Mon 17.Feb.2025
Rhodes California Sydney


This writing finds me in a town with the slightly improbable name Surfers Paradise, in Queensland, Australia.
Pictures from here will come, but not tonight; we have catching up to do.
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Rhodes, GR
Why does the bus to Rhodes Airport have a destination sign in German? Why does it say we are going to "Cableway Valley Station"? Why is it taking a wierdly circuitous route to the airport, when I have a flight to catch?

It did get me there in time. The rest is a mystery I can live with.

Bay Area, California
What makes for a first class house concert?
A kind friend who throws them,
and has great taste in acoustic music,
and an enchanting view from her back porch.


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Central California Coast
A beautiful coast and lack of major cities can refresh the soul for a short getaway.

The small town of Cayucos comes through like a champ!



Sydney, Australia
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I've said it before. There is no Door Into Summer, but there are are flights into Summer. (Old science-fiction fans need to tell Heinlein's cat about this.)

Southern hemisphere, here I come!
(Aided by my accumulated mountain of Aadvantage Miles, which got me a premium economy seat for the ungodly long flight.)

I understand that ibis birds get little respect from Australians. "Bin chickens" they call them. Being a furrin visitor, I am always happy to see these exotically beautiful critters.


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You could spend a lot of sightseeing time on the bay between Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. Here we are in the Royal Botanic Garden ...

... and on the promenade from the Opera House to Circular Quay. Not quite visible to the left is a gauntlet of upscale souvenir shops ...


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... some of which feature Indigenous Australian arts and crafts.


Good advice,
if anatomically challenging.


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Who is old enough and local enough to remember Playland At The Beach in San Francisco? An old-fashioned seaside amusement park, it was well past prime and a bit shabby by the 1960's.

I mention Playland because something of its spirit lives on across the harbor from central Sydney. That twin-towered structure under the bridge over there? The entrance to Luna Park.


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Amid some modern rollers and whirlies stands an old school funhouse, centered around lo-ong hardwood slides that kids ride down on mats that look like burlap bags.


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The view across the harbor from this side is none too shabby!


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