“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 19

In February, I turned one year older.  After some arm-twisting and shameless bribery, Benjy convinced two of my BFF’s to travel all the way from Florida to help me celebrate it in Asia.  To have my gal pals with me for 10 days was probably the best birthday gift Benjy has given me.  I felt so loved!

One of the things I miss most about living in Jacksonville is doing life with these ladies.  They both have crazy busy lives and it meant a lot to me that they took the time to travel to the other side of the world to spend time with me.

We spent a few days touring Hong Kong and saw the usual spots.

The Star Ferry.

had dim sum

and went hiking.

And then the girl time really kicked up a notch when our friend Stacy flew in from Japan and we all traveled together to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  It was just us girls…no kids, no husbands, no jobs, no homeschool, no cleaning, no carpool, no laundry and no “hey mommy’s”.

For 4.glorious. days.

We took a Thai cooking class.

And produced some stunningly beautiful dishes.

There was coconut chicken soup.

Green and yellow curries and cashew chicken.

We also made desserts like mango sticky rice, beautifully prepared and plated by Stacy.

and banana spring rolls.

Not only did the dishes look delicious, but they also tasted divine.  I don’t mind admitting that we all considered it a minor miracle that we were able to produce something that impressive!

After our day of toiling in the kitchen, we went back to our hotel for a 2-hour Thai massage in our own little cabana.  We were twisted and turned like pretzels, but it was surprisingly relaxing and enjoyable.

The highlight of our trip was our day riding Thai elephants at the Thai Elephant Home.  Thai Elephant Home is an elephant rescue organization that buys elephants from timber companies in Myanmar.  So, the elephants we ride were already domesticated before they came to the elephant home and they were not taken from the wild.

We marveled at the awesomeness of these creatures and felt truly blessed by the Lord to get to spend the day with them.  You can see how God has such a sense of humor when you see an elephant up close and personal.

Although massive, they are gentle creatures with piercing eyes…

and long, enviable eyelashes.

Like us, each is unique with different physical attributes and personalities.  Some had a lot of scruffy hair on their heads, others not so much.

Some liked to completely submerge themselves in the water; others were content to wade in the shallows.

All of them, of course, had these awesome trunks that they used not only to breath but also as third hands, straws, snorkels and snot rocket launchers.

We started the day with introductions to our elephants and the distribution of treats, sugar cane.  No treats, no riding.

I got to ride Wan, the elephant I rode the last time I was here with Benjy and the kids.  I don’t know if she remembered me, but I remembered her.

After treats, we mounted up and rode into the jungle.

Along the way, we stopped for lunch and each of us got a big, fat, sloppy elephant kiss.

After lunch, we gave the elephants a mud bath, but ended up with mud baths of our own.  As I was traipsing through the muck, I tried to put out of my mind the fact that the elephants had pooed and peed in the pit just moments earlier.

The elephants love the mud bath.   After we finished rubbing them down, we mounted up again and then rode the elephants down to the river for a good rinsing.

We could have ended it there and gone home feeling fully satisfied with our Thai experience, but there was more!

We took a bike tour and got to see villages and places off the beaten path.  It felt like a more personal look at life in Chiang Mai.

We saw temples.

plenty of Buddhas

and nature.

We even got to get up close and personal with some tigers.

It was such a great trip with lots of memorable experiences.  The best part about it, though, was the time I got to spend laughing, giggling and girl-talking with my friends!  It was priceless!

Benjy had a 3-day layover in Penang, Malaysia, so I met up with him to see what it was all about.  He had informed the hotel that I would be joining him and they rolled out the red carpet, so to speak.

Malaysia is a former British colony and Penang was founded by the British in 1786.  Because of its rich history, Penang is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It’s an interesting city of east meets west, with a diverse culture and rich heritage.  We went to a part of Penang called Georgetown which reminds me a little of the French Quarter in New Orleans, only with Asian influences thrown into the mix.  The city is gearing up to celebrate Chinese New Year, so red lanterns decorated the streets.

