A little photo show for Allen......some photos not

you guys realize that at 3 am I sometimes have the nurseing staff looking over my shoulders at the pictures .hope you dont mind,

I think I have a few pic's from SD Friend and I did a turkey hunt out there 2 years ago. Great country. I had Knee surgery for the 5th time 2 weeks before this hunt. Did not take long to get it stretch out LOL

this is my view right now,


10-12 thousand dollars a day it cost for a days dose of that little glass bottle.(thankgod for insurance)this isnt a politic statement, I really thank GOD I have a plan that pays for this.
5000 peoples plasma all mixed up in soup for me.

Now thats an expensive mixed drink. Hope alls going well. And as far as traveling look at all the places you've seen the past day without having to get out of bed or worrying about lost luggage.

Okay Allen,


So we were at Rotorua....on the north island..... the kids had us setup for the hangi at the Mauri village. This village is their largest cultural center and is supposed to be historically correct for 500 years ago. A bus picked us up and we lucked out. There were 3 buses and our driver was the official host. Enroute from town to the village we elected a "chief" for the bus who happened to be a single male 3rd grade teacher from PA. He was a good sport. We got to the village. Our driver gave a short talk about the formal ceremony we were about to witness.


This is the congenial and clever guy.....quite a comedian!




Then the conche shell horns began blowing......





one at a time 3 warriors came out to try to determine our numbers and our intentions








and finally we were invited to enter the village via the tunnels you see...the tunnels were a defensive strategy...

We toured the village and then entered a theatre where they gave a history of the Mauri tribe. According to what I remember, they claimed 4 war canoes left Hawaii and settled the two islands of New Zealand. The show was very entertaining and afterwords...the hangi....pit cooked meal. it was excellent.

After several more fomal tours here in Rotorua, we took a day long bus ride to Auckland by way of the Glow worm caves....Yes .....folks....the glow worms do glow!

Our DIL and youngest son used Costco services to plan and execute this entire trip. They specified the "cheapest" lodging available. Strictly by luck we ended up in 5 star hotels the entire trip. Everybody should experience that once in their life! This first picture is of the pool deck on the roof of our hotel in Auckland and the "Sky Tower" which was in the next block ....again as viewed from the pool deck of the hotel where we were staying ....the Sky Tower is reported to be the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere will play an important part later.....as that is where they shoot their fireworks at New Years....



The 2nd building was just interesting.....

Lets go to Idaho...........It's summer time and it's warm....it's hot...we have a 3-6 week period where it can get over 110ºF...... So my FIL died the previous summer and the next year coaxing my MIL to visit us was tough but we got it done. At age 83 she had never rafted a river.....So says I ...it would make a great Mother-Daughter outting......so we booked a day long tour for two. And would you believe that day...they were the only two people booked? So 1 guide and m-d in one raft and a 2nd guide in a kayak for safety.............those two guides treated my MIL like she was royalty. She talked about the rafting trip endlessly when she returned to Illinois and all of her friends of her age group thought she was insane to do that after looking at the pictures. Mom is wearing the hat.

At age 83 my MIL rafting the Middle Salmon River above and below Riggins Idaho....What do you think? Is she enjoying herself?....and...the last picture...if you don't get wet....you don't pay...... It never happens.....

That middle rafting pic says it all, Ken.

I'll add a few more travel shots. Not quite New Zealand, but what the hey?

For our our first real date about 15 years ago, LOML and I went to Avalon, on Catalina Island, about 30 miles offshore from Long Beach CA. Since then, we try to get back there every year. These shots were from 2007, but it's pretty much how the place looks all the time. The Wrigley family (as in Wrigley's Chewing Gum) used to own the island and their mansion is still there. (I've not seen it.) The Chicago Cubs used to do their spring training on the island from the '20s to the '50s...

Here's a shot of Avalon Bay



And the Avalon Casino. It's not an operating casino, but it's been a landmark on the island since William Wrigley Jr. built it 80 some-odd years. I've done about 90% of my (meager) scuba diving just to the right of the frame in this pic. There's an official "Dive Park" set aside for scuba divers and snorkelers...



Most of the time we take the Catalina Flyer from the mainland to the island. It gets you there in about 45 minutes to an hour. The competing ferry service runs about twice that long.



