Photos by Nanci Blog

February 12, 2018 Brisbane QLD Australia It's Sunday morning and we're in Brisbane. Someone pinch me. This is just too cool. We're up early for our Mt. Tamborine tour today. Our room was very quiet but the bed is a little too hard for us. So we didn't sleep too well. But life goes on. The breakfast buffet offered is substantial. Eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit and various cereals. We fuel up then walk to the Roma Street bus stop across from the Police Station to meet our van for our tour of Springbrook National Park and Mt. Tamborine . We have another small van (which means small group-YES!) Harrison is our driver and guide for the day. He's a marine biologist who recently worked studying turtles at the Great Barrier Reef. He's been guiding for about two years. Once in the van, he asks us all to tell a little bit about ourselves. We soon find out the a number of the young folks are here in Australia to learn English as a second language. Harrison jokes ...

February 10, 2017 Sydney NSW Australia It's our last day in Sydney. Tomorrow we travel to Brisbane for two more Springsteen shows and a few more Aussie Adventures. But first we want to soak in as much of Sydney Harbour as we can. The forecast is for temperatures in the high 90s and possibly 100 F on Saturday, our travel day. NICE! We sleep in, until about 8 a.m., have ourselves a quick breakfast, a quick shower and head outside before it gets too hot. At 8 a.m. it's already 88 F. We decide to walk around the Harbour and visit the  Royal Botanical Gardens . Everyone we've spoken to says it's a MUST SEE, the gardens do not disappoint. We leave the Lord Nelson and walk down Argyle Street to the Harbour, past the Ferry docks, we cut around the Wharf and head to Garden's Gate. We walk along the outside of the Gardens and down to the views of the harbour near the Opera House. Visit Mrs Macquarie's Chair, an exposed sandstone rock cut into the shape ...

February 9, 2017 Qudos Bank Arena Sydney, Australia After a quick, late lunch at Lord Nelson , we freshen up from our sweaty Taronga Zoo trip and head to Wynard Station . We catch the train to Olympic Park for night two of Bruce Sringsteen and the E Street Band at Qudos Bank Arena . As we're walking from the train station to the arena, we hear music. Not like a radio station van music but MUSIC. We get closer to ANZ Stadium and hear thundering drums. What we're hearing is Guns N Roses running sound check for their two shows on Friday and Saturday nights. (We later found out that after sound check, they hit the arena to take in the E Street Band show as Bruce's guests.) Thanks to a friend of a friend, we had E Street Lounge passes. In the past we've had passes from Little Steven's Renegade Nation Street Team/Underground Garage, a radio station, and Stevie's Music Foundation. It's backstage but low level backstage-no where near BR...

February 9, 2017 Sydney, Australia The rain woke me up again, it was coming down pretty heavy at 1:45 a.m.. I toss and turn for a few hours and finally give up at 5 a.m. I uploaded a few video clips from the Springsteen show on Tuesday night while waiting for Jay to wake up. Around 7 a.m. the skies look to be clearing. I think it may be turning into a beautiful day. We quickly do coffee, showers, and breakfast. We walk to Circular Quay to catch the ferry to the zoo. It's pretty hot and humid but it's supposed to be even hotter, Friday, Saturday and Sunday like 100 F. We heard that if it's really hot it's hard to see some of the animals at the zoo. They seek shade and don't like to move around just like humans. With our early start, I think we'll be OK. Oh my, as we get closer to the wharf, there is one BIG A** Cruise ship in Harbour today...hopefully they haven't dumped their passengers yet. The Ovation on the Seas is the 4th largest cruise ship ...

February 22, 2017 Weathersfield, Vermont Good Day Mate! We're just back from two weeks in Australia. Why Australia you ask, well, we went to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. We saw four shows, two in Sydney and two in Brisbane. In between the shows we explored the area around both cities. I'll be posting about our adventures on my blog. It was really fun. The weather was great. Temperatures were in the 80s and 90s every day (it's their summer Down Under). We monitored all the storms that were happening back home and were somewhat prepared for the snow amounts but when we finally got home after 30 hours of travel on Friday night our jaws dropped when we saw all the snow on our deck. Then the temperatures began to rise and it was mud season and the sap was running. This is crazy weather people. Am I asking too much to have winter be winter at least for a little bit, then turn Spring? This back and forth stuff is driving me crazy. Your thoughts? Weather...

February 8, 2017 Sydney, NSW Australia I'm up at 5:45 a.m., the rain is pouring down again and wakes me up. We got back to our room around midnight after the Springsteen show and were asleep by 1 a.m.. We have to get up early today because were heading to Hunter Valley-the famous Australian wine region. We're doing a wine tasting tour with  Hunter Valley Wine Tours . I researched them before we left Vermont and it looked like a good fit for us. We have breakfast in bed (we need to leave the Lord Nelson before breakfast is served, so we shopped at the Woolworth's for croissants and OJ the day before.) We're meeting our tour group at the Harbour Marriott on Pitt Street at 7 a.m.. We head to North Sydney on M1-the Pacific Highway to B82 to Cessnock. It's pretty gloomy so the sights from the bus aren't the best. Small van means small group. And that's how we like it. Our first stop is a coffee and comfort stop-Oliver's Organic and we're ba...