The Chambers

What we get up to….

Photo taken while staying at the wonderful Sausage Tree Camp, Zambia. Here we are fishing on the banks of the Zambezi, one eye on the River on the lookout for Alligators, another on the lookout for Hippos, another on the lookout for Lions, another on the lookout for Elephants :)

Category Archives: usa 2008

Day 1…

What a long day….

Our flight left Brisbane a little late (thans Ju, Will and Pat as well as Kylie’s Mum and Dad for coming to the airport to say goodbye) and then there was a little bit of bumpy weather around Sydney, so we were delayed a bit getting into Sydney. By the time we got from the Domestic terminal over to the International terminal we had about 2 hours between flights. BUT, our flight out of Sydney to San Francisco was delayed by nearly an hour… Thankfully they hadnt boarded us yet and we just waited in the terminal. When they did board us they called for people in First and Business Class and families travelling with children under 5. Yeah! we got to jump the scrum…. that was by far the best bit of flying with a child under 5….

The “highlight” of the flight was Jackson starting to vomit about 4 hours out of San Francisco. He stopped vomiting after about 2 hours. He was not himself until after we’d cleared customs. He’s full of beans now.

We got in mid morning. We’re booked into a very nice hotel, right off Union Square. We step out of the front steps of the hotel and there’s the shops and the trams! Great spot, very nice hotel. They even had our room ready a little early and we were able to check in when we arrived – hooray.

Today we took it easy (if you call flying half way around the world with a vomiting child easy). We walked around the main part of town, into some shops, checked out the big Christmas tree and the ice skating rink in Union Square (Jackson said he does not want to ice skate… which is unfortunate as we’re going to make him do it in New York). Had an ordinary lunch at a restaurnt in the Westfield shopping ctr but a beautiful dinner tonight at http://www.pucciniandpinetti.com/index.php. Jackson fell asleep at the table – which is a first.

We’ve recorded a short video which we’ve asked him the best / worst bit of each day. It’s at YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h5egrnvZUI. Apologies for the film & interviewing quality.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Napa Valley for some pinot quaffing.

over and out,

Chris, Kylie and Jackson

web sites gadgets and other stuff

People are probably sick of hearing about our holiday and we havent even gone ON it yet!!! (too bad!)

I am going to take the computer again this trip and use it to keep updated with the goings on on our holiday. This trip around though I will also be taking a few other gadgets with me to help keep updated. I’m looking forward to this and playing with some new sites and gadgets and toys to keep everyone updated. I write it off to professional involvement in the online travel industry and having to understand the technology and sites…

Laptop.

The laptop will be used to type up blog updates from the road. We’re away for 6 weeks, so I’m reckoning I will probably post a couple of posts a week, so probably will do about a dozen blog posts here to this blog while we’re away. The hotels we’re at will have wifi / net connection (of course!) so this will give me something to do when I wake up early in the morning before everyone else.

I’ll also use the laptop to back up our photos that we take along the way. I learned a lesson on the the last trip which was that the laptop tried to sync some of the folders and that cause some of our photos to get wiped. I wont get stung by that again!

iPhone

I love my new iPhone (thanks Kylie and Jackson!) and I’ll be able to use it a fair bit to keep in touch.

The iPhone can post updates, through applications or web access, to email, twitter and facebook.

I can also use it to take photos and post them to facebook, through AirMe. AirMe is a cool application that takes photos and tags the photo with keywords which let people know where you are and what the weather was like when the photo was taken.

Websites

I’ll use a few websites when we’re away

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=603703031
Twitter – short form message updates (like the “status” on facebook), I can post to this from my mobile or the web. My profile on twitter: http://twitter.com/ckjchambers
TripIt – one of my favourite new sites, great for organising itineraries http://www.tripit.com

Technology & Gadgets

I’ve mentioned the laptop and the iPhone. But we’ll also have;
the PSP for Jackson (mostly),
an iPod touch for Kylie / Jackson,
an iPod video for backing up photos,
our Sony HondyCam for video’ing and pictures,
the little digital camera for pictures,
a US / AU electricty converter and a 4 plug electricty board
a range of spare batteries and chargers

I pack all these into the spare camera bag and label the chords with who their owning appliance is so it it easier to pack and unpack as we move around the place.

So, I’m looking forward to keeping a good record of our holiday!

cc

back to the us of a

The Chambers clan are heading back to the US of A at the end of this year for another family “vacation”. We’re heading back to some of our favourite cities to enjoy some new experiences and repeat some of the ones we really enjoy.

Our itinerary is like this:

22 Nov – leave Brisbane for San Francisco. We’re in town for three nights and will be doing a Napa Valley tour and heading to Yosemite
25 Nov – head to New York City, staying at “our” Manhattan apartment and doing Thanksgiving and the parade, another NFL game for Chris, shopping for Kylie (and Chris), a tour of a Navy Destroyer for Jackson (and Chris) and a bunch of other stuff
4 Dec – head to Port Canaveral for a space shuttle launch (no kidding!)
6 Dec – head off on a cruise of the Caribbean
13 Dec – back to Walt Disney World
20 Dec – Telluride in Colorado to meet up with Kim and Ian, for Ian & Chris’ birthday, a white christmas and some skiing!
27 Dec – head to Hawaii to thaw out…..

I’ve spent some time on flickr collecting images of the some of the nifty things we’re going to be up too whilst we’re on vacation and they’re in this slideshow

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10061441@N03/favorites/show/