tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-128913452024-03-13T10:16:51.890+11:00Bruggie TalesA taste of life with an Australian homeschooling family (who have tasted life in Southern USA)DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.comBlogger1337125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-71275150214703317952021-07-30T18:08:00.004+10:002021-07-31T08:00:55.147+10:00Why are you checking in here?We put up a QR code at home as a joke.If you scanned it you will come here.Hello!That's all you get.No tracking.DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-54771852596707683162016-10-30T08:22:00.001+11:002016-10-30T08:22:55.449+11:00Day 2 Plan - See what we can see
A fine little playground at the local shopping centre
Pah! We're not worried. (Hold Zach's hand tighter!)
We had nothing specific planned for this day as we expected a little tiredness from the changing time zones. So after a sleep-in we left around 9:30am and started more Pokemon Go based exploring. The children wanted to find some parks and play at the beach.
We found an lightly DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-61987919924966768222016-10-26T15:39:00.002+11:002016-10-26T15:39:29.224+11:00Day 1 Plan - survive the long trip until night time
Climb! Climb! Stay awake!
The trick to getting over jet lag as quick as possible is to stay awake until it is night time in the place you land. We arrived in Auckland at 8:30 am. This meant a long day after a long night with little sleep or "power" naps.
We made it to the hotel and were told the room wouldn't be ready until 2:00pm. So this meant doing a little exploring.
Turing to our Pokemon DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-72426336336114078222016-10-26T14:32:00.000+11:002016-10-26T14:32:58.441+11:00Playing with my Inner Photographer
A hole filled with water is more fun with your brother.
I enjoy playing with my SLR camera and seeing if I can capture great memories in an aesthetically pleasing way. Here are some of the moments I captured over the last few days.
The children are pretty good at putting up with my directions and requests they sit here or run there. I don't overdo it as I don't want to be one of "those" type DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-15421016227002165852016-10-26T14:14:00.000+11:002016-10-26T14:14:35.883+11:00Pokemon Go Tour of Auckland
This is a Magikarp. You can catch these.
We had only one plan when we decided to visit Auckland - to visit Hobbiton. This was set for Tuesday so Monday and Wednesday were set aside for exploring. How does one explore a new place if you have no desire to spend lots of money at tourist type places and the children are more interested in playgrounds and more simple experiences?
As we all are DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-23701880728450838192016-10-23T13:14:00.003+11:002016-10-23T13:14:49.189+11:00Hello New Zealand
So this must be the Lord of the Rings place
We have made it to New Zealand. Yay!
In looking back, the hardest part of the journey was the drive to Atlanta. The I-575/I-75/I-85 route is the most straight forward and we took it in the middle of the day outside of the morning and afternoon peak hours yet it was still very busy in parts. It can be quite confusing as the road changes from 2 to 4 toDavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-20549891480137443152016-10-23T13:04:00.001+11:002016-10-23T13:04:11.265+11:00The end of a great return
That shouldn't be too hard a climb
To complete our trip we decided to go for another trip near Murphy North Carolina to visit the Wagonmaster Adventure Ranch. Unfortunately it was more of a ghost town than an adventure as they were closed after their Spring - Summer - Fall season. On the way back we noticed the Field of the Woods Bible Park entry. I remember looking at this in the Murphy DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-8752754096983893182016-10-21T23:14:00.005+11:002016-10-21T23:14:58.384+11:00Memories of a great butcher
The Butcher in a barn
Not long after we started living in the US a butcher shop - called a Meat Market here - started a short distance away. Coming from a butcher's family we quickly started purchasing our meat from Dan, the butcher who had the time to help us with our weird Australian meat requests.
The cuts of meat are different here so it took a while of mutual discussion working out what DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-11521939956818907722016-10-20T12:57:00.001+11:002016-10-20T12:57:52.515+11:00Being a local international tourist
On special - 3 of our Cabbage Patch Kids
We have explored a little further afield over the last few days. Yesterday was to The Cabbage Patch "Hospital" in Cleveland, GA and then Helen, GA, the town that transformed itself into an Austrian Alps themed town.
