End of Trip

grandmaR

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=225098 Third part of the Australian trip

The flag my granddaughter bought in Airlie Beach was bigger than she expected. You can only see her feet behind it.



July 24
Lunch - beef steak sandwich



Tonight was the last formal night and we actually had lobster this time. It came with shrimp and was too much for me to eat. Peter had two servings.



Heather and Bryan were not there. We saw Charlotte by the elevators before we went in and she said good-bye as they were putting her off in Brisbane to get her leg looked at as it does not seem to be healing well.



As we left the dining room we saw Angela from the Excursion desk and asked her if there was a way we could take an excursion to see koalas, which my granddaughter wanted to see. She said yes that we could go to Steve Irwin's zoo and that there were free places on the excursion and I could use my scooter - so to go to the Princess Theatre at 8 and she would see if her boss would allow us to go on the excursion.

So my granddaughter said to set the wake-up call at 6:30 so that she would be up and have had breakfast before 8.

My granddaughter playing Mah Jong on my computer




July 25 - The first wake-up call did not wake her so I opened the curtains and turned on the TV, and asked if she were awake. The second wakeup call came and she answered it and did not realize that it was the second one. Anyway we got breakfast prepared to leave right afterward.

After breakfast, I took the sign up sheet up to Angela and she issued a ticket which the meeting place was 8:30. So we went back to the room and went to the bathroom again etc.

They sent us with the slow walkers - but actually we are not slow at all, we just need an elevator. We had a smooth gangway to disembark.

For some reason, except at Geraldton, when we get off I can scooter off with no problem, but when we come back to the ship the gangway has magically transformed into steps or at least a gangway that I can't use with the scooter. I do not know why this should be.

We got the front seats on the bus and drove out to the zoo.

grandmaR

It was looking rainy and I had not brought any rain gear as none was in the forecast. We got on the tram (including the scooter) and went out to stop 3 which was where the koala enclosure was. But we went the wrong way and went to the kangaroo enclosure first. (My granddaughter's photo of me)



When we got to the echidnas,


there was kangaroo food to buy. By that time I figure out that we had gone the wrong way, so she bought some food and fed some kangaroos on the way back







When we finally got to the enclosure with the koalas,



they had a place where you could put your hand on the koala. So I took a photo of that for her with her camera.



Later there was a place where you could hold one, but it cost over $10.00 and my granddaughter thought that was too expensive so she didn't do it. We also saw (and fed) more kangaroos, some birds (pigeons,



ducks,



Kookaburras

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parrots and a funny kind of turkey that was running loose everywhere scratching the mulch onto the path),



two kinds of wombats





and the children's petting zoo.



I took some photos of my granddaughter sitting on a huge croc statue.






Then we went shopping to see if she could get the other things she wanted. I asked at the counter about one of the items and she called around and said that they had a few left at the entrance shop, so we went there, and found those and bought them. Then, my scooter was all the way into the light green (middle) so I though I'd give it a chance to recover and sent my granddaughter out on her own to do the loop around where the dingoes



and Tasmanian devils were.



She came running back because there was a rain shower. We basically hung around the entrance from then on until time for the bus to leave. We took some iguana photos at the enclosure near the entrance.

grandmaR

The bus took us up into the mountains





to a place called Montville to have lunch and shop. My granddaughter's friend Arden and her grandmother were on the tour too so we had lunch with them and did some more shopping.



Everyone bought some fudge.







Then we came back on the bus to the ship.






Heather and Bryan were at dinner this time.


My granddaughter had a movie she wanted to see on the TV so she left right after dessert and when I got back to the room, she was packing.

