Shearing Sheds

There are lots of sheep farmers in this part of the world. Just so happens that one of the Australians on the trip raises sheep at his farm back home. By chance we got to see some sheep being sheared up close and personal. This was very interesting to me as obviously there ain't too many sheep in Gastonia!


This was an old abandoned community shearing shed. We stopped here to have lunch. Really the whole little town was deserted. It was sad actually. And it was right beside the ocean. Literally just walk across the street and you can jump in the water.


These were taken at a shearing shed that is still being used. The tour company had never stopped here before but the Australians noticed it and wanted to stop. We didn't realize that it was actually being used. We stayed for about 45 minutes and watched the sheep being sheared and talked to the workers. One Australian in our group just jumped in there and took over and sheared one sheep himself. They said that the guy in the foreground above was very fast. They estimated that he could shear about 250 sheep per day!! That would be back breaking work.


This guy appeared to be the man in charge. Everyone there was so nice and took the time to talk to us, answer our questions and let us feel the wool right after it came off the sheep.

This is the shed that the fella were working in.

This is a shot of the abandoned shed by the ocean.

We ate so much lamb on this trip. I for sure doubled my lifetime intake of lamb on this trip alone.

Back Down South

Since I had so much demand yesterday (all 3 of my readers), I've decided to try and do better about posting. And since the only thing I have to post about is our trip, prepare to be bored with vacation stories and pictures.

We went back to South America this year. We visited the Patagonia region. Traveling along the Andes Mountains, we crossed back and forth between Chile and Argentina about 5 times. We did this with a motorcycle tour group and we were paired with 4 crazy Australians and one Brit. This was one of our best trips. The weather was perfect, the scenery was beautiful and the company was very entertaining.

Here are a few of the sights along the way...

Doesn't that background look fake? This was one of the most picturesque spots I've ever seen.

Taken from a hotel we stayed at.

A boat coming to pick us up to take us to our hotel for the night. You could only get there by boat.

Ash from a recent volcano eruption. Never seen that before.

Stay tuned, more thrilling vacation posts to come!!

Paris, The Quick Version, Part II

This is the rest of the Paris highlights:

Norte Dame




I was showing the pictures to Grandpa and he said that his father slept in the church during WWI. He said that the roof had been blown off. So, so neat!




We didn't see a show here, too expensive.




One of the two very large department stores in Paris. It was crazy crowded there.




Ah, The Louve. Guess what, CROWDED!! This place is so freaking huge. We spent quit a bit of time there and didn't even scratch the surface. Museums just make me tired.




Had to fight the mosh pit to get this shot.




Just a cool subway station.




We saw this place as we took a boat ride through Paris. I just fell in love with the clock. I convinced myself that this was where the movie Hugo was shot. I was disappointed to find out that the majority of the movie was shot on a set in London. Oh well...

There is still so much more to see and do. London was more of an instance hit where Paris had to grow on me. If I had to pick to live in London or Paris, I'd definitely go with London.


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Paris, the Quick Version (sort of)

Ok, here's the quick and dirty of the rest of our time in Paris. We visited Versailles. One thing we discovered is that the French often just ignore the last few letters of words. Take Versailles for instance. To spell it like it sounds, I would spell it Versi. Versailles was a short train ride outside of Paris. Again, keeping with the theme, tons of people and long lines. Also discovered that the French aren't very adapt at organizing crowds. The line to get in was just a random zigzag with no rhyme or reason to it. Versailles was built by Louis XIV.







We really could have spent more time here. It was really nice.

Next Paris icon, Arc de Triomphe.






Our hotel was within walking distance of this. We didn't go to the top. Again, crazy crowds.

I thought the Opera National de Paris Garnier was one of the prettiest buildings I'd ever seen. I loved it!! I'd never been inside an Opera House before. I could just imagine the audience in their tux and evening gowns. The pictures don't do it justice.