What’s also interesting about the city is that it is truly an eclectic mish-mash of many diverse cultures and the people reflect this mix.  You’ll pass on the street Chinese speaking Mandarin, Malaysian (who look mostly Chinese, but have Pacific Islander features too) speaking the local Malay language, Indians speaking Hindi and Arabs speaking Arabic.  Overlaying everything is a western vibe due to British colonization which ended after World War II.  The happy result for us is that just about everyone is able to speak and read English.  Yay!!

Georgetown has a vibrant art scene and scattered throughout the district there are many wall murals painted on buildings.  It was like a scavenger hunt wandering around and finding all of them.

Malaysia’s diversity is also reflected in it’s food, which is so yummy and probably one of my favorite things about the country.  There’s lots of curry, seafood, rice and noodles.  Here we are enjoying a traditional Malaysian meal served on banana leaves.  Our guide insisted that we eat as the Malays do….with our hands.

There were plenty of things that I loved about Japan.  The streets are clean and everything is orderly.  The people are extremely polite, gentle and dignified.  Walk into a store or restaurant and people bow and greet you warmly.  When you leave, they bow again and bid you farewell.  As we drove through a toll booth, even the toll collector bowed to us graciously and greeted us as we gave him the money.  Imagine doing that all day long!!  All the formality probably gets tiresome after awhile, but for the short time we were there it sure was a nice break from the every-man-for-himself life we have grown accustomed to in Hong Kong.

I’ve given it much thought since we returned from there and I have decided the thing I appreciated the most about Japan is:

The toilets.

Yes, I know that seems odd and trivial, but, for me, it is the honest truth.

The toilets are state-of-the-art and are demonstrative of the extreme civility of the Japanese people.  I have never seen (nor thought of, for that matter) such technology.  My first experience with a public toilet in Japan was in a Mister Donut Shop.  Donut shops in Hong Kong are non-existent, so for Benjy and me it was like we were moths flying into a flame.  While we were there noshing our pastries, nature called.  First off, the actual bathroom is spotless.  I mean, you seriously could eat off of the floor it is so sparkling clean.  As soon as I sat down on the commode, I started to hear gentle music and the sound of flowing water like a babbling brook playing from this panel.  A motion sensor turned it on automatically.

Next, I noticed that the potty is nice, warm and toasty.  Then, I looked at the wall and saw this:

I have no idea what the buttons say, so I just started pressing them.  Next thing I know my bottom is being sprayed with warm water.  I pressed the next button and warm air starts to dry my rear; the next, and a pleasant scent wafts from the latrine.  Yes, I have experienced a bidet, but these Japanese versions are far, far more advanced than those French wannabees.

I must have been in the lavatory for at least 20 minutes cycling through all the options over and over.  I got up and pressed the flush button on the wall.  I then ran outside to tell Benjy, you gotta go try the toilet!!

So Benjy goes in the men’s bathroom and is back in about 2 minutes.

I said, “what did you think??”  He shrugged his shoulders and said, “nothing special happened.”  I asked, “did you sit down?”  He said, “no, I just peed standing up.”

I looked at him in exasperation.  This is a man who is the captain of a 767 airplane.  “You have to sit down, Benjy.  What did you think the toilet was going to do, reach up and grab you?”  He shrugged his shoulders again and went back in.  He came back out but clearly wasn’t as impressed as I was.

So, I discovered that most all toilets in Japan have these features.  Go to a train station, a 7-11 store or any restaurant, and they all have the same options, well, except for the air dryer, that feature was less common.  I did discover that the purpose of the music/babbling brook is to cover any bodily noises that might slip out while you’re doing you know what.

After experiencing this in Japan, it’s now unfathomable to contemplate the  squatty potties in mainland China, as described in one of my earlier posts.  The latrines in mainland China seem undignified and Cro-Magnon Man-like in comparison.  If Japan’s water closets are from the Jettsons, then mainland China’s are from the Land of the Lost, with the U.S. privies being somewhere in the middle.

On a lesser level than the potties, I was also impressed with the 7-11 stores in Japan.  You can buy very high quality prepared food there, nothing like the roller dogs you see in the U.S. that are perpetually spinning in the warmer for heavens knows how long.