July 26 - My granddaughter packed and repacked and I posted photos and used up my last internet time. Then I stuck everything into a suitcase. Lunch in the Horizon Court (Lido)



My granddaughter argued with me about putting the suitcases out in the corridor saying that they would be stolen because the cruises she was on with her parents, they carried their own luggage off, but the room steward and I finally convinced her. We left most of our Australian change as tips for the waiters and room steward.
.

grandmaR

Dinner
Puff pastry with chicken (she's taken out all the mushrooms)



Granddaughter's turkey


My NY cut



We had a parade of waiters with Baked Alaska



and we all took photos of each other.



Bryan with Charlotte on the left and Heather



Morning July 27 in Sydney- We had set the wake-up call for 6:30 but I was slow getting dressed and my granddaughter didn't think she was hungry or that we had time for breakfast, but we went up to the Lido (called Horizon Court on this ship). For assistance in disembarking, we were to go to the casino 15 minutes in advance to wait for our time. I had asked for 8:30 and I got Yellow Seven - Independent arrangements at 8:10. It was actually about 8:20 when I got into the wheelchair and was wheeled off. The men doing the wheelchair duty were retired people from Sydney.

We got our luggage and he put us into a taxi and we went to the airport.



Here the taxi driver put us out on the curb and sent my granddaughter to get a wheelchair. In the meantime I got a smart cart and put two of the bags on it. She came back with the chair and we got another cart for the Luggie and the other bag. The machine only took bills ($5.00) and gave us $2.00 change in coins. My granddaughter pushed the wheelchair and the wheelchair man pushed the bags

We checked in, but I did not have the flight number for the AA flight to Ft. Lauderdale written down on the e-ticket for Qantas, so they said we couldn't check the bags through. And I knew we'd have to retrieve them in LAX anyway to go through customs.

The wheelchair guy let us have the chair to go to the gate waiting area (we couldn't go all the way to the gate yet as they were using it for other things). She went and did some more shopping - she used up her Australian money and some of mine, and did not cash the rest of her traveler's checks. She also changed almost all of the Australia cash back to US (except for about $25.00 that hid and so didn't get changed) and we got something more to eat. While she was doing that I retrieved the flight information from my computer for the next
flight - the airport had free wi-fi.



Then she pushed me down to the gate - we were almost the first ones down there. The lady who checked us in tried to change our seat assignments but we kept the ones I paid for which was 80A and 80B. The plane was an airbus. Our seats were behind two in the exit row and I didn't have a seat in front of me. The plane was half empty so the person in front of my granddaughter went farther back to an empty row. The
only disadvantage to this seat was that it was right next to the galley which was a bit noisy. One significant advantage to my seat was that I could get up to go to the bathroom without having to bother anyone else and I had the window to lean against. A disadvantage of course was that I had no seat back to put things in.

Taking off from Sydney - July 27th 1300



Sunset on the 27th



My grandaughter did not sleep much - I tried harder to sleep and did sleep some. They fed us lunch and dinner (granddaughter got lasagna)

grandmaR

and breakfast, but she did not like the cereal offered and would not eat it so I ate her breakfast. I got her an apple and a biscotti from the self serve bar in the back but neither of us liked the biscotti. Arriving in LA



From here on there aren't a lot of photos so skip to the end if you want

Arriving in LA, on the morning of July 27th. I expected to have more trouble in LAX than I did. The wheelchair was there at the plane, and the wheelchair guy got a friend who was working in the baggage area to get our bags and he stacked them all on one cart. We went thru immigration and got to customs. I had bought two opal rings and declared them, but in trying to figure out the price in US dollars, I had accidentally added a zero to the price. The customs agent was surprised and asked me about it, and corrected my figures. and sent us down to Section B

The guy at B asked if we were related (we had to make out separate declarations because of different last names) and I started to answer so he said to me "I know you can talk - I want to hear it from her:".

So my granddaughter said I was her grandmother. He studied the forms we had made out for some time, and then asked me how much money I had. I said I thought about $800.00. He asked if it was more than $10K and I said no, so he apparently merged our two declarations and I didn't have to pay duty.

