Excellent Shopping in Melbourne

Am here in Melbourne, having an EXCELLENT TIME shopping! Am staying at the fabulous DUXTON HOTEL (pictured). You can see it is an older hotel, very pretty with lots of marble floors and beautiful furnishings.
When in Melbourne I always try to go to Bridge Road, which is lined with outlets, small boutiques and great little cafes. On this MOST successful shopping excursion, I had lunch at the Richmond Hill Cafe & Larder, which makes the most delicious "cheesy toast" which is made with gruyere cheese (among others) and is scrumptious!

Professor Tim

Tim has started teaching his course, "Principles of Strategic Management", in the Business School this week. He is excited and thinks it is pretty different, even from tutoring, which he has done for the last two years. This picture is of Tim and his adviser Peter at the graduation ceremony last year when Tim got his MBA. 

Easily Amused

We were fairly easily entertained when we visited our nephew Michael in Charlotte, North Carolina... 

Eating in Style!

Bryan, Joann, Nancy, Tim and Michael had lots of fun together! Here we are after a great meal of calzones and sub sandwiches! 

Future Field Ornithologist

We had fun taking Michael to the Raptor Center near Joann & Bryan's house. They rehabilitate injured hawks and owls there - they also have many golden and bald eagles on display! Michael is getting an early start honing his field identification skills.... 

A Great Trip to the States! And the FOOD.....

We had such a great time in the States on our three week trip there - can't believe we got to see so many friends and our families on both coasts! People really pulled out all of the stops,esp. in the food department. Here is a fine example - Rod (Tim's Dad) baked us TWO blueberry and TWO rhubarb pies - and Arlene (Tim's Mom) bought us a pumpkin pie on VERY short notice (Nancy ate some of each for breakfast on the last day....) 

Hanging with Folks on the West Coast

Some people made special visits to see us - like Tim's cousin's Craig and Leslie, who met us at a roadside Denny's on their way to a wedding in California. In the foreground are Ken and Monique, who hung out with Nancy & Tim until they finally said goodbye at Tim's parents house later that day after the swell party they threw for us... But when Ken saw that rhubarb pie, he was glad he'd decided to hang out with us! 

When will YOU come and visit us "Down Under"?

We got to see lots of folks that we haven't seen for a long time at the party, including Tim's cousin Dave and his partnew Bill. There were promises all around for folks to come visit us (provided we hid all the spiders and snakes for a 12 mile radius around our house...) 

A new BLOGGER on the block!

Finally, a great thing about this trip was sharing things with others. I shared by interest in blogging with my sister Joann, and she has been posting some great images ever since. Check out her cool blog, enigmatically titled "Biscuit",, 

Finally posting again...

Well, it has been a long time since there was a post from me because too many events have been occuring all at once. The big one: our beloved Darwin was diagnosed with lymphoma, and has had to be treated with chemotherapy. He is happily doing much better, thanks to our wonderful vet Fran and the devoted care our neighbors Paul and Ann are lavishing on him while we are away in the States.....

Eating up a storm in NYC & NJ

Tim and I had a lot of fun in NYC and New Jersey, our first stops on our great Family Reunion Tour. We spent a day in NYC, where I had a pastrami on rye which was as big as my head. Then we spent a few days with my Mom in Barnegat, NJ, and there we ate diner meals of enormous proportions.

Here in North Carolina with nephew Michael

Now I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina with my nephew Michael. We are having lots of fun! We've eaten at the Waffle House (my breakfast: 3 egg omelette, waffle, sausages, cheese grits and cheese hash browns), we've gone to the mall, we've visited botanical gardens, and we've had great ice cream! Michael is becoming quite the scholar, finishing at least a book a day...