I have a friend who is a food science professor in Hong Kong and he told me that Japan is 20 years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of its prepared food storage.  Who knew?  Before our trip to Japan, he told me that the Japanese are able to provide high quality prepared food that’s fresh and tasty because of their food preparation facilities and not because of any chemical preservatives they put on the food. I was intrigued by this tidbit of knowledge and decided I wanted to see for myself.  So, here’s what we got:

Shrimp tempura with udon noodles

Noodles and sesame sauce.

Teriyaki beef and rice

The food is inexpensive, tasty and convenient.

We loved Japan!

Over Thanksgiving break, we headed to Japan.  This was our first visit to the Land of the Rising Sun.  The Solethers, some friends of ours from Jacksonville, recently relocated there, so we decided to check in on them to see how they were getting along with their new life overseas.

The husband, Jared, works for the U.S. Navy and got 3-year orders at a base located in Saesbo.  Since Benjy is now a retired Navy veteran, we all have military identification cards and had access to the base.  We were like kids in a candy store shopping at the commissary and exchange.  The commissary is a U.S. grocery store, stocked with all the goods we miss so much and at prices even cheaper than what we remember.  We stocked up on the precious goods and lugged them home in our suitcases.

After our base excursion we went grass sledding.

We did some hiking.

Took a cruise on the Pearl Queen to see the 99 Islands.

We also had the privilege of having a traditional American Thanksgiving Dinner with Jared’s co-workers.  It was truly a treat to feast on fried turkey, glazed ham and all the trimmings.

Webley and Aaron are WWII buffs, so we made the 2-hour trip to Nagasaki to visit the atomic bomb museum.

This is a statue that marks the hypocenter of where the atomic bomb exploded.

150,000 people were killed in the blast.  This is a monument erected to remember those who died, many of whom were women and children.  The plaque on the statue shows the exact time and date of the explosion.

I’m not going to debate the wisdom or justification for the U.S. dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.  Surprisingly, nothing at the memorial or the museum does so either.  All I know is that my heart was very heavy touring the site.  It grieved me to think about all the suffering that took place on this ground.

I’ve spoken to friends who have lived and worked in Japan and they tell me that children are not really taught about World War II in school, so there is a general ignorance of Japan’s role in it.  Interestingly, the atomic bomb museum was very well done and even-handed, unlike some of the other one-sided, propaganda-laden displays I have seen elsewhere.  The museum did discuss Japan’s imperialistic ambitions at the time, its invasion of other Asian countries and the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  It made me wonder what today’s Japanese think when they visit a place like this.  It was an interesting, thought provoking place and another entry in our homeschool field trip log.

Visiting with friends from back home on this side of the planet is like eating a favorite food that you haven’t had in a long time.  Before you have it, you don’t really realize how much you missed it.  But once you do, you savor it and appreciate every minute and it ties you over until your next hit.  That’s what it was like for us visiting the Solethers.  It was a rich blessing from the Lord for which we are deeply grateful.

Benjy and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary with a quick getaway to Mui Ne, Vietnam.  We took a train from Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne.

You can’t see them in this picture, but we did have two other Vietnamese roomies, a little ole lady who tried her best to communicate with us and an aloof millennial who never looked up from her phone.

As expected, the cars were tiny and the cleanliness a little off-putting–several cockroaches were crawling around while we waited to be underway.  But, on the upside, we had air conditioning and once the train started down the track the cockroaches disappeared.  Maybe they didn’t like all the rattling and racket from the moving train.

I’m constantly being reminded by Benjy that “this is an adventure.”

So we stayed at this really quaint boutique hotel.  It was right on the beach.

We rented a motorbike and explored the area.  Every morning the fishing boats come in with their morning catch.

The fishing boats are really odd looking, completely round like a giant cereal bowl.

I heard that this was one of the last vestiges of colonization because back when the French ruled Vietnam they levied a tax on fishing boats.  The Vietnamese constructed these round- shaped vessels which I suppose were not considered to be boats and therefore exempt from the tax.

When the seafood Is brought ashore, workers sort through the catch to be sold at the fish market.

