North of Vegas

Today we drove a route north of Las Vegas. It still had snow on the ground. It was nice, but not as good as the flowers we saw in Palm Springs. Tomorrow we head for Flag Staff. I hope to get some pictures of the lights in Vegas tonight.

Palm Springs

This week I had to head back to the US for a test trip. We were using a road west of Palm Springs to do some vehicle tests. Some of the flowers were in bloom, so stopped and took a few pictures on the way back down. It was beautiful.


This is the road we test on!! :)













This tree was next to the Hotel


This flower was in the parking lot.

Herons on the River

With all the references to cranes here in Hiroshima, I originally thought these birds were cranes. These birds are actually Grey Herons. I see a dozen of these birds every time I ride my bicycle to work. You can also look out our apartment window and see them soaring gracefully over the water.

I wanted to get a picture of these graceful animals before we leave Japan. So I set out this Saturday morning to get a few pictures. The Island the birds were nesting on was 100 meters away. I hit the limitation of my equipment. As much as I love my new 17-85mm lenses it is not near large enough for taking bird pictures at this distance. I had three choices buy a new lens ($$$$), get a boat (????) or crop the heck out of the pictures. So, please pardon the quality of these pictures because I took the easy path of cropping.





Hi dear, I'm home

This nest looks pretty big

Sydney

Sydney was an energetic town that reminded me very much of San Francisco. Our Hotel was next to China Town so we enjoyed Chinese and Thai food.

The Opera House

The Harbour Bridge

The view from the Hotel


The view from the Harbour Bridge. I love all the colorful buildings.

Princess Hailey gets a ride from a loyal subject








Central Station


The Rocks area of Sydney

Darling Harbor at Night - Sydney

Darling Harbor was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We walked down for dinner one night.



This street performer entertained us for awhile

Bondi Beach - Sydney

Since it was gray and rainy, what would be better to do than go to the beach. Bondi Beach is a famous beach in Sydney. I am really happy we went, the local surfers and wind surfers really put on a show.



I am not sure anyone knows how to read here; not that I object.

Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary

We visited the Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary on the way back to Sydney from the Blue Mountains. It was a small zoo that allowed “cuddling with koalas”.



A wombat

Amy finally gets her chance to cuddle her koala.

Yes koalas are cute from a distance, but they have long claws and kind of smell. How cute!!!









A BIG crock! She's a beauty!!

Australian dingoes

After petting the small wallaby's for awhile, we ran into this big red kangaroo. When it stood up straight, I looked eye to eye with it. At first I was just stunned, and then Amy said “get a picture of it”. It posed for a second and let me take this picture, and then it hopped off. This picture does not do it justice. A minute later three zoo keepers came running thru looking for it; apparently it had escaped from its enclosure.

Our big friend hopping off.