Wow. I mean, just wow. Today made my trip worthwhile.

( No more talk. Just pictures. )

There's not all that much to see today, I'm afraid. I spent the day hanging out with the Lancasters - Robert and Susan. I won't tell their entire story here, but Robert is the person behind the Stop Kaz and Stop Sylvia Browne websites. He had a major stroke last August, and has been recovering under care ever since. He finally went home last week - he's now in excellent health. He still has mobility problems, and probably will have for some time, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with his mind. We exchanged stories. Great guy, and Susan is a wonderful woman. I'll be seeing them again at TAM.

I've been saying while preparing for this trip that I'm going to be interviewing Jesus Christ while I'm here. And I did - well, I interviewed Neil Saavedra, the host of the Jesus Christ Show on KFI-AM here in Los Angeles. It was a lot of fun. Neil is another great guy, and a very good friend of Robert and Susan (that's how I got the interview in the first place). I'm told he's something of a celebrity here in LA.

So I got an excellent interview for the God's Word segment of the podcast, covering the fundamentals of faith, extremism, his show and so forth. It'll probably be on Episode 7, since we're reserving 6 for a TAM special report.

Anyway, I need to be up really early tomorrow morning to drive out to the Grand Canyon. Expect some photos. :)

A pretty quiet day today. After yesterday, I was pretty tired. Tomorrow will be a big day - I'll have my interview to do, and apparently a bunch of people are coming back to the place I'm staying for a big party before we leave for the Grand Canyon at oh crap o'clock on Wednesday. Didn't do all that much, but we did go up into the mountains for some pretty spectacular scenery.

( Mountain Scenery )

Well, I have had a pretty awesome day today. Yes, I got to the La Brea Tarpits, which is something that I particularly wanted to do while I was here.

( La Brea Tarpits )

Day One

12:45 hour flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. Wow. That's something I never want to do again. Execept for just once.

I made notes while I was on the plane, but lost the first one because it seemed to crash the LJApp on my iPhone for some reason, and I'm not sure why. It was basically about the meal I had on the plane, which was surprisingly good, and about the remarkably extensive In-Flight Entertainment System. Here are the others, which I started doing in Notes instead:

In Flight #2

Personal time: 2:15am. So far, I've watched an episode of Family Guy, one of Scrubs, the Top Gear motorcycling-in-Vietnam episode, and the Mythbusters Ninja Special.

I estimate that I've just crossed the Date Line. Congratulations, it's now yesterday. I think we're about halfway there, judging from the map.

Okay, I'm really bored now.

And I'm pretty sure that Jay Laudig is on this flight with me.

In Flight #3

Personal time: 4:25am. The Captain has just called for the cabin crew to take their seats. I have a feeling that it's about to get a bit rough.

In other news, four episodes of How I Met Your Mother. And I think I may now be in the Northern Hemisphere.

In Flight #4

They've turned the cabin lights on and are starting to serve breakfast. No, I didn't sleep at all. About an hour's worth of dozong but that's it. For the last hour or so, I've been playing Bejeweled on the in-flight entertainment system. Got a pretty good score, too. Jay Laudig still on board, I think.

In Flight #5

I don't think they let you do an economy-class trip longer than this.

There's less than an hour left. My knees are sore, I have a headache, and I just watched a documentary about the South Pacific Islands. Not that it wasn't interesting, but...

I will shortly be debarking in LA. I can't shake the nagging suspicion that I've forgotten something important. Some vital bit of paperwork that will mean that they turn me around and send me back home. That would be annoying.

I need to turn off my iPhone now. Next update will probably be from Noel's place.

Noel's Place

Well, nothing happened. I'm down, safe, and about to go to bed (it's just past midnight local time). I estimate that I've been awake now for about 30 hours. I need to get up fairly early tomorrow to do the Grand Tour of Los Angeles.

We went and did fireworks tonight. Well, it is the 4th of July, after all.

( Ooooh. Aaaaah. )

It turns out that my iPhone gets mobile coverage in the US, so it will work for voice and SMS, but I don't get 3G so unless I can connect to a wireless network, I won't be Tweeting, except when I make an LJ post. I'm hoping to do one post every day while I'm here.

Sleep now. Sleeep goooood.

I now have all the photos. Expect some posts soon. Especially of Kangaroo Island...

Enjoy!

Gooood evening, LJ.

Unfortunately it appears that a couple of the CDs I burned ot the pictures from last week have gone dud on me, so additional photos will not be forthcoming at this time. And the thing that I suggested I would be working on today - not going to happen. Not right now, anyway. Sorry about that.

Well, we're back from Kangaroo Island, where as anticipated there was absolutly no connection of any kind - internet or mobile.

I'll actually do a proper post tomorrow when I get back home (boy is there a lot to post about!), but for now I'll give you a few pictures, just to show you the kinds of things we've been doing:

( Teasers )

I have a particular idea in mind for a way of showing off my KI trip, but I don't quite know how it'll work out. I'll be experimenting with it tomorrow, as well as posting additional photos.

Not much in the way of photographs today. KL likes to cruise the craft and antique shops. We did so today in the town of Strathalbyn, which is quite a pretty town.

( A few pictures only )

Tomorrow we're getting up at stupid o'clock again to drive to Cape Jarvis in order to catch the ferry to Kangaroo Island. I have no idea what the net connection situation will be there - most likely not all that good. So you may have a reprieve from me bugging you about it for a while. Worst case, there is no connection at all, and I can't post until we get back to Canberra on Monday. We'll see what happens.

No Alien Landscapes today, but I've created a slideshow of all the ones I've done so far, plus one or two you haven't seen yet. I'd post it here, but LiveJournal doesn't appear to accept the embed wiget. So here's the link:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v399/Arthwollipot/goolwa/lpov/?action=view¤t=c65c9fdb.pbw

A driving day today. We drove as far as we could around Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert, and took as many photos as we could.

( The Scenery )

After lunch, we headed for the scenic routes home. We stopped off at the Hindmarsh Falls, just a little way off the road, where we took more photos:

( Falls )

After that we went to a "flora reserve" at which I was able to indulge my passion for botanical photography.

( Garden )

Well, what can I say? We're in a wine area - we have to do a tour of the wineries. Today we did four wineries in McLaren Vale - Marienberg, Wirra Wirra, Maxwells and d'Arenberg. As a result I've been continuously slightly drunk since about 11am.

Marienberg I particularly remember because many years ago they produced a Trochenbeerenauslese, which doesn't often happen. Trochen is what botrytus unsuccessfully try to be like, and it's like drinking silk. Unfortunately extremely rare. Anyway, there was none of that today.

McLaren Vale is very much a white wine district. The semillions and rieslings are to die for. The reds of the district aren't nearly as good - although there was a very nice Marienberg cabernet sauvignon. Wirra Wirra was very nice, with a fantastic sauvignon blanc. Maxwells is best known to most of us as the place that does the mead. They are, in fact, the biggest mead makers in the southern hemisphere. But they also have some very nice verdelho and white port. Finally, d'Arenberg. What can I say? This has now become my favourite winery. Not only do they have a great riesling, but their reds are awesome as well. We stopped there for fantastic (and terribly indulgent) lunch. If you're ever in McLaren Vale, I heartily recommend you stop at d'Arra's on the Veranda for lunch or dinner. The food was the way restaurant food should be, and very reasonably priced.

( The wine district )