As Benjy and I were puttering around on the motorbike, we suddenly came upon a police road block.  We had heard that police like to pull tourists over to give them the old shake-down.  We very quickly deduced that that is exactly what we had stumbled upon because looking around, the only people sitting on the side of the road were tourists on hired motor bikes.  It was a motley bunch, from all over the world: Korea, South America, France, Germany, Russia.  Interestingly, we all spoke some English, unlike our captors who spoke very little of it.  Everyone was commiserating and sharing information:  what did they say to you? How much do they want from you?  Do you have an international driving license?

While Benjy and I were waiting our turn for the interrogation, another couple got pulled over and they parked next to us.  We exchanged a few pleasantries and then the guy asked us where we are from.  Benjy told him we were from the U.S. and then asked the man where they were from.  He said in a very thick accent, “From Rrrrrrussia!”  For some reason the four of us just burst into laughter.  I’m not sure what we were all laughing at.  Maybe it was the cold war thing, but it was funny nonetheless.

It was finally our turn and Benjy told me to let him handle it.  We pretended not to understand the very little English they spoke to us.  The head shake-down guy initially told us we would have to pay 1.3 million VND (about $57 USD) or he would take the bike.  Benjy shrugged his shoulders and told him, we didn’t have that much money on us so he could just take the bike.  Benjy was wagering they didn’t really want the bike.  They looked at us and didn’t know what to do.  We sat there and stared back at them for awhile.  Finally, the guy says, “OK how about 500,000 VND (only about $22 USD)?”  Benjy hemmed and hawed, but ultimately coughed up the cash.  The decision, however, left him in a bit of a sour mood afterwards.

He told me that while we were sitting on the side of the road, he was mulling over our options.  We could (A) make a run for it and jump in the next taxi that passed by; (B) throw a fit and refuse to pay the bribe; or (C) pay the bribe.

Option A seemed plausible because it didn’t appear that the cops had transportation either.  What’s more, the guy who rented us the bike didn’t even get our names and we never paid a deposit.  If we left the bike on the side of the road, we weren’t really out anything.  We could tell the rental guy to get his bike from the cops.  Option B–the white guy tantrum seems to work fairly well in Asia; it seems there’s nothing scarier to an Asian than a big angry white guy; or Option C, cough up the dough; it’s only $22; consider it the price of doing business.  Benjy reasoned that Options A & B had a greater than average chance of landing us both in jail.  And while spending our anniversary weekend in a Vietnam jail would certainly make the event memorable, it’s not exactly the memory-maker he was going for.  Benjy knew that Option C was really the only rational choice, but those who know my husband understand that willingly parting with his cash in such an unjust fashion is not necessarily a no-brainer for him; it’s  something akin to prying it out of his cold, dead fist.

Discretion being the better part of valor, he begrudgingly handed over the money.  We jumped on the bike and rode off into the sunset.  All is well that ends well.

Life truly is an adventure with Benjy.

In August, we went back to the land of my roots, the Philippines.  My sister came to Hong Kong to visit and went along.  My mom was already there visiting my grandmother so she met up with us.  My aunt, who lives there, also joined in on the fun.  It was a family reunion!

We rendezvoused in Bohol and spent some time at the beach, did some snorkeling and sightseeing.

We had some really nice family time.

We visited Chocolate Hills, which are supposed to be a chocolate brown in color, but since it was the rainy season, the hills were quite green.  They were pretty, but not exactly what we were expecting.

Then we stopped at a preserve to see the tarsiers.  Tarsiers are the world’s smallest primate.  A male tarsier only weighs about 5 ounces.  They are difficult to photograph because they hide under tree leaves and the lighting in the jungle is obviously not the best.  Flash photography is strictly prohibited because it literally scares them to death!  Here’s one little guy.  I love his tiny fingers!

They have big buggy eyes, which is why I suppose they are so sensitive to the flash photography.

 Aren’t they adorable??  This one looks like he’s having a nice dream.

From Bohol, we went to Cebu City, which is where my dad and aunt grew up.

We did a bit of sightseeing in Cebu.  This is the site of the cross that Magellan planted when he landed in the Philippines in 1521.  The cross shown here encases the original cross planted by Magellan.  Magellan, sadly, wore out his welcome in the Philippines shortly thereafter.

We also visited the gravesite of my dad’s parents.

