Darling Harbour Cruise in Sydney for Surprise Birthday Party

So, we got up very early on Saturday morning in Melbourne Australia on October 10. 

Cousin Liz came with her B.M.W. to pick us up at 8:30 AM for dropping us off at the airport.

Again, saying goodbye, we did not have much time together but that was because of our 2-week job for doing training at Melbourne Mushrooms.

We flew to Sydney and were picked up by our mushroom friends Rob Tolson and John Miller.

Home with them to Windsor, NSW, through the new Sydney Harbour tunnel, that opened in August of 1992.

We had lunch at John & Beryl's home.

Here we are aboard the ship but to the right is Beryl Miller, who hosted our lunch for Saturday upon arrival.

With Ansett Australia from Melbourne to Sydney

Feeling happy for having completed a good job and now a few days with mushroom friends in a more relaxed atmosphere.

What we did NOT know was that on Sunday, they had already organized a bus, for going back to Darling Harbour in Sydney for a Harbour Cruise with dinner in honor of the 21st Birthday of Tania Cox, daughter of one of our mushroom friends, Johnny Cox.

Here we are at Darling Harbour, waiting for the birthday girl to arrive with her fiancée...

We hid behind the bus and sprang out singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY and at first Tania was mad at her fiancée for having lured her to the harbour.

Me on the left with husband Pieter and to the right are John Miller and Rob Tolson.

Here we are with the lovely birthday girl Tania in our midst, with her Dad John Cox to her left.

Such a lovely afternoon and evening!

A very special toast to the 21-year old Australian Tania Cox!

A happy family!
John & Daphne Cox with daughter Tania, cutting the dessert, and her sister Nerilee to the right.
We had such a great time and felt like family!

Norah & Rob Tolson
We arrived home very late with the Tolsons but what a day!
We knew each other for many years and ran into each other usually at International Mushroom Congresses.
We walked with Norah, along the bay of San Diego on March 12, 1985 at the 5th North American Mushroom Conference.
In 1987, on my birthday we all happend to be together for dinner in Santa Cruz, California; 9 of our Mushroom friends from Australia. Rob Tolson with Rob Tolson Jr. and John Baker.
They ordered around 10:30 PM a large strawberry tort with candles and champagne and sang Happy Birthday to me. Unforgettable!
Already in 1986 in August, Robert Jr. did visit us in Georgia at our home, while he was studying at Penn State University. He did stay a couple of nights with us and visited the Campbell Mushroom plant that Pieter designed here locally.

On Monday we first visit Robert Jr. & Buffy's mushroom farm.
Yes, you can read more about Elf Mushrooms when clicking on this link...
We know the two generations!
We also visited John & Daphne Cox's mushroom farm.
John looked so much like our late friend Roy Chappell... They say that we all have a double; somewhere!
Lunch at Mary Daley and her two sons and Olga, the grower.

Next day we visited the Dorresteyn farm, which was leased to his workers.
Rosy served us coffee and dessert.
Next we went to Brian and Heidi Carroll and Heide gifted me a nice round broche that she'd hand painted.

It always made it kind of hard to leave such sweet friends!
We went to have lunch with Graham and Janet Price and in the evening we rounded it up with a lovely dinner where some 60 Australian mushroom growers joined!

Pieter did show slides form the Indonesian mushroom farm where we worked and John Miller gifted us in the name of all mushroom growers a beautiful book:

Such a warm gesture and so meaningful!
Also John Baker did buy 30 of my own design Lacquered Brass Mushroom Window Decorations.
On Wednesday we had lunch with a Swiss mushroom friend, the late Hans Tschierpe.
First they'd done a video from my harvest demonstration.
Thursday, October 15 we got up early and left for the Sydney airport by 7:30 AM.
No Hawkesbury river flooding this time!
It was hard to part after such special days together, with also a visit to a local nursery for plants.
We could buy a truckload, if it would be allowed!
Via Honolulu, Hawaii we entered the USA and went on to Los Angeles and Atlanta, home on Friday by 1:00 AM.

Just 9 days later, Pieter left for Kalamazoo, Michigan to work for the Campbell plant there and back home on October 30; tired...
On November 1, we did pick up Pieter's eldest brother Thé with his wife Dora, they stayed with us till November 18. We took them to Florida and they both got lucky with check in for Royal Dutch Airlines, as Pieter let Thé use his Royal Wing card and that yielded them 2 business class seats 74!
Always busy but we can look back with lots of satisfaction!

 To find this card in the mail was so touching...

To Dear Pieter & Mariet(te),
I shall be retiring from the position of General Manager of A.M.G.A. (Australian Mushroom Growers Association) as from 31st December, 1992.
May I sincerely thank you for all of your assistance and friendship over the many years.
All of our members enjoyed your visit to their farms and your presentation at the hotel dinner.
If I can be of assistance to you at anytime in Australia, then please let me know.
Best wishes for the future,
Warmest regards,
John & Beryl Miller (our tour guides to the Blue Mountains on this trip...)...

Thanks for your visit and comment and stay tuned for the next Australia trip...

Related links:
Working & Socializing with Staff from Melbourne Mushrooms | previous post by me
Two Cousins from Two Continents in Melbourne, Australia | previous post by me
Visiting Healesville Sanctuary in VIC, Australia | previous post by me
My 2nd Trip to Australia from Atlanta - Dallas - Los Angeles - Sydney - Melbourne | previous post
Katoomba & Jenolan Caves, Blue Mountains Australia | previous post by me

With Hawkesbury Valley Heritage Tours to the BLUE MOUNTAINS Australia | previous post by me

Sydney Centre Point Tower, Captain Cook Luncheon Cruise & Opera House | previous post

Surroundings of Melbourne Mushrooms in Mernda, VIC, Australia  | previous post by me

Visiting Uncle Louis in the Australian Outback of Broken Hill, NSW | previous post by me

My 1st Trip to Work in Australia and also Meeting my First Cousin Liz | previous post by me
Husband Pieter's 2nd and 3rd Trip to Australia | previous post by me

Trips to Australia | previous post by me

{Angels engraved on lucky calendar coin of 1969} | previous post by me

{My Teacher, Mentor, BOSS & Husband over 44+ Years} | previous post by me

{My Own Design of Brass Mushrooms} | previous post by me

Google.com/+MarietteVandenMunckhofVedder

Katoomba & Jenolan Caves, Blue Mountains Australia

The Blue Mountains do have so much to offer...

Temperate Rainforests and spectacular waterfalls.

And in Katoomba you also ride the steepest railway in the world!

What a thrill it was to ride this all six of us together!
Click here for more info: Scenic World that's where I got this photo too.
Length of incline is 415 m or 1360 ft at 52º
In the center you see Scenic Railway and this funicular railway line goes straight down beside Orphan Rock!
Through sandstone cliffs and a rock tunnel.
You emerge into a spectacular fern filled rain forest!

Also lots of mosses you will find. One of my favorites... hence we took this photo!
Wish we would have had many days for exploring it all in more detail!
Since we were there in 1988, so much has been added and greatly improved that you have a far better up close view of it all. Click here: Scenic World Explore our World Take a Look Videos.
Also this Blue Mountains N.S.W. video shows you beautifully what to expect.

Scenic World on the left, Katoomba Falls, Cliff View Lookout and Three Sisters to the right...
It gives you a pretty good impression about Australia's Grand Canyon!

Looking farther away now...
To the right you see Fairmont Resort Blue Mountains where we did start out with our lunch...

After a good hour drive through the mountains, from Katoomba, there is another spectacular thing to visit: Jenolan Caves.

This is JENOLAN CAVES Orient Cave Persian Chamber
Jenolan Caves Blue Mountains Australia belong to the finest and oldest cave systems in the world!

Jenolan Caves Imperial Cave Nellie's Grotto

Jenolan Caves Bishop and Three Sisters

Jenolan Caves Lucas Cave Bone Cavern

As it reads here on a perfect card that I received from cousin Liz: "THIS IS A BIG COUNTRY" AUSTRALIA...

So  grateful for having seen what we did in the time being there!

Australian Wildlife is so fascinating!

Koala Australia

Waratah Australian wild flowers

Bottle Brush Australia

We ended our Blue Mountains adventure with a lovely dinner at the home of mushroom friends John & Beryl Miller, in Windsor, N.S.W. together with Rob & Norah Tolson.
They were such generous tour guides and hosts!
Even did sell lots of my own design Lacquered Brass Window Decoration 'Mushrooms'.

We had a business Monday on the mushroom farms of Rob Tolson and had lunch at John Baker's with his daughter Patricia and his son.
Pieter also did review the Baker mushroom farm and I gave a harvest demonstration.
We enjoyed a dinner together with 58 mushroom farmers + spouses.
Organized by John Miller, see invitation in previous post...
Pieter gave a lecture and also answered questions.
Patricia Baker gave us a kiss + sweet gifts.
A set of 6 special placemats with Australian scenes, such as sheep shearing.
Each a sweatshirt with Koalo and a silver-plate spoon.
The placemats are worn out and gone...

But I still have my sweatshirt with sweet Koala + silver-plate spoon with Australian flag!

Not JUST a silver-plate spoon but the Bicentennial Australian teaspoon!
Fond memories forever inside our hearts...
On Tuesday, I did do an entire day of harvest training and Pieter in the afternoon had a meeting with 3 compost makers.
Norah Tolson, with a friend, took me to a jewelry store and gifted me with a beautiful freestone blue opal and two white opals for having set as earrings.
We went one last evening home with them and watched Snowy River...
On Wednesday we got an alarming wakeup 'knock' on our door: HURRY! WE MUST LEAVE NOW!!!
Look out of the window and you know WHY!!!
We heard and saw a roaring river, a MONSTER that was already 3 m above bridgelevel!
A large flood of the Hawkesbury River.
We packed in a hurry and grabbed a bite for breakfast and started the 2 hours to the north, through the mountains to reach the HIGHER bridge there, then back 2 hours to the south to arrive in Sydney.
What an adventure and I was so car-sick from the wild ride through the mountains but we arrived at noon in Sydney for our flight from 14:00.

With tailwind we went from Sydney to San Francisco in 13 hours and 25 minutes.

Not so much for me... my stomach came empty so I did not eat much.

Also Qantas carried the Bicentennial Year Logo for Australia; very special for my first visit to down under!
On July 6, we got to Atlanta by 19:00 and home around 22:00 = 14 hours time difference!
Our luggage arrived next day around 18:00 delivered at our home...

That was quite an adventurous 1st Australia trip!

On July 10, we drove to Atlanta for picking up our Dutch guests who stayed with us 4 nights.
Pieter had to leave for Campbell Soup on the 12th, for the Hillsboro farm in Texas... back by 21:00 on the 14th.

Thanks for your visit and comment!

Related links:

With Hawkesbury Valley Heritage Tours to the BLUE MOUNTAINS | previous post by me
Sydney Centre Point Tower, Captain Cook Luncheon Cruise & Opera House | previous post
Surroundings of Melbourne Mushrooms in Mernda, VIC, Australia  | previous post by me
Visiting Uncle Louis in the Australian Outback of Broken Hill, NSW | previous post by me

My 1st Trip to Work in Australia and also Meeting my First Cousin Liz | previous post by me
Husband Pieter's 2nd and 3rd Trip to Australia | previous post by me

Trips to Australia | previous post by me

{Angels engraved on lucky calendar coin of 1969} | previous post by me

{My Teacher, Mentor, BOSS & Husband over 44+ Years} | previous post by me

{My Own Design of Brass Mushrooms} | previous post by me

Google.com/+MarietteVandenMunckhofVedder

Visiting Uncle Louis in the Australian Outback of Broken Hill, NSW

On Saturday, June 25 of 1988, husband Pieter had a meeting at the Melbourne University so I did fly solo to Mildura, the Citrus Capital of Australia and on to Broken Hill.

That's where my Uncle Louis, Dad's younger brother lives with his wife.
Yes, Uncle Louis is the Dad of my 1st cousin Liz and he also has 2 sons.

Water Reservoir.

Driving into the vast Outback of Broken Hill, New South Wales on Sunday morning after breakfast.

My solo flight from Melbourne to Mildura and on to Broken Hill.

Uncle Louis in his chair...
My own design and laser cut lacquered brass mushroom window decoration and another one, sitting on the shelf.
I'd also hand knitted a lace edging and sewn onto a towel set, for a gift.
Also a papier mâché box with tulips from Kashmir.
 While staying with my Aunt & Uncle, I've taken measurements for crocheting them curtains that I did mail out from the USA.
Happy times together as family and as kindred spirits with a mutual understanding for being immigrants!
Oh, I still have the emotional memory on my retina, as a 5-year old, when Dad hugged his favorite younger brother Louis goodbye when he came to bide his farewell at my Parents' home in Horst, The Netherlands...

This was the home of Uncle Louis where my 1st cousins grew up as well.
The entire family now resides in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.
Uncle Louis was a contractor and he built homes and also built his own home.

Front lawn and street view.
Grass remains green as it never freezes in this hot desert climate.
They do have the very same centipede grass as we have here in Georgia; it is the only one that can stand the heat in summer!
Yes, Broken Hill, NSW is at the same southern latitude as Dublin, GA is at the northern latitude!
My visit was in mid-winter...

Driving off into the Outback of Broken Hill

Pipes from the Water Reservoir

In the center you see some of Broken Hill's Mines
Yes, Broken Hill is an isolated mining city in the far west of Outback New South Wales.
Broken Hill has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits!

One of the many mines in Broken Hill

Another mine in the center...
We also did visit the Golf Course where my Aunt and Uncle both played.
And the milk factory that just had opened, for cows that got fed on sorghum instead of grass.

We enjoyed eating an ice-cream and had a bread meal before going together to Mass at 18:00 in Broken Hill Sacred Heart Cathedral where I knelt down between my Aunt & Uncle.
Uncle Louis had done lots of wood carvings and restauration work inside this Cathedral.
With a soup and pizza we ended a lovely day together.
Not that much driving around, by far not as much as Uncle Louis had done with his sister, my Aunt Nelly and Uncle Wim, who stayed for 2 months and he'd put on 6,000 km.
We know what that is as we'd done the previous year for Mom & Dad in one month also 3,000 km.
On Monday I left after aunt Gerd dropped me off at Broken Hill airport for my 15:00 flight to Mildura and on to Melbourne where Pieter did pick me up with our rental car.
With our AT&T calling card we did call Mom & Dad in The Netherlands and also my 1st cousin Martin in Adelaide, Australia who had his birthday (my Aunt & Uncle had called him first thing in the morning.
That very 1st cousin had stayed for 6 months with us while in The Netherlands on a vacation.

Stay tuned for the next chapter...

Thanks for your visit and comment!

Related links:
My 1st Trip to Work in Australia and also Meeting my First Cousin Liz | previous post by me
Husband Pieter's 2nd and 3rd Trip to Australia | previous post by me

Trips to Australia | previous post by me

{Angels engraved on lucky calendar coin of 1969} | previous post by me

{My Teacher, Mentor, BOSS & Husband over 44+ Years} | previous post by me

{My Own Design of Brass Mushrooms} | previous post by me

Google.com/+MarietteVandenMunckhofVedder

The Roosevelt New Orleans with View of Mississippi and French Quarter + New Orleans Cooking School

Okay, in my previous post I did write about the reason for ending up at The Roosevelt in New Orleans. So let's look around a bit in this remarkable city.

We did stay for one night at the Howard Johnson, Downtown New Orleans.

Next day after Mass, at the Moorish Jesuit Church across the hotel, we did walk with a Dutch business friend and a Chilean business man to French Quarter.
We moved to The Roosevelt in the afternoon.

On the wall to the left are the letters The Fairmont, as The Roosevelt was still called on March 6, 1988.
But our view was spectacular!
The mighty Mississippi river...

This photo is a bit more zoomed in.
We viewed actually the New Orleans Cruise Terminal!

Right from the back of our hotel.
2nd from right is the Sheraton hotel.

To the left is the Marriott and to the right the Sheraton, as we walk on Canal St. near Carondelet St.

French Quarter with its typical balconies and lots of wrought iron.

Husband Pieter took this photo as we stand here on 500 Bourbon St, New Orleans.
The Chilean gent to the left and Dutch business friend Anton van Overveld in the center.

Yep the exact same sign from Chris Owens, 500 Bourbon St is still hanging there!
From Google Street View, click on link.

From the same link here above, you get a perfect view of what I was looking at in the above photo.
A bit scared for those protruding balconies with tables and chairs of Bayou Burger Balcony Dining!
The sign from 1988 with Takee Outee is gone...

La Louisiana Restaurant at 725 Iberville Street, built in 1837...
To read about the History of La Louisiana New Orleans, just click the hyperlink.
You do have the feeling that you're back in the Old World, in France!

Crossing of Iberville and N Peters Street.

Yep, this Google 401 Iberville St New Orleans Street View shows it still is there!
Click on link to be shown the exact wall in photo.

A bit around the corner shows you this Google 199 N Peters St New Orleans Street View, just click it.
We're walking towards the Mississippi River...

Near the cruise terminal at the mighty Mississippi river...
The Chilean gent to the left of me.
That day I had a perfect Spanish speaking adventure; good practice!

Pieter is now showing the other side, with the Mississippi river and the bridge in the back.

While Pieter took the above photo, Dutch business friend Anton van Overveld took this one with Pieter in it, to the right of me.

Happy together on the mighty Mississippi river...
Such a perfect sunny Sunday in March!

Dreaming of one day being able to make a cruise with such a boat...
On Monday, March 7, both of us had early breakfast with the conference participants and while Pieter did prepare for his lecture in the afternoon, I joined the Grand Tour bus at 10:00 AM and got to see beautiful New Orleans, together with Peter and Els Janssen, from my hometown area.

Card bought: Jackson Square with its famous General Andrew Jackson on his bronze horse statue set against the
beautiful Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis King of France
This is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States.
Daily Mass is at 12:05 and I wish we could have had time for that.
By 12:30 we had all lunch at the Roosevelt hotel with all conference guests.
Also would love to visit the Old Ursuline Convent Museum...

Card bought: Creole Queen on the Mississippi river against Chalmette Battlefield monument.

Card bought: Steamboat Natchez a Harbor Jazz Cruise would have been fun!
That afternoon, Pieter did present his lecture and I also was successful selling my own design, brass mushrooms for window decorations, see link below post: My Own Design of Brass Mushrooms.
On Tuesday, March 8, we did have the exhibition opening after a lunch buffet and in the evening Grand Ball with Dinner.
On Wednesday, March 9, after breakfast I went by bus at 10:00 AM to the New Orleans Cooking School where we learned to make Gumbo and Jambalaya and ate that for lunch...

Still have this great apron that was included for wearing while preparing our food!
Just click on above link, you can have this HANDS-ON CLASS still today, ever since 1980.

By 15:30 we were in our car and drove the 590 miles or 950 km home to Dublin, Georgia and arrived on Thursday at 2:30 in the morning.

Thanks for your visit!

7th North American Mushroom Conference at The Roosevelt in New Orleans | previous post by me

{My Own Design of Brass Mushrooms} | my previous post by me

Google.com/+MarietteVandenMunckhofVedder