I'm getting tired. Another quick post to come later. I just can't get it all in one post after all.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Eiffel Tower

Paris around New Years is apparently a popular time to visit, little did we know but how soon we realized. First night we were there we did the 'must' do tourist attraction, The Eiffel Tower.













We wanted to make sure we went when the weather was clear. So glad we went at night. So beautiful at night all lit up. We had to wait about an hour and a half to get in the elevator to go to the first level. After that we didn't have to wait too long to ride all the way up to the top. It was cold and windy but so awesome to see Paris from that vantage point.






Thanks Mom and Dad for the rocking toboggan!! Came in very handy!















Great views! We rode the lift (very European of me huh?) down to the first level then took the stairs down. I expected the Eiffel Tower to be over hyped and thus a disappointment. It did not disappoint in the least. So worth the wait in the cold.

I promise to not drag my vacation posts out too much this time...

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Paris

Elf Ron

It was time for our annual work Christmas activities. First, our building had a door decorating contest. My department was two time defending champion. We found out the day before that no one else in the building was going to participate. What can I say, they were scared. We didn't care, we decorated our door anyway. The theme was Christmas carols. Our door was based off of the classic, "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer".



We tweaked it a bit to be "Our Budget Got Run Over By a Senator". We re-wrote the entire song. We even had it performed at the building Christmas lunch. What can I say, we're rock stars.

The big to-do at the building was a contest we had to raise money for a needy family. It was between me, Ron, and Alvera. Alvera is the HR Director. If you will recall, I plastic wrapped Ron's entire office one time. People put money in our respective jars. Bills were positive and coins were negative points. The person with the most points had to wear an elf outfit at the Christmas lunch. You've got to understand, Ron is a 6 ft 5 in black guy. Who wouldn't want to see him dressed as an elf?? He thought he was smart because he brought in a lot of coins to put in his jar. I was waiting until the last minute to make my move. I even requested help at the Principals meeting. At the last minute I put in plenty of money to ensure that I got the outcome I wanted.




Check out the rockin white shoes!! He wasn't happy but was a good sport. The best part were the ears. We says he's going to get me back but I couldn't have done it by myself.




This is the Finance department. Does this not look like a capable department??



We had to have our picture made with the Christmas elf!! So funny!! He may look like he was smiling but he was more gritting his teeth and mumbling under his breath.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Two Wild and Crazy Girls

Went to Concord to visit with Virginia and check out the new house. Oh, and meet the newest member of the family, Cookie. The house was great and seemed to be perfect for their little family. So happy for them! Cookie is indeed a pup. He, yes, Cookie is a he, is quite enthusiastic. He is adorable though. Susan and Samantha also came up to visit.




Here they are making sweet music.

We went out to lunch. Check out Virginia's outfit...had me cracking up.



Love the boots. Only problem was it was about 60 degrees outside. I harkened back to a softball game I had as a kid. Mom dressed me in these god-awful gold shorts. They did not come close to matching my uniform shirt. I can still vividly remember knowing that my mom had dressed me funny. At least Virginia will be too young to remember this. Kathy tried to blame it on Virginia by saying that she picked them out. I had to remind her that she was the parent here.

It got even worse. By the time we left the restaurant, this is what she looked like.



Tragic!!!!

We did have fun in the car grooving to some Temptations. Samantha has good taste in music. We danced and busted out some classic Temptations moves. Too fun!

On the way back Samantha showed us her wild side. She let her hair down, literally, and proceeded to do some head banging.



Just makes me laugh!!! That's her 'don't mess with me' rocker look. I tried to get her to do a classic rocker pose but she couldn't quite get it. Virginia got it though.




Now we just need to work on her rocker look.





Just thought I'd throw this one in.

After lunch I schooled Kathy and Susan with my dance moves. I dominated in some Wii dance game.




Virginia wasn't the only one with funny shoes. Susan left the house wearing her bedroom slippers. But with those two cuties a round no one is looking at us.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad