Sunday rest day

Today we woke up to a cool breeze. We walked up to the neighborhood bakery to purchase scones fresh out of the oven. The little village is so nice. It has everything that we need right here close. They are close to everything. We sat out on their patio and enjoyed the scones, all flavors even savory ones.
Rob had got free concert tickets for this evening so we said for the three of them to go on and enjoy and we would babysit. They never get a chance for the two of them to go out and enjoy a night. Later we are going to take the kids up to the park and then across the street to the beach. Joel has his first day at Kindergarten tomorrow so he needs to go to bed early. They have uniforms they have to wear. He's excited. We have been making plans for next week. One day we are planning to go see the Fairy Penguins on Phillips Island and the petting zoo. http://www.penguinislandtour.com.au/
There is so much to see here close by. One day we are going to drive the Great Ocean Road.
http://www.otwaydiscovery.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=104
Next week we have booked a flight to Tasmania and rented a car to drive around the island. then the next week is our week in the bush at Kyneton.

We investigate Melbourne

Relief from the Heat!!! Yesterday the power went off because of a transformer so we decided to go to the beach. (two blocks) A lot of people had the same idea but we saw the most beautiful sunset. It was wonderful!! We stayed until the sun went down then walked home and the power was back on. Rob and Kim have a very nice house with a fenced in courtyard with lots of native plants and even a lemon tree. Today we went into Melbourne to the Victoria Market with thousands of vendors. We could buy anything there including meat, fish, and fresh veggies. We found a lot of souvenirs. We rode the train down there for 30 minutes. Melbourne has a wonderful transportation system. Yesterday we rode the bus system and today the train. Downtown they have Trams and monorails. We were there for 6 hours.

The heat is sizzling!!

We just relaxed yesterday and tried to stay cool. They have had record heat (104 for 3 days!) They live just a few blocks from the town of Altona. We walked down there and bought a few groceries and met some of the nicest Aussies. Their groceries are a lot like ours just more expensive. The beach is just 2 blocks away so we are going down early before it gets so hot. Then today we want to go to the mall where it is air conditioned. The kids keep us busy, ha. Joel starts school next week so he had to go get his school uniform yesterday. I'll post a picture, it's so cute and typically Aussie.

The view from Down Under

Two days ago, an opportunity came up to leave early from Hawaii and not have to go through Guam to spend the night. It would save two days leave for Steve. We had to get up early in the morning (12 midnight) and sign up. They had 41 seats available so we had no trouble getting on. It was a big C-17 with seats along the sides. Some people made a bed on the floor and slept the whole trip (11 hours) I was able to sleep across the seats. We arrived at Richmond RAAF base the next day (we lost a whole day). As soon as we got our luggage through customs we got a taxi to take up to the train. It was an hour on the train to Sydney. When we got there we had to get our special passes that I had ordered on line before we left the states. It allows us unlimited travel on the trains while we are here. We were able to check our luggage at the station. We had time before we caught the night train to Melbourne so we went on the double decker bus for our tour of Sydney. Sydney is a lot like the states.
After an 11 hour trip to Melbourne on the train we arrived at Melbourne at 7:45 am where Rob was waiting with a taxi to take us to his house. They live in an outlying village a 20 minute ride from downtown Melbourne where Rob works for Ticket Master. So needless to say, we are not going to do much today except investigate the surroundings. We are going to have Fish & Chips tonight for supper and go walk on the beach two blocks from their house. After a good nights sleep we will be ready to go tomorrow.

Aloha, we are here in sunny Hawaii. The weather is warm with a nice trade wind. We are in billeting and found out there are two flights out tomorrow so we are getting on one of them. Wish you were here.
We walked around the base and saw the places where we used to work 30 years ago. Ron worked at headquarters PACAF in a building that still showed the signs of the Japanese bullets even in the stairs where he used to walk up to his office. I walked over to the Library where I had worked. It was still the same. It's still a beautiful base. We met some very nice Space-A'ers who were very helpful. They had been coming to Hawaii for 20 years to stay at Bellows Beach. (the best beach in Hawaii) We all walked over to the BX to the food court and enjoyed a simple meal. Then we were ready to go to sleep because we had to get up at 12:00 midnight to make sure we could get out on the flight in to Richmond, Australia.

Where in the world are the Osborne's?

Today we left Scott early this morning on the flight to Travis. Nice big plane with airline seats. Keep on praying-He has really blessed us so far. Just arrived at Travis AFB CA and the terminal has wireless so I'm able to get online. Ron just called and he got us billeting (a room) for the night! (Hooray). When we got to the room, we were pleasantly surprised! We had a two bedroom suite with kitchen. We leave out early in the morning on the same plane for Hawaii. I can't believe the smooth time we are having so far. There are some people in the terminal that have been waiting for weeks and sleeping in the terminal. The next post should be from Hawaii.

Preparing to depart to Scott AFB in Illinois

As far as we know, the flight that leaves out soon is still on. We heard today that it will be accepting Space A's but still don't know how many. We have been on the list since early Dec. All we need is 3. It's a big plane. It is scheduled to fly to Travis AFB in CA, spend the night, Hickam, Hawaii and spend the night, Anderson AFB in Guam and spend the night then on to Canberra Australia where we can deplane and catch a rail to Melbourne. We have reservations at billeting in Hawaii, but the other places are see when we get there. Oh well, we can sleep in the terminal if need be. So in the morning we drive to Steve's, house, (our son) to wait for the flight. We won't know until we get to the terminal if we are going. We will just show up with bags in tow. To be continued.....

Planning for the BIG trip

We have been researching for over two months for this trip. We first decided, late last year, that we wanted to go visit our son and his family when we found out he was staying in Melbourne, Australia for a while longer. First of all was the expense, of course. We started looking into ways to travel. We thought about going by freighter. That seemed like a good way until I found out how long it took. Sometimes it takes over 20 days. We didn't want to spend that much time getting there. Then of course was commercial flights which were very expensive. Then we thought about catching a Military Space-A flight. The more I looked into, I realized that it was possible. Sometimes it works out and other times it doesn't work out. We decided to drive to our son's house who lives in Illinois. He wanted to try to go also since he is retired Air Force. We read posts by other space-A travelers who had learned the ropes and passed on their wisdom. We found out about a flight leaving Scott soon going to Travis, spends the night and leaves the next day for Hickam where it spends the night. The next day it flies to Guam, spends the night then arrives in Australia. We plan to leave Montgomery AL on Thursday to drive to Illinois to try to catch it. We just hope it takes passengers.