They will just start a conversation about anything.
2. Cairns was nice, but many of the attractions were “meh”. Mossman Gorge was disappointing and the sky-rail is a bit over-rated.
3. Daintree was cool, but it would have been boring after awhile without the great house. I didn’t realize that the entire coast is “not swimmable” lest you get eaten by a crocidile
4. The tropics are nice, but I could never live there full time
5. The beer is very marginal; maybe i need to start a micro-brewery.

So that’s it for the travel blog for this trip. Susanne and I are already starting to dream about the next adventure. We would love to do a 3 month trip through Canada. Might just happen. Stay tuned and the Dude abides.