Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
State of Origin
State of Origin is a Rugby League 3 match series held every year in Australia.. All stars for their respective birth states in New South Wales and Queensland battle it out for bragging rights.
We were there for the first match in the series, which was held in Brisbane. Maroon (Queensland) won 25-18, making a spectacular comeback in the 2nd half when they were down 6-18. Brisbane was awash in maroon...men and women sported jerseys, pubs served maroon beer and our hotel lobby projected the match on the wall. We watched the first half at a pub, which evidently was the wrong pub; everybody was wearing blue and cheering for New South Wales.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Giant Sam Houston Will Mosh You Away
About an hour north of Houston in I-45 is a giant statue of Sam Houston. This is the backup head, just in case, you know....
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Houston
So, my dear and dedicated readers, I have many more Brisbane, Australia photos to post...should I keep going with that, or are we in the mood for some Texas?
Monday, August 27, 2007
Hats are compulsory
Australian school children are required to wear brimmed hats as part of their school uniforms. Australia has the highest skin cancer rate in the world, in part because of the depleted ozone layer over the continent. Think of these kids and their hats the next time you gas up your SUV, or you get a great bargain on some Chinese made goods.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
LaGrave Field
We caught the third to last Fort Worth Cats game of the season last night. LaGrave field is a really nice ballpark with views of the levee and riverside to the east and downtown to the south. The Cats were taking a beating by the 4th inning. That and the heat prompted us to bail out around the 4th inning. It was a beautiful night so we went driving with the windows down and the sun roof open. Driving along the Trinity River near 7th street we saw fireflies flashing in the night. We've never seen fireflies before, so we pulled over, killed the lights and watched the majickal critters dance in the warm evening air.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Ibis
This freaky looking dinosaur-monster is actually an Ibis. They are almost as common in Australia as pigeons and room the streets, eating refuse and scraps. Although generally friendly, even a bit shy, it was somewhat disconcerting to have such a big bird casually lurking about the busy human world.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
What if Main Street, Fort Worth was like this?
What if Main Street in Fort Worth was closed off like this? How wonderful and open it would be? There is an idea that people don't want to walk in Texas because it is too hot, but it's hot in Australia too. Queen Street is closed off the vehicular traffic, making it the central walkway through the CBD (central business district). Our hotel was on Queen St., and I spent hours there people watching and shooting photographs.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Queen Street, Brisbane, Australia
Queen Street is closed off the vehicular traffic, making it the central walkway through the CBD (central business district). Our hotel was on Queen St., and I spent hours people watching and shooting photographs.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Congrats to Kelly and Cliff
Joe and I suit it up at our bro Cliff's wedding. Joe is the dashing lad in the tweed suit, I am the handsome devil in the green shirt. Tar took this picture with my camera.
Hey! Nice work, you two. Congrats.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Falafel
Most of the businesses in downtown Brisbane are open air. Another plus--Falafels everywhere!
PS-Happy 100th post to me.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Seals
This might be my favorite image from our trip to Australia. UnderWater World offers a "Seal Swim" encounter where folks can hop in the seal tank and play with them. The seals were like playful puppies darting around the kicking and swirling humans. I made this image in "Seal Stadium" which was empty at the time. It was incredibly peaceful.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Shark Tank
We did a touristy thing and got into the shark aquarium at UnderWater World in Mooloolaba in Australia. We hung out there for about 30 minutes while ancient death-bringers with craggy teeth swam past our faces, over our heads and around our legs. While intellectually, I understood that none of the dozen or so sharks in the tank had a lust for the sweet nectar of human blood, it was still unnerving as they would swim up to my face, look at me with their cold, dead, killing eyes and move their toothy jaws up and down as if to taunt me, and then slowly swim past me.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Friday, August 03, 2007
SCUBA Diving Julian Rocks, Byron Bay, Australia, Part II
Byron Bay is a cool little beach town with lots of open air coffee shops and restaurants and backpacking Euros marching around. Reggae drifted out from the coffee shops and everybody was young, healthy and beautiful in a natural surfer kind of way. We were in Byron Bay to go SCUBA diving at Julian Rocks Marine Preserve.
Named by Captain Cook before he got killed by angry Hawaiians, Julian Rocks are just a couple of rocks about 1/2 a mile out in the Bay. Because they are situated right where the warm waters from the north meet the cooler waters from the south, it has a unique abundance and variety of marine life. Some people say they diving there is better than on the Great Barrier Reef.
After getting geared up we took a quick 5-7 min ride out to the Rocks on an inflatable sided boat. The weather was perfect, the sun out, crystal clear skies and water. It felt so good to be alive... riding on the boat with the wind in our hair and the sea spray blowing in our faces. We did the total Jacques Cousteau backwards roll into the water. It was exhilarating.
We did two dives and they were well organized and personalized to our skill level. We dove with an instructor on both. The first dive was kinda rough because we had never dealt with currents before and our group had 5 people in it, not including the Dive Master. Once we got down (60 feet), Germans were bumping into Italians, and it's not like the two Americans were staying out of the way either. We say a Leopard shark, lots of fish and other marine life. It was a good start.
When we went out a second time it was much better. It was just the two of us and our dive master was better than the first. We took our time and had a really mellow dive. We saw a school of about 25 Eagle Rays swim by, and then as we rounded the corner we saw some sort of Giant Ray swimming up a rock wall. It was awesome. He was so giant and graceful. We saw puffer fish, schools of tuna, dozens of wobbegongs, little plankton-y type critters, crabs, big ol' potato cods....we saw so many different kinds of fish, we couldn't possibly remember all of them to identify later. It was incredible.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
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