For a number of our yearly Catalina trips, we go on a whale watch sponsored by the Orange County Chapter of the American Cetacean Society. (Try to say THAT fast. OCCACS works better.) They charter the Catalina Flyer for a day and circle the island looking for whales and other fun stuff, with stops in Avalon before and after the whale watching. We've seen some cool things on these trips. Quite a few whales, but the dolphins have been the most memorable. On one trip in particular, at one point on the way back to the mainland we were mobbed by hundreds, if not thousands of dolphins. They were not only playing in the wake, but the water was boiling with dolphins racing along with the boat as far as the eye could see, on both sides of the boat. Here's a short and very poor video, shot with my old 4mp digital still camera.

And some other related shots...

A couple of whales... (Not real visible. The camera i was using took forever to focus.)



A surfing dolphin...



And LOML, Nanook of the North. (Warm-blooded California girl who wouldn't know what to do if she had to deal with REAL cold conditions.



I will admit, in March it can get pretty chilly on the deck of the boat when it's traveling at speed.

its 6 am I went through the thread again, some nice shots

So.....it's New Years Eve day in Auckland. What do you do? Take a "bush and beach tour" ....see a rain forest and go to a black sand beach.....of course! Check out the one photo you science guys....the guide invited the LOML to grab a handful of sand. He then put a red plastic handled magnet into it. Yup...the black sand is mostly iron but..there are some naturally occuring chemicals that coat it and prevent it from rusting..



And the red flowers.....and then the tree......only blooms at Christmas...You got it! A Kiwi Christmas Tree!


Check out the one photo with the LOML .....and a tree...they grow 'em big here laddy!

Okay...the NZ photos are about over. Sorry for the boredom.

Are you supersticious? Do you believe in folklore?

NO?........Well.....

Our youngest son and gorgeous wife who gifted us with this trip had been married 9 years last year. They had been trying to have children for over a year without out any success. They had taken part of this trip themselves the year before. So they gave us a request.........


Local Mauri legend has it that this exact tree is a fertility tree and if you walk under it...you will become pregnant. They asked Sharon to do it in a surrogate fashion.......


So....she went through........and she didn't know what direction to turn to complete the circle......so she went through twice....once in each direction. Here's photographic evidence!










Yup! Their twins are expected to deliver full term in March!

SO....do you believe in folklore?

I was sweating though.......I didn't want Sharon to become pregnant this late in life!

Ken Fitzgerald said:

I was sweating though.......I didn't want Sharon to become pregnant this late in life!

Click to expand...

That's why after my son was born and our family complete, I started shooting blanks....


Congratulations on the grand babies...

This will be interesting. Clockwise and counterclockwise around the fertility tree.

Twins?

Boy and girl?

Waitin' for March...

Carol,

They don't know the gender. They want to be surprised. They do know that there is only 1 placenta so the odds are very heavily stacked that they are identical twins.

This is their first children.

I agree. surprised is good.

Hey Allen...........



How about a little Glacier National Park?


Are you up to it?

why havent you posted them yet, I got a long 30 hours in front of me with nothing to do.

Sorry Allen....I was working. The Glacier photos will be coming but I have to scan them in as we didn't have a digital camera then...


In the meantime...back to NZ....New Years Eve....during the day we took the "Bush and Beach" tour. That evening the driver dropped us off at the beautiful Auckland waterfront. At 7:00 p.m. we boarded the sail boat in the first photo....we motored across the harbor and tied off where they served us a very excellent dinner.....then they raised the sails and we departed.

They asked for a voluteer to steer and up jumped that little piece of dynamite and heaven I'm married to ........You'll notice in one photo the skipper looking up with Sharon steering......he's requesting divine intervention I think.......then about 2100 we came back in.....











She managed to guide us out under the Auckland Bay bridge to the mouth of the harbor on the Pacific Ocean at which time others started taking turns.

Around 10:00 p.m. we arrived back at the marina, where we grabbed a cab back to the hotel. Arriving there, we ran to our rooms..got rid of our coats....and to the pool deck for the fireworks display....the hotel had set a bar up on the pool deck. So I enjoyed my new found love Speight's Gold Medal Ale.....and the fireworks