Photo Taken: 13th September 2009
Photo Location: Outback Northern Territory somewhere…
In September 2009 I went to Darwin & then toured out to Arnhem Land. This photo, with the road stretching off into the distance and seemingly never, never ending was taken somewhere on that tour…
Photo Taken: 30th October 2007
Photo Location: Beverly Centre, Los Angeles, California
In 2007 we holidayed in the USA, staying in Los Angeles around Halloween.
This photo was taken at the California Pizza Kitchen, at the Beverly Centre. According to their site, the California Pizza Kitchen (http://www.cpk.com) serves “Authentic California-style cuisine at all CPK locations. Try our innovative pizzas, distinctive pastas, salads, soups, appetizers and desserts.” According to me, they serve good, inexpensive food.
I’m not sure what was happening in this photo, but it looks like Jackson was getting a smack, which he certainly would not have been.
Photo Taken: 21st January, 2010
Photo Location: Telluride, Colorado
This photo was taken on the last night of our stay in Telluride in 2009 / 2010. The snow had started dumping down during the night before and was heavy throughout the day, resulting in a couple of feet of snow falling over the 48 hour period.
These bikes were caught in the middle of the dumping, parked in a bike rack in the centre of the town of Telluride.
Photo Taken: 26th December 2009
Photo Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Funny photo. This was taken at one of my favourite restaurants, “The Cheesecake Factory” at the Forum Shops in Las Vegas. This restaurant has “good” food and “great” cheesecakes, like every restaurant in the US, the serve sizes are massive!
Kylie and Jackson are pictured with some type of chocolate cheesecake. Sadly, I must report that after having eaten their “entrees” (mains in ‘ztraylian”) the two of them were only able to eat but a few bites, after posing with silly looks and threatening to eat the whole piece.
Photo taken: 26th June, 2009
Photo location: Hamilton Island, Queensland, Australia
This photo was taken just outside the “Jurassic Park” like entry gates to qualia, on Hamilton Island.
I like this photo for a couple of reasons.
The photo was taken while Kylie and I were at qualia celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary. We had such a great time there and would love to get back there again one day. The resort is amazing and we felt spoilt to be able to stay there; the food is great, the accommodation superb and the service outstanding.
Hamilton Island was also a major part of my professional life during 2009. The “Best Job in the World” campaign was such an amazing experience and will always trigger a wonderful range of emotions.
http://www.qualia.com.au for more information on the qualia resort
Photo taken: 22nd January 2010
Photo location: Los Angeles International Airport
This photo was taken at Los Angeles International Airport, at the end of 30 days vacationing in the United States, whilst waiting for our V Australia flight back to Brisbane.
This photo is funny to us as Jackson and our friend Ian, who we holidayed with in Telluride, had been singing a Miley Cyrus song. Jackson was very keen to get his photo taken with the sign and have us show Kim and Ian.
I’m going to post pictures from our travels regularly here. Don’t expect any brilliant pieces of photography, just good old fashioned memories.
Hooray, finally the big day was here… After ages counting down to it, there were no more sleeps! Jackson was very excited to have had Santa come visit & Kylie and I were excited that we were on holidays!
The plan for the day was to travel from Brisbane to Los Angeles (depart 12pm) and then have a short stop in Los Angeles before flying to Las Vegas. Once in Las Vegas we’d transfer to the hotel and kick off the holidays. I’m glad to report things went pretty much to plan…..
Best change of the day was the upgrade V Australia (web www.vaustralia.com twitter @vaustralia) gave us for the flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles. We were booked in Premium Economy, but to get upgraded to Business Class was aewsome. The seats lay all the way down to beds….. freaking awesome!
This is the view of the roof, when you’ve got the bed kicked right out and you’re stretched out… ah, nice! (Is that the Southern Cross?)
