Snow in May

Just when we thought the snow had all melted away and the weather was on the improve, we had snow on the last weekend in May.

Our bridge and driveway

Vacation 2013 - Carribean Cruise

The port of New Orleans was not far from our hotel and we boarded the Navigator of the Seas at about 2pm after spending another great morning in New Orleans.  We sailed at 4pm and watched the city disappear as we headed down the Mississippi.  Navigator of the Seas is a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and is ranked among one of the biggest passenger ships in the world, there were over 3000 passengers, 15 decks and we had a suite on deck 9.  The ship was amazing and was equipped with an ice rink, mini golf, basketball court, climbing wall and the list goes on.

Navigator of the Seas

We sailed all day on Sunday and arrived in Cozumel, Mexico on Monday morning.  We decided to visit the Mayan ruins and then went to the beach in the afternoon with a great Mexican lunch.  On Tuesday we arrived at Grand Cayman.  We did some shopping and then caught a local bus to the beach.  Two ladies spoke to us along the way and it was great to hear them talking to each other.  Cayman islanders speak an English dialect so you can make out the words and the gist of the conversation but it sounds completely different. The phrase I heard most was 'ya, man'.  The beach was crystal clear and calm, just what we wanted.

Wednesday was Falmouth, Jamaica.  We spent some time shopping, bought a cap with fake dreadlocks and then took a bus to the beach.  Not as good as Jamaica but a great beach day with a yummy lunch of jerk chicken and warm slaw.  Before we got back on the ship we stopped in at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville for a margarita....mmmm.

Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville

Thursday and Friday were spent cruising, eating, swimming and hanging out. 

Vacation 2013 - New Orleans

Wow, what an awesome city New Orleans is!!  We arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel in the evening and walked straight down to Bourbon Street to eat. Absolutely buzzing, people everywhere, pubs, clubs, music, souvenirs etc etc.  The boys were impressed with the police on horseback who handcuffed a drunk guy in the street.  It drew a big crowd and we couldn't help watching.

We saw as much as we could while in New Orleans and sampled as many of the delicious meals on offer.  I had heard about gumbo and jambalaya but we had never heard of po-boys or muffulettas.  We also ate crawfish, red beans, beignets and drank hickory coffee and root beer floats.

Johnny Po-Boys restaurant

New Orleans was entertainment overload, everywhere we went there were great buskers and bands playing for tips.  Every day we wandered through the French Quarter and the French Market, along the Mississippi levee, down Canal St, Royal St, Bourbon St and around Jackson Square watching all the different street entertainment on offer. 

Royal Street - Ryder thought this guy was a statue

Caricatures at Jackson Square

Vacation 2013 - Australia

On March 13th we flew out to Montreal on our way to Australia.  I had not yet tried a Montreal smoked meat sandwich so we ate out at Reuben's Deli and ordered two enormous sandwiches. Delicious.  The next day we had an early flight to Dallas and decided to leave the airport and have a look around for the day.  We took a bus and then a light rail into the city and took a look around the city.  The claim to fame for Dallas is that it was the site that JFK was shot.  We walked around downtown, say the X marked on the road and read the interpretive signs.

Site of JFK assassination

To be honest, Dallas was a pretty boring place! We got back to the airport at about 6pm and boarded our flight direct to Australia after 10pm. Funny, when we got off the flight 16 hours later we bumped into our friend, Brad Currell, at the baggage claim, he was on the same flight as us.

Steve took a flight to Melbourne to see the Melbourne Grand Prix while I took the kids to Mum's place.  Solitaire and Whitney were there so we had a fantastic time going to the beach, eating out and shopping.  Later in the week we visited Steve's Mum and Dad and also stayed with Tania and Brad. 

We celebrated Jean's birthday with an afternoon at Redcliffe where we checked out the Bee Gee's walk.  We also celebrated Alyssa's 21st birthday with a family BBQ and an awesome weekend in the pool before flying back to Dallas on Monday morning

With Nanny and Grandad at the Bee Gee's walk

Two double doubles please

Steve went to McDonalds last night to get us a coffee, he bought two large double doubles for $1.47 (including tax), how cheap is that? In case you don't know, when ordering coffee in North America you need to ask for milk or else you will be served a hot black coffee.  A double double has two sugars and two creams.  Cream is 18% fat.  If you ask for milk in your coffee, you get 2% fat milk.  We have aquired a taste for our double doubles since being here!

Rio Tinto to sell IOC??

It has been quite unsettling at work this week as everyone has been talking about Rio Tinto divesting the Iron Ore Comapny of Canada (IOC).  There is no official word from Rio Tinto although the media is full of articles like the one below from Business Spectator.

Rio Tinto to sell Canadian iron ore assets: report

Published 5:23 PM, 1 Mar 2013 Last update 0:32 AM, 2 Mar 2013

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inShare

QUICK SUMMARY | FULL STORY | RESOURCES & ENERGY | RIO TINTO

By a staff reporter, with AAP

Rio Tinto Ltd will sell its iron ore assets in Canada and is reportedly eyeing a price tag of around $1.7 billion, sources told The Australian today.

The newspaper reports the miner has enlisted Credit Suisse and the investment banking arm of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to offload either part of or its enritre 58.7 per cent stake in Iron Ore Company of Canada.

The news comes a month after Rio Tinto boss Tom Albanese stepped down after the global miner announced a multi-billion dollar writedown of its aluminium and coal assets.

Rio Tinto recently announced a full year net loss for 2012 of almost $US3 billion ($A2.91 billion) and was criticised for its near total dependence on iron ore despite calling itself a diversified resources company.

The Australian reports the sale is latest move by a major miner to offload assets in the face of a slowdown in commodities demand.

The ice fire pit

During the Christmas break Steve had a great idea to build a fire pit with seats made of ice.  He made it in the back corner of the yard, dug a path through the snow and built the seats.  He then borrowed a long hose and filled the seat with hundreds of litres of water.  This took some time because the running water in the hose froze a few times and then had to be defrosted in the garage.

At each snow fall, Steve has to dig the snow back out of the pit, it can be completely filled up if we get some windy weather. Most of January was too cold to be outside but in February we had a few days of lovely weather and Steve made the most of it.  We decided to have drinks for Jeff Willshire's birthday and friends came over and sat around the toasty fire.

Jeff Willshire and Steve enjoying a beer in the ice fire pit

Jeff, Bob, Kristy and Simone