The Cabbage Patch Hospital is basically a huge themed store with all employees dressed as hospital staff, nurses and doctors pretending DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-53153185432221295942016-10-18T07:40:00.003+11:002016-10-18T07:40:52.559+11:00It's called Fall for a reason
Almost there. Oh the wind blew more. Sigh.
We have timed our trip to North Georgia very well. It is Autumn, which means the leaves are rapidly changing colour. When we arrived, the trees were all green and we sadly thought we would miss the changing of the leaves.
Wrong. The season is called Fall here for a reason. Almost as we watch, the leaves are changing colour and every time a small wind DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-25688197154155958562016-10-18T04:18:00.000+11:002016-10-18T04:18:08.580+11:00A day off, loitering around the cabin
Well that should scare the neighbours
One of the best ideas we had for this trip was hiring a cabin in the mountains. For the number of people in our group and the convenience of having a fully furnished house and kitchen, the price was great value.
We have room to lounge about, invite friends over, cook our own breakfast and dinner, freeze and refrigerate a variety of foods and go exploring DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-54863939343954673382016-10-18T03:59:00.001+11:002016-10-18T03:59:22.965+11:00Punkin Chunkin Festival in Brasstown NC
The Hurlers of Pumpkins arrayed in glory
On Saturday we attended the 8th Annual Punkin Chunkin Festival in Brasstown North Carolina. We had seen a small sign near a bank in Blairsville and thought that might be fun. We figured it would be a typical festival with crafts and foods.
Imagine our delight when we realised this festival also included a variety of machines competing to throw a pumpkinDavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-8628652677721231152016-10-18T03:10:00.000+11:002016-10-18T03:10:28.755+11:00How to do a Tim Tam Slam
Look! They're in the US.
A special treat we have been sharing with our American friends are the Australian biscuit (cookie) Tim Tam. This is a milk chocolate covered cream filled malt cookie sandwich. It is great on its own but its special qualities of real milk chocolate and meltiness make it perfect for a special activity.
The Tim Tam Slam.
The basic steps are to have a delightful hot drink DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-3920143250978630912016-10-16T00:32:00.000+11:002016-10-16T00:32:26.734+11:00There's something for everyone - Part 2
A store and a hunting museum
A contrast to the American Girls store was Cabela's. This is an extremely large hunting, fishing, camping, outdoors store which is famous for their range and their store displays of a wide range of stuffed animals. This store even had a huge aquarium filled with a variety of local fish.
We all enjoyed quite a long time at this store with Peter getting "snake" bootsDavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-76362682001844121312016-10-16T00:24:00.000+11:002016-10-16T00:24:27.651+11:00There's something for everyone - Part 1
Two very excited girls
We braved driving in the outskirts of Atlanta a couple of days ago primarily for some Australian Bread and goodies, but also for some special shops. Clare has been making very good clothes for her 18 inch dolls for some time and was very excited we were going to the home of the American Girl dolls and stores.
I had no choice but to visit the American Girl store in DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-15615702538472046892016-10-14T15:42:00.001+11:002016-10-14T15:42:31.695+11:00Meeks Park is a treasure
And that means you!
Meeks Park is the main recreation park maintained and developed by Union County. It has sports fields (mainly baseball), playgrounds, walks, bridges and more.
The park is a credit to Union County. We enjoyed a picnic lunch there today, followed by a walk along the creek, listening to the leaves dropping and caught sight of a squirrel sprinting from tree to tree. We have DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-20251634188718203052016-10-14T02:50:00.000+11:002016-10-14T02:50:07.554+11:00Treasure Trove of historic games
"Wow! These are so old."
The children have discovered a box of old Super Nintendo games in our cabin which belong to the Super Nintendo system connected to an old small TV.
"Look at these Dad! They're so old!"
