Lodi, The Fourth, wind farms and other stuff

After our trip to Chicago we were feeling all Oprah'ed out so we went and visited our friends, Stan and Jan, in Lodi California. That is about 2 hours east of San Francisco. We rented what could best be described as a boat from Hertz, it was a very large and comfortable car.

We stayed at Steve and Jan's for three days and visited the local wineries, the local Mexican restaurants and a lovely place called Guisti's (I probably have that wrong and cannot find it via Google). The food was good, the front bar was very rustic but the water they served there had a smell of swamp gas to it ...hmmmm swamp gas ! That is why Steve and I drank nothing but beer, if fact here are pictures of me after we had that beer:

They have two dogs, Buster and Otis who were lots of fun. They take turn guarding me while I snooze !

They also have Amy staying with them, their niece.

We spent the 4th of July at Lodi Lake where much to our chagrin they did not allow any cans or bottles (and then only had one drink vendor and one food vendor at the lake - to sell to the whole town). That didn't seem to matter as Steve and Jan turned me into their drug mule by hiding some white rum in a water bottle in the cooler bag I took through the police check point - still I am glad they did as it tasted nice :-)

We all got suitably dressed up in the appropriate colours to help these yanks celebrate Insurrection Day.

Jan

Steve

The company was fantastic and fireworks were great. The lake was patrolled by life guards and they closed it at 6pm every day, apparently to stop geese from getting into there near the shore as they had been causing problems - I just think they had authority complexes. It was funny watching the life guards nail up the barrier to the beach, you could tell they were students on summer break and really didn't care.

Before and after the official fireworks there were hand guns being fired in the streets around us (not many and I thought they were firecrackers but Steve said that people on the 4th usually shot guns into the ground or if they are really 'smart' into the air in celebration - way to have a tea party ! It was good that all of the cops were at the park stopping us from bringing in cans and bottles while people were shooting off guns in the surrounding streets.

On the Monday we drove back to San Francisco to catch the plane to France, on the way we went to Mountain View so I could show Emily Google and the suburb in general.

On the way we saw heaps of wind turbines, it would be great if more places around the world had this form of power.

Chicago, Chicago and Oprah ...

We stayed in Chicago for four days and really enjoyed our time there. It is a beautiful city at a lovely time of year. The yards full of idle snow ploughs though told us that it must be different in the winter. We stayed at the W Hotel right on the lake and near the Navy Pier tourist attraction. They have fireworks on the Pier every Wednesday and Saturday night.

Bike Ride

We did a guide bike tour along the lake front and that was really very good to get a locals perspective along what is one of Chicago's greatest attractions - the lake. It was summer break so there were lots of young people out on the beaches around the lake just having a good time.

We were explained a lot about local history (like where Oprah lives, lived, once caught a cab...). The bike paths along the lake are fantastic and later in the trip we hired a couple of bikes for half a day and rode 13 km down the lake in the opposite direction we did the guided tour from.

Lake and City Tour

We did quite a few tours of Chicago, we like doing the tours on top of the double decker buses so you can get a good view of what you are touring. As part of one of these tours we also went out onto Lake Michigan. You get a fantastic appreciation for the city from the lake, they really take a pride in their architecture and we learnt of even more places that Oprah had been.

This is one of Oprah's houses - aparently.

The buildings in Chicago are very nice. They have some very tall and distinctive buildings, we visited the John Hancock Building and the Sears Tower.

The view from these buildings was awesome, especially with the lake front right there.

We also visited the Chop House restaurant, a place supposedly frequented by Al Capone in the day (not sure if Oprah ever went!). It was a lovely establishment full of rustic charm but right near newly cleared blocks of inner city land - you have to wonder how long it lasts before they stick a skyscraper on top. We had a few drinks one night in a piano bar, complete with person playing for tips and then went down to 'Blue Chicago' a blues joint where we listed to 'The Hoochie Man' and his band wailing out the blues - that was a great night.

Another highlight for us was to see the, if not famous, renowned elevated train ways in Chicago - these are very iconic, not all that pretty but they sure do let you know what city you are in.

They were having a tastes of Chicago Festival when we were there, this was where all of the different food and cuisine vendors setup in the park on the lake front and sold either small meals for a few dollars (not much more than a mouthful) or you could buy something bigger as well. That was fun but we have no photos of it unfortunately.

Arizona June 2008 - Apaches, Road Runners and Pool Party

Emily and I left for Arizona on Qantas out of Brisbane. In what is becoming for us true Qantas style the aircraft was late to depart and we got various conflicting stories from staff who we soon figured out had no idea why it was late. It turned out to be a water problem, the water heaters on the aircraft were broken and at altitude the water tends to freeze - getting things fixed on planes is good :-)

We arrived in LA and then flew onto Phoenix, the delay at arrivals in LA was short so that was good. If you manage to land behind a 747 of non English speaking tourists that line can be a ripper ! We stayed in Scottsdale in a hotel near our friends place where we were going to the pool party (Pool Party) and hired a nice little cross over type car (like a Rav 4 or similar).

We met up with friends Travis (Evo), Shiela and their son NJ for lunch. That was good because NJ had a license and could our drunk asses home (put it in the words of his Dad).

Whilst in Phoenix we drove out to the Apache Trail from Apache Junction west of Phoenix to Globe and then back again. It was a good trip about half of which was dirt road on roads that appeared to be made by mountain goats. We saw our first Road Runner and got really excited,
when we told our US friends about it they just looked at us like fools - they are apparently as thick as fleas over there. It was summer there so there were not too many people using the parks along the way due to the heat.


























