Only 3 weeks ago, I sat in this very same campground in Broome preparing for a holiday from our holiday. We're back now and it all feels like a dream. We had a night in Sydney with wonderful friends, Silvia and Ivan, who prepared an early birthday celebration for me complete with a visit from newly PhD doctored Ed. Then a breakfast catch up at Claudette and Brad's new place before back to the airport for our international flight.
There's no place like home! Arriving in Florida after the long journey, Mum had homemade gazpacho and bagels ready for us before collapsing to sleep. We had a busy schedule at the homefront which
kicked off with a visit from my sister and gorgeous niece, Sofia, then deep sea fishing, weekend parties, Matt's first baseball game (go the Rays!), before we took off for a side trip to New Orleans.
NAWLINS- loved it! I haven't been since I was a child and I can assure you although the beauty of this city is probably much the same, the experience in drinking age is a whole
other ball game. We stayed at a great boutique hotel, The Frenchman, in the heart of jazz clubs and walking distance throughout the French Quarter. With only two days, we covered the quarter, sunset on the Mississippi, the obligatory Bourbon Street, soul food, po boys, the Garden District, and great music!
Back to Florida with more food to eat and festivities to enjoy, we reveled in home cooking and family catch ups. It was tough to leave, especially as my sister, Megan, is expecting my second niece or nephew in less than a month and Sofia is too cute in her calls of "Tata". But alas, off we were for a journey that was already too long at 32 hours and became one of nearly 50 thanks to strong tradewinds and a required stop in Auckland to refuel. So after Tampa to Dallas to Auckland to Brisbane to Sydney to Perth, Qantas did put us up in the Hyatt before our final flight to Broome.
Ahh, it only took us a day and we were relaxing on the turquoise waters of Willie Creek and Matt was getting his first catch on the new equipment. Bring on the second half of our Oz Adventure!