I remember these when I was a child so I suppose it does make it old-ish, but I wish they did not place so much emphasis on the "old" part.
So as part of a lazy start to the day the DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-91862322653539513322016-10-13T15:11:00.000+11:002016-10-13T15:11:19.483+11:00How to get a taste of Australia in Georgia
Yum. Vegemite served correctly.
It hasn't even been a week yet but we have realised one important thing. While there has been little change in Blairsville, one major change is the quality of the takeaway food.
We have tested a number of outlets with which we had eaten in the past and we will no longer go there again for food. Tiny buns, contents of unknown origin and quality, lackluster DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-63909554261844498292016-10-12T13:40:00.001+11:002016-10-12T13:40:16.662+11:00It's the little things ...
"Captain! We may have taken a wrong turn ..."
It's the little things that sometimes confuse the children.
Light switches flip UP to turn on (in Australia it is down)
The water level in the toilet bowl is quite high and there is only one button to replace the lot. We have seen some two stage buttons but there are still high water levels.
The toilet seat is lower. In public toilets the gap at DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-1638539878470317862016-10-12T11:53:00.002+11:002016-10-12T11:53:34.262+11:00Already in the news...
We win the "Travelled furthest to attend" award.
While we were waiting for the parade to start I was standing there with my SLR camera in my hands and I saw another fellow with his camera. We nodded to each other with that professional camaraderie type of nod and he asked me, "Taking photos today?"
I replied, "We're taking photos for friends back home."
I don't know how, but just saying this DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-19150207714364685642016-10-12T11:30:00.001+11:002016-10-12T11:30:39.312+11:00Dairy Queen said we should "Try them all".
"Try them all," they said ...
Dairy Queen is famous for their desserts and as a Fast Food restaurant they are great for Desserts.
Their "Blizzard" dessert is what McDonalds tried to emulate with their MacFlurry. They are not even close.
The Blizzard is claimed to be very solid so all staff are trained to announce the flavour of the Blizzard being served and then tip it upside down to show it DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-78651537288687076002016-10-12T01:58:00.001+11:002016-10-12T01:58:52.201+11:00Days 2 Discoveries
Everything is an iThing here.
Everyone enjoyed shooting
We have been going over some more memories of our Sorghum Festival day and posting a few more photos. Peter was amazed when discussing guns with one of our friends that he could get one for only $20. Sure, it wouldn't have been a great gun, but it would have worked and been fine.
In Australia guns are neither overly feared nor desiredDavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-35271180313497182762016-10-10T00:21:00.001+11:002016-10-10T00:21:29.314+11:00Day 1 discoveries
In front of the old town hall.
Here are the things everyone learned from yesterday's adventures:
Peter: Parades are great things. They are much less common in Australia and they certainly don’t throw out unregulated lollies to the crowd at random. The marching band was good to see in person after seeing that type of thing only in movies before.
Martin: It was good to meet new friends and play DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-53039700709107025182016-10-09T23:57:00.003+11:002016-10-10T00:07:13.548+11:00Good Morning Blairvsille
What a glorious morning view
We are up and getting ready for Mass. This is the view from our cabin balcony looking across the forest of trees slowly changing colour to the not so distant mountains.
It was great sleeping in real beds where the night was quiet and dark - just like home.
Once each head lay on an appropriate pillow sleep struck instantly.
Now for another day's adventures.DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12891345.post-63733036544121544102016-10-09T15:35:00.002+11:002016-10-09T15:35:55.984+11:00Of Parades and free candy
This was the highlight of the parade
Today we picked up our vehicle and we braved Georgia driving on the wrong (right) side of the road. "Keep Right. Keep Right. Keep Right" is a mantra that works well. It's just a pity the windscreen wipers keep going on every time I indicate/use the blinkers!
Our first port of call was dropping in to our cabin (which is marvellous - more later) and then the DavidofOzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02136344116351504419noreply@blogger.com0