I never had the opportunity to meet my grandmother because she passed away before I was born.  My aunt told me that my dad was her favorite.  He was the baby of the family and she shamelessly spoiled him.  Here’s a picture of the Abangan children, each of them at graduation from university.  My dad is the one with the goofy hat.

My grandmother scraped together centavos and borrowed money to send my dad to medical school.  When he went to the U.S. for his residency training, she passed away while he was there.  Now being a mother of my own little boy, that thought breaks my heart.  My dad rarely speaks of my grandmother, but when he does he still weeps.  Hearing my aunt tell me stories about my grandmother made me sad that I never knew her.  It also made me understand my dad a little better.

One thing interesting that we learned about New Zealand is that, with the exception of maybe fish and chips shops or the lonely Chinese restaurant,  everything closes at 5:00 p.m.  It’s like what life must have been like in the U.S. in the 1950’s.  Big box chain stores are a rarity; businesses are mostly owned by mom and pop.  At quitting time, everyone closes shop and heads home for the night.  So, there’s absolutely nothing to do except cook dinner, eat and then go to bed.  For the week, it was kind of nice to be able to just lay around and do nothing, but I don’t think I could live like that forever.

Our next stop was Greymouth, population of around 13,000.  New Zealand is known for its extreme sports, so we decided to get a taste of it by going off-roading in a dune buggy.

We sloshed around in the mud and muck for a few hours and had great fun.

We pressed onward towards our last stop, Queenstown.  On the way, the scenery was gorgeous.  I made Benjy pull over several times so I could get some shots.  Because the scenery was so picturesque, at one stop there were several other vehicles pulled over as well with groups piling in and out to get photos.  We took our turn and rushed back to our camper.  Another van was pulling away as Webley was climbing in and it suddenly came to a screeching halt directly behind us blocking us from backing up.

A group of middle-aged Chinese ladies piled out of the van and ran towards Webley.  Who could it be but the group of ladies I blogged about in my last post who Webley had helped at the airport!  What are the chances that we would run into them again 6 days and around 600 miles later at some random road-side pull off in the middle of nowhere???  I was just glad to see that they had gotten this far!

We don’t know their names or where they are from and its doubtful we’ll ever see them again (but who knows, right?).  I thought it was just so sweet that they remembered Webley and her kindness to them.  It’s probably one of my favorite memories from the trip!

Here are some of the shots I took on our descent down the mountains  into Queenstown.

Our last few days with the Kiwis ended in Queenstown where Benjy decided in celebration of his 45th birthday, he would do this…

No, I didn’t watch.  I wasn’t even there.  I couldn’t stomach the idea of watching him walk to the edge and intentionally taking a plunge off with just a rubber band keeping him from getting splatted.  Benjy told me that when he was waiting his turn, there was an Indian guy.  For several minutes which I’m sure seemed like an eternity to both him and everyone else behind him, he hemmed and hawed, wrung his hands and waved off multiple times before finally jumping feet first.  He got whipsawed by the bunjy cord and flailed around like a worm at the end of a fishing line.  In Benjy’s mind, this dude got a big fat 0 for style points.  In contrast, the lady directly before Benjy was this tiny little old Chinese lady.  Without hesitation and no fanfare, she walk to the edge and swan dived off.  After watching the differences between the 2 approaches, Benjy decided that there was no way he could follow her jump with an inelegant feet first go.  So, he took a deep breath and went for it head first.  I’m so glad I wasn’t there!

Our last extreme endeavor was our ride in a jet boat.

The boat zooms down a river at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour in only about 18 inches of water.  We darted in and out of the canyons and turned on a pin.  The boat drivers had amazing skills.

I will wrap our trip down under with some brilliant shots of Queenstown.

And I will end with one of my fav shots of Queenstown…

Notice the bunjy platform on the right side of the picture.  I suppose if this view were the last thing you saw before plunging to your death, it wouldn’t be such a bad way to end it.

