MWNews 44

Maeghan is speaking Spanish now. We don't really know what she is saying, but that does not seem to matter as she speaks very slow and very loud so we can understand her. She learned Spanish by watching every episode of Dora ever made 400 times. For those of you who have not been in contact with any humans younger than 10, Dora is Dora the Explorer, but if you did not know that, then the speaking Spanish part probably went over your head anyway.

We have just returned from vacation in Queensland. That is north of here, where Brisbane is but we only spent a few days in Brisbane. We bought a car DVD player for Maeghan and William to watch on the long drives. I have copied or purchased most of the episodes of Dora and that is what Maeghan watched, all the time, over and over again. Each episode is about 30 minutes long and there are at least 30 of them, but I am pretty sure, after listening to them while driving, I can recite most of the dialogue to you verbatim. Not that I picked up any Spanish along the way.

A lot of times, Maeghan will be talking about something and then start speaking Spanish in the middle of her conversation. It doesn't really mean she is having a conversation with anyone, she can have whole dialogues by herself, but it is kind of strange if you are not really following along that closely in the first place and she suddenly interjects Spanish words into what she is saying. Makes you think you have missed something really important in her life and she has just passed you by on the evolutionary scale.

Speaking of vacations, yes, it has been a really long time since I updated anyone on this here blog thing. I don't really have any excuses for it other than anytime I thought about doing it, something else would come up and I would not have the time. It takes a couple of hours to come of with all this witty dialogue and constant repartee. And there is the added burden of having no idea how to spell repartee, so I either have to stare at it for a long time and decide if it is worth my time to look it up or just ignore it and move on. As you can tell, moving on won this time. I think maybe writing in this was kind of good for me while I was in the family way. Not that I wrote that often back then, but it was certainly more often that I have been lately. Therapeutic is the word I think I am looking for, but after staring at that for a long time, the word itself probably has no meaning at all and I just made it up. Now that I am recovered, except for those long painful memories of the labor, I don't seem to have the urgency to keep this thing going and keep everyone informed. But, as you can tell, I am back and hopefully, as I have said many, many times, this time will be different.

More vacation thoughts. This time, speaking of the recent trip we attempted. We decided a while back that instead of going to Tassie for Christmas, we would take a vacation together. Really, our first one that was not the result of some illness or other medical emergency. We decided we would try to visit parts of Australia that we had not seen before. In my case, that would be almost anywhere, but we have had some trips through the country that can be counted as seeing some of the country. This time, we thought we might stop at some of these towns and places to see what it is there is to see.

We decided on going north to Cairns. That was our plan for many months, but when it got down to actually planning that trip, that is 28 hours of constant driving just to get there and does not include any stops along the way to see anything. Cairns, by the way, is in far north Queensland. Not the very top of Queensland, that is still another days drive farther north, but it is about the largest city in that direction and once you pass there, there are not a lot of real roads or pathways to travel on to go any farther. There is Cape York, at the very top of Australia, but there is not really anything there to see and it is a long drive through a lot of nothing to get there. We will probably never make it that far north in Queensland.

So with a trip all the way to Cairns out of the picture, we decided to only go about two thirds of the way there. We planned a weeks worth of traveling, one way, to get to and see the places along the coast of Queensland. Not that most Americans will have any idea where any of these places are or what their meaning is, but I will mention a few of the more prominent ones in the hope that it will at least sound familiar.

Our first stop was Hervey Bay, pronounced for some unknown reason as Harvey Bay but I have learned not to ask for explanations on why things are pronounce the way they are. This is significant because Hervey Bay is opposite Frazier Island. Frazier Island, as I am sure we all know, is the largest island on the world made completely of sand. You might wonder why anyone or anything would want to make that claim but just so you know, this island is 100 miles long and about 30 wide. It has its own rivers and lakes and forests. All on an island that is made completely of sand. There are no rocks, no outcroppings of boulders, just sand. And trees grow on it. Lots of them. It is apparently the only place on earth that has a forest growing in sand. Anyway, look it up on the internet. It is very interesting.

Having said all that, we did not actually visit Frazier Island. We could see it from our cabin and we wanted to go to see it while we were there, but the trip we wanted to take was all booked and we did not find another to go on with short notice. You cannot drive to Frazier Island and even if you take the ferry, only four wheel drive cars are allowed there. Whale watching is also a big tourist attraction there but we didn't make that either. All in all, we did not find the real attraction of the Hervey bay area. Granted, we were only there for one day and we did drive the tourist drive along the beach, it was very beautiful but then again, it is always beautiful driving along the coast, but we did not do any of the tourist things while we were there. Maybe next time.

Out next stop was Rockhampton. Cowtown to all the locals as this is supposed to be the beef center of Australia. I am not sure how it can be called the beef center as it is on the east coast of Australia and there are a lot of areas where I would think there is more beef produced, but that is what it is called. You can tell they take is seriously as most of the buildings have a statue of a cow sitting out front or on top of the buildings. We were told that there was not a lot to see there unless you drove down to the coast, about thirty minutes away, so we did not plan a lot of activities in Rockhampton itself. One the only full day we had there, we did drive down to the coast towns and see all the tourist sights. It was very nice, except it was windy and looking like rain all day, but it was worth the trip. We did find out, too late, that there are a lot of things to see and do in Rockhampton and we never got to do any of them. Once again, maybe next time.