Our transfer through Los Angeles was fairly uneventful, the flight was delayed about an hour and we ended up sitting around in LAX for about 4 hours…. seriously, could they make that airport any more boring? People were pretty stressed about being at the airport, one lady who was in front of us was evidently going to miss her flight home on Christmas Day and was pretty upset. The whole check-in, then clear security thing in the states is pretty stressful, you have to unpack electronics from your carry-on, undress yourself (of belts, shoes, jackets, hats and anything else metallic), clear security and then grap all your crap on the secured side and get out of the way of everyone going through security as quickly as possible… Even with all the security you hear stories about Nigerians trying to blow up planes on the day you’re travelling… -> link to the story. The TSA do a great job, I’m sure but it’s still disconcerting to see those type of stories.
Probably the most interesting stat / piece of info about our stay in Los Angeles was that we had to line up for nearly as long to clear security as our flight was from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Seriously….. this photo doesnt do it justice, but the line up to clear security goes for a long way outside the terminal. This isnt the line to check in, this is the line AFTER checking in, to clear security…
So, we’re now in Las Vegas and we’re staying at the Palazzo (www.palazzolasvegas.com & @PALAZZOLASVEGAS. This is a very nice hotel, good choice – thanks tripadvisor! We stay here until the 30th of December and then switch over to the Signature MGM. We arrived at the hotel but our room wasnt quite ready when we arrived, but we were told we had a great room with a great view of the strip, up nice and high (41st floor) and was just what we’d requested. So, we said we’d wait and went for a bit of a walk and had lunch. Around 3pm we checked back at reception if our room was ready and we’d been swapped to a different room on a lower floor, but after some “discussion” we were moved up to a great room on the 31st floor… It’s great!
We didnt do too much after lunch and checking in….. unpacked and rested. Fell asleep pretty early, though I woke up after a couple of hours sleep thinking it was morning, so have uploaded some piccies and types up this quick update. It’s now approaching 1am on the 26th, so I am going back to bed now & that ends the 29 hour Christmas day, which included travelling nearly 12,000 kilometre’s, a lot of time spent in planes / airports and two christmas breakfasts & lunches….
This slideshow http://www.flickr.com/photos/ckjchambers/sets/72157622946959017/show/ has a few pics in it:
over n out…
We’ve started planning our holiday at the end of the year. We’ll be heading back stateside for some New Years fun in Las Vegas and then skiing Telluride with Kim and Ian for a few weeks. I’m not going to say this will be our last trip to the states, I’m pretty sure we’ve said that the last couple of times now 
. Instead, I’ll say it’ll be our last trip there for 2009 / 2010….
Our plans are to be in Vegas for just over a week and then, early in the new year we’ll head to Telluride, CO, for a few weeks. Already, we’re very much looking forward to getting back to a couple of our favourite places.
Jackson is turned off by the long flights of the plane with the kangaroo on it and Kylie and I were turned off by the large price difference between QANTAS and V Australia on the dates we’re travelling. Of course, Kylie and I realise that the flight is the same length, but as least it will help get Jackson on the plane if he knows we’re not flying QANTAS.
This morning I was looking at the V Australia YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/flyVAustralia) and saw their safety video, which is embedded below
Jackson enjoyed the video, especially the bit with the dad having the oxygen mask on. Congrats to the V Australia team on an entertaining approach to the production of a safety video.
I do enjoy a hit of golf. I’ve never been all that good at it, though this year I have been playing more frequently and have been getting better and even managed to win one of the Saturday competitions at the Pine Rivers Golf Club, which I have become a member of.
Over the years I have been fortunate enough to play some fantastic golf courses and I thought that would be an interesting topic to write about.
Laguna Quays www.lagunawhitsundays.info
Located in the beautiful Whitsundays, Kylie and I holidayed at Laguna Quays many years ago, before we were married. I played golf each day, whilst Kylie lounged by the pool. In hindsight, I was probably lucky to keep Kylie after playing so much golf….. This is a fantastic course, with a couple of stand-out holes. The 13th, which is a par 3 of 148 metres from the whites, features a sheltered tee area which hits into an open seaside green – the wind can play havoc with that tee shot. My other favourite would be the 9th hole, which is 425m par 5 from the white tees, with a water hazard hugging the right hand side of the hole. This 9th hole also has a lot of condo’s looking out onto the fairway, having a couple of guests watching me play the approach shot is about as close as I will probably come to having a gallery.
