North American Summer
09 September 2016
With two new apartment buildings in our street and the one next door to us about to be occupied, a number of new shops have opened as well. I tried Horse on Heels, a specialist “artisanal” waffle restaurant. Their waffle was good, but I’m not sure it will sustain a business on its own.
Marriage equality was a significant issue in the recent federal election, and we attended an Equal Love rally for the first time just before the election. We saw quite a few friends there, including some straight ones we hadn’t expected to find. I suspect that internal political considerations within the government will mean that nothing will happen for the current term. Our local member, Adam Bandt, has been quite vocal on this issue.
We spent most of July in North America, much of it visiting Jay’s family. We flew first to San Francisco and stayed close to where his sister’s family live in Palo Alto. We got to spend a bit of time with his nephews and also see some of the tourist sights of that part of California. Our friend Yoav was moving to the Bay Area the day we flew in, so we were pleased to see him as well. We only went into San Francisco proper for a trip to the gym and to see my oldest and most long-standing friends in California: Joel and Sam.
It was more than ten years since I had been to the Great America theme park, and we had quite a fun day there. We also drove to Monterey for the day to see the aquarium. It was obvious how much time the artists from Pixar had spent here in preparing for “Finding Dory”.
From San Franciso we flew to Boston. We had dinner with Terry, a good friend from when we all lived in SF, and stayed the night at his place. During the day we walked the Freedom Trail. The whole of this trip gave me a deeper appreciation of American history. Boston was keen to promote its history as was Provincetown where we spent the weekend.
We drove to Provincetown in time for the final weekend of Bear Week. It was a fun and friendly event and we met quite a few new people at the Boatslip as well as running into a lot of guys we knew from elsewhere. I was especially pleased to be able to have lunch with Billy who happened to be returning to New York soon after we arrived. We went out one night to the Crown and Anchor and also went to see Trixie Mattel’s stand-up show.
From Provincetown we travelled to Washington DC. I had not been there before and was keen to see the various landmarks and institutions.
We spent hours at the various Smithsonian museums, especially the air and space museum. We also toured the Capitol, the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court. We were not lucky enough to score a tour of the White House as there were no places available, so we had to pose outside instead.
We had booked to spend almost a week in Thunder Bay visiting Ja’s parents. His sister Denise was visiting at the same time. Tripadvisor listed a total of 58 things to do in Thunder Bay and I think we managed to cover most of them.
We went sailing on Lake Superior, ate at Uptown Cut, saw the busking festival and the Indian food festival, toured Fort William Historical Park and picked up some stones at the amethyst mine. We also had time to help with two projects at Jay’s parents’ house: replacing the light in the staircase and the shower doors in one bathroom. I made an album of other photos from the trip on Facebook.
When we returned home, Winter was coming to an end. We helped out at the Melbourne Argonauts learn-to-row program and also participated in some filming in preparation for the club trivia night. It was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to drive an MGB.
We will see the result of the filming next weekend when we go to the trivia night. Jay has also been doing a photography course at RMIT since we returned. I have been on long service leave from St Vincent’s so I have every Friday off work for most of the second half of the year. It has been an opportunity to do some more variety of work and also finish off some tasks before I step down as chairman of my private practice group.
In December we are planning to see Jay’s family again when we meet up in Hawaii for Christmas. For New Year’s Eve we have booked to visit Los Angeles before returning to Australia.
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Marriage equality was a significant issue in the recent federal election, and we attended an Equal Love rally for the first time just before the election. We saw quite a few friends there, including some straight ones we hadn’t expected to find. I suspect that internal political considerations within the government will mean that nothing will happen for the current term. Our local member, Adam Bandt, has been quite vocal on this issue.
We spent most of July in North America, much of it visiting Jay’s family. We flew first to San Francisco and stayed close to where his sister’s family live in Palo Alto. We got to spend a bit of time with his nephews and also see some of the tourist sights of that part of California. Our friend Yoav was moving to the Bay Area the day we flew in, so we were pleased to see him as well. We only went into San Francisco proper for a trip to the gym and to see my oldest and most long-standing friends in California: Joel and Sam.
It was more than ten years since I had been to the Great America theme park, and we had quite a fun day there. We also drove to Monterey for the day to see the aquarium. It was obvious how much time the artists from Pixar had spent here in preparing for “Finding Dory”.
From San Franciso we flew to Boston. We had dinner with Terry, a good friend from when we all lived in SF, and stayed the night at his place. During the day we walked the Freedom Trail. The whole of this trip gave me a deeper appreciation of American history. Boston was keen to promote its history as was Provincetown where we spent the weekend.
We drove to Provincetown in time for the final weekend of Bear Week. It was a fun and friendly event and we met quite a few new people at the Boatslip as well as running into a lot of guys we knew from elsewhere. I was especially pleased to be able to have lunch with Billy who happened to be returning to New York soon after we arrived. We went out one night to the Crown and Anchor and also went to see Trixie Mattel’s stand-up show.
From Provincetown we travelled to Washington DC. I had not been there before and was keen to see the various landmarks and institutions.
We spent hours at the various Smithsonian museums, especially the air and space museum. We also toured the Capitol, the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court. We were not lucky enough to score a tour of the White House as there were no places available, so we had to pose outside instead.
We had booked to spend almost a week in Thunder Bay visiting Ja’s parents. His sister Denise was visiting at the same time. Tripadvisor listed a total of 58 things to do in Thunder Bay and I think we managed to cover most of them.
We went sailing on Lake Superior, ate at Uptown Cut, saw the busking festival and the Indian food festival, toured Fort William Historical Park and picked up some stones at the amethyst mine. We also had time to help with two projects at Jay’s parents’ house: replacing the light in the staircase and the shower doors in one bathroom. I made an album of other photos from the trip on Facebook.
When we returned home, Winter was coming to an end. We helped out at the Melbourne Argonauts learn-to-row program and also participated in some filming in preparation for the club trivia night. It was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to drive an MGB.
We will see the result of the filming next weekend when we go to the trivia night. Jay has also been doing a photography course at RMIT since we returned. I have been on long service leave from St Vincent’s so I have every Friday off work for most of the second half of the year. It has been an opportunity to do some more variety of work and also finish off some tasks before I step down as chairman of my private practice group.
In December we are planning to see Jay’s family again when we meet up in Hawaii for Christmas. For New Year’s Eve we have booked to visit Los Angeles before returning to Australia.
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