Since we were in that area of the world, we would have been remiss to skip New Zealand.  Still, it was a 4-hour flight from Sydney to the south island!  While we were waiting for a shuttle to collect us from the airport, we noticed this group of middle-aged Chinese ladies wandering around the parking lot.  They were obviously lost and it seemed their English skills were minimal.  Folks, traveling in New Zealand is much like traveling in the U.S.   There’s nothing but English everywhere and really no one around who can help if you don’t have a translator.  Knowing what it’s like not to understand or be understood, Webley steps up and boldly starts speaking to them in Mandarin.  She finds out what they are looking for and then she and Benjy try as best as they could to help them find their way.  They were finally able to direct the ladies to the right shuttle to pick up their rental car.  I can remember thinking, “phew it’s going to be a long trip and quite an adventure for these ladies.  They must really want to see New Zealand.”  Little did we know at the time, that this wouldn’t be the last we’d see of them.

Before our trip, we did a lot of research into the best way to see the south island.  Benjy was convinced that hiring a camper van was the preferred method.  I, on the other hand, wasn’t so keen.  After much cajoling, we finally settled on this number:

 It came complete with a kitchen, frig and allegedly enough room to sleep 4 people, no potty however.  Since camping is quite popular in New Zealand, there are loads of camper sites called holiday parks.  Some are quite “nice.” So, this (or sites like it), was our home for the week.

At each park, we could plug in for power.  We actually had no need for the kitchen inside our camper because there was always a community kitchen available for use.  There were also shower and restroom facilities, laundry, playgrounds and even wifi.

The kids slept up top and Benjy and I slept on a fold down bed in the back.

No, it wasn’t the Ritz Carlton (nor a Motel 8, for that matter), but you really couldn’t beat the views, the convenience and, of course, the cost of it.  As Benjy kept reminding me, “it’s an adventure!”

We spent our first night in the camper in Kaikoura.  At about 2:00 a.m. we are all suddenly awakened by this screeching siren that sounded like the air bombing alert horns from World War II.  All of us woke with a start and I said, “are we being invaded?”  We laid there for a few minutes; the sirens stopped; and we didn’t see anyone else running for a bomb shelter, so we went back to sleep.  Later, we discovered that New Zealand has a volunteer fire brigade.  The sirens are sounded to call in the volunteers when help is needed.

Our first excursion in New Zealand was a dolphin encounter.  We suited up in wetsuits because the water was a bit chilly, about 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Our guides found a pod of about 200 dolphins.  These are wild dolphins and our guides do nothing to attract them.  They just take us to the location where they know the dolphins are feeding in the morning.

They were so playful and jumping around, doing flips in the air.

It was so much fun to watch!  And then we got to jump into the water and swim with them!

The water was freezing (even with the wetsuits on), but I was undeterred.  The dolphins were so curious about us and swam around us in circles.  It was like they were laughing at us and saying, “oh look, it’s those goofy looking humans again.  Bless their hearts, they can’t even swim properly.”  I loved every minute of it and didn’t want to get out of the water.  Benjy and the kids, on the other hand, thought the experience was just “meh.”

We continued on our way and saw lots of beautiful landscapes.

We would drive for hours at a time passing nary a soul.  The thought occurred to me a couple of times, “what would happen if we broke down in the middle of nowhere?”  We’d be walking for miles before we found anyone who could help. Luckily, we never had to worry about that.

Along the way, we stumbled upon this hidden beach.  It had really interesting driftwood and a picturesque forest next to it.

Our next stop was Greymouth.

Now that I’ve covered our summer, I will do a re-wind back to our travels during the spring.  I’m almost all caught up now!

When we moved to Hong Kong, Webley’s biggest travel wish was to visit Australia.  So, last April her wish was granted.  We began our trip down under by flying into Sydney.  Even from Hong Kong, it was an 8-hour flight.  One of the first things Aaron said to me when we arrived (which I was actually thinking to myself at the same time as he said it), “wow, I can understand what people are saying again!”  Yes, folks, it’s the small things in life we have come to greatly enjoy and appreciate from our time living in Asia–understanding and being understood.

Of course a trip to Sydney would not be complete without pictures of the opera house and bridge, arguably two of the country’s most iconic images.

Both at night

and during the day

We spent a day at a sheep farm and learned about all things sheep, threw boomerangs and enjoyed lunch with 100 of our fellow Chinese tourists.  The farm had 2 awesome sheep dogs who clearly love their jobs herding the sheep and other animals on the farm.  They were truly amazing pooches to watch.

