November 2004
Trip to Australia

The Blue Mountains

Our first destination was Peppers Fairmont resort in the Blue Mountains. The photo below on the left is of a famous mountain called " The Three Sisters".  The resort was beautiful and the grounds were breathtaking.  This was our first taste of the beauty and magnitude of Australia.

We participated in the Janome Australia national convention.  Trevor presented classes about how to create embroidery while George introduced people to our embroidery design CD's. The event was attended by over 250 people from all over the country. We enjoyed the warm reception and received good advice about how to spend our time and where to visit. The convention was a perfect way to start our Australian adventure.  We made many new friends who invited us into their lives. I am happy to report that there are now dozens of sewing stores in Australia and New Zealand that offer Stitchitize products. We look forward to our next opportunity to see our new Auzzie friends.  Below are photo's of just some of the people that we met at the Janome convention.

Magnificent Sydney

We loved our time in this beautiful city.  We stayed in Kirribilli Village in North Sydney just a few blocks from the harbor bridge, pictured below.  A walk across the bridge provides the perfect vantage point to capture a photo of the famous Sydney Opera House.  We use the ferry system to get around the city with a beautiful photo every direction you look.

Traonga Zoo

Where do you go for excitement while on a family adventure?  The Zoo

Australia Zoo

Crikey this zoo is a real beauty.   Owned by famous Australian, Steve Irwin, This zoo is a real class act.  Easily the nicest zoo we have ever visited the Australia Zoo provides every one of it's animals the best living environment possible.  Many of the animals have families and look to be as happy as they could ever be.  Lauren and Nicho loved being able to feed the kangaroos and pet the koalas.  Daddy liked the 5000 seat Crokaseum theater where Steven and his team play with snakes, tigers and giant crocks.

Movie World

Is that my wife kissing Austin Powers?  We had fun at the Warner Brothers theme park where we saw Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Buggs and the rest of the WB gang.  

New Friends

Making new friends is the best part of any trip.  Our family connected with the Segaert family as if we were old friends.  Deborah and Phillip invited us into their lives and we were able to be at Eloise's 2nd birthday.  Their son Mason and Lauren were inseparable.  

Some more of our new friends are shown in the photo's below. We met Erica and Peter Cheney of Sue Box designs  (photo below left) at the show and visited with them after.  Jamie a machine tech from Janome and his son Callum joined us for a day at Underwater World (photo of Lauren and Callum below middle).  Kathrine and Ritichie (photo's below right) are from Ireland but live in Sydney now and we met them while staying in Kirribilli..  We will cherish the memories we made with our new friends.

Hawaii

The flight from Canada to Australia is too long for our family to make all in one trip, so we decided to break it up with a visit to Hawaii.  This was our first time to the Islands and we loved it.  We spent our time in Waikiki on the island of Oahu. Our kids loved the beach as you can see in the photo's shown below.  

Waikiki Zoo

Just blocks form our hotel in Waikiki is the zoo.  Lauren and Nicholas learning a bit about the birds and the bees from the horny Giant Turtles as you can see in the photo below.