Most memorable about this course was that I hit a 49 on one nine, which was the first time I had broken 50 for nine holes. Also memorable is aforementioned fortune to have played golf quite a few days in a row and for Kylie to have not been driven off…
Bel Air Country Club www.bel-aircc.org
In Beverly Hills baby! Having the opportunity to play “The Bel Air” is probably the greatest golfing experience I will ever enjoy. It’s a private club with a significant sign-up and then annual fee. The member we had take us around the course said something like “You don’t ask to join, you are asked to join”. The day we played we had an ex-NFL Quarterback playing in the group in front of us (who one of us, not me, nearly hit with a wayward shot), there was a famous fashion designer a couple of groups back from us and there were many famous Los Angelians in the clubhouse before and after we teed off.
The course is immaculate and you are accompanied by a caddy who makes club recommendations, rakes the bunkers, fetches drinks and entertains you as you play the course. “Chicago” was his nickname, I recommend him if you get to play there.
A couple of lasting memories from the day here are:
I’d say my favourite hole on this course was the 1st, which is just awesome. You’re standing on the tee, driver in hand (which freaks me out a little ordinarily anyway) which looks out over Los Angeles, an ex-NFL Quarterback in the group in front of you, you’ve just put your shoes on in front of G Norman’s locker and your head is spinning a little from the whole experience…
Other favourites include the par 3 10th, which has you hitting over a canyon after riding a lift to the tee box and the 18th hole which comes in under the suspension bridge of the 10th and is just a beautiful way to finish a round of golf.
I have no photos, it didnt seem the thing to do to take photos, but click through to their site for a few big pics on the home page: www.bel-aircc.org
The Grand www.grandgolf.com.au
Another of Queensland’s beautiful golf courses and located just in behind the Gold Coast. I played The Grand with three golf journalists who I was hosting as part of their visit to Queensland, when my role at TQ was to host these type of visits. Talk about a good job.
The story of The Grand is pretty amazing. G Norman was commissioned by a consortium of Japanese to build the course, but after an investment of $30m, the course was completed and open for only one day as the owners did not have the funds to keep the course open. The course was left to become overgrown for 5 years before being bought by a group of Australian businessmen, who again commissioned G Norman to bring the course back to life. The course is a private course, with there being an initial offer 120 shares, of which you must own one to bring guests onto the course.
The day I played the course it absolutely poured with rain and we were the only players on the course. Someone was ferrying towels from the clubhouse to us, so we could try to stay dry. Wasn’t going to happen….
I don’t remember specifically the favourite holes (it was somewhere around 1997 or 1998), but I do remember a beautiful uphill par 4 with a large dead tree off on the right as you tee off.
Pauite Golf Las Vegas http://www.lvpaiutegolf.com
I thoroughly enjoyed playing this course. It’s set about an hour or so outside Las Vegas, NV, in the middle of the desert. The fairways are cut beautifully into a rocky landscape. The guys at the pro shop told us, if you hit your ball off the fairway, leave it. Apparently this is because of the snakes, but I part suspect that it might have been to increase the number of balls they collect and sell second hand.
Most treasured memories from this course were the appearance of a lone wolf who trotted across one of the fairways as we aimed up for our approach shots. Beautiful to see. The course was also “buzzed” (at high altitude) by some sort of fighter planes and also attack helicopters of some kind, there must be an air force base close by, which made for interesting viewing against the mountaineous background of the area.
My favourite hole on this course would be the 15th, which is a par 3 of 110 yards (off the white) where the green is an island. I had to hit a 9 iron in and missed the island on two attempts from the tee. This is the hole http://www.lvpaiutegolf.com/wolf_course_15.html#1
I have played on quite a few of the Gold Coast’s courses and will find time to update this list in the future.
Over time I will put together my top 10 courses I have played list (once I’ve played some more golf)
Here’s some pictures we took in Central Park during stay in New York in November 2008. I’m thinking Ju & Col will like these, they like Law & Order as much as we do. These shots reminded us of Law & Order crime scenes….
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