The kids and Benjy tried their hands at throwing boomerangs.  Benjy’s throw was textbook.  It soared in the air and, as advertised, circled around and landed within 10 feet of him.  Webley’s throw, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as elegant.  Well, I suppose if she were trying to kill a critter 2 feet in front of her, she would have been deadly since she spiked it into the ground like it was a football.  Bless her heart, she got her athletic ability from her mom.

We also spent some time at Bondi Beach.

Had lunch of fish and chips with a spectacular view.  Aaron was in full on hangry mode at this point and, as you can see, was in no mood for photos.

After Sydney, we headed up to Cairns so we could do some snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef–another item on Webley’s bucket list.  The boat that took us out there was this giant sailboat.

I have to admit that I was a little underwhelmed by the snorkeling there.  Don’t get me wrong, there were loads of colorful fish and coral, but in my humble opinion, the Maldives was heads and shoulders above the Great Barrier Reef and I’d put the locations we have snorkeled in the Philippines ahead of it as well.  Just my 2 cents worth.

Sadly, our camera went kaput on this part of our trip, so we don’t really have a lot of photos from our snorkeling excursion.  Just a few shots from the sailboat.

And this pic of us in our goofy wetsuits, which we had to wear to protect us from jellyfish.

While in Cairn, we spent some time at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures.  It’s a crocodile farm/animal rescue/petting zoo.  We, of course, saw lots of crocs, but I was more enthralled with all the kangaroos in the petting zoo.

Here’s a mama kanga and you can see her joey peeking out of the pouch.

We also got to pet these cute wallabies, which look like mini-kangas.  This one followed me around the petting area.  He was so cute.

After we left the petting zoo, we passed an Aussie lady who asked me if the petting zoo was any good.  I excitedly said, “oh yes, there’s lots of kangaroos and wallabies to pet.”  She said to me, “oh those are nothing special.”  I guess in these parts kangaroos are the equivalent to the tired old goats and sheep we get in the petting zoos in the U.S.  This thought was confirmed later on when we saw a kangaroo crossing sign as we drove back to our hotel.

The crocodile farms also had rescued koalas.  Koalas are Webley’s favorite animal, so she was thrilled to get up close to one.

I was pretty excited too!

We continued our way through South Dakota and made a quick stop at the Mitchell Corn Palace.  In case you were wondering if there could possibly be more than one, it is in fact the world’s one and only corn palace.  The murals and designs covering the building are made from corn and other grains.  Of course we had to stop!

We drove through Nebraska and onwards.  I was relieved to finally make it to Iowa where some of our old friends live.  After a series of unfortunate motel choices, I was so thrilled to spend a couple of days at the home of Jeremy and Leigh Jorgenson and to finally meet their beautiful daughters.

The Jorgensons are always the ultimate hosts and this visit was no exception.  We had stayed in some pretty dodgy places for the past several nights, so Casa Jorgenson felt like a 5-star hotel.

They have quite the set up on their back porch:

firewood pizza oven and green egg grill

Teppanyaki grill!

The views from their backyard were beautiful too.

It was a wonderful place to reconnect with friends and recharge our batteries!

We ended our roadtrip in Kansas and flew to Washington D.C. where we spent our last week in the U.S.  We hit all the likely tourist spots.

We walked around the mall and visited all of the war memorials: World War I, World War II, Vietnam War, Korean War.  It saddened me to think about all the people who died in these wars.

Was it worth it?  Probably not to those whose loved one perished.

Team Woods comes from a long line of veterans on both sides of the family.  I suppose it’s possible to admire and appreciate their service without condoning the conflict itself.

We were also reminded of the great leaders the U.S. has had in the past which caused me to further bemoan and resent the choice of leaders currently before us.  It’s been quite a fall from the likes of Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt and Eisenhower.  How did we get to this place?

This pic was taken atop the Washington Monument.

And this was as close as we got to the White House.  No tour tickets for us!!

Benjy has quite a few friends from the Navy who continued with their Navy careers after he got out.  Many are now working in and around the capital.  We were able to spend some time with them as well.  It’s hard to believe it has been nearly 20 years since we were all together in VP-16.

And so ends our summer of 2016.