Hello all my Downeast Friends!

It seems very different to be writing to you rather than seeing and teaching you. I do know that you are learning a lot and bundling up in snowsuits, boots and mittens. Has Coach started to teach you to snowshoe yet?

I started writing some of this blog a couple of weeks ago but I couldn’t get it up on the Internet because I have had trouble with my internet connection here in Australia. But now it looks like I am up and running so I can get you all up to date on my trip!

February 4, 2009

I am sitting in my apartment in Melbourne, Australia with all the windows open and a fan blowing on me! It is around 90 degrees here and sunny with a bright blue sky. But before I tell you more, let me take you back ten days ago when I left Maine for the first leg of my journey.

The first leg of my journey (January 25th, 2009)

Harlan (my husband) and I left Maine at 3:30 AM on January 25, 2009. It was really early in the morning and COLD!, around -14F. We had been up packing until late and had only about 2 hours of sleep. Instead of being bundled up in our warmest winter clothes, we were layers in spring jackets, and raincoats because where we were headed we didn’t need our warmest clothes. But it felt mighty cold getting to our car!

We were very, very excited about our trip. We will be gone for a very long time….about 6 months.

We boarded the plane in Bangor and flew to New York. Then we boarded another plane bound for Los Angeles, California. I grew up near LA( that’s the abbreviation for Los Angeles) so we were headed there to see my 90 year old mother, Ruth and spend a few days with her. Harlan and I slept a lot on the plane….we were very tired.

We arrived in LA at 1:00PM. It was sunny and warm, about 60F. Quite a lot of difference from the morning in Maine!!!! We rented a car and drove the 35 miles to my hometown, Claremont. It is a very pretty town with lots of old trees and nestled right up against the mountains.

These are the mountains I could see every morning from my bedroom window when I was a little girl. They are around 10,000 feet tall. You can see the snow on top of them, but there is no snow down in Claremont.









Here are some pictures from Claremont. It’s January 26th and you can see lemons growing in peoples’ yards. As I’ve walked around town I’ve seen, oranges, lemons, grapefruits and kumquats trees.







Here is a picture of my mother, Ruth. She lives in a care center because she needs help to get around these days. She has a wheelchair in which she cruises around. My mom is very happy living here because she has friends and the nurses are very nice. They have many activities, such as music, bingo, current events, and movies. Sometimes the activity director, Albert, gets all the residents (that’s what they call the people who live at the care center, like my mom) puts them on a bus and drives them around to see the sights. Once he bought them ice cream!

Harlan and I spent five days visiting my mother. The days were sunny and in the 70’s. The flowers were blooming and it was really quite fabulous to be relaxing there. But on Friday, January 30th, Harlan and I drove away from Claremont to board a plane in LA for Australia!