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1969 Hawaii: Details in Peace Corps Journal.
1980 T - Came home at lunch and skipped afternoon at work, so we could go to the Minnesota Zoo with Aldies (free day). Snake display, tropics, dolphin show, whale show, Minnesota Trail and Dairy Queen. Zoo volunteer had to lift Ne to give her a cuddle. Brought Gail to work at 5PM. Had Aldies fill out my Malecek Mid-Minnesota Mini-Tour questionaire (Trish's and Doug's). They tried blowing bubbles with chewing gum.
1982 Th - Frank and Libby over for fun bridge - they brought doughnuts and cookies.
1989 NZS day at Rainbow's End for 12-15 year olds. I volunteered to be a helper. Gail came along and also got in with a special ticket. While waiting to get in a fellow came up with hubcaps and offered one for $15 for our missing one, but he couldn't make it stay on. We were suppose to have 6 kids per group but the whole thing fell apart from the start and so we were pretty much free to do whatever. We hung out with Barry Menzies and Ailene Wong. Went on the log flume couple times and the Corkscrew. David did race cars. Gail and Ne the ship. Lolly scramble, free hot dogs, soda and chips. Golf - Gail won and Ne beat David (video). Gail and Ne did Dodgem cars. David and Gail went on bumper boats and reckon that is the best ride (video).
1990 Manukau with Whites to look at tents. The one we paid $895 for last year is now $590 [ed. - sold it for $110 in 2011]. They decided to buy our 9' x 7' one for $140.
1993 Doug sprained his ankle playing basketball and showed up on crutches. Gave him the toothbrush timer and a copy of "Rolling Stone". Played RnR Trivial Pursuit downing tequila.
2005 Ian joined us to go to Nathan Homestead where the Clarks joined us to watch Happiest Days of Your Life. We were let in as "SenCitizen", as was anyone over 20. I had a Kumeu River 2002 Merlot to fight off the perfume. Many good laughs. Ian and I acted in the play in 1971 and Mike was in it at Rosehill.
2009 W - Ethiopian opal from Newsy..
2010 Th - After a hurried breakfast (eating area) we ended up waiting until about 8:30AM for the Down Under bus to pick us up at the Hotel. After picking up a few more people at other places the driver was chatty as he had to stall until a second bus arrived. We all then moved to that one and its one-armed driver chatted up a couple Japanese girls (he spoke Japanese fluently) as he brought us to Freshwater Station where after another long wait we boarded Kuranda Scenic Railway train (old style carriages). Lousy seats away from windows and facing backwards. Went through 15 tunnels and several bridges, all built with pick and shovel. Went past Bridal Veil Falls and the train stopped for everyone to get off and have a look at Barron Falls. Once at Kuranda we walked past the tourist shops to Bird World passing a scrub turkey on the way. Lots of friendly birds and especially Bentley who attached himself to Gail and didn't want to leave her. Saw a cassowary up close and had a helmeted friarbird attack my head a couple times. (Bird World video) Bought a deck of Aussie birds playing cards which came in handy when we discovered later that the one we were using was missing the Ace of Clubs. Stumbled across a 9-hole Putt Putt course and was very easy (score card). We were going to eat at a German place but the music was too loud, so we settled for another spot run by an intriguing fellow who I determined was Spanish, if not Italian. Had iced coffees with our meal. While doing that I kept noticing Japanese tourists laughing at, inspecting and having their photo being taken at a trash bin, so naturally I had to have one, too. Time to return to Cairns only we went via the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway which hovered above the treetops. Managed to see one sulphur-crested cockatoo and at the Red Peak Station boardwalk we came upon an Aussie kauri. Bus ride from Caravonica to the hotel where we had a a game of cribbage before heading to town to get supper at McDonalds where we struck a conversation with a lady who I guessed correctly that she was a Filipino.





Barron Falls


Caravonica
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