Melbourne
The final 4 days of my trip was spent in Melbourne, Australia. The purpoe was to attend the Geography Teachers of Victoria's annual conference. I find this a really stimulating conference and have attended for the last 3 years. Just as well I had been flying with United (this the only good point - well no the flights were uneventful another good point) and was allowed two bags otherwise I would have had a lot of excess luggage given all the free material I collected - some of which now adorns my classroom wall.
I stayed with friends and on Saturday we went for a very pleasant bike ride that helped the jet lag and I warmed up. There is a big difference between San Deigo and Melbourne especially eperiencing a frost again after weeks in the high 30's. Melbourne has turned a number of former train tracks into walking/cycling/horse trails. We rode from Lilydale to Warburton-about 22 kms stopping for lunch in Warburton. Forgot my camera so no photos of me cycling along.
I arrived home safely 11.55 on Monday night and made it to school on Tuesday - the first lesson involved watching a DVD - a good piece of forethought on my part and I am glad the reliever hadn't used it. Several lessons have featured a DVD I bought of the SW USA - it is amazing how everything can be linked together and made to relate to the actual topics.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Monday, August 07, 2006
San Diego
Arriving in San Diego is amazing as the airport is right in the city so the tall buildings seem very close. Unfortunately it was cloudy over the Rockies so the only feature I saw during the flight was the Salton Sea.
We are staying at La Pensionne in Little Italy - about 30 minutes walk from the convention centre. (The photo shows the view from my window.) I was down at registration at 7.30am on Saturday to get my registration sorted as the on line had not registered me. While in an organising mode we found the railway station and organised our Amtrak ticket so are ready for the next leg on Wednesday.
There are 550 participants at the Education Users Conference from 22 countries and 46 states. The sessions have been interesting and it has been good to catch up with old friends made on earlier visits.
Little Italy isn't the quietest quarter of town but the music is pleasant and I have had no problem sleeping, despite music, cars, trains and aircraft. I found Ralph's supermarket had food for breakfast and lunch. There is a need to keep the costs down which is a bit harder in a city. For evening meals we managed to get free food at the conference by attending various events.
Monday was the plenary session for the main user group conference. I believe there are about 15000 people attending. It is difficult in a blog to describe the size of the space and the general atmosphere.
Tuesday Stephanie and I attended some sessions and then did the tourist thing. We went on the light rail to Old Town Historical State Park. Had a good look around and bought a few things. Stephanie had got a bad blister, her sandals are not as comfortable as the ones that broke. S
he returned to the hotel while I met up with Joseph and with Emily we went over to Coronado Island on the ferry. We walked the mile or so to the main beach-The Pacific - NZ some where off the the SW. 
We returned on the ferry at sunset - beautiful.
I then joined the other New Zealanders who were attending the conference at a resturant in the Gaslamp Quarter for a dinner hosted by Eagle Technology.
Wednesday was departure day but the train was not until 3pm so in the morning after going into town we decided to take an Old Town trolley tour .This took us through central San Diego, the Gas lamp Quarter, across the bridge to Coronada Island and then to the zoo and Balboa Park.
We got off at the park and had a little look and ate our lunch. You can get on and off the tour and it would be great to have a whole day. We continued on to old town where we left the tour and took the light rail back to our Hotel. We got our gear and took a taxi to the railway. Amtrak was good we travelled with an extended family of Amish people. We got a bus to LAX and then it was onto the convenyor belt. I had a good flight - slept most of the way and was unaware of the security incident until we had extra security from Sydney to Melbourne.
Arriving in San Diego is amazing as the airport is right in the city so the tall buildings seem very close. Unfortunately it was cloudy over the Rockies so the only feature I saw during the flight was the Salton Sea.
We are staying at La Pensionne in Little Italy - about 30 minutes walk from the convention centre. (The photo shows the view from my window.) I was down at registration at 7.30am on Saturday to get my registration sorted as the on line had not registered me. While in an organising mode we found the railway station and organised our Amtrak ticket so are ready for the next leg on Wednesday.
There are 550 participants at the Education Users Conference from 22 countries and 46 states. The sessions have been interesting and it has been good to catch up with old friends made on earlier visits.
Little Italy isn't the quietest quarter of town but the music is pleasant and I have had no problem sleeping, despite music, cars, trains and aircraft. I found Ralph's supermarket had food for breakfast and lunch. There is a need to keep the costs down which is a bit harder in a city. For evening meals we managed to get free food at the conference by attending various events.
Monday was the plenary session for the main user group conference. I believe there are about 15000 people attending. It is difficult in a blog to describe the size of the space and the general atmosphere.