We also saw the big Cactus Joshua trees - they are very big inded.






























There were several dams and lakes where people were enjoying the water though.















The trip can be seen at this map:

Map

On the way there and back we saw some great examples of how roads should be built, the American freeway system is something to behold. The builders of these roads do not know small.
















I had a game of golf at the hotel, very nice course. I played with a chap from New York in my buggy and another couple from Canada. We tee'ed off in the morning to escape the heat but the buggies actually had an air conditioning system that blew cool air onto your neck and the back
of your head ! It made too much noise for me so I turned mine off much to the horror of the people from closers to the Arctic Circle :-)

On the Saturday we went to Mike and Laurie's for the pool party.

We met up with people who we knew from before and new ones as well. Emily helped out Charlie do a podcast for his show called Speaking of Beer where they tried out dark beers for taste and got to rate and talk about each of them.

The pool was nice and company was good.

We left Phoenix for Chicago, I watched the 3rd State of Origin on that flight - always good to see NSW get their arse kicked :-)

The Swains

Ever since I was a young lad I had been regaled with stories about the mythical Swains Reefs - about 150km off shore of Gladstone (NE ish) . This location was held up as the last great bastion of the big manly fish killing trip - and they are sort of spot on.

Where is it ?

It is a large systems of reefs, the blue dot sort of indicates where it is. It is part of the Great Barrier reef.

We drove from Brisbane in 2 vehicles (about 7 hours) and others came from Rockhampton and Biloela. When you consider we spent a week at sea then a day or so to drive there is not a huge impost.





How did it all start ?

Well about October last year, Ron (my cousin on my Dad's side who lives around the corner - ish) and I were talking and decided to see if we could raise a party of eager anglers to test the theories regarding the fishing at Swains (note I dropped the word 'Reef' or 'Reefs' as once you have become a veteran of this area you get to do that).

We did some research and found what appeared to be an able vessel to convey us to this mythical fishing paradise - that boat was the fair ship Norval out of Gladstone (http://www.norvalcharters.com.au/).

This turned out to be a fantastic decision, whilst the boat at first glance appears to be a large bathtub and potentially not the most comfortable vessel in a swell I can attest that her and her crew conveyed us in comfort, safety, courtesy and professionalism at all times. Scott the skipper and Marty the decky (that is short for deck hand) not only found us fish then processed them but also feed us like kings (seriously guys you can supply heaps less food!) and kept the boat clean at all times. There are also four smaller boats (dinghys or dories) that can be used for getting closer to the reef.

This Scott, the skipper, helping Dave to get a fish on board.














The next 2 shots are of Marty who I think got really scared by a fish as a kid because the way he clubs the shit of them with the donger can only make one believe that there are deep seated issues boiling away !














Seriously - you could not fault the crew - they were brilliant.












Enough of them and on with the real story, who were the gallant band of fisher folk who decided to brave the sea, the beer and jokes from Wally (more on that later). I will introduce them, oldest to youngest in order to pay correct homage to their wise ways and experience (I am pretty sure I have the order wrong - I know):

• Max

• Noel
  

• Wally
  

• Don
  

• Dave
  

• Ron

• Ivan
  

• Gary

• Brad
  

• Steve

The Fish

The real reason we were there, I suppose, was for the fish and boy did we nail a great mixed bag. The specis boated were shark, chinaman, mackeral, tuna, coral trout, coronation trout, spangled emporer, red emporer, wahoo, tusk fish and some that I am sure I missed. Below are just a couple of shots of the fish. We all took home a good couple of boxes of fillets each - a great week by any measure.

Once we caught the fish the ever helpful crew landed them and then proceeded to cut them into fillets and individually wrap then in bags that had the species labeled on them - making it very easy once we got home to work out just what we were eating.

We used mostly squid and pilchards for bait but once we start to land some smaller bait fish we would use the fillet and tails (the tails were awesome trout bait) to supplement the frozen bait - they called this hard bait.














































The fun

We also had some fun. On the way up from Brisbane to Gladstone a few cameras were produced to start things off.
















On the boat the food was fantastic, there was also some beer and other drinks that we took along - just to pass the night hours :-) The image below is the afternoon snack the crew would prepare for us, we also had smoked trevally and smoked trout wings - very nice.


























Don did his best to start the wine appreciation society at night, or whenever any pub around the world was open. There were some fine drops on the boat.















The days were great, listening to Wally's jokes, listening to how he knew the exact size and species of each fish that he managed to lose; or how his new and exciting rig combinations were dynamite for catching fish (I should not get too carried away as I am sure he outfished me).

The nights were also fun - listening to the unending supply of jokes from Wally as well :-)

The boat has a DVD/VCR setup so we watched a few 'classics' (Bad Santa, Team America, Two Hands, Platoon and others). I made some suggestions to the skipper (Don agreed) that he should look at modifying the boat to include a pot belly stove on the aft section of the boat as drinking port around that would be much nicer, a big screen TV as well would have helped. I think he mentioned something about not wanting to burn to the waterline with respect to the stove ! It would have made the wine appreciation society meetings all the more enjoyable.

The one thing that is always encouraging is when a bunch of us youngsters are lead on a fishing trip to be shown 'how it is done' and the elderly statesmen of the group lead the way by example - nice jobfish Max is what I am sure Noel is saying (be nice to your brother in law!).
















I could not recommend highly enough a trip to the Swains. I have left off this blog the day we spent in the dories on a shallow reef section - getting that close to things was very nice as well although we did better from the main boat so far as fishing goes.

All in all - fantastic, we will be eating reef fish in our house for many months to come. The trip was fantastic value from that sense.