Now we went to recheck the bags and they wouldn't do it because you can't check bags more than 12 hours in advance, but they did give us boarding passes. The wheelchair guy and the luggage guy took us up to the American section (it was a long walk) and left us there to check in our luggage which everyone said could not be checked more than 12 hours in advance.

I left my granddaughter with the luggage and walked over to the assistance area and there was a lady there who had a supervisor tag on and I asked her about checking the bags. Eventually she said she would try to print out the baggage labels, and did, and came over to where we were and put the tags on and told us to wait a little while and then take the
bags to the TSA screener. So I waited until about 11:40 and took the bags over.

I then went to get a wheelchair to go to the shuttle. I basically took a wheelchair and one of the guys stopped me, but he gave in and pushed he wheelchair to the shuttle pick-up area himself and even let me use his phone to call the hotel.

We got the shuttle and went to the hotel and checked in - hobbled to the room, and went to sleep. I set a wake-up call for 9 pm.



I got up about 6 and tried to find the phone charger to call Bob (because my phone was dead) and did recharge the laptop from what I'd used in the airport.

View from the window of the Westin at 2000 on July 27th



We didn't feel much like a shower so we repacked and went down and checked out and got the shuttle back to the airport. I asked the curb check guy for a wheelchair, which
eventually arrived. That guy took me up to security, and left us there.

Note - people older than 75 years of age do not have to take off their shoes and coats anymore.

The guy at security was going to make me take off my shoes and I said I was born in 1937, so he let me walk though with my shoes on. My watch made the machine beep so I had to do it again. I also did not take out my computer this time and no one said anything about it.

There was another wheelchair guy for me on the other side and he checked to see if the gate had changed (it had) and took us to the gate. My granddaughter was hungry by this time so she tried to go to Chili's to get take-out but eventually ended up with something from Burger King. She went back to get me something and also got something from Starbucks for herself.

The plane this time was a 737 and we were close to the back in an aisle and middle seat. Our seatmate was a lady with a poodle in a carrier. The flight was 5 hours and seemed very long. They kept it very dark so people could sleep - it was a pretty full flight - there were 11 standby people.

The wheelchair lady in Ft. L was very reluctant to do any work, and just left me at baggage claim. So I did not tip her. One of the men at baggage claim helped my granddaughter with the bags and I did tip him as he sat with us until my son-in-law came around with the truck.

So we are here in Miami and I only have one more flight.

July 29th to 30th
I stayed with my daughter and son-in-law, watching the Olympics, coughing and trying to get over jet lag. The scooter got picked up on Monday.

July 31 - I really didn't do well today - I got so involved in what I was doing that I didn't get ready to go to the airport for my flight in time. In order to check a bag, you have to be at the airport an hour in advance and my daughter's house is really more than a half hour from the airport and I wasn't in the car to go in time to get there. But she made it by speeding, and got my bag checked and me a wheelchair.

The wheel chair man took me inside, but they couldn't get me a wheelchair to the gate until the plane was already boarding. I had to ask for help getting my bag in the overhead because the people in the back (where I was sitting) were already on the plane. It was a full flight. The people sitting next to me wanted to know if I wanted to switch and sit on the aisle, but I wanted to sit by the window. I took quite a few photos.

Miami





Bahamas



Potomac River bridge



Power lines



There was a wheelchair waiting for me at the airport and by the time I got down to baggage claim, Bob was already there and had my bag. Bless him, he had brought my scooter for me so he took the bag and I followed him on the scooter to the car. I didn't feel much like eating so he just made me a salad at home. Bob had rearranged the furniture. The couch was here



The cat absolutely refused to have anything to do with me and ran and hid and even ran out of the house while Bob was bringing the scooter in.

After I gave him some fish, he decided I was OK.


I went to the doctor and he said my bloodwork from before I left was all normal, but I was wheezing and he gave me some antibiotics and some inhalers and said if I wasn't better in 2 weeks to have a chest x-ray. And I really am getting better