The Healesville Sanctuary is a branch of the Melbourne Zoo, out in the hills to the east. There one can find plenty of Australian fauna and flora without having to head out into the bush to find it. We headed up there on Sunday of my first weekend in Belgrave, a week after I'd arrived in Australia. I've got a decent selection of photos from there in the gallery, so have a look. The highlight of that day would have to have been one of the snakes that we saw.

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My time in Belgrave has included two full weekends, and some of the family activities I've been partaking in have included a trip to the Healesville Sanctuary (more on that later), an couple of visits to local parks, and a morning at Grant's Picnic Ground, just a half-mile or so up the road.

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G'day again from down undah! Yes indeed I've been in Australia for 15 days now, mostly here in Belgrave, about 25 miles east of downtown Melbourne at the end of one of the public-transit train lines.  I've been visiting Larkin, one of my sisters from my New Zealand host-family of 25 yrs ago, and her partner Andrea, and their three-year-old twins Finn & Poppy.

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Finally I'm taking time at the coffee shop this morning to add another day or two to the DisneyWorld saga.

So after two days at the Magic Kingdom, we decided to spend friday at the Animal Kingdom, the newest theme park at Disney World. I think of all the surprisingly cool, and even impressive things I experienced this week, the Animal Kingdom park was high on the list.

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A couple things about the Magic Kingdom, one up, one down: On the upside: even though its clear that there's subtle marketing going on everywhere, and things are arranged to help you spend more money, I never found that aspect to be overwhelming and annoying. Yes, I saw it, but it wasn't glaring or obnoxious, and it was easy to ignore it. The shops and the street vendors all blended into the surroundings pretty smoothly. All this was another reason why the whole week was much better than I'd feared.  

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For those who're familiar with Disneyland in California, the equivalent at Disney World is the Magic Kingdom, which is very similar, but bigger. It has a main street lined with 'in-character' shops, leading to a circle in front of Cinderella's Castle. Around the circle are the various "lands" - Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland. Each land can take half a day or more to explore. We started in Adventureland, where we wandered throught the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse.

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I know  - its been like nearly a month, rather than the week I 'd promised. Fortunately when I make non-blogging promises to individuals, I'm much better at keeping them!

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A little less than two weeks ago I flew out of Oakland Airport headed for one of the few places on earth I've really never wanted to go in my adult life. Now that I've been back for five days, I'm happy to report that Walt Disney World in Florida was not nearly as unpleasant for me as I'd feared. Its gonna take me a while to get my impressions all written down, so I'll do it in chunks.

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As usual, its been far too long since I've posted anything. And as more
usual, this will be short.  But, I've got several things to write
about, so I'll post again soon - I just wanted to at least get this
entry on line so people can see the photos from my recent week with my sister Sarah and niece Bethany.

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Hi everyone! I just got back from a nearly month-long trip to the North Island of New Zealand.
For those who may not know, I was an exchange student there for a year in 1984, and have been back several times. Unfortunately the most recent visit was 11 years ago on my round-the-world backpacking trip.

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