(We actually only made it to Australia Zoo. It was great! Pics to come.)
My friend “OzMud” (not her real name, obviously) — an American expat living in the Brisbane area who is a follower of the Alaska progressive blog The Mudflats, which is how we came to know each other — treated me to a trip to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Unfortunately, she got sick near the end of our time there, & we ended up taking a emergency trip by ambulance to the hospital. Fortunately, my friend was well cared for, and went home that evening. Which good outcome returned the day to near perfection. Thanks, OzMud!
You can read OzMud’s account of the day at her blog OzMudflats. I haven’t yet written my account (as of this writing, on January 10, I have a rather large backlog of blog posts to write), but you can see my photos of the day at my Flickr photostream.
(CBD stands for central business district — what Aussies say rather than downtown.)
As I tweeted: Great lunch @ LAX: El Cholo, near Gate 54A. “LA’s best Margarita” – Chicken burrito derado – & _Brisbane_ by Matt Condon.
I’m still here at Los Angeles International Airport (aka LAX) during my ten-hour layover, after an exhausting trip prep & the trip so far, which featured a redeye from Anchorage to Salt Lake City — during which I had a hard time sleeping & got to feeling pretty wetched. At SLC I met up with my friend Chris, who I hadn’t seen for a couple of years; and then a shorter flight from LAX to SLC, where I at least caught a couple hours of reasonable sleep.
In LAX I had this very good lunch with a couple of very good margaritas, accompanied by reading the first several pages of Brisbane by Matthew Condon, which Amazon.com describes as “Part of a series in which leading Australian authors write about their hometowns, this unique and evocative exploration is part memoir and part guide to Australia’s Brisbane. Intertwining personal stories with the city’s historical past, this account paints a portrait of the contemporary transformation of the city.” This is one of several books about Australia — and other subjects — that I downloaded to the Kindle for iPhone app on my iPod touch for reading during my trip (or whenever I read them). It’s a beautifully written book, so far, and went well with the tasty burrito and margaritas from El Cholo.
Despite my 10-hour layover here, I haven’t had much energy to explore LAX. And I don’t have much energy to write more right now either. I’m pretty braindead from exhaustion. So’s my Macbook: my recharger for it is packed in my checked-in baggage, & it’s down to 17%. So, I’m going to post this post, then shut down my laptop, & go back to reading off my iPod (for which I do have the recharger) & hang out here around Gate 57 where my flight to Sydney (& from thence Brisbane) is due to leave in about 3.5 hours. I’ll post more when both me & my laptop are fully rested & recharged.
… Dammit. My toothpaste somehow didn’t make it past Anchorage security. Frak.
