1st London Show

I've been to London several times but have never made the time to go and actually see one of the many wonderful shows they have to offer. I had a week long workshop this time and decided it was time to experience a new part of London the experience. I saw 2 shows Wicked and Les Miserables. Both were great but Wicked was my favorite! I had read the book and loved the story and the show did a great job of summing up the story into a 3 hour play...bottom line - if you have a chance to see Wicked it's worth it!

Grandpa's 90th Birthday

After Bangkok the next trip was to Florida for my Grandpa's 90th birthday. The entire Forte family made the trip and it was first time we had a complete family reunion in a a long time.
Grandpa looked great and the party was perfect. Lots of good food, fun memories and catching up. After the party we spent the rest of the time hanging out with family, playing lots of poker, and trying to ignore the effects if jet lag. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA - Here's to many more...

Conference in Bangkok

March has been an amazingly busy travel month. Steve was in London the first week, I went to Bangkok the second week, then we both went to Florida the third week. So I'll start with Bangkok . . .

I had a 1 week conference in Bangkok and was able to arrive a few days early since I've never been to this amazing city. I spent the first 2 days touring the palaces and temples, exploring the various street markets and enjoying the extremely friendly people.

The Thai culture is very rich and they love color. It's almost overwheleming how bright and colorful all the palaces, temples, and government buildings are. If a building isn't covered in bright glass then it's covered in leafs of gold.The Thai people are also very open about there religion and let tourists come in to all the temples and loiter while the munks and people are praying.

This is the largest budha in the world it's about 2 stories tall and probably 50 yards long and made out of gold.If you want to see more pictures the rest are on shutterfly.

The Door Prize is . . . . A DOOR

Every year the Texas A&M branch in Doha holds a fundraiser called the Boot Scoot. There aren't many opportunities for the expat community to get together and have a good old fashion western hoedown so it's a very popular event. This year tickets sold out 30 minutes after going on sale. Part of the fundraiser is an auction and a drawing for items donated by local shops - well guess who won the drawing...Steve. We heard his name called, he went up to claim the prize and that's when we realized it was an 8 ft door...it's huge, doesn't fit anywhere in the house but is a really neat (and expensive) collectors piece. We've been brainstorming possible uses - dinning room table, head board, uh door, but nothing seems like quite the right use for it. Any ideas out there, or if you've been in the market for one we'll give you a great price :-)

Bird Dog now the Desert Dog

Steve's work set-up an afternoon at the dunes last weekend which provided us a chance to bring Athena out with us. She was just as crazy as ever and was a blast to watch running through the sand. It's a lot like watching a dog get through deep snow because the sand is so soft that she sank. We brought an artillery of tennis balls and everyone got a kick out of making her run up and down the dunes all afternoon. We had to lock her in the car a few times to get her to take a break. In the picture with Athena is is Steve's boss' lap dog named Trevor. He's a fully equipped male and couldn't resist following Athena everywhere (or at least trying too).

New Years in Australia

Happy New Year from Sydney Australia!!!
What better way to end a year of travel than to spend NYE enjoying the first fireworks show in the world (time zone speaking that is)? Mariah and I joined our friends from Houston, Whitney and Chad, who are currently working in Sydney. We only spent two days in Sydney, but had a great chance to catch up with our friends and see a couple of sights.

Most notably we toured the Sydney Opera House, which architecturally speaking is very impressive.

For the highlight of the trip Chad and Whitney got us tickets on a harbor cruise boat for the big New Years show. We had an open bar all night and front row, unobstructed views of the biggest fireworks show I have ever seen. It was quite a sight, they had six barges lined up the harbor, the downtown high rises in the background, and the Sydney Harbor Bridge all shooting off at the same time. Pretty cool sight.



















In an effort to start the new year off prim and proper, Whitney got us members access to the Sydney Horse Track on Jan 1. Mariah got to get dressed up and wear a hat, but was easily out-classed as she didn't have a single feather or flower tucked in it. These folks really love getting dressed up for this, and they really love the races. We had an awesome time catching up with our friends and enjoying some of the sights Sydney has to offer.

To close out our tour of New Zealand and Australia we took a couple of days to go north and enjoy the Gold Coast. Thanks to a clever bit of planning we met up with some of my college Fraternity brothers (Zach Bennette and Adrian Sikorski). But, in full accordance with Murphy's Law, when spending time on one of the nicest beaches in the world . . . if a cyclone can hit you - it will. Luckily the cyclone was a good bit offshore and only caused major waves and rain the whole time. Luckily for us there were plenty of pubs to be found and some how we managed to entertain ourselves.

In case you haven't seen enough pictures you can see the select 170 (out of the 800 we took) on Shutterfly.

