Australia Day 2015

Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, it marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British Ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, and raising of the Flag of Great Britain at that site by Governor Arthur Phillip.
No matter where we are in the world we always try to celebrate our National Day.   As we are in America we had to bring our celebration forward a day and we were fortunate to have great weather.  Considering that it is still winter we were pleased to see sunny skies today.

The weather was so kind we were able to spend time outside.

Ross had the BBQ ready to cook Australian rack of lamb.

The house was ready for our guests.

Australian meat pies to start.

Accompanied by Australia sausage rolls and prawn, avocado and mango salad, an Australian recipe.  Rusty was not too sure what this food was all about.

No Australia Day is complete without a pavlova. Sadly no passionfruit was available.

Albert was concentrating on his dessert as Ross looked on approvingly.

Robert looked for support from above to assist him in deciding what he should tackle first.

Soojin and her delightful children celebrated the day with us along with Adrian and Cameron who were busy watching TV.

So this was our day and to see what some how some Australians celebrated in Australia have a look at https://au.gwn7.yahoo.com/w1/news/a/-/local/26097698/australia-day-2015-whip-cracking-lamington-eating-thong-throwing-and-barbies-feature-as-australians-celebrate-around-the-country/
Thank you to our friends for celebrating the day with us and all the best to our Australian friends and hope your day was a good one.

Cheers Beverley and Ross

New Braunfels - Texas

New Braunfels was established in 1845 by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, Commissioner General of the Adelsverein, also known as the Noblemen's Society (in German: Mainzer Adelsverein). Prince Solms named the settlement in honor of his home of Solms-Braunfels, Germany.
The Adelsverein organized hundreds of people in Germany to settle in Texas. Immigrants from Germany began arriving at Galveston in July, 1844. Most then traveled by ship to Indianola in December, 1844 and began the overland journey to the Fisher-Miller Land Grant purchased by Prince Solms.^[4] At the urging of John Coffee Hays, who realized the settlers would not have time to build homes and plant crops further inland before winter, and as the German settlers were traveling inland along the Guadalupe River, they stopped near the Comal Springs. Prince Solms bought two leagues of land from Rafael Garza and Maria Antonio Veramendi Garza for $1,111.00.^[5]
Sunday afternoons are designed to be relaxing so we decided to go to the movies ( more on this to follow).  Following which we decided to have a late lunch at the Hofbrau restaurant in NB which is about 15 miles from from where we have our RV.

 There is a sturdy bull which guards the entrance to the restaurant.

 Inside on display every horned creature that can be found in the USA.

The restaurant is located on banks of the Guadalupe River.  The Guadalupe River runs from Kerr County, Texas to San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. It is a popular destination for rafting, fly fishing, and canoeing. Larger cities along it include Kerrville, New Braunfels, Seguin, Gonzales, Cuero, and Victoria. It has several dams along its length, the most notable of which, Canyon Dam, forms Canyon Lake northwest of New Braunfels.

There is every type of Margaretta available.

 It serves Weiner Schnitzel with all of the trimmings;

 German Pizza.

& a delicious finish of a fruit cheesecake.

We went to the movies to see the film, The Imitation Game, it was excellent, at The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema which is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, USA and is famous for its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema going etiquette as well as being served food and drink to your cinema chairs. It has screens in eleven locations across Texas in addition to locations in Winchester, Virginia; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Kansas City; Littleton, Colorado; Ashburn, Virginia;[1] and Yonkers, New York, with others to be built in Los Angeles,[2] San Francisco; New York City;[3] Chandler, Arizona;[4] and La Vista, Nebraska.[5] Its headquarters is located in Austin.[6]
This handsome gentleman was there to welcome us.

 On our return to our RV we were welcomed by the friendly deer who visit each day.

Hope you have had a great weekend.

Cheers Beverley and Ross

Motor Home - Canyon Lake

 Since the purchase of our motor home we are taking every opportunity to become familiar with our home on wheels.  Initially we located our RV which is now called 'another day' at an RV park close to our home.  We have now moved it to Canyon Lake for the winter.  It is located about 20 miles north-by-northwest of New Braunfels and about 40 miles north-by-northeast of Downtown San Antonio.

 

 This time of the year allows the opportunity to enjoy evenings spent by an open fire.

and, to enjoy the Texas moon.

 

There is also the opportunity to enjoy the fauna.  It was 6 years ago that we enjoyed the sight of deer in our back yard in Beaver Dam.  We were delighted to see the Canadian deer just as we are to have American deer so close and personal.

 \

While the deer can cause damage to crops and gardens they remain a elegant/ dainty looking animal.

Cheers Beverley and Ross

Santa Fe (cont)

Santa Fe is 7,500 ft above sea level and is higher that Mt Kosciusko Australia's tallest mountain.   The city offers something for everyone from country music and dancing which was a nightly event at the La Fonda to many interesting places to visit and to learn more of the history of this city.

We visited the old Governors residence which is located in the Plaza.  The rich and often bloody story of  this State is evident as one walks from room to room.

Here is a genuine Indian child's outfit early 1900's priced at $9,000's.

Or if you prefer circa 21st century Santa Fe chic.

Nearly all the buildings replicate the Adobe style.

They look picture perfect with snow surrounding the buildings.

 They have interesting sunsets.

Santa Fe is a great place to visit and we plan to return in summer and enjoy other aspects of this interesting place.

Cheers Beverley and Ross