Tuesday Stephanie and I attended some sessions and then did the tourist thing. We went on the light rail to Old Town Historical State Park. Had a good look around and bought a few things. Stephanie had got a bad blister, her sandals are not as comfortable as the ones that broke. S
he returned to the hotel while I met up with Joseph and with Emily we went over to Coronado Island on the ferry. We walked the mile or so to the main beach-The Pacific - NZ some where off the the SW. 
We returned on the ferry at sunset - beautiful.I then joined the other New Zealanders who were attending the conference at a resturant in the Gaslamp Quarter for a dinner hosted by Eagle Technology.
Wednesday was departure day but the train was not until 3pm so in the morning after going into town we decided to take an Old Town trolley tour .This took us through central San Diego, the Gas lamp Quarter, across the bridge to Coronada Island and then to the zoo and Balboa Park.
We got off at the park and had a little look and ate our lunch. You can get on and off the tour and it would be great to have a whole day. We continued on to old town where we left the tour and took the light rail back to our Hotel. We got our gear and took a taxi to the railway. Amtrak was good we travelled with an extended family of Amish people. We got a bus to LAX and then it was onto the convenyor belt. I had a good flight - slept most of the way and was unaware of the security incident until we had extra security from Sydney to Melbourne.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Adventures in Boulder
Transitions are are always fun when travelling. We finished the workshop at Calwood on Thursday. I was just priding myself on having all my gear when suddenly someone said as we were about to board the yellow school bus is this someone's shirt and sock - it was mine - some how got caught up in the linen. The trip on the bus was uneventful this time. We were dropped at the Boulder Library and one of the other members of the workshop kindly offered us a lift. We crammed into the car with our boxes between us and our back packs on our knees. Unfortunately it was the wrong Best Western that we were dropped at. We took a taxi - the rudest person we have met in the USA. However he got us and our luggage to Boulder Inn further down 28th Street to the south. We got our room and organsied a shuttle for tomorrow and a taxi for 3.30pm. A very pleasant young man who had lived in NZ for three years (on the North Shore) while his father taught at the university took us to the post office. He helped with the boxes in fact I think he would have taken them into the Post Office for us. We were happy to tip him. The Post Office people were very helpful and our boxes will arrive in NZ sometime in the future.
We had a pleasant time looking around Pearl Street Mall. Boulder seems to be the Hippies Last Stand - so it is very interesting people watching. I found a very nice gift and toy shop - credit card worst off - grandchildren hopefully will be pleased.
We walked home along the Boulder Stream which has a pleasant walk/cycle way. About halfway back Stephanie's sandal strap broke. For part of the way she walked with it as a slip on and then reverted to true Kiwi bare feet. Fortunately there were really good concrete paths and apparently I missed a sensory experience of all the different surfaces! There was however a convenient restroom at a tennis club/hotel that we were able to use.
We made it safely back to Boulder Inn just before dark. The final adventure has been has been rescuing Stephanie's ear ring from the shower drain! - Swiss Army knife to the rescue.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Calwood outing
As well as computer work and field work with GIS we went down to Boulder and visited the National Centre for Atmospheric Research. This was to use Liam's phrase a "too good" place.
As well as neat displays and resources to look at -such as lighting, tornados we were taken to a lab where they can display the climate models they are working in 3-D format. We had to wear polarising glasses. The images were amazing. I found the model of the actual weather through the year particularly interesting.
Getting to and from was interesting. We went in a yellow school bus.
On the way to Boulder we had to wait as a truck was going passed a crane at a road work site and slipped off the shoulder into the ditch. Plan B was being considered when we were suddenly able to go. On the way back the bus went to the National Centre for Atmospheric Research despite the fact thay Anita had completed all the required pieces of paper. it was however a warm pleasant evening waiting outside the Boulder library.
As well as computer work and field work with GIS we went down to Boulder and visited the National Centre for Atmospheric Research. This was to use Liam's phrase a "too good" place.
As well as neat displays and resources to look at -such as lighting, tornados we were taken to a lab where they can display the climate models they are working in 3-D format. We had to wear polarising glasses. The images were amazing. I found the model of the actual weather through the year particularly interesting.Getting to and from was interesting. We went in a yellow school bus.
On the way to Boulder we had to wait as a truck was going passed a crane at a road work site and slipped off the shoulder into the ditch. Plan B was being considered when we were suddenly able to go. On the way back the bus went to the National Centre for Atmospheric Research despite the fact thay Anita had completed all the required pieces of paper. it was however a warm pleasant evening waiting outside the Boulder library.
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