Christmas in New Zealand

Merry Christmas! (Yes we do consider this our Christmas card too you :-)

This year we decided rather than travelling back to the US to spend Christmas with family we would instead meet them somewhere. Steve's parents (who live in Alaska) were up for an adventure (and some warmer weather) so New Zealand seemed like a good 'mid-point' to meet at. We flew to Auckland (via Dubai, Bangkok, and Sydney - it was a long trip!) and met Steve's parents there. New Zealand is a big place and we were travelling in peak holiday season so we found a great travel agent who set us up with a full day-by-day itinerary to follow. Sandi at Amazing New Zealand knew all the right places to stay (at a good price) and told us which tourist attractions are a must see. We started in Auckland were we picked up our mini-van and got on the road first thing the next morning. The northern island is very green and lush and the scenic drive was a nice change from our desert home.

First stop on the way to Rotorua was the Waitomo caves. These caves are the only place in the world where you can see glow worms. Similar to fire flys the worms use a chemical to make the end of their tail glow. The light is used to attract other insects to them so they can be caught in the silk threads the worms dangle from the ceiling. Then like a spider the glow worms wait for dinner to get stuck in the silk. The worms are 1-2 inches long but it's only the tip of the tail that glows.

In Rotorua we stayed in a quaint B&B right on the Waiteti Lake. Steve and his dad did some fly fishing and the girls went into town for a little shopping and relaxing in the natural hot springs. We also visited the local nature park and got to pet a lion cub and feed the wallaby's. That evening we were treated to the Maori cultural show. The Maori's are the natives of New Zealand and have a very rich and unique culture that the are proud to show off.

The next day we were back in the car headed to Lake Taupo. On the way we stopped at the Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland, which is appropriately named. We had no idea steaming rocks, boiling mud, and the smell of rotten eggs could be so much fun. Our next stop on the drive was Huka falls. This is an amazing waterfall not because of how tall it is but because of how much water comes through the rocks. The apartment we stayed in on Lake Taupo, Oreti Lodge, had a beautiful view of the lake but unfortunately we only time to stay for the one night before moving on to Wellington. In Wellington we caught the ferry that takes you to the south island. It's a very scenic trip.


Once on the south island we proceeded on to Christchurch were we got the chance to take a break and spend 2 nights in the same bed. This is also were we had Christmas. Most of the town was shut-down for the holiday so it was low-key and relaxing, which is just what we wanted.

Next stop was Mt. Cook. It had rained on and off all day but by the time we arrived the clouds parted and we got to enjoy a nice 3 hour hike with a beautiful view of the mountain and it's surrounding glaciers. This is also where we got an up close and personal encounter with the local Kea bird. We came out of the lodge after dinner and startled the bird who then screamed "KKEEAAAAAAAAAA" at us. I thought we were under attack and grabbed Steve as my shield. The bird took off and we had a good laugh about on the walk back to our cabins.

The next morning we took a tour of a glacier that calves into the Tasman Lake. We got into inflatable rafts and zipped around the floating mountains of ice. It was very cold so I was glad the I had purchased one of the local specialties, possum cashmere gloves and hat. It's soft and washable. After Mt.Cook we went to our final stop in New Zealand Queenstown. The first night we took the scenic gondola up to a restaurant for dinner. This was another day where it rained on and off all day but as soon as we headed for dinner it cleared up with a beautiful rainbow and we got an awesome view of Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables mountain range.
First adventure in Queenstown was to visit Milford Sound. We flew there in a small prop plane over the breathtaking South Island Alps. The flight took about 45 minutes but if we would've gone by car it would've taken over 10 hours to navigate through them. Milford Sound is a lush green area right in the middle of high snow covered mountains. It rains so often that 9 days without it is considered a drought.

After our boat tour of Milford Sound we got back on the plane and flew to Glenorchy for a scenic jet-boat tour. This area of New Zealand is where the film all kinds of movies set in the mountains. There is one particular range that has been used as the Swiss Alps, Himalayas, and are the back ground for the Coors Rocky Mountain commercials (nope they aren't filmed in CO).

The next day we drove to a small town in the mountains called Cardrona for a horse back ride. The lupines were in full bloom (as they were on the whole island) and the temperature was perfect for a morning on the horses.

After horse back riding we went to Lake Wanaka for some trout fishing. Steve's dad caught a beautiful rainbow trout that he released after getting a photo op.

New Zealand was a trip of a lifetime and we had so much fun I'm sure we'll find a reason to go back. But the trip isn't over yet. From here we continued on to Australia but that will be the subject of the next post . . .

Thanksgiving

This year we did the rotisserie turkey again with much better results. No fire or scorched turkey to the relief of our 15 guests. We had a potluck type event and everyone cooked too much food and ate too much food. We had several Australians who got the experience their first American Thanksgiving. A good time was had by all and the best part is no cooking for the rest of the week.

Some fun in October

Once Ramadan is over and everyone is back from Eid vacation (see previous entry) we had a few great parties. The first is an annual event that the Intercon Hotel puts on. This is the 2nd year we've attended and it's definitely the event of the year. The Intercon and Qatar Airway get together to fly in a band from Germany to celebrate Oktober Fest including all you can eat German food buffet (minus the pork of course).

Right around Halloween one of our friends turned 30 so what better excuse do you need than to have a costume party. Steve and I had these from back in Houston (this is why you pack everything possible in the sea shipment) and thought this was a great opportunity to bring a little Chicago to life . . .