Our last stop, and the one we spent the most time at was Airlie Beach. That will probably mean very little to almost everyone, although everyone we met or talked to seemed to know where and what this place was (I had never heard of it before this trip). But, for a more familiar name that maybe even isolated Americans will have heard of is the Whitsundays. This is a group of 74 islands that are at the beginning of the Great Barrier Reef. The reef stretches north from there, but most people go to the Whitsundays to see it. Some the islands are Hayman Island, a very, very expensive place, Hamilton Island, it has its own airport, and many, many others. You might have heard of Hayman and Hamilton Islands. We did not go to either of these but we did take a day trip around the islands and stopped on several. I do not recall the names, although one was Whitehaven where we had a BBQ. They did snorkeling from the boat at one spot but neither Juanita or I were game enough, or strong enough swimmers, to try it. Juanita did take Maeghan out in the glass bottom raft so they could see reef from that perspective. I stayed on the boat with William as I seemed to have gotten seasick on the hour long trip out to this spot. I got over it and it did not occur again, but for a while, I was a bit queasy. By the time we had left that area and headed to our next stop, I was alright.

Next up was a bush hike. This time, I was to take Maeghan on the bush walk and leave Juanita and William behind. If I had thought about it, we might have just stayed on the beach and not made the climb, but I was foolish and went anyway. We were told it was a brief, easy 15 minute walk to a lookout where you could look at the beaches far below. Now, any sane person would have figured out that if you are starting at sea level and you are going to a place where there is a view of the beaches from a great height, there was going to be some climbing involved. But I took there 15 minute, easy walk speech to heart and headed out with Maeghan. To be fair, it was only about a kilometer in distance and a lot of it was a gradual climb, but the first hundred yards or so are a steep set of steps that are very uneven and very irregular so that Maeghan was unable to navigate them herself and I ended up having to carry her up them. She did manage to walk about half the way up by herself, but our pace was so slow, that we were still climbing while most of the group had already passed us on their way back. When it became clear that we were one of the last ones left on the climb, I picked Maeghan up and carried her the rest of the way there.

Once there, it turned out there was a little wooded platform that you could stand on and take in the views. I won't go into the Vietnam family that was on the same cruise we were on and the problems they had and were causing the entire time, but suffice it say that there were about 15 of them and they had taken up residence on the platform and were not about to move for anyone. I left Maeghan at the steps up to the platform and pushed my way through to get some really good pictures, pictures that I thought were not going to be worth it at that point as I was totally exhausted from making the climb carrying Maeghan, but after seeing them on my computer, they are well worth it and I wished Juanita could have been there to share it with me. I did take a picture of Maeghan at the top, but we might as well have been anywhere as there was no way to put her in a position to get her and the scenery into the same picture, due the afore mentioned Vietnamese family.

I decided we should probably head back as I did not know how long it would take at Maeghan pace and we and the Vietnam people were the last ones left at the top. I found out right away that going down was going to be harded than going up and we were almost immediately passed by the family and were the last ones. So, I picked up Maeghan and carried her down the twisting and winding trail and then down the treacherous steps back to the beach. To be real honest, I did not think there was anyway I was going to make it and I thought they would have to come up and help me with Maeghan, but I made it and did it with no ones help and I am really proud of Maeghan for not complaining or making a fuss for the entire trip. She kept telling me she could do it and she could walk but I was worried we would take too long getting back, so I kept carrying her. We made it back and it turned out that they were just starting to load the first people into the raft and take them back to the boat, so we actually had a little more time than I thought, but we were in the second raft back and other than running aground on the way back to deeper water, the tide had gone out while we had been climbing, and being totally exhausted when I returned, it was well worth the effort. The only regret being not being able to share it with William and Juanita.

Our last stop was a BBQ on the beach on the white sand islands. It was really nice and we have a lot of pictures of the whole trip. The water was really cold but that did not stop Juanita and Maeghan from getting in it and getting wet. Juanita even put William in the water. He did not like it at all but eventually got used to it and might have had a little fun. He was scared of the waves as this was his first time in the ocean, but I think he will get used to it. Maeghan was the same way and now she loves the water and the beach.

It took about two hours to return to where we started from and we were totally exhausted by then, but all in all, it was well worth it. I can see this place as a regular place we would like to visit, although in the future, we will probably fly there as it is both cheaper and less tiring to do that and you do not really need a car while you are there.

I can see this entry has gone on for a very long time. I did not mean it to be a trip report and I have a lot of other things to write about. William is now beginning to have a definite personality and there are a lot of things I can say about him. He is just now starting to crawl. He has learned peoples names and knows who you are talking about when you say look at someone. He is very ticklish and has a really funny laugh. And, he is so big now. Maybe I am just used to Maeghan and how she was and still is, but he is big. Big arms, big legs, big belly and he weighs almost as much as Maeghan. Only a kilo difference between the two of them. It makes Maeghan feel very light when you pick up one of them and then the other. It is a reminder of how small Maeghan really is and it brings up some issues that we are going to have to face with Maeghan, but I will leave that until it actually comes to pass and we have to deal with it then.

Maeghan can do a lot of things for herself now, too. She has her little step that we keep in the bathroom so she can get on and off the potty by herself. She is really proud of herself when she does that and you should see how big she smiles when we tell her how big and clever she is. She count and say her ABCs without any errors now and she gets most of the songs she sings right now. No more messing up with the lyrics or anything. She can ever recite whole books by herself. I don't think she is actually reading them, but she can look at her books and tell you what they say on each page. It is probably from having them read to her so many times, but she does this on her own now and sits and reads to herself all the time. She is really smart. I don't know if it so amazing because she is so small and does not look like she should be able to figure things out or she is just normal and all kids are like her. She is still an amazement every day with the things she says and does. Just truly amazing.

I will have to go now, but as I keep saying, there is more to come. We still have the trip back to cover and I have all the things William and Maeghan are doing. I will get them into this forum as fast as I can. I hope there are still people reading this and have not given up on any new additions.

Until next time, talk to you later.