Tuesday –last full day! Jacki took me to the Blue Mountains and then over the top and down the other side. Fascinating history – 3 men (Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth) were the first people to find their way to the other side. Previously they had been completely impenetrable. It took over a year for them to do it and the road we traveled is the exact same route they found – there is no other. We had a lovely lunch in Leura, did some shopping, found a wonderful health food store which reminded me of the one in Blairstown – great little place in the middle of nowhere. The country on the other side had the feel of a mixture of Ireland and parts of NJ. The flora was not as “exotic” as in Sydney – at least to me – there was real grass, sheep, horses and a Border collie. We saw the Three Sisters and a few “cascades” (waterfalls).

Got back to the hotel I think around 7 pm so it was a very long day since we started at 9:30 am.

Wednesday was a short day and Jacki took me to Botony Bay – where Captain Cook “discovered” Australia. At one point, I was thinking about my dogs and Cynthia and all of a sudden jolted up with a large intake of breath. Jacki asked me what was wrong...I, being apparently in a state of suspended animation (or something like), thought I was in Canada and that I had forgotten to check out of my hotel and pay my bill! Would that time travel were that easy....

I was starting to panic again about the long flights, but Jacki is part of an organization that helps people with fear of flying issues, so a few things she said have really helped me. I was able to sleep most of the 1^st leg from Sydney to LA and at this very minute am in the air going from LA to Toronto to pick up my gang and will be landing in about 2.5 hours and then 1 hour after that I look forward to being molested by three wildly excited Border collies.

I had called Cynthia from LA airport to let her know where I was and she was able to report that Emma, Beau and Shadow all did really well. The most amazing thing is that on Halloween night, she thought there wouldn’t be anyone else coming by so let my gang out and lo and behold, a bunch of cars drove up with hoards of adults and kids! YIKES!!!!! SHADOW DID NOT BITE ANYONE, NOR EVEN THINK ABOUT BITING ANYONE! HOLY CRAP! Cynthia also had my gang out during the week with other people and he was totally fine – just being his obnoxious self, pestering strangers to pet him! I am tearing up just typing this – all the hard work (as in 8 years…) is truly paying off even more than my expectations. Beau got into the sheep one more time under the electro-net to do some unauthorized herding. He did stop when Cynthia called him, but then couldn’t figure out how to get under it again and the fence bit him. But he sat and stayed for her until she could turn the fence off to let him out and he never tried to get into them again. Shadow was utterly mesmerized with the bunnies (eyes bugging out of his head, completely deaf) and it took Cynthia a bit to get him off of them (they were in their coop – safe), but interestingly enough, ignored the chickens. (for those of you that know "The Great Chicken Story" this is an amazing accomplishment) I am thrilled he missed seeing the pigs because they are HUGE! Emma apparently was not too much of a problem, other than her normal jumping up and grabbing anything that remotely looks like a toy and insisting that you throw it for her.

Musings – completely out of order;

Pauline and Jacki were the most incredible tour guides a girl could ever have. Both of them have an amazingly wide range of interests and it makes me ashamed that all I have are dogs…I am determined to start to learn new things – any thing! (Jacki learned how to fly in her 50’s). Both are learned in every aspect of Australian history and culture and many hobbies, past and present and they were both a delight to talk to and learn from. And I have to say, it was a pleasure NOT to talk about dogs!

Never having spoken at a conference before I don’t have anything to compare it to, but Aussies are so friendly, so accommodating, so wonderful that maybe some day I will make the trip again. Even the hotel clerks were great. My straightening iron wouldn’t work, so the clerk brought me hers to use throughout my whole stay! One would never get that in the US!

Every place we stopped for food was incredible and gluten and dairy free were on almost all menus! Although I have to say, some of the simplest food items were the most expensive. A small (very small, like the size of a cupcake) cake, a cup of tea and a cup of coffee here in the states would be about $5.00. Right? WELL! It blew me away when the cashier wanted $11.60!!! And yet the meals were only slightly higher than I am used to (lunch and dinner), most likely because I live the aforementioned boonies and this was a big city and surrounding areas. The supermarket prices were mostly in line - a little higher but not much. The portions of most meals out were way too big for me - everything was overflowing!

There was this once concoction that I am going to try to duplicate that was oh so yummy - pumpkin (really a winter squash), potatoes, eggs, onion, chives and ginger, topped with poppy seeds and baked into a pie (no crust) (no, I didn't just remember this - I brought home the menu).

More to come later as I start to remember more! Photos will also be coming (be sure to see them at my website www.positivedogs.com on the “Pam Down Under” page.) I will make sure that Pauline